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TheBlackArchive#24

THETIMEWARRIORSampler

ByMatthewKilburn

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PublishedOctober2018byObverseBooks

CoverDesign©CodySchell

Text©MatthewKilburn,2018

RangeEditors:PaulSimpson,PhilipPurser-Hallard

MatthewKilburnhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisWorkinaccordancewiththeCopyright,Designsand

PatentsAct1988.

Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,orinanyformorbyanymeans,

withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofthepublisher,norbeotherwisecirculatedinanyformofbinding,coverore-bookotherthanwhichitispublishedandwithoutasimilarconditionincluding

thisconditionbeingimposedonthesubsequentpublisher.

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ToadFace

TheinfluenceoftheFarEastcontinuedtoshapeTheTimeWarriorat script stage. It’snot clear from ‘For theAttention’what sortofEarthcreaturestheSontaransmostresemble,onlythattheirbodyhasmorenaturaloutwardprotectionthanhumanbeings,andthatthey are contrasted with the ‘hominids’ who are the dominantspeciesonEarth.The rehearsal script forepisode1describesLinxremovinghishelmet to reveala ‘hideous toad-likealien face’.Thescenewaswrittenupafterthefact;bythetimerehearsalsatActonbeganon16May1973, the sequencehadalreadybeen filmedatPeckforton Castle. However, the toad comparison carries throughintodialogue.Therehearsalscript forepisode3sees IrongroncallLinx a ‘little toad’ (twice), ‘toad-face’, ‘good toadface’, ‘good toad’butalsoa‘littleowl’;inepisode4heis‘ascabby-facedstoat’,‘youfoul beetle, you cock-roach, you bed louse’, but also (when goodrelationsbetweenthetwohavebeenrestored)‘oldtoad’andagain‘goodtoad’whenheexpresseshisdisbelief thatLinxwill leave. IncontrastinghimselfwithLinx, Irongronsayshe is ‘notanowl’,butthen after Linx leaves describes him as ‘a toad at heart’. He alsomocks Linx for having ‘great feet’whichhe couldn’t imagineon ascalingladder.

TheoverallimpressionisthatLinxlargelyresemblesatoadbuthassome featureswhich are bird-like or rodent-like. Thequalities arethoseawritermightattributetoaspeciesadaptedtoamphibiousand airborne warfare, which characterised much of the SecondWorldWarinsouth-eastAsia.There,theIndianandPacificoceanswere theatres of war and adaptability to both sea and land wascrucial. The same was true in the Vietnam War. The largelyamphibious, owl-like, nocturnal Linx, whether by accident or

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design,isaprojectionofwhatevolution,ifgivenafreeifsomewhatliteralhand,mightmakeoftheimperialpowerscompetinginSouthEast Asia. InMarch 1973,whileHolmeswaswriting the story,USPresidentRichardMNixonsuspendedthewithdrawalofAmericantroops fromVietnam.Thereseemedeverypossibility that thewarwould drag on despite Nixon’s promise to end Americaninvolvement.

As Irongron calls Linx a ‘little toad’, the Doctor describes theSontaran to Sarah as ‘nasty, brutish and short’1. This quotationcomes to The Time Warrior from Leviathan (1651), the principalwork of the 17th-century English political philosopher ThomasHobbes,specificallyPartOne,Chapter13,‘OftheNaturalConditionof Mankind as Concerning their Felicity and Misery’. Within thischapter Hobbes discussed competition between men, that wararosewhen therewas no ‘commonpower’ to overawe themandkeepthepeace,andinastateofwarlifewas‘solitary,poor,nasty,brutish, and short’. On the one hand, this is a summary of thesituation of the story, for with the king absent with most of thefightingmen– those troopswhoare ‘all at thewars’, as Irongrontells Linx – there is nothing to stop Irongron overthrowing SirEdwardbutdiscipline,manpower,weaponryandopportunity.Initsimmediate context, though, the script isconfirming that Linx is ofsmallerthanaverage(male)humanheight.TotheBritishforcesofthe Far East campaign, one nickname for the Japanese was the‘littlemen’,adescriptionrootedindecadesofnervousclutchingatnotions of white European superiority over complex Asian

1 Episode 3. (Unless otherwise indicated, all episodic quotes arefromTheTimeWarrior.)

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civilisations2. ‘Warlike’wasanadjectiveroutinelyattributedtotheJapanesebytheearly20thcentury,andlittleopportunityislostby‘FortheAttention’orthescriptofTheTimeWarriortoemphasisetheSontarans’militarism.

There is evidence for Japanese influence on how the scriptenvisagedLinx’sappearance.Inepisode1,Linx’sentryintoscene12– his return to Irongron’s great hall, where he volunteers to takeover the interrogationofSirEdward’smessengerEric– is ‘Asquatbroad figure encased in black armour appears in the door’–andwhile Irongron (at least, in the rehearsal script) hails him as ‘Aparfait gentil knight!’ the descriptionmight suggest less GeoffreyChaucer’sKnightfromTheCanterburyTales(c1400)thanaSamuraiwarrior. The first Japanesearmour known tohave reachedBritainwas the suit presented to James VI and I in 1613 on behalf ofShogun Tokugawa Hidetada3. This largely dark red and black suithad been restored for display at the Tower of London in 1972,although it does not seem to have attracted media attention.Another,darker suit isheldby theBritishMuseum. If the script isdrawing on the impression these made, that impression isimmediately contrasted with Irongron’s (probable) anticipation ofChaucer (whowroteafter the likelydateof the serial’s setting) toset up the culture clash between Irongron and Linx and theirdiffering attitudes to war, hospitality and service. The past is2Thisstereotypewaspresentinbothpeaceandwar.JapanesestaffattheJapan-Britishexhibitionof1910weredescribed intheDailyExpress, 29 April 1910, as ‘the three hundred […] little JapanesemenwhoareworkingforthehonourofJapanatShepherd’sBush’See Mutsu, Hirokichi, ed, The British Press and the Japan-BritishExhibitionof1910p47.3‘Armour–Domaru’(1570),RoyalArmourieswebsite.

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contestedbetween Irongron’s acquisitive, casual basis formilitaryexpeditionsandLinx’shighlytheoreticalanddogmaticmilitarism.InthissenseTheTimeWarriorrecollectsBritishmythsaboutimperialexpansion – acquiring Empire in ‘a fit of absence of mind’whileconcentrating on trade and on European rather than worlddiplomacy – contrasted with the systematic conquest associatedwith Britain’s imperial enemies, especially her rivals from the late19thcenturyonwards,GermanyandJapan4.

4Theoft-quoted‘fitofabsenceofmind’stemsfromSeeley,JC,TheExpansion of England (1883), p9. Seeley’s work was an earlyexploration of the tensions between the 19th-century conceptionof the nation state and empire, between the ideals of ‘Liberty!Democracy!’ and control of other countries by another, and theabsenceof aworldoutlook inmostpeople inGreatBritainwhichfailedtoappreciatethemanyfacetsofempire.

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BIOGRAPHYMatthewKilburnhasbeenwritingaboutDoctorWhoinonewayoranotherforwellover40years,probablysincehefirstputcrayontopaper.InrecentyearshehaswrittenforDoctorWho:50Years,TheEssential Doctor Who and Doctor Who Magazine Special Editionand contributed production notes for two BBC DVDDoctorWhoreleases,PlanetofGiantsandthespecialeditionofTheAztecs.Hehas also contributed to books such as Time And RelativeDissertations In Space, Inside Out and The Eleventh Hour. He haswritten for several fanzines over the decades including Skaro,Circus, Faze, This Way Up, Panic Moon, The Terrible Zodin andVworp Vworp! aswell as contributed reviews to The DoctorWhoNewsPage.HehasfortwoperiodsinitshistorybeeneditoroftheOxford University-based Doctor Who fanzine, The Tides of Time.He’swrittenonothertelevisionseriestoo,includingStarTrek:TheNextGenerationandThePaperLads.

AwayfromDoctorWho,iftherereallyissuchathing,Matthewhasadoctorate in18th-centuryBritishhistory,hasworked for severalmajorhumanitiesresearchprojects,havingbeenaresearcheditorforseveralyearsat theOxfordDictionaryofNationalBiography,aresearchofficeratTheHistoryofParliament:TheLords1660-1715,and a freelance contributor and researcher for both projects andfortheOxfordEnglishDictionary.HecontributedthreechapterstoThe History of Oxford University Press: Volume I, edited by IanGadd, and is currently working on a book chapter on theparliamentary representation and local government ofChippenham.He isoriginally fromnorth-eastEngland,but lives inOxfordshire.

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