The Druimport Entwister No. 276 (short story)

The Druimport Entwister No. 276
Featuring:	The Wordsmith, the Unravel
Main setting:	24 February 1963
Key crew
Publisher:	Overmorrow Publishing
Editor:	Jeffrey Princeton
Writer:	Jamie H. Cowan
Release details
Release date:	27 July 2024
Format:	3 pages, black and white
The Druimport Entwister
Next →	The Druimport Entwister No. 280

The Druimport Entwister No. 276 was the first instalment of Overmorrow Publishing's The Druimport Entwister, a Doctor Who spin-off taking the form of issues of the in-universe newspaper of the same name. It was written by Jamie H. Cowan and edited by Jeffrey Princeton.

In addition to featuring elements from the Doctor Who universe, the story crossed over with the universe of 1960s American television series Lost in Space, featuring a licensed appearance by the titular character of the 1967 episode The Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Toymaker (TV story)"] and a mention of his place of work, the Celestial Department Store.

Summary

On its edition dated 24 February 1963, a newspaper called The Druimport Entwister, edited by the Wordsmith, reports on various "current" affairs — whose tenour suggest that it is written for a readership of time travellers rather than 1960s natives.

Plot

Lord Wralex Launches Expedition To Potential Samaancer Captain Tomb

The first item in Issue 276 of The Druimport Entwister, written by Frema Kedir concerns a planned archaeological expedition to certain ruins discovered on the planet Wrendiar Ply in the year 89 BC. The expedition is the brainchild of the Chief Curator of the Collection of Echoed Remnants, Lord Alanir Golvin Wralex, who believes the ruins may be the remains of the castle Ilysiumon (a corruption of Saamance-El-Lysium), stronghold of the "fabled" Samaancer Captain Es'blath. The article is illustrated only by a black square where Wralex's picture ought to be, with an indication that the image has been "omitted" at the last minute due to a "personal decree" from Wralex himself.

Queen's Hotel

Printed beneath the article on Lord Wralex is an advertisement for the Queen's Hotel, located "in Piccadilly in the heart of Manchester". Citing a 1898 publication called Manchester of Today which spoke glowingly of the Hotel's worldwide notoriety, the ad bears out the claim by listing a number of past guests who include "the Kings of Belgium, Portugal and Roumania, the Emperor of Brazil, Prince Napoleon, President Grant, General Gordon of Khartoum, Dickens, and Thackeray".

Presidium Takes Further Action On Harvel I Scandal

In an article credited to Sembla Belfort and which follows from an "exclusive report" in a prior edition, concerning the covert misuse of the prison lanet Harvel I as an "unlicensed blood-processing facility", it is reported that Presidium Wednesday has ordered the closure of Harvel I, whose inmates will be transferred to "one of the neighbouring planets in the Orion Nebula" while a broader investigation into disgraced prison governor Lord Elgeryn's money-laundering activities is launched.

Bestseller Glory For T. S. Lee With New Book

A literary column by Merrideth Moppington reports on the success of T. S. Lee's The Travels As Our Souls Unravel, which is coming into "its thirteenth week at the top of the fiction chart". A "glorious celebratory party" is to be held by the book's publishers in 2034 Edinburgh. Although Lee proved unavailable for comment, a direct quote from the publishers is included, speaking of how Lee's book "evoke[s] something (…) profound and universal, (…) guid[ing] the reader from what seemed like a distant, unseen aspect of life towards a very poignant and important truth".

The Drink Meant For You!

Included under the prior two articles is a large advertisement for the energy drink Gevity, flaunted in large print as "a proprietary brand of universal renown, made by Epsilon ever since 1978". Another note in very small print indeed adds that "Epsilon cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen consequences".

Special Dedication To The SS Marine Sulphur Queen

An article by Desmond Lem reports on the sad fate of the SS Marine Sulphur Queen, an American World War II T2 tanker, which had been converted in 1960 and was subject to frequent fires before finally disappearing with all 39 crewmembers. A Marine Board of Investigations Hearing held on 17 March 1964 concluded that there may have been multiple reasons for the demise of the ship, most striking being the "possibility" of an explosion. Another, however, si that "the vessel's 'backbone' fractured at the middle of the ship", a known weakness of the tankers ever since 1946.

The back half of the article, written in the future tense, deplores the fact that "a Mr Vincent Gaddis will use this tragedy as part of his report in February 1964 popularising the concept of a distinct disappearance zone near Bermuda". Although Gaddis's pseudoscience is slated to remain in circulation for seven centuries, Lem goes to great pains to remind his readers of the Pact of Auterium Libris, which forbids them from altering that fact so as to make sure that the "temporal flow of language and its connection to metahistory [is] maintained", with Lem especially discouraging whoever in the audience mind find it funny to try and shift the urban legend to being about a Bermuda Square instead of a Triangle. The article ends on twin dedications: "RIP SS Marine Sulphur Queen (1944-1963)" and "RIP 'The Bermuda Triangle' (1963-8794)".

A Rumination On The End Of Traditional Space Travel

A column written by Melvart Dions ponders what is to become of travel writers like himself now that Interstitial Temporal Matter Transmitters, also known as ITMTs or transmats, are "a readily available convenience to more and more people" — wondering how popular the technology will become, and what will become of the "long-neglected starship cruisers" or even "the Starpoints and their legacy in temporal holidaying".

In the main, Dions finds himself reminiscing nostalgically about a three-week journey to the Alpin Cluster aboard a spacecruiser with sapphire solar sails, with a viewing deck from which the wonders of outer space could be observed, whether it be the readjustment of the sails to avoid the gravitational pull of the black holes of the Perseus arm, or the alignment of the eight-planet Metallaris system in the Dragon Nebula (a sight which Dions detailed in a previous travel column many years ago).

However, he must also admit that the ITMTs must be praised for bringing an end to the later, debasing trend of "the later, cheaper 'travel as cargo' options that came about in mainstream interstellar travelling".

Note from our editor

A brief, italicised note from The Druimport Entwister's own editor, the Wordsmith, states that "the void will be calling you this week. Make sure to let it t go to voicemail. Do not return the call".

Upcoming Considerations Regarding Changes To The Boroughs Of London

An article from S. E. Christison discusses "the temporal-relative imminent royal assent for The London Government Act 1963", and takes the opportunity to forewarn would-be temporal tourists about various areas of London whose geographical locations are in flux due to space-time anomalies.

These include the Borough of Southwark, which has "a fraught history of being accidentally redrawn in history due to small happenstances", as well as a "notable chunk of Kennington" which was moved into Peckham between 1984 and 2028 due to a pub fight between Arthuus Anhayaut and a "local politician" over "the concept of manorial boundaries", The Warwick Arms in Kensington (which has been temporally unstable "since its opening in 1828"), and the "Straat an de Drempel", said to be located on the boundary between Camden and the City of Westminster, which Christison seems to hold as being unwise to seek out despite the inevitability of curious sightseers attempting to do so.

The article ends on a sage declaration that "we [must] maintain our own careful responsiblities when it comes to spacetime interaction with systems of notable complexities": the two-year period between the passing and the implementation of the Act, bridging London 1963 to London 1965, must be left in peace lest 2029 London be "put askew".

Obituaries

The Druimport Entwister records a number of obituaries, some of which involve time shenanigans, and very few of whose deaths seem to have occurred in 1963.

The first is for Revont John, "former article curator on Kalverta II", who passed away after an "unfortunate accident" at the age of 743.

The second is for composer Maurice Unravel, who died on 28 December 1937 "after a brief time spent in 1987 thanks to an over-enthusiastic temporal tourist".

The third, Alan MacMasters, is not being highlighted as having died (although, born in 1865, he had done so in 1934) but as having been "Unbirthed", i.e. erased from the timeline altogether, by an "unknown academic". He was previously a Scottish inventor recognised as the originator of the electric toaster.

The fourth, R. E. Smith, died on 1 February 1963 and apparently took a "last secret" ito the grave, but the paper expresses hope that it can eventually be found in the Orchid Garden.

The fifth is Maxwell Stockbridge, noted as having died in 2025, "age unknown".

The sixth and penultimate is for "the right honourable Andrew Lias", member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, who passed away on 24 February 2038, "far too early in his life".

The final entry is ciphered.

Notices & Classifieds

The Druimport Entwister runs a number of notices and classified ads, many of which are, again, cross-temporal.

One is from a Watchwinder seeking assistance returning to their homeworld, with the notice advising the reade rto "hear the song in the words", which will somehow allow the Watchwinder to find them.

Another appeals to the unknown owner of a time-travelling vessel chameleonically disguised" as a 2010 Nissan Cube which has been left "on top of the McLinden Hotel in 2097" to please come back and collect it.

O.M., a representative of the Celestial Department Store, complains of being "severely overworked" and is "looking to expand staffing", and instructs interested aprties to seek out his storefront which exists on Earth at 24 Duncan Street from 1 February 1921 onwards, and which is "connected" to his real toy-shop.

Next, a private detective seeks information on the whereabouts of a certain Höfner bass guitar, "last seen in the hands of a dubious man on Belphus II, 3 Menda 489 relative time". A note advises readers not to call in reports of the guitar's existence in the vicinity of the Beatles between 1961 and 1972.

The following classified ad is from Doctor Mogg, who is seeking "assistants for a diving excursion in the metal seas of Venus" in March 1993, to retrieve "artefacts and gems" from their depths, some of which Mogg promises volunteers will be allowed to keep as payment.

Next is a "shy bard" who is "looking to add to an existing partnership in songwriting" in London, and advises applicants to seek out the agent of John Smith at Mowat Records.

The last notice warns readers to "be wary of ______" without elaboration.

Adverts

The Druimport Entwister runs two brief additional advertisements. One is from Creazu Shipping, intergalactic movers of goods who are looking for new staff. The other is from an unknown party who has acquired the 445-days-long Year of Confusion, "available for use as prime real-estate".

The Publication Sends Its Thanks To:

The Druimport Entwister lists its thanks to a number of individuals, the reasons for which are not specified.

Characters

• Sembla Belfort
• S. E. Christison
• Melvart Dions
• Lord Elgeryn
• Epsilon
• Revont John
• Frema Kedir
• Desmond Lem
• Andrew Lias
• Doctor Mogg
• Meredith Moppington
• O.M.
• R. E. Smith
• Maxwell Stockbridge
• Maurice Unravel
• Unnamed private detective
• Unnamed Watchwinder
• Presidium Wednesday
• The Wordsmith
• Alanir Golvin Wralex

Mentioned only

• "______"
• Jamie H. Cowan
• Dickens
• "Dubious man"
• Bob Duncan
• Wanda Duncan
• Captain Es'blath
• General Gordon of Khartoum
• President Grant
• T. S. Lee
• Xavier Llewellyn
• Jeffrey Princeton
• John Smith
• Thomas Stewart
• Thackeray

Worldbuilding

• Desmond Lem's article notes that the Second World War may be better known to "some reasons" as the Second Major Earth War. It is "not to be confused" with the Second Cosmic War, which is also known as the Second World War.
• The SS Marine Sulphur Queen was converted into a sulphur transporter in 1960 at Sparrows Point, Maryland.
• S. E. Christison is familiar with claims that the Unravel is responsible for the temporal sensitivity of The Warwick Arms, but is sceptical of them.
• Christison's article also alludes to "the people of the Askew ward in Hammersmith and Fulham", whose "continued existence" would apparently be fragile to careless meddling with space-time.
• Doctor Mogg can be contacted by Tempora-Phone at Z7-Fenton-Alpha-957.
• Surface gravity-adjusting field generators would normally be required specialised equipment, but Doctor Mogg assures potential hires that it is not necessary for them to bring any to the mission to Venus.

Notes

• Several of the names used in the story allude to names of relevance to the extended Doctor Who universe and adjacent, without necessarily appearing to diegetically connect with their namesakes:
  • Lord Alanir Golvin Wralex shares his first name of "Alanir" with the Rani's original Gallifreyan given name as given in a cut excerpt of Paul Cornell's No Future ^[+]Loading...["No Future (novel)"], where it was stated to have been "given to her by her ambitious Cardinal mother, an old Gallifreyan name that would command respect in her daughter's political future".
  • Desmond Lem shares a last name with Tasha Lem, the Church leader and old flame of the Doctor's introduced in TV: The Time of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Time of the Doctor (TV story)"]. Although noted as being immortal, and (as their purported "first girlfriend") having purportedly known the Doctor in the earliest days of their youth, Tasha was stated to be of principally human descent by Orla Brady, who portrayed her in the aforementioned TV special.
  • Melvart Dions's first name of "Melvart" was also the name of one of the Dictionary Contributors of the Multiplicity's Dead & Endangered Languages department. He himself shared his name with an intertemporal conman from Timeshares ^[+]Loading...["Timeshares (unproduced audio story)"], an unsuccessful pitch by Cowan to the 2023 edition of Big Finish Productions' Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity contest; Timeshares also prominently featured a Samaancer Captain, as featured in the first Druimport article.
  • Merrideth Moppington's last name is the pen name under which Callum Phillpott initially released the Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe series, which crossed over with the Doctor Who universe in The Book of the Snowstorm and The Noodle Incident.
  • Maxwell Stockbridge shares his name with a pen name used by various Doctor Who Magazine writers in the 1980s. Stockbridge's last name is also the name of a recurring location in DWM comic stories, one of whose inhabitants was called Maxwell Edison. Similarly, Andrew Lias is named after a pseudonym ("A. Lias") used by Nev Fountain for the audio story I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day ^[+]Loading...["I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (audio story)"]. Jamie H. Cowan had previously common DWU pen names as in-universe characters in PROSE: {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000015-QINU`\"'"] with David Agnew and "A Shy Bard" (Ash Darby).
• The Wordsmith's editor's note is a pun on the phrase "call of the void". It is not clear if the void under discussion is the Void Between Worlds.
• The implication is that Maurice Ravel's name has been changed to Maurice Unravel as a side-effect of the Unravel (similar to the mavity affair). {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000018-QINU`\"'"] made a point of highlighting that, as an apparent effect of the Unravel itself, the words "unravel" and "ravel" had been made into contranym. "RAVEL" is also the clue given for the final obituary, written in a cipher which the Wiki has not, as yet, cracked.
• Although Wikipedia records an R. E. Smith, he appears to have no commonality with the individual of that name mentioned in the "Obituaries" section.

Continuity

• The story — or at least the Entwister framing device — takes place in 1963, a year of considerable importance to the Doctor Who universe as the setting of TV: "An Unearthly Child" ^[+]Part of An Unearthly Child, Loading...{"namedep":"An Unearthly Child","1":"An Unearthly Child (TV story)"}, frequently returned to thereafter.
• The Samaancers, T. S. Lee's The Travels As Our Souls Unravel, the Aplin Cluster, the Wordsmith, and ______ were all previously mentioned in PROSE: {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-0000001D-QINU`\"'"]. The energy drink Gevity also made an appearance in the novella, among others, and it centred on the concepts of the Unravel and of a relationship between time and complicated systems of meaning such as language, all three of which are discussed to various extents throughout The Druimport Entwister No. 276.
  • The Dutch language, from which the word "unravel" derives in the real world, was of particular significance within {{esquivalience}}, possibly lending notability to the fact that "the Straat aan de Drempel" is a Dutch phrase (meaning "Street of the Threshold").
  • The Wordsmith was an employee of the extra-spatio-temporal organisation known as the Multiplicity, which goes some way to explain the peculiar atemporal point of view from which the Entwister is written.
  • The "recovery of Paul McCartney's fabled Höfner bass guitar" was alluded to in PROSE: {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000021-QINU`\"'"] and is evidently the private detective's purpose.
  • The novella introduced the 1960s song The Twist at the End, credited to Aubrey Waites, David Agnew, and "a shy bard". The latter here places a classified ad looking for a third member in a songwriting trio, already being in contact with "John Smith" (as per TV: An Unearthly Child ^[+]Loading...["An Unearthly Child (TV story)"], one of Waites's stage names).
• The technical name of Interstitial Temporal Matter Transmitters for transmats links the latter — a form of teleportation first coined in TV: The Seeds of Death ^[+]Loading...["The Seeds of Death (TV story)"] — to the concept of interstitial time, introduced in TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"]. This link had already been made in PROSE: Transit ^[+]Loading...["Transit (novel)"], which made much of the transmat-based Interstitial Mass Transit System. The acronym ITMT additionally evokes TOMTIT, the acronym for the smaller-scale form of interstitial-time-based transportation devised by the Master in The Time Monster.
• The gravitational pull of the black hole of the Perseus arm is referred to as their "mavitational" pull, and the gravity-adjusting field generators necessary for an expedition to Venus as "mavity-adjusting field generatr]]s" — both as per the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble's accidental linguistic vandalism in TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"] which replaced the term "gravity" with the term "mavity".
• The name of the Second Cosmic War is reminiscent of the Great Cosmic War (or simply "the Cosmic War"), first mentioned in PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"].
• The geographical quirk which transported part of Kennington into Peckham provides an explanation, or at any rate an in-universe analogue, for the real-world snarl of contradictions between various accounts on the location of Rose Tyler's childhood home, the Powell Estate, as first seen in TV: Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"]. As described in further detail here, scenes set in the Powell Estate were filmed in, and closely based on, a real location in Kennington, something which has sometimes been directly translated into stories, but another, rivalling trend asserts that Rose was from Peckham, dissociating the fictional Powell Estate from its Kennington model. The dispute about "the concept of manorial boundaries" may be an allusion to a further discrepancy between the real world: filming location Maddock Way is presented in the DWU as being part of the televised Powell Estate in earnest, while in the real world, it is not formally considered part of the nearby Brandon Estate (the nigh-identical estate which serves as the basis for the fictional Powell Estate).
• "Temporal tourism" was depicted in various prior sources, including PROSE: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide ^[+]Loading...["Gallifrey: A Rough Guide (short story)"].
• Space-time tourists are advised to avoid the period between "London 1963 and London 1965". Per TV: The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)"], this is also the period that Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright missed during their travles with the Doctor, a connection emphasised by the phrase "London 1965!" being what Ian shouted out in that story upon realising he and Barbara had finally made it home.
• 743, Revont John's age at the time of his accidental death, is also one of the figures thrown around by the Fourth Doctor for his own age (which he cannot remember with certainty) in COMIC: Doctor Who and the Time Witch ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Time Witch (comic story)"].
• The presence of metal seas on Venus was first mentioned in TV: Marco Polo ^[+]Loading...["Marco Polo (TV story)"], where Susan Foreman reminisces about them.
• The existence of valuable gems on Venus, meanwhile, alludes to COMIC: Treasure of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Treasure of the Daleks (comic story)"], where rubies from Venus are among the valuables kept at the Dalek Treasure House.

Continuity to non-covered sources

• Prior to its aforementioned mention PROSE: {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-0000003C-QINU`\"'"], the planet Wrendiar Ply was first mentioned in AUDIO: Re-Mind of the Hodiac ^[+]Loading...["Re-Mind of the Hodiac (audio story)"], a Doctor Who fan audio created as part of the umbrella of Jay Dragonarc Productions.
• Similarly, prior to its name-drop in PROSE: {{esquivalience}} ^[+]Loading...["Esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000041-QINU`\"'"], the Aplin Cluster, mentioned here, was previously the setting of the fan fiction PROSE: Time After Time, which Cowan wrote for Doctor Who: Lockdown!.
• "O.M." (short for "Old Man") is nickname of the titular character of TV: The Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Toymaker (TV story)"], a 1967 episode of the American science-fiction television Lost in Space (who bore a notable resemblance to the more villainous character of the same name better-known to Doctor Who fans from TV: The Celestial Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"]). There, O.M./the Toymaker was depicted as an eccentric, human-like alien toy-maker with arbitrary powers who operated from a workshop in the Celestial Department Store, transdimensionally connected to various "intergalactic mail-order catalogue machines" spread across the universe, and to "outlets" on various planets. One of them was located on Earth, but by the time of the story, had closed it down due to insufficient demand from Earth children. The series' present day was a futuristic vision of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which would suffice to account for O.M. calling for time-active visitors to find the shop as being open "from 1 January 1921 onwards" on 24 Duncan Street; however, it is not clear that the Celestial Department Store was necessarily temporally in synch with Earth (particularly if he and the rest of the Department Store's staffing are interpreted as actual Celestials in the DWU sense of the term), casting doubt on how the timeline of events is to be interpreted between O.M.'s two appearances.
  • The Lost in Space Toymaker and the Department Store were previously alluded to in PROSE: The Book of the Snowstorm ^[+]Loading...["The Book of the Snowstorm (short story)"], which also mentioned the Unravel. There, Professor Vomm She'hayle digresses about the commonalities, and lack of any actual personal relationship, between Madame Tarsa ("the Toymaker" of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids series), the "one who worked for the interdimensional department store", and a third one who was native to the Third Universe and had historical influence within it. It is mentioned that She'hayle's words spark a tumultuous discussion between him and other characters, concerning the question of whether the "department store" Toymaker was "an Archon too". This discussion is said to have involved "a ten-minute digression unto itself, all about a TV show which no one in the room had actually watched, least of all the Professor" — acknowledging the in-universe Lost in Space TV show.

Gallery

• 

  Title.

• 

  "Image ommitted due to recent personal decree by Lord Wralex".

• 

  An advertisement for Queen's Hotel.

• 

  An advertisement for Gevity.

• 

  An advertisement for Piesse & Lubin.

External links

• The Druimport Entwister No. 276 on the official Overmorrow Publishing Twitter account (Jul 2024 archive)