The Shoreditch Incident (short story)
The Shoreditch Incident was the second of the two short stories in DWPM 7 which tied in with Remembrance of the Daleks. Written by Alan Barnes, it expanded the world of the TV story, essentially presenting Earth's perspective on the events rather than the Seventh Doctor and Ace's through the use of a collage of newspaper articles, clippings and letters.
Summary
In Autumn 1963, a short time after the retirement of Harold Macmillan, numerous strange events are reported in or near Shoreditch. An "on-standby High Command" puts together a task-force under the largely oblivious Captain Gilmore, which also includes local man Mike Smith and scientist Rachel Jensen, as well as the British Rocket Group's own Allison Williams. Scouring the area with camouflaged vans, the team discover mysterious magnetic pulsations radiating from Foreman's Yard and manage to get the neighbourhood discreetly evacuated. They are joined by two mysterious civilians — a yong woman and an older man calling himself a Doctor.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Time and Space, Davros is being taken back to Skaro for trial by a jury of his creations, but his return to the planet causes a factionalisation of the Dalek race, with a half of it rallying themselves to him. With Davros maneuvering himself into the position of Dalek Emperor, two factions, the Imperial Daleks and the Renegade Faction, begin to converge towards 1963 Shoreditch to acquire an artefact known as the Hand of Omega.
On 25 November, the front page of The Evening Star reports the cover story for the "Shoreditch Incident" — an unexploded bomb claiming the lives of six, including a Mr Ratcliffe. Local café owner Harry Fowler, who owes his life to having been at a hospital for the birth of his twin children at the time of the "unfortunate accident", is interviewed. Ironically, another article reports on Earth's own beginning forays into space, in the form of the launching of a Russian space probe, "Polyot-one".
In December, Giles Dudley, now Acting Headmaster of Coal Hill School, writes a letter to parents, assuring them that the vacancies left by the disappearances of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright have been filled, and that the Governors intend to name a new full-time Headmaster in the New Year. He also announces a fundraising lottery meant to allow the School to repair the damage done to it during the Incident.
Before quietly slipping off with Ace, the Doctor had left Rachel Jensen a goodbye note scrawled in green ink on a bill from Harry's Café, thanking her for her "help, enthusiasm and open mind" and promising to "see her earlier", as well as asking her to be careful with her newfound knowledge of alien life, for which he believes the world is not ready. However, on December 3rd, Rachel Jensen submits a top-secret autopsy report to the Ministry of Defence on two Dalek mutants recovered from the site, one Renegade, the other Imperial, highlighting the differences between the two.
Characters
- Seventh Doctor
- Ace
- Ian Gilmore
- Mike Smith
- Allison Williams
- Rachel Jensen
- Black Dalek Supreme
- Davros
- Judith Winters
- Harold Macmillan
- Nina Dyer
- Harry Fowler
- Giles Dudley
- Arnold Turvey
- Frederick Erroll
- George Brown
Worldbuilding
- Rachel Jensen was transferred from Cambridge.
Notes
- The story was dedicated to the memory of Dursley McLinden.
Continuity
- "Strange disappearances" around Shoreditch leading up to the Shoreditch Incident itself included the disappearances of two teachers from Coal Hill School, one of their pupils, her grandfather, (TV: An Unearthly Child) and a scrap merchant. (PROSE: Interference)
- Davros rose to Imperial power sometime after the fall of "his powerbase on Necros". (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
