p.3
the power of Arawn:
Arawn's chariot pulls the night-sun, Arawn's Wheel, across the sky. The
night-sun and the day-sun are components of a binary star system, not just
sun and moon.
p.4
Dagda or Silvanus:
are local gods, so it's only polite to leave a place set for them just
in case. In Jewish tradition part of the Sader is to leave a place set
for Elijah. According to p.5 Dagda's war chariot pulls the day-sun across
the sky.
p.5
Druffud the troll:
p.8
Priss:
Aquila:
Eagle constellation in the Northern
summer sky.
Beelzebub:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) In Judeo-Christian mythology, Beelzebub is
The Lord of the Flies, one of Satan's sidekicks. He may have started off
as Judaism's interpretation of the Mesopotamian god Baal, who, being the
object of worship of a bunch of heathen foreigners, was obviously a demon
of some kind.
p.10
Ceffyl: Unicorn.
And they're time-sensitive.
I
believe that Ceffyl is the Welsh word for horse. However, all the Welsh
bits in the book were donated by my friend Sian. And she
subsequently
told me that some of them were wrong. So when I did research stuff I didn't
do a very good job.
Rush:
Swift:
p.13
New York:The previous
book, 'Cat's Cradle: Warhead' took place in New York City, admittedly a
decade or so in the future.
away from the bulls and
bears and headhunters: (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Bull and Bear are stock market terms. A bull
market is when prices are trending upward, and a bear market is when prices
are trending downward. A headhunter is a professional recruiter of personnel
for a big corporation.
the butterfly effect:
I can't remember who came up with the idea, but it's a tenet of chaos theory.
The fluttering of a butterfly's wings in New York could cause a hurricane
in Japan. Or whatever they call them over there. p.75.
the Eye of Harmony:
Source of the Time Lords' time travel power. Check 'The Deadly Assassin'
and the TV Movie.
a planet called Gallifrey
whose history is tied up with the Earth's far more than its inhabitants
appreciate:
there dwell a people
whose upper echelons are self-styled Lords of Time: Not all Gallifreyans
are Time Lords with regenerative cycles. They might not even all have
two hearts.
the Panopticon Hall:
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Big ol' space on Gallifrey (in the Capitol),
where all the important things happen, like Presidential retirements (and
assassinations). It was absolutely enormous in 'The Deadly Assassin', but
then it shrunk quite a bit later on.
Perhaps in 'The Invasion of Time' it was smaller, but the advent of the
full-length novels has resulted in making it more of a St Peter's Basilica
than a Westminster Abbey. In 'The Infinity Doctors', especially.
artron energy: Mysterious
Gallifreyan power source first vaguely referred to in 'The Deadly Assassin'.
Time Scaphe: Early
Gallifreyan TT Capsule. 'Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'.
p.14
the Doctor's TARDIS was
losing its link: (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) To the Eye of Harmony? Lynx?
non-Euclidean geometry:
Euclid was an ancient Greek philosopher who organised rules of geometry
on two-dimensional planes. Mercator projection is an Euclidean interpretation
of the non-Euclidean three-dimensional globe. Although even a simple globe
is non-Euclidean, since HP Lovecraft the phrase has become something of
a cliché for the nature of extradimensional monsters.
delta flows:
Like Scylla clinging
to her rocky home against the demon pull of Charybdis:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) "Between Scylla and Charybdis" is a saying
meaning "with a great peril on either hand"; it comes from Greek mythology,
where Scylla and Charybdis were two monsters living on either side of a
narrow strait that ships had to pass through. If a ship got too close to
one side, it was sucked into Charybdis' whirlpool; too close to the other
side, and Scylla started picking off crewmen.
the TARDIS's cloister
room: (Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) We saw it in 'Logopolis' - a nice stony-and-pillary
area of the TARDIS with vines and benches and whatnot. It turned up in
the TV Movie as well, a lot grander...but then, everything was.
she found a workshop
which had been occupied quite recently: I
think that this was a reference back to 'Invasion of Time' - the notion
that it was quite recently occupied suggesting that time flowed differently
in the depths of the TARDIS.
p.15
Above her a bell started
tolling: Cloister Bell.
the tiny marks were a
cat's pawprints:
'Lynx'?: A wild cat.
The 'Cat's Cradle' cat's name is Lynx. Check p.254.
He was over seven hundred
years old: In 'Remembrance of the Daleks' the Seventh Doctor claims
he is over nine hundred years old, as does the Sixth Doctor in 'The Trial
of a Time Lord'. In New Adventures continuity, the Doctor celebrates his
thousandth birthday while locked in a dungeon in 'Set Piece'.
Universal ennui:
Like cosmic angst, mentioned in 'The Five Doctors'.
mysterious alien Process:
from 'Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'.
p.16
"I've just come from
there,": The sound of the cloister bell has never been restricted to
the cloister room.
Block transfer computation:
'Logopolis' and 'Castrovalva'.
p.17
"No one else has their
mathematical skill and so TARDISes require morphologically unstable living
organic matter for their block transfer function.":
"Perhaps Axos, even Nestene
matter might work.": 'The
Claws of Axos', and the two Nestene stories.
cupboard set into one
of the wall roundels: There have been bits like that over the years:
the Visualiser in 'The Wheel in Space', the manual door handle in 'Death
to the Daleks' and the thermostat in 'Castrovalva'. It's not quite like
the wall unit incorporating bed from 'Planet of the Daleks'.
p.18
Cheiron:
p.19
five hundred ells:
he already knew that
it was broken:
p.20
Inspector Anderson:
oilseed rape: It
might be political correctness, but rapeseed is now known as canola (at
least in Canada; I have no idea of the political incorrectness of the word
"courgette" as opposed to "zucchini".)
p.21
Mr Selwyn Hughes from
Llanfer Ceiriog:
Condicote Hospital:
Llanfer
Ceiriog is (you may have guessed) probably a nonsense name in Welsh. Directly
inspired by the village of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog (I
think,
but its a long time since I've been there) where similar events took place.
And Condicote is a place referred to in John Masefield's 'The
Box
of Delights'
p.22
Sergeant Yardley:
Marks and Sparks:
Marks and Spencer's.
p.23
Canute:
The last time the TARDIS
materialised in a pasture surrounded by cows was in 'The Invasion'. And
in the first scene of 'Planet of the Spiders', Mike Yates looked at some
cows.
p.24
the Black Swan: There's
also a Black Swan pub in Cheldon Bonniface in 'Timewyrm: Revelation'.
Gwydyr:
"Bore da, Doctor!":
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) 'Bore da' is Welsh for 'good morning'. Yes,
but how's it pronounced? (Text
submitted by David Whittam) It's pronounced Borra Da' (Like Borrow
but knock off the ow and add an 'a' as in 'cat' sound and Da as in Dad
withought the last 'd'. If that makes any sense whatsoever)
"It's not exactly New
York is it, Professor?": A reference to 'Cat's Cradle: Warhead', not
p.13.
"None of the old Detroit
perfume.": Smog?
"The squeaky one had
enough of you, is it?": Charming reference to Mel.
p.25
"Just keeps a few of
those Swaledales now. The old Welsh mountain breed's not good enough for
him, eh?": Swaledale's in Yorkshire.
milk fever:
p.26
two bottles of calcium
boro-gluconate:
it was a bay, brown with
black points:
p.27
:Caught it on that, didn't
he,": She.
p.29
Veterinary Record:
TREATED UNUSUAL ANIMALS?
Superior intelligence (ability to say 'sausages' not a qualifying factor)?:
Please ring 01-356247:
Telephone numbers in the UK aren't always standard. In North America the
tradition is a three-digit area code, and then a local number of three
and then four digits. (000) 000-0000.
wellies: Rubber boots,
named by tradition after Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.
p.30
giant black panther in
Derbyshire:
Alsatian or a Rottweiler:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) An Alsatian is a type of dog, as is a Rottweiler.
The Alsatian comes from Alsace, near the French-German border, and is also
known as the German Shepherd or the "police dog". The Rottweiler is a large
breed of cattle dog.
p.31
He got up and warmed
his rear on the Aga: Agas
are big coal-powered ovens that farms and countrified posh people's houses
have. Joanna Trollope and Mary Wesley (I think) write books which some
refer to as Aga-sagas.
p.32
blown-up still from Close
Encounters of the Third Kind:
Steven Spielberg film.
Zodiac:
Despite resistance, he
had managed to persuade the Chief Constable to be exorcised, and the crimes
stopped:
p.34
A black and white collie:
Lassie is a collie. The Lassie TV series used to be made in black
and white, but apart from that I've never seen a black and white collie.
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Probably a border collie, a breed that is actually
entirely or mostly black and white. (Though a 'black and white collie'
isn't how they're usually described...'border collie' tends to do the trick...)
"What is it? A dog or
a bitch?": (Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) A boy or a girl?
Yes, and
it's also a poke in the eye for people who don't like gratuitous cussing
in Doctor Who.
"Trout-tickling,":
A tricky method of catching fish. By holding your hand under the water
with your fingers slightly curled and wiglling a bit, you attract fish
which swim above your hand to get tickled. Then, when their guard is down,
you slap them out of the water. I first saw it on Hamish MacBeth.
My grandfather is supposed to have had the skill. I've never fished in
any kind of river, and lake trout and rainbow trout here in Ontario are
much rarer than bass.
p.37
"You can't shoot me,
you know. It's against the law.": p.182.
p.38
mock-Tudor façade:
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Designed to look like it was built in the Tudor
era (ie, 1483-1603), only it wasn't.
David and Jack: David
Gibson and Jack Pilgrim. David's name is significant because it was his
idea to come to Wales; St. David is the patron saint of Wales. There's
been some speculation that David and Jack are lovers.
Which
is, as far as I'm aware, completely untrue and the lads would be mortified
by the implication. They're also related to Jack and David from
'An
American Werewolf in London.' a..Um,
I'm sure I heard it somewhere... I'll be damned if I can remember where
though..
"I hope you get tyre
rot!": Since David and Jack are American, this should be tire
rot.
red and yellow sign of
a post office: Royal Mail insignia, vans et cetera are red and yellow.
malignant melanoma: Cancer
connected with sunburn.
p.39
"Well, we're somewhere
between Oswestry and Portmeirion.": Although Portmeirion has a special
attraction for Cult TV fans (The Prisoner was filmed there (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) as was 'The Masque of Mandragora')
and eccentric architects, geographically it's a speck. And I don't know
where Oswestry is. (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) It's in Shropshire, if that's any help.
'Men of Harlech':
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Considered a typically Welsh song by many people
who aren't Welsh.
Hmm. What about "We'll Keep a Welcome"?
'It is against the law
to sell cigarettes to under-18s': In Canada the age limit for cigarettes
and alcohol is 19. In the 'States the age for alcohol is 21. Sucks to
be them. I don't know what the age for cigarettes there is.
Ordance Survey map:
Because they're backpackers. Otherwise they'd probably have a road map.
p.40
a small, utterly forgettable
town, nestling happily in a twist of the Rhine: I stayed in a very
similar town once. After a day's tour boating up the Rhine from Koblenz,
we alighted at Bacharach, presumably the ancestral home of Burt Bacharach,
the brains behind "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head". We stayed at a
B & B with a family from Utah who, by an extreme coincidence we met
a week later in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and again a week after that
in front of the Mona Lisa in Paris. It was the strangest thing. Also
in Bacharach at the restaurant we went to, we had an Irish waitress who
said the Germans aren't very keen on bread: that's rubbish, the Germans
almost have more kinds of bread than they used to have autonomous principalities.
drought afflicting the
entirety of Continental Europe:
doing things to donkeys
that even a Spaniard would balk at: Good grief! In Ontario we usually
draw the line at cow-tipping.
p.41
"Even the French aren't
sicko enough to eat the whole frog. Only a Pennsylvanian would do that.":
I can't think why, unless it has to do with the largely central-European-descended
population of that state. There's a lot of Amish people.
"Maybe it's not a frog,
maybe it's a toad.": Frogs are green, toads are brown. Frogs are smooth,
toads are lumpy. Frogs jump a lot farther than toads.
p.42
whippoorwill or nightjar:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Insectivorous birds, hunting at night or twilight.
What the difference between a whippoorwill and a nightjar is, I'm not sure;
Webster's dictionary suggests that it's that the whippoorwill is American
and the nightjar European.
p.43
Lake Michigan: Stands
apart from the other Great Lakes in that it's the only one completely contained
by the United States.
p.45
Flash Thunderbolt, Leader
of the Freeforce Warriors:
the Loathsome Clawmen:
the evil Gagnak:
p.46
centaur:
(Text submitted by David
Whittam) Any of a race of creatures fabled to be half man and half
horse and to live in the mountains of Thessaly.
p.49
Gildas:
Hugh-bach:
p.51
forty-two pence:
For a half of mild? That's good value. In Canada a half-pint would be
at least three dollars, whch is worth about a pound anyways.
p.52
Tom Jones' love life:
Apparently this famous Welsh pop singer became a father at age 16.
Dungeons and Dragons:
Role playing game.
p.53
Meibion Glyndˆwr:
Sons
of Glendower - Welsh freedom fighters who burn the holiday homes of the
English oppressors. Sort of the paramilitary wing of Plaid Cymru.
p.54
perfused:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Filled full or to excess.
p.55
"Lucretia...Stephen...Ah
yes, Elizabeth's coronation feast was good.": The Doctor means Elizabeth
I's coronation in 1559. Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519) didn't really have
a single coronation. She was the daughter (yes, I know) of Pope Alexander
VI, AKA Roderigo Borgia. Alexander VI also fathered Cesare Borgia, who
he made a cardinal. Cesare was Machiavelli's prime example in The Prince.
In 1493, at age 13, Lucrezia married Giovanni Sforza. The Sforzas were
the dukes of Milan. That marriage was annulled in 1497, and Lucrezia married
Alfonso of Naples the same year. The French had conquered Naples in 1495,
but Alexander VI had helped to drive them out. Alfonso was murdered in
1500. Also in 1500, the French conquered Milan and defeated the Sforzas.
In 1503 Lucrezia married the Duke of Ferrara, and she doesn't seem to have
shaken anything else up in the way of marriages and coronation parties
until her death. p.31 pea soup
royal wedding street
party: When Prince Charles married Diana Spencer.
"If only Essex hadn't
started throwing drumsticks about.":
watching the coronation
on the television: Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
"Bit on the backside
by a bloody great spider and died out there,": Redback?
"Nasty things, some spiders,"
the Doctor said. "I seem to recall one almost killed me.": 'Planet
of the Spiders'.
"You must give me a sample
so that I can program it into the TARDIS food machine.": Invented by
David Whitaker in Serial B, and several other serials as well. During
the New Adventures it gets done over a couple of times, at least once by
Ace ('Set Piece), so that eventually it can be chased by Wolsey the Cat.
p.56
a furlough:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) A leave of absence.
p.57
gibbous moon:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) More than half full.
"The only thing you're
passionate about is those sheep.": I couldn't just leave this passage
unremarked-upon.
"A friend of mine once
came to Wales," Ace told the Doctor. "He stayed in a place called Colwyn
Bay.":
"There's a wonderful
little fish and chip shop in Rhyl whose Spam fritters can't be equalled
this side of the Crab Nebula.":They have Spam in the Crab Nebula?
It doesn't surprise me in the least. But Spam isn't exactly gourmet; all
Spam was created equal.
p.58
"I don't like Spam."
"Well, I'll have your Spam then, I love it.": Spam spam spam spam spam
spam..... (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
"Did I ever tell you
about the time I visited Wales in the fifties?": (Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) In 'Delta and the Bannermen'. That's where he
met Garonwy, too.
"I must look up old Garonwy
sometime. That 1928 Hibiscus Blossom you finished off was made by him.":
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Garonwy kept bees, and he gave the Doctor a jar
of this vintage honey. And
in 'Remembrance of the Daleks' the Doctor chides Ace for eating it, as
a sort of gratuitous reference to Season 24. Which is almost as bad as
cussing, when you think about it...
p.60
deffrwch:
have a dekko:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) A look.
p.63
"Genes, isn't it?" the
policeman told them. "Had to be destroyed. No telling what damage it
might have done.": The policeman's bluff is remarkably ahead of its
time; in 1992 resistance to genetically engineered foods and BSE was far
from a big protest issue. He's more likely playing on paranoia than science.
Hughes.
p.64
"There aren't any wolves
in Wales.":
p.66
Spotter:
Its front cover bore
the headline "What a loony!" followed by a story about the president of
the United States who, apparently, had taken to bathing in cranberry sauce.:
Yes... this is one reason why the date of this story has never accurately
been pinned down...
Was
originally going to 'King talks to trees - Phew, what a loony!' which is
a quote from Blackadder the Third, but for some reason I changed
it.
In
its original form it was skitting Prince Charles - which would have helped
pin the date down, I suppose. The Daily Spotter was reminiscent of
a
trashy newspaper I used to deliver when I was a paperboy - but I think
it was called the 'Weekly News'
eThe Blackadder reference,
of course, refers to George III, who suffered from some sort of dementia.
The theory in the play/film The Madness of King George suggests
that it was porphyria, which also turns yer pee blue. There's a historic
anecdote about George stopping his carriage while being driven through
the park, getting out and addressing a tree as the Emperor of Prussia.
As for the current Prince of Wales, 'King likes trees' may be more appropriate,
or 'King made of wood'... or even 'King dreams he is a tree'. That one
would work for Clinton too! Freud? Oh damn, there goes my imagination
again...
p.70
Doctor frying bacon:
Current theory is that the Seventh Doctor is a vegetarian, reinforced by
the Doctor's list for Bernice in 'Human Nature'.
spoor: Telltale signs
an animal leaves behind bushes, trees and fire hydrants.
"There was a meteor shower
from the direction of Aquarius;": The Eta (h)
Aquarid meteor shower peaks on May 5. The Southern Delta (d)
Aquarids peak on July 29. It's prolly the latter.
Bill Haley, Eddie Cochran,
Buddy Holly, Cliff: Richard. Pop stars from the fifties and sixties.
p.71
"I used to be a waitress,
you know,": On Iceworld. Ace was also a cashier at a McDonalds in
the Tottenham Court Road, probably at an unusually young age. Check 'The
Crystal Bucephalus'.
p.72
the witch's bane, the
trusty rowan:
Dinorben, ancient home
of farmers bearing the red rose:
p.73
cobbled shoes: The
old kind, with nail thingies in them. (Phew, that was a toughie! Hopefully
you're not reading this site for details like that...)
"Well, well, well."
"Three holes in the ground," said Ace: I heard that one at least ten
years ago. But perhaps Sophie Aldred likes jokes like that; one such has
made it into her standard patter with Sylvester McCoy: What do you call
a man with three planks on his head? Edward Woodward.
p.75
In the woods a branch
fell from a tree, but there was no one there to hear it: If a tree
falls in the forest, does it make a sound?
He knew what he had heard
- the gossamer touch of a butterfly's wings crashing together and silenced
in a moment: P.13
p.76
tabards:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) A tabard is a type of sleeveless tunic worn
by knights; it went over their armour, with their coat of arms on it so
you knew who you were attacking. Heralds also wore a type of tunic called
a tabard, after the one the knights wore.
p.77
"Geroff!": "Piss
off!"
Have
to question your interpretation of this. In my cosy BBC universe Ace wouldn't
swear. This is more, 'Get off!' (I assume you knew that)
p.78
"What did he mean by
'contamination'?" To her the word had unpleasant undertones - her mind
fled back to a handsome young sergeant in 1963 who had wanted to keep the
outsiders out: Mike Smith from 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. Smith
was a sergeant in the Army's Intrusion Countermeasures Group and a neo-nazi
in Ratcliffe's Shoreditch Association. Although racism was one of the
themes of the story, it didn't mention Enoch Powell.
"No sewers," the Doctor
told her. 'Look around you. There must be a couple of thousand people
here. That's a lot for one small valley. It's bound to create some smell.":
Correct, but primitive settlements of two thousand people are thin on the
ground. This is a fortress town; most people probably live well outside
the walls, or in farms in adjoining vallies. If the two thousand people
are spread out over more than two square kilometres, there should be ample
room to construct proper kyboes or outhouses with hardly any smell at all,
as long as they have some odour powder and lime. On the other hand, Dinorben
is beseiged, much like Athens was during the Peloponnesian War. At that
time the populations from all the Athenian estates came and lived inside
the city walls, mostly in squalor. In the cramped quarters disease spread
and one of the first massacres of the war was a plague inside the walls
of Athens.
"Gallifreyans developed
a respiratory bypass system which could miss out the olfactory organs.":First
time we've heard that the bypass can skip the nose. It was first mentioned
in 'Pyramids of Mars', IIRC.
It was a look which stirred
strange feelings in her because of her experience as one of the hunters
on the planet of the Cheetah people: 'Survival'.
p.79
"If memory serves me
right, King Arthur was just mythology.": 'Battlefield'.
p.80
She had only ever been
able to distinguish the Plough, Cassiopeia and Orion's Belt, and so these
were her only reference points: And none of them are the brightest
stars in our sky. Orion's Belt is only visible in the evening in winter,
or early morning in summer.
Fairly
distinctive constellations though (or parts of them) And most people recognise
constellations more than they would individual stars.
p.81
Caeryon: His name
sounds like a play on words from a Kenneth Williams film, and he talks
like Pilate from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Yes,
for some reason he was named Caeryon simply so that I could have a line
along the lines of, 'Caeryon, screaming, ran into the room.' or
'Caeryon,
regardless of what was going on around him, had a poo.' Cosy
BBC universe, he said...
p.83
all gold was gone from
the council chamber: The Tuathans from 'In Tua Nua' are allergic to
iron. Can witches perceive things through gold?
I
think the point with the gold was that they were taking all their gold
to Earth and using it to buy stuff like houses/clothes or whatever so that
the
refugees could fit in more easily. That
explains the suitcases full of money, if not how they were converted.
Dryfid:
Cyllell:
p.84
Chulainn of the Clyr:
p.137. Also guardian of the virginity of Brigit.
Barras of Teirion:
the Firbolg: From
p.94, they have the head, arms and trunk of a true man, but below that
they are horses. They're centaurs.
p.95
"that's a unicorn."
Rhys gave her a strange look. "Aye, that is what Herne called them.":
"'a rose by any other
name...'": Romeo and Juliet Act 2, Scene 2. Er, the balcony
scene.
the forests of Coed and
the plains of Porfa: p.165
as regular as a wyrm's
wrigglings through the underworld: Perhaps wyrm is a genuine archaic
use of the word worm, and not just a device picked up for the first four
New Adventures.
I
think it was a little bit of both. Wyrm as in (as you say) an archaic use
and a word that was used for types of dragon. And probably because of
the
Timewyrm as well.
p.100
5: An Unexpected Party:
The first chapter of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit is entitled "An Unexpected
Party". Tolkien played on that again with the first chapter of The
Lord of the Rings, "A Long-Expected Party".
When Jack and David had
reached the Black Swan, they had booked a room, bought several cans of
Newcastle Brown: It's a bit odd to buy canned ale in a village pub.
An off-licence might be more appropriate. Ale is not drunk chilled; lager
is, but it's not informally classified as beer. I drink it all chilled;
tepid ale is terribly sour. In my experience pub accomodation rates are
a bit steep, but only really on weekdays. I stayed above a pub near Bristol
for two nights at a weekend single rate of £20, including en-suite
bath, toilet, TV and tea set, but not breakfast, which would have been
about £3. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was a McDonald's down
the road with £1.69 breakfasts. The pub's weeknight rate was £50.
p.101
Swansea: South Wales
coastal city.
"I did, though, manage
to get the landlord to give us breakfast -' he looked at his watch - 'seven
hours late.': No mean feat, I can assure you.
"Yeah," agreed Jack,
tugging a sweater over his head. He pulled it down tight and then spread
its edge, revealing a picture of a sheepdog tracking a sheep. "What do
you think?" "Very cute, yes.": At best, this is shakey evidence that
Jack and David are gay.
p.105
young Doctor Snape:
mosquitoes: I didn't
encounter a single mosquito in all of England and Wales, despite camping
outside Truro and hiking through Snowdonia and the Lake District. I did
see a deerfly while camping, and the others assured me they have horseflies
as well. Which makes sense, there were lots and lots of cattle and horses
swishing their tails. And it was mid-August; the big bug season is in
May and June.
I
get swarms of them in my back garden in Liverpool during the summer.
swore at them in Welsh:
First off that's a bit out of character; but Welsh curses would be extremely
hard to distinguish from the rest of the language. Have you ever listened
to TV Cymru? I'm always ready to learn new words, though.
p.106
found himself skating
on an icy pond like a figure by Brueghel: (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Either Pietr Brueghel the Elder, 16th-century
Flemish painter, or Pietr Brueghel the Younger, his eldest son. I don't
know enough about their respective styles to hazard a guess which one.
p.107
There were some signs
of malnutrition: That's suspicious. The Doctor and Ace enjoyed that
potato and leek soup just hours before.
p.108
6: A Journey in the Dark:
Sounds like the title of that chapter in The Hobbit when Bilbo gets
lost in the goblins' mountain and meets Gollum.
the Horse of the Year
Show:
If you're expecting a Camilla Parker-Bowles joke, I'm afraid you're sorely
mistaken; she gets far too much flak. But a whole television programme
devoted to a single horse seems a bit silly. We don't even have televised
sheepdog trials in Canada.
p.109
bays:
white triangle:
p.110
Circadian rhythm:
p.111
Chawradd:
p.112
"When you've read the
entirety of Greek literature, and written some of it for that matter, you
pick up a few facts. Like, for example, what a notoriously proud race
the centaurs were.":
p.115
"Oh yes, I even helped
with one of the lines. How did it go? I think it started, "In the beginning...".
Something like that anyway - it might not even have been the Bible, there
are a lot of things that start with, "In the beginning...". The Book of
Rassilon for one.":
p.116
"G'night, John-boy.":
The Waltons.
p.118
"My body is poor and
weak and it is said that you, like Goibhnie, are able to heal, that you
protect the weak.": This story is shaping up into a bit of a quest
for the Wizard of Oz.
p.119
The Doctor explained
to her that it was an ancient belief amongst the Celts that the head was
the seat of the soul and so warriors collected the heads of their enemies
as trophies and to take on the strength of the dead men:
p.120
Ydvig:
p.122
"Foxes are carnivores,
right?":
"Erich Weiss never tied
knots like these.": Erich Weiss was Harry Houdini.
p.123
"I imagine that the only
thing that's staving off a collapse into permanent arctic conditions is
the massive heat reserve stored in the oceans.": Which we haven't seen.
The ambient temperature of the ocean is very low anyways, although it's
warmer near shorelines and estuaries, sometimes.
p.124
vasodilation: Veins-getting-bigger-type-thing.
p.126
Eructate:
Burping.
Cows do it.
p.131
"Yeti! Saw them in the
London Underground twenty years ago.":'The Web of Fear'.
"Mermaids? Grandpa was
rescued from the Marie Celeste by one.":By
this point Stevens is taking the piss; The Marie Celeste incident was
in 1872. If Grandpa was on board, he must have been the baby. So he probably
wouldn't remember the Daleks being there; though there was another explanation
for the Marie Celeste in another program, or maybe it was a comic
strip. I've heard two theories of how the mystery really happened. The
ship was carrying a cargo of concentrated industrial alcohol, and when
the ship was found the hatches were missing and a few barrels of alcohol
had been breached, and there were pools of water in the hold. The ship
had probably been in a storm. The theory is that some of the alcohol spilled
in the storm and the crew abandoned ship fearing it would explode. The
hatches may have been removed to allow the alcohol to evaporate more quickly,
or they may have been blown off by a minor alcohol explosion. The second
theory is that if the crew was hired at the point of departure, they could
have made an arrangement with another ship to meet in mid-ocean, abandon
the Marie Celeste and still get paid, or collect insurance, or something.
p.133
"Just watching Elinor,":
p.134
"How'd you like bed and
breakfast at Scotland Yard's expense?": Interesting pick-up line.
p.137
men of the Allan Clwff
and the Rhylmeth:
p.138
mead: honey and water
mixture, not necessarily alcoholic.
p.142
Baddawd:
"Bog off!": Possibly
the first use of the phrase in the New Adventures. It's gone on to have
its own webzine courtesy of Kate Orman, but the service seems to have been
discontinued.
p.143
When she had been transported
to the planet of the Cat People her mind and body had been influenced by
the strange forces at work there. She had thought that the change had
been only temporary, but the seed still seemed to be inside her: In
Part 4 of 'Survival', or on p.134 of the novelisation if you please, the
Doctor says "You can never completely leave the planet because you carry
it with you inside yourself." And to be precise it's the planet of the
Cheetah-People, although 'Invasion of the Cat People' wasn't written until
years later.
p.146
"I mean, to me witches
are old biddies who fly around on broomsticks wearing pointy black hats.":
p.147
"The eyes are the window
on the soul.":
p.148
Dianecht:
Lugh:
Rhyl:
(Text
submitted by David Whittam) A seaside town in North Wales.
Simon Groom:
One
of the presenters of Blue Peter, a BBC children's programme. Ace
has a Blue Peter badge on her jacket. The other two presenters at
the time were Peter Duncan (who was in the film of Flash Gordon)
and Sarah Greene (who later appeared in Attack of the Cybermen). Simon
Groom
was
a farmer's son from Derbyshire and probably the one (of the three) who
Ace was least likely to fancy.
p.149
"Greetings, Ace.":
How Ace can
be accepted by unicorns is unknown; it's already been established that
she's not a virgin. (Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Isn't the legend only that virgins are the only
ones who can tame/control unicorns rather than simply get along with them?
(I'll admit, my unicorn mythology is shaky at best.)
p.152
They formed a series
that told the story of a journey there and back again: An autographed
series of The Lord of the Rings is an extremely valuable find.
Bernice gets a signed first edition of The Hobbit as a wedding present
in 'Happy Endings'.
p.153
about as much use as
a chocolate kettle: When you pour hot water into it, it melts.
p.154
"This is England, isn't
it?": No, it's Wales. The same joke appeared in 'Delta and the Bannermen'.
p.155
"I thought it was rissole
time for me.": Americans don't know what rissoles are. Neither do
I, but they must be some kind of meat product. (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Meatballs, basically.
p.156
"Have they come across
little green men from Mars? Crop circles?": Then the story is dated
from before the Martian invasion in 1997, and it's July or August, when
the wheat is high enough for crop circles. If wheat is a crop in that
part of Wales. According to p.177 it is summer.
A china cat from Rhyl:
I don't know if Rhyl is near clay pits; I can't find it on a map. Clay
is also present in estuaries; Portmeirion in Merionethshire has its own
line of china, and it's on a tidal estuary.
p.157
white hessian: Cloth,
as in the klansmen outfits the cultists were wearing.
p.159
10: Many Meetings:
The first chapter of the second book of The Fellowship of the Ring,
in which Frodo recovers in Rivendell and meets everybody.
p.161
catabolic processes:
p.162
every crystal of snow
was different: Another chaos theory thingie.
Ferllu of Daffyr:
Allan and Chrawd:
p.169
"I once saw someone on
the television saying that nobody likes a refugee.": Enoch Powell?
p.172
quorum: The number
of members necessary for an official meeting. Join a board, you'll find
out what it means.
quadratic equation:
Ace left Earth in her mid-teens. Quadratic equations aren't taught in
Canada until age 16 or 17, I think.
touchstone:
p.175
the town of Pontarcwai:
I'm
not sure about this but it looks suspiciously like (sort of) a Welsh version
of 'Bridge on the River Kwai'
p.177
A health-conscious person
would have balked at the sight of the plate - fried bread, tomatoes, sausages,
bacon, mushrooms, baked beans and, now, eggs: That's the big breakfast.
A great bargain if you're B&Bing it. Then you skip lunch.
p.179
portable phone: Is
somewhat of a danger to driving. It's illegal to drive while using a hand-held
one, but there are special car-phone types that stay on the dashboard.
Speaker-phone types.
p.185
"I did encounter one
on the planet Svartos.": 'Dragonfire'.
p.187
"Aim for the eyepiece?"
the Doctor suggested:
His advice to Ace and the ICMG for incapacitating Daleks in 'Remembrance
of the Daleks'.
aqueous humor: the
fluid inside the eye.
p.189
"Tell me, Ferllu, why
do you have a Troifran numeral on your flank?": Goibhnie is from Troifres
(p.213).
And,
from the Big Book of Mythology (lent to me by my Auntie). Troifres is a
shortening/corruption of Trois Freres (I think) which is where that
cave
with the early cave paintings was found.
p.194
"Discretion would definitely
be the better part of valour.": (Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) Discretion being the better part of valour usually
refers to running away. Yes,
but who said it? It sounds like Shakespeare. (Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) It is Shakespeare. 'Henry IV', Part 1, Act
5 scene 4: "The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better
part I have saved my life." (By playing dead, rather than running for it,
incidentally.)
p.196
hypervitaminosis A:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Hypervitaminosis is a medical condition resulting
from ingesting too much of a vitamin. Hypervitaminosis A is one of the
serious ones.
p.200
13: The Land of Shadow:
Chapter 2 of Book VI of The Lord of the Rings. It's about halfway
through The Return of the King.
p.201
"Like Ghostbusters?":
Ivan Reitman comedy with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis and Sigourney
Weaver. Also a cartoon series. Reitman, Aykroyd and Moranis are all Canadian.
There was a sequel too.
p.202
"Not an alternative to
Weight Watchers?": Weight loss program, like that one the Duchess of
York promoted.
p.203
"And I'd like to see
the American ambassador," David requested. "Well, it doesn't work in the
movies," he whispered to Jack: Revolutionaries or rogue governments
are not the best of hosts for American diplomats.
My god, what a memory
you have!": Goon Show line?
p.207
14: There...: Check
the title of chaper 17.
p.208
quarter rotation of star
Q76:
Samuel Morse's system:
Morse code.
p.220
contra-temporal existence:
Merlyn in E.B. White's Arthurean retelling The Once and Future King
is contratemporal. And a similar Merlyn attends Bernice's wedding reception
in 'Happy Endings'. What about Herne?
Actually,
both of them attended the wedding (I'm pretty sure of this)
p.222
Galactic Constitutional
Regulations regarding interference with species - paragraph #4654, subsection
(wegla):
"Earth is widely regarded
as one of the causal nexus points in this galaxy...": This is the first
mention of one of the themes of the more recent New Adventures, although
Peter Darvill-Evans and the rest of the pool of authors probably helped
articulate it. Eventually the People are banished from the temporal nexus
in the Treaty in 'The Also People'.
And
the Earth as a causal nexus point comes (at least in this case) from something
in the FASA Doctor Who Roleplaying Game.
p.224
Ydvort of the Sidhe:
p.227
mangonel:
(Text
submitted by Paul Andinach) Catapult. One of the big ones, used for hurling
rocks and/or javelins.
p.235
random bursts of chronons
and antichronons:Possibly the first use of the word 'chronon' in the
New Adventures, although it had probably already been used in the TV series.
p.247
"You haven't any holy
water.": Does one need holy water for an exorcism?
Probably
not. Another case of inadequate research. My Dad's a vicar and he wouldn't
tell me how exorcisms are performed (which wasn't very
helpful
of him)
p.248
protoplasm: Whatever
is possessing David is acting a lot like the Master's Morg soulsnake (it's
an 'Eight Doctors' thing, the TV Movie novelisation is no less glib) from
the TV Movie. Not quite as much like an N-form any more.
p.251
"Lethbridge-Stewart is
very fond of horses.":
p.252
"Siwt mai, Doctor?":
p.253
"Duw mawr!":
(Text
submitted by Daria Sigma) More Welsh: 'Great God!'
His fingers grew slack
and let slip the book he had been reading ... As far as she knew though,
they didn't live in holes in the ground: Sidhe are like Hobbits, and
Old Davy has been reading The Lord of the Rings.
p.254
Lynx: The Silver
Cat of Cat's Cradle is named here for the first time. Its manifestation
here is the most like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Funny how there were so many Alice metaphors and similes at the beginning
of 'Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'.
p.255
like a moth drawn to
a lamp in Central Park at midnight: