Doctor How

[Catsmate]

Suppose the BBC had been told the wrong story back in 1963? Kipling wrote about the six Time Keepers in his poem Six Honest Serving Men.

        I keep six honest serving-men
        (They taught me all I knew);
        Their names are What and Why and When
        And How and Where and Who.

Doctor How is the last of the six Time Keepers doing his duty. After his brother, Who, sold his story to the BBC, their four cousins became disillusioned and dropped out. For fifty years, How has stood alone against the forces of darkness and stupidity.

Now he’s under attack from some illegal aliens, and it’s more than he can handle. He has to rely on his new assistant Kevin – a petty criminal from south London – and morphing alien super-predator Trinity. When once the Doctor could rely on help from the highest levels of government, MI16 are determined to steal his Spectrel (TARDIS is a rude word in Gaelfreyan).

I recently discovered this series, currently of three books, by Mark Speed. I must admit that at first I expected a mediocre Who pastiche with enough changes to ward off BBC Enterprises' lawyers but I was very pleasantly surprised. The author avoids having to omit the 'Doctor Who' pop culture by a simple but clever device:

Doctor How’s famous megalomaniac brother Doctor Who sold his fictional life story to the BBC half a century ago, painting himself as a lone hero. Disillusioned, their four cousins dropped out. For fifty years, Doctor How has held the line against the forces of darkness and stupidity. And he’s not that happy, since you ask.

Thus the reader, and their PoV character Kevin, can know as much as they do without short-circuiting the plot because it's all wrong; merely a pop culture adaption filtered through Who's megalomania and the BBC's writers. This works surprisingly well.
It's not the first attempt to file the serial numbers off the Time Lords (I rather liked the Chronarchs and their Omnitopes) but this one works well.

Overall the books are amusing and well written, with good characterisation and plotlines, interesting aliens and background and some nice gadgets. The section on How's interaction with the Kennedy assassination, and his attempt to frustrate Who's plans is particularly good.
Well worth reading.


I am sorely tempted to do a RPG adaption, or at least write-ups for the universe and characters.



ETA: Doctor How and the Rings of Uranus (the third books) can be obtained free.