Cubicle 7 Secret Riddle Hidden in Doctor Sourcebooks

[Rassilon]

It's been confirmed by a very high-up C7 person that there is a secret clue at the start of each Doctor Sourcebook that forms a riddle.



First person to post the answer wins a no-prize prize and a special forum title of their own choosing plus kudos and admiration.

[CountClockwise]

“My First Begins With An Unearthly Child”
“My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past”
“My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow”
“My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All”
“My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End”
“My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike“
”My Seventh ends in a riddle”
”My Eighth was tricked by the Master.”
”My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor.”
“My Tenth was Told Not to Blink.”
”My Eleventh Ends on the Fields.”

All of these are references to some of the most iconic parts of these respective doctors imagery which means this riddle is not one with an answer per se but rather is a microcosm of what these books are accomplishing by being written. As a fanwanky theory this could be 12 reminiscing his past lives as they say My (incarnation) not his. My answers are as follows:

“My First Begins With An Unearthly Child”
The first line is a clear and obvious reference to both Susan and the first episode

“My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past”
On the surface this is a reference to the Doctor's recorder but if GCSE English taught me anything it's that theres always a deeper meaning even if not intended. In his speech at his trial he says that he fights evil rather than observe it, therefore making him an instrument and protector of the past (a bit of a stretch but hey, brownie points)

“My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow”
This one is so obvious it hurts, even though he only said the line once, this line and the spirit of the era has become a part of the doctor forever more. This could also be an indirect reference to the fact this era had it's polarity reversed, with most of the stories involving the doctor being stranded in one place unlike the world-hopping in previous and subsequent eras.

“My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All”
This is bit more obscure but if we're going with iconic features this could be a reference to genesis of the daleks. The Doctor has the opportunity to destroy the daleks and doesn't thinking that even he doesn't have the right to commit genolcide, even if they have it coming. It's interesting that later incarnations regret this course of actions and wish they had wiped the daleks out, thus making 4 the noblest of them all.

“My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End”
At first glance this reference the fact he both went to the big bang in castrovalva and the near end of the universe in frontios but it could be more metaphysical than that. 5's stories brought a lot of old things back that had been there since the beginning but a lot of his adventures ended in utter tragedy. Even at the end of his life, he's determined to save his friend no matter the cost.

“My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike“
Most likely a reference to the Valeyard and the Master who were both present as his trial. At a stretch it could be a reference to the twin dilemma or the Master and the Rani.

”My Seventh ends in a riddle”
This is a reference to both 7's penchant for secrecy and plans but also that there are so many questions raised about who the doctor is in this era and so little is answered. This is also a cheeky reference to the fact he doesn't regenerate until the movie.

”My Eighth was tricked by the Master.”
Fairly obvious reference to the TV movie and the events that transpired in it, the master manipulates the people around 8 to steal his lives. With the start of the BBC novels serious, everything's kicked off by the master tricking 8 with a diamond that wipes his memories. I haven't listened to dark eyes yet so maybe this has more meaning but I don't know yet.

”My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor.”
This is the start of the Oncoming storm period. The doctor is still traumatized and hateful from the war. He even still dresses like war and this tone is emblematic of the 9th Doctor era.

“My Tenth was Told Not to Blink.”
This is a clear reference to the episode Blink, the most beloved episode of the era and possibly all of new who. If we put our GCSE overthinking goggles on it could also reference that this era focuses on normal people who achieve extraordinary things like Sally from blink. Something something quick pacing I dunno.

” My Eleventh Ends on the Fields.”
The fields of Trenzalore and the Doctors beginning obsession with his own mortality. Everything in this era built to this moment (for better or worse) and thus everything that came before is tied to this moment.

If someone else answered this as I was typing I'll be really upset. Thanks for reading and hope this all made sense

[Rassilon]

Andrew Kenrick: Bit like the riddle at the start of the Doctor Who books...

Jonny Hodgson: Yeah did anyone ever guess that. Or know the answer....?

[misterharry]

Dec 5, 2017 15:51:00 GMT Rassilon said:

Andrew Kenrick: Bit like the riddle at the start of the Doctor Who books...

Jonny Hodgson: Yeah did anyone ever guess that. Or know the answer....?

This makes it sound like there's a single overarching answer to the questions. My guess is that the answers are all the Doctor's companions:

My First Begins With An Unearthly Child - Susan
My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past - Jamie (not 100% about this one)
My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow - possibly the Brigadier (time-reversed in The Time Monster)
My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All - Romana ("You were the noblest Romana of them all")
My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End - Tegan (present at both Event One (and Terminus) and Frontios)
My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike - Peri (met Romulus and Remus)
My Seventh ends in a riddle - Ace (her fate is a mystery, except for conflicting accounts in spin-offs)
My Eighth was tricked by the Master - Grace
My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor - Rose (the Daleks learned of the Doctor after they captured her)
My Tenth was Told Not to Blink - Martha
My Eleventh Ends on the Fields - Clara (though she came back)

[CountClockwise]

Dec 5, 2017 16:14:11 GMT misterharry said:

Dec 5, 2017 15:51:00 GMT Rassilon said:

This makes it sound like there's a single overarching answer to the questions. My guess is that the answers are all the Doctor's companions:

My First Begins With An Unearthly Child - Susan
My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past - Jamie (not 100% about this one)
My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow - possibly the Brigadier (time-reversed in The Time Monster)
My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All - Romana ("You were the noblest Romana of them all")
My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End - Tegan (present at both Event One (and Terminus) and Frontios)
My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike - Peri (met Romulus and Remus)
My Seventh ends in a riddle - Ace (her fate is a mystery, except for conflicting accounts in spin-offs)
My Eighth was tricked by the Master - Grace
My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor - Rose (the Daleks learned of the Doctor after they captured her)
My Tenth was Told Not to Blink - Martha
My Eleventh Ends on the Fields - Clara (though she came back)

I assume someone knows the answer somewhere

[misterharry]

Dec 5, 2017 16:53:15 GMT CountClockwise said:

I assume someone knows the answer somewhere

Presumably Andrew Kenrick, who was editor of most of the sourcebooks, plus the other members of the production team - though not necessarily the writers.

[Rassilon]

Dec 6, 2017 8:51:32 GMT misterharry said:

Dec 5, 2017 16:53:15 GMT CountClockwise said:

I assume someone knows the answer somewhere

Presumably Andrew Kenrick, who was editor of most of the sourcebooks, plus the other members of the production team - though not necessarily the writers.

There is an answer but it won't be revealed until the riddle has been solved here.

[Stormcrow]

Dec 5, 2017 16:14:11 GMT misterharry said:

My First Begins With An Unearthly Child - Susan
My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past - Jamie (not 100% about this one)
My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow - possibly the Brigadier (time-reversed in The Time Monster)
My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All - Romana ("You were the noblest Romana of them all")
My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End - Tegan (present at both Event One (and Terminus) and Frontios)
My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike - Peri (met Romulus and Remus)
My Seventh ends in a riddle - Ace (her fate is a mystery, except for conflicting accounts in spin-offs)
My Eighth was tricked by the Master - Grace
My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor - Rose (the Daleks learned of the Doctor after they captured her)
My Tenth was Told Not to Blink - Martha
My Eleventh Ends on the Fields - Clara (though she came back)

I was hoping to solve this and wow everybody, but I can't do it, so I'll have to share the glory. But some of these sub-answers are wrong.

The overall answer is almost certainly a crosstic of all the first letters of the answers. But I can't find an answer that fits the riddles.

First is "Susan."
Second has got to be the "recorder." I'm not sure what "of the past" is supposed to mean, though.
Third is "polarity."
Fourth is "Romana."
Fifth is beyond me. Maybe Tegan is the right answer, I dunno.
Sixth is probably "Edgeworth." He's the guy who led Romulus and Remus around everywhere. Possibly "Professor Edgeworth."
Seventh might be Ace for the reason you suggest. Seems a bit weak, though.
Eighth is either "Lee" or "Chang Lee," depending on which letter makes the crosstic work. He gets named "Lee" most of the time. Grace wasn't tricked by the Master, Lee was.
Ninth is probably "Oncoming Storm." That is the name by which the Daleks call the Doctor, given in The Parting of the Ways, hence "how they know" the Doctor. They knew who he was without Rose saying anything.
Tenth is "Sally Sparrow."
Eleventh might be "Trenzalore," because "what fields?" but I'm starting to doubt that. The clue is that "My Eleventh ENDS" there; it is the Doctor who ends there. But as the last word of the crosstic (unless the 12th Doctor book has one more), I would be inclined to think the answer is "Eleventh Doctor," to end the word in an E. Or maybe it is "Silence," since silence falls at Trenzalore, and a second "S" would work here too.

SRPRTEALOSE
SRPRTEALOSS

Doesn't quite work, but it looks promising.

[misterharry]

Dec 6, 2017 17:01:19 GMT Stormcrow said:

Fifth is beyond me. Maybe Tegan is the right answer, I dunno.

I also wondered if it was a reference to Omega - the Beginning (of the Time Lords) and the End (Omega). But if so, who apart from the Doctor faced him?

Sixth is probably "Edgeworth." He's the guy who led Romulus and Remus around everywhere. Possibly "Professor Edgeworth."

Edgeworth's real name was Azmael, so it could be that instead.

[Escher]

Dec 6, 2017 17:01:19 GMT Stormcrow said:

Second has got to be the "recorder." I'm not sure what "of the past" is supposed to mean, though.
Third is "polarity."

This is what I thought too.

However, I though the Seventh might be his Umbrella-it ends in an 'enigma': the question mark handle.

Very interesting stuff...

[Stormcrow]

Dec 6, 2017 20:13:56 GMT Escher said:

However, I though the Seventh might be his Umbrella-it ends in an 'enigma': the question mark handle.

Yes, this is undoubtedly correct. "Umbrella"

[misterharry]

My First Begins With An Unearthly Child

Thinking about this again, is this actually Susan or something that begins with Susan? If the latter, what? Adventure? Episode? Doctor Who itself?

[Stormcrow]

"My first begins with" likely means "my [the answer's] first [letter] begins with an Unearthly Child [Susan]."

The answer is asking you to guess what it is, and telling you the letters that make it up.

[misterharry]

OK. Another thought then - with the first four answers being among the most certain and all starting with consonants, could the final eleven letters be an anagram? I hope not - I'm hopeless at anagrams!

[Escher]

Dec 7, 2017 14:42:51 GMT misterharry said:

OK. Another thought then - with the first four answers being among the most certain and all starting with consonants, could the final eleven letters be an anagram? I hope not - I'm hopeless at anagrams!

www.ssynth.co.uk/~gay/anagram.html


Here's another thought - what if it refers to the page number the answer first appears on.

[misterharry]

Dec 7, 2017 15:21:01 GMT Escher said:

Here's another thought - what if it refers to the page number the answer first appears on.

If that's the case...

The P from Polarity is virtually certain, but there's no number with a P in it. So four of these letters could well spell PAGE. In which case, we're missing a G.

My Eleventh Ends on the Fields - Could this be the Great Intelligence, who was finally defeated on Trenzalore?


EDIT: Hmmm, I'm not getting far with producing a number from the remaining letters...

[Escher]

I was thinking the page numbers might be something interesting like longitude/latitude coordinates, but I didn't have access to my books at the time...

[misterharry]

I come back to this every so often to see if I can make any more progress, but no joy.

For a while, I was toying with the idea that the answers might form an anagram of SOURCEBOOKS, but I couldn't quite get it to work.

Anyone else had any more thoughts?

[Escher]

Dec 13, 2017 11:26:04 GMT misterharry said:

Anyone else had any more thoughts?

I'll give it a shot at some point, but I'll probably overthink it.

[olegrand]

Some thoughts on this matter...


“My First Begins With An Unearthly Child”

Shouldn't the answer be "Doctor Who" itself? ("begins with" = first episode of the show)

“My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past”


I'd go for the Second Doctor's recorder... or perhaps Jamie's bagpipe (since he was clan McLaren's piper IIRC)

“My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow”

This should be "Polarity", unless the C7 folks are being unfathomably devious...

“My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All”


Romana

“My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End”


No clue yet...

“My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike“

This seems to refer to the Twin Dilemma, no?

”My Seventh ends in a riddle”

The Doctor's umbrella, with its question mark handle...

”My Eighth was tricked by the Master.”


I'd say Chang Lee

”My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor.”


The Oncoming Storm ?

“My Tenth was Told Not to Blink.”


I'd say Sally Sparrow

”My Eleventh Ends on the Fields.”

No clue yet.

[Null and Void]

Well.... hmm

The one's I am certain of are third and fourth, with Polarity and Romana.
And it seems likely that the last four answers are Lee, Oncoming Storm, Sally, and Trenzalore... which interestingly, taking the first letters, spells LOST

So what can we extrapolate from _ _ P R _ _ _ L O S T ?

If the first is Susan, as seems likely, it becomes S _ P R _ _ _ L O S T

S U P R E M E L O S T ? Maybe?

Meaning that we need a U for Instrument of the Past

and an I for Faced the Beginning and the End... - (Alpha and Omega... something in Arc of infinity?)

an S for Accompanied by two alike

and E for ends in a riddle - Seventh ends in a riddle.. .a riddle is an Enigma, and the 7th doctor is often described as Enigmatic..

So, what does SUPREME Lost mean?

*Edited this answer because I realized I spelled it wrong, and got the wrong word

[moondragon007]

Sometimes these puzzles tell you which letter to use - eg "My first in in x, my second is in y, etc.)


“My First Begins With An Unearthly Child” Susan (first letter S)
“My Second Is An Instrument Of The Past” Recorder (second letter E)
“My Third is Reversed In The Neutron Flow” Polarity (third letter L)
“My Fourth Was The Noblest Of Them All” Romana (fourth letter A)
“My Fifth Faced The Beginning And The End” Omega (fifth letter A)
“My Sixth Is Accompanied By Two Alike“ Azmael (sixth letter L)
”My Seventh ends in a riddle” Umbrella (seventh letter L)
”My Eighth was tricked by the Master.” Chang Lee (eighth letter E)
”My Ninth was how the Daleks knew the Doctor.” Oncoming Storm (ninth letter S)
“My Tenth was Told Not to Blink.” Sally Sparrow (tenth letter R)
”My Eleventh Ends on the Fields.” Eleventh Doctor or Incarnation (eleventh letter C or N)

SELAALLESR(C/N).... could be an anagram maybe???

I ran it through that anagram solver - no joy. But it wouldn't have any Doctor Who specific words in it.

[fred]

Ho that's an interesting one, I will search a bit too.
I first guessed it was simply, the doctor himself in each of his incarnations, but it don't really fits I think.
Well, lets try to find.

[misterharry]

I'd completely forgotten about this and just happened to stumble across this thread. Did anything come of this? Was a definitive answer ever announced?

[jeffrywith1e]

Did/does the riddle continue with 12? 13?

[thewarchief]

Feb 20, 2024 20:35:18 GMT jeffrywith1e said:

Did/does the riddle continue with 12? 13?

” My Twelfth went the long way around.”
"My Thirteenth was timeless."


So yes it did.

BTW, Since the Sourcebooks started back before the last few Doctors were cast, I doubt the actual answer to the quoted is relevant, as C7 wouldn't know whos was going to be cast or what their adventures were going to be about. Not unless they are time travellers.

So the actual answer must be something they was picked out long before they knew what was going to happen and they picked the clues after the fact to fit the answer. The answer should probably be something obviously tied to Doctor Who. Not that I have a clue.