Lourdwater Cottage Hospital case summary (short story)
Lourdwater Cottage Hospital case summary, or A Doctor's Report on the Doctor,[1] was a short story published in The Making of Doctor Who which, expanding on Spearhead from Space, gave an account of the Doctor's alien biology to accompany a non-fiction section on the plausibility of Doctor Who concepts.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dr. Henderson's case notes document a strange patient found in the woods. Testing reveals numerous strange things about the man's biology. After being visited by a military man, the patient is abducted and Dr. Henderson gets knocked out by strange beings who aren't quite human. Returning to his notes, Dr. Henderson concludes that despite appearances the patient was definitely not homo sapiens.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The date of the Doctor's admission and discharge — the latter described as "forcibly abducted from ward same day by non-human 'visitors' " — is given in the case summary as "January 3rd, 1970".
- Henderson speculates that the Doctor could live for "1,000 years".
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The hospital where Henderson works and the Doctor recovers is here named "Lourdwater Cottage Hospital", despite both Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion naming it as "Ashbridge Cottage Hospital".
- 3 January 1970 was the original transmission date of Spearhead from Space episode one.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor's recent regeneration is referred to as a "change of appearance". (TV: The War Games, et al.)
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ This was the title given on the contents page of the book.