History 101 (novel)
History 101 was the fifty-eighth novel in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Mags L. Halliday, released 1 July 2002 and featured the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kapoor.
The blurb of History 101 was the only one in the range that didn't end with "another in the series of..." Instead it read as if the book were a factual account, a style previously employed in The Adventuress of Henrietta Street. History 101 included many true-to-life details, such as in-depth experiences in the Spanish Civil War. The novel used several themes prevalent in the works of George Orwell, who appears in the book.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | edit source]
"Remarkable. I'm surprised at how much has been uncovered." — Anji Kapoor
Spain, 1937. In April, the small town of Guernica was razed to the ground in a firestorm that claimed a thousand or more lives. In May, Barcelona exploded into fierce street fighting as different political factions fought for control of the city.
Both events have been the subject of fierce propagandist claims by all sides, but this book examines new evidence to suggest that the two events are more closely linked than previously thought.
Who were the shadowy figures working behind the scenes? Who were "the Doctor", "Anji" and "Fitz" and what were their objectives? And were there really monsters roaming the streets?
Presented in the form of a novel, History 101 tries to discover if the absolute truth can ever be revealed. It should be read as part of the ongoing "Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor" history course.
Chapter titles[[edit] | edit source]
- Prologue: Barcelona, 1937
Part One: Course Introduction[[edit] | edit source]
- Coneixeu El Vostres Drets
- Una Casa Europea Segura
- Algú Fou Assasinat
- Am La Polícia A L'Esquena
Part Two: Material Research[[edit] | edit source]
- Estrada Lliure
- Bombes Espanyoles
- Odiós
- Treballar Pel Control De La Situació
Part Three: Theories and Conclusions[[edit] | edit source]
- Pistoles En El Sostre
- El Detingut
- Jo Veure La Llei
- La Ciutat Dels Morts
- La Darrera Banda De La Ciutat
- Epilogue
Plot[[edit] | edit source]
In a Barcelonan pub in 1937, Sabbath meets with one of his agents and supplies the agent with documents on local time travellers. He also augments the agent's glasses with wires.
Part One: Course Introduction[[edit] | edit source]
After Fitz reads Sartre's The Age of Reason, the Doctor decides to take a vacation to Paris in 1937 (specifically during the Paris Exposition). After meeting Sartre, the Doctor takes his companions to the Expedition. Fitz soon finds the original version of Picasso's Guernica but finds absolutely no emotion from it. Oddly, his bookmark for his edition in Age of Reason (a postcard with Guernica on it) brings forth all the emotions the original painting does not summon.
An incorporeal alien being known as "The Absolute" watches over 1930s Europe - collecting data on everything he can find and travelling into phone lines before he is noticed by a human - causing the Absolute's dataflow to start crumbling until he can only see his observer.
The Doctor and companions visit Pablo Picasso to figure out more about Guernica. While this fails, the Doctor comes to a realization after Fitz remembers that his edition of The Age of Reason comes from the TARDIS' library - someone is changing the flow of history.
A revolutionary named Buenaventura Durruti is shot by a sniper and dies of his injuries in hospital two days later. An English author named Eric Blair joins the POUM front.
Unbeknownst to Blair (or anyone else), this is watched over by the Absolute (who is trying to reestablish its detached view of history). This (along with an attempt to view the world through the eyes of a cat) fails, leading to the Absolute absorbing a revolutionary soldier - shredding the soldier's body in the process.
The TARDIS arrives in Spain during the Civil War - specifically in Bilbao. The Doctor sends Fitz on a mission to Guernica to discover if there has been any interference in the firebombing of the city. He and Anji then begin their own travel to Barcelona. During this, Anji feels that she is being watched by something.
The Doctor and Anji meet with a Communist typist named Pia. A few days later, Eric Blair finds a shocking sight - the mutilated corpse of the soldier absorbed by the Absolute. He meets the distraught sister of the soldier (Eleana). While in a bar with Eleana, he meets the Doctor, Anji, and Pia.
Fitz begins his voyage to Guernica - using chocolate thrown to him from a passing ship to gain the trust of a local woman.
Largely unbeknownst to the Doctor or his companions (though Anji and Fitz have felt like they were being watched), the Absolute has noticed them and intends on studying the trio.
Two Catholics break into a church to grab documents and are killed by a "demon". The discovery of one of the corpses is reported on by Eleana.
At a bar (where Fitz is being given free drinks by everyone in the bar), Fitz meets a Russian man named Sasha. He very quickly falls unconscious due to his drink being drugged and awakens to find himself being forced into a truck with Sasha. Though he tries to escape, he fails. In the truck, Sasha reveals that he is taking Fitz to Guernica.
The Doctor begins using the TARDIS to discover where history's perspective began to be warped. Anji encounters Eleana at Durruti's state funeral - where she feels a sense of claustrophobia due to the heavy crowds. Later, she drinks wine with Pia but soon begins suffering a splitting headache (caused by the Absolute trying to interface with her mind). The Doctor takes her back to the Hotel Continental (where the Doctor and Anji are staying) but while in the Hotel, he collapses while screaming in agony.
Part Two: Material Research[[edit] | edit source]
The Doctor recovers enough to get back to the TARDIS but finds that it is nothing but a shell of its former self. Over several months, Anji begins work on a "database" using information gained from various sources. The Absolute (now using the name "Enrique") begins trying to do the same thing.
Extremely tired, Sasha accidentally drives the truck into a ditch. Fitz helps Sasha get the truck out the ditch and then settles in for the night.
While The Doctor is out on the front with several POUM soldiers, a woman named Eileen tries to find her husband - Eric Blair - who has been missing ever since his last leave.
As the Doctor begins searching for Blair (asking Pia about him), Anji and Eleana are attacked by a creature in the Parc Güell. The creature starts out as a mirror of the "demon" but soon morphs into a mirror of a Nationalist soldier that (at least to Anji) creates afterimages in its wake. They are able to escape with the help of Jueves (a journalist and friend of Anji's).
Though Fitz sabotages the tires of the truck, the duo soon arrives in Guernica. Fitz and Sasha witness the firebombing of the city (with Fitz seeing Stalinist forces destroying the village).
While staying with the recovering Anji, Eleana discovers Anji's information gathering efforts. This enrages her - as forces within the Spanish Civil War could use this to kill their enemies. Their fight is broken up by the Doctor arriving at the hotel. Later, as the Doctor, Jueves, and Anji talk, the phone rings with no-one on the other end, a sign that someone (most likely the Absolute) is watching them.
Fitz and Sasha arrive at an abandoned house. After drinking both coffee and wine, they begin to go to bed. Right before they go to bed, they have a conversation about what they saw at Guernica. During this talk, Sasha reveals that he saw multiple versions of the same event (a sign that he is a time traveller).
The surviving Catholic (a friend of the architect of the church) sees gargoyles staring back at him and is led away in a state of absolute terror.
From Anji's description of the creature in the Parc, the Doctor deduces that the various events that have menaced people in Barcelona (including the "demons" seen by the Catholics and the living gargoyles) are the traces of a single larger cause. This cause (or at least an effect of its traces) has also caused the TARDIS to stop working. The Doctor and Anji's conversation is broken up by Jueves, who reveals the firebombing of Guernica.
Fitz and Sasha travel to Barcelona by train. As the train gets closer to Barcelona, Fitz is nearly arrested but is able to avoid this. He soon makes his way into Barcelona and back to the TARDIS using a homing device, but finds that it is still effectively dead.
After Anji argues with Jueves (who has become suspicious of the travellers), Fitz arrives at the hotel the Doctor and Anji are staying at. He recounts his travels to and from Barcelona. From this (and later discussions with Sasha), the Doctor deduces that Sasha isn't a Soviet agent, but is actually a time traveller.
As the Doctor reunites with Fitz, Sasha reunites with his superior - Sabbath - to tell him about his travels and the Doctor.
Part Three: Theories and Conclusions[[edit] | edit source]
After meeting an odious Soviet acolyte in a cafe, Anji visits the telephone exchange. Sneaking into a locked room in the attic, Anji finds a gallery of anomalous photos showing her life (up to her arrival in Spain) and the lives of those around her (including Eric Blair).
As Anji looks around the gallery, a battle begins in the streets of Barcelona. Fitz is trapped in a union office and given a rifle. Anji is taken prisoner once she leaves the telephone exchange. After using a ticker tape to extract the data that caused the TARDIS to shut down, the Doctor is found wandering in the street by Eleana. Though Eleana tries to save him at first, she is overcome by a headache and shoots at the Doctor with a rifle.
Before Eleana can get off a single shot, the rifle explodes. For a brief moment, Eleana hallucinates that the Doctor is a Nationalist soldier and tries to run from him while hallucinating. Once the hallucinations end, the Doctor and Eleana talk about these hallucinations (which are presumably caused by the Absolute).
The Doctor visits the phone exchange and discovers the Absolute (which appears as a human-like creature made up of various borrowed parts, somewhat like a three-dimensional photofit). The Doctor tries to talk to it, but the Absolute runs out of the phone exchange and vanishes from sight.
Fitz manages to avoid most of the fighting, but is arrested by the Communists after a barfight. He is being marched to "Burton" when he is found by Pia.
The Doctor returns to the hotel and finds Anji's room trashed. He is able to deduce that someone in the hotel helped with the destruction. He finds Jueves in the lobby and (after leaving the hotel), the two begin talking. The Doctor tells Jueves about his origins and then has Jueves give instructions to Fitz.
Fitz is taken away from Burton and is instead given to Sasha. Sasha drives Fitz to the TARDIS and then (supposedly on orders from the Doctor) tries to get Fitz to use the TARDIS' phone to influence the events of Guernica. Before Fitz can do this, Sasha notices the presence of the Absolute inside of the TARDIS' phone and puts it to his ear - causing Sasha to be sucked into the phone (and presumably into the Absolute/the System).
The Doctor finds a nearby phone booth and uses it to summon a creature. This creature is revealed to be the ejected consciousnesses of various people absorbed by the Absolute (including Eric Blair). With the help of the gestalt being, the Doctor tracks down the Absolute. He uses the cover of Fitz's book to bring all three of them to Guernica during the firebombing to show the Absolute the error of its totalitarian views of history and reunite it with the System.
Anji is dragged before "Burton" (or Eric Blair sans a moral compass). At first, she assumes that Blair is just playing a character but she changes her mind after Blair beats her.
Before Anji can strike back at Blair, the bits of his consciousness stolen by the Absolute return to him. He begins to escape with Anji but is found by Pia, who points a gun at Blair (believing he is trying to kill Anji). They are shot at by Communist soldiers - with Blair being hit in the neck. After they escape from the Party, Anji meets with Blair's fellow revolutionaries and makes plans for Blair. For a brief moment, Anji begins thinking about her life stranded in the past but is found by Fitz. Unfortunately, the Doctor is still missing.
The Doctor wakes up in the (now-restored) TARDIS. As soon as he steps outside, he is found by Sabbath. The Doctor and Sabbath talk (with this talk revealing that Jueves is another of Sabbath's agents, possibly the same person as Sasha). He then returns to Anji and Fitz.
As the Absolute returns to the System, he discovers that it has effectively died. As he falls into the only surviving thread of the System, he sees a massive eye above him and begins screaming.
A series of Eric Blair's diaries recovered from the Soviet Communist Party in 1993 which run contemporaneously to the events that the Doctor and company experienced.
Characters[[edit] | edit source]
- The Eighth Doctor
- Fitz Kreiner
- Anji Kapoor
- Sabbath
- Sasha
- Jueves
- Pia Samscuro
- Buenaventura Durruti
- Eric Blair
- Miquel Enrique Serrano Domínguez
- Eleana Serrano Domínguez
- Marc Rhein
- Kim Philby
- Joaquín
- Eileen O'Shaughnessy
- Alberto
- Doménec Sugrañes
- Bob Edwards
Worldbuilding[[edit] | edit source]
- The System is part of the Absolute's monitoring and collection system.
- History Perception and the alteration of it can be just as detrimental to the timeline as a physical alteration. The effects of the Absolute on historical perception lead to time travellers seeing multiple different versions of history at the same time.
- Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx were all central figures in communism.
- Anji visited Aberystwyth on a sixth form trip.
- Mauser were a producer of firearms.
- Fitz once sang Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday songs with Sasha.
- Fitz once sang "Climb Ev'ry Mountain".
Notes[[edit] | edit source]
- All the chapter titles in History 101 are named after songs by the Clash, except written in Catalan.[1]
- The Doctor and Anji return to the TARDIS on 23 November. This was the date Doctor Who was first broadcast in 1963.
- A Prelude to History 101, in the style of the Virgin New Adventures preludes published in Doctor Who Magazine, was published in the Myth Makers fanzine.[2]
Continuity[[edit] | edit source]
- Fitz has murky memories of attempting suicide by throwing himself off a tower, which he considered doing in PROSE: Interference - Book Two.
- The Doctor deliberately avoids Kim Philby, as he doesn't meet him until 1951 in PROSE: Endgame.
- Following the TARDIS's destruction in PROSE: The Ancestor Cell and its regeneration in Escape Velocity everything within the TARDIS was rebuilt.
- Sasha tells Fitz, "The planet is called Albert", claiming the Doctor told him to say it to gain Fitz' trust. Albert was the name of a planet in PROSE: Grimm Reality.
- By his sixth incarnation, the Doctor already considered Orwell to be an old friend. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse)
- The Seventh Doctor previously fought in the Spanish Civil War. (AUDIO: The Rapture) On another occasion, he and his companions Melanie Bush and Ace visited Farissa during the war in the winter of 1938. (AUDIO: Fiesta of the Damned)
External links[[edit] | edit source]
- History 101 at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: History 101 at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: History 101
- Notes, Information and a 'Writer's Commentary' to History 101 by the author
- Interview: Mags L Halliday
- Throwback Interview: Mags L. Halliday (2002)
