Doctor Who: History 101 [Paperback]

The Doctor, Fitz, and Anji are in 1937 Paris having a holiday. Along with the tourist attractions, they decide to visit the Paris Exposition, similar to the World's Fair and where every European country has an exhibit. Upon arriving at the Spanish exposition, they discover a vivid painting: Guernica, by Picasso. Only it doesn't quite have the passion and the effect that they remember it having. In fact, the copy of Sartre's The Age of Reason that Fitz is reading has a cover reproduction of the painting, and it has much more of an effect than the real one sitting in front of them. How can a copy have more of an effect then the original?

It seems that something strange is going on (isn't there always?). The events at Guernica don't appear to have happened quite the way everybody knows they did. But then again, maybe they did? The uncertainty of this prompts the Doctor and his companions to travel back to this horrible event. The Doctor wants Fitz to witness it first-hand so that he can report what actually happened. Is this an alternate reality? Or is somebody warping the real one? The Doctor and Anji end up in Barcelona 5 months before Fitz arrives at Guernica (isn't time-travel wonderful?) and have to wait for him. The TARDIS has decided to shut down and monsters appear to be roaming the streets. Are these linked? And will the Doctor and Anji survive to meet up with Fitz again, or will they get caught up in a bloody civil war where no side has a monopoly on the truth and all sides want to kill the other.

History 101 is Halliday's first novel, but don't let that stop you. It's a wonderful book that keeps you guessing at all levels. It's also not one that you will breeze through, as Halliday discusses all the issues mentioned above. While there have been Doctor Who books and episodes dealing with historical settings, this is the first one I can remember actually examining the whole concept of history. Is it possible to know everything about historical events? Those trying to catalogue the truth could go crazy trying to decide if it is, especially when propaganda is streaming forth from every avenue.

Halliday uses the time-honoured Who tradition of separating everybody so that each side can be shown. While the Doctor and Anji are ostensibly together, they spend a lot of time apart interacting with other characters, whether they be foreign journalists, Bolshevik agitators or Spanish Nationalists. Fitz meets up with the mysterious Sasha, a Russian who knows a lot more then he's telling. Sasha helps Fitz get to Guernica (even though Fitz is his prisoner at one point) and seems to be serving a different master then the Communists. Halliday handles the myriad characters very well, making each one at least somewhat distinctive. There were so many sides in this conflict (plus the two additions to the historical line-up), that it would normally be hard to tell who was doing what. Despite the fact that some allegiances change, I still had little trouble doing so. A credit to Halliday's work.

The main cast is also great. Anji has a couple nice asides to the Doctor about his being able to steer the TARDIS at times yet not being able to get her back to 21st century Earth. Then again, I didn't realize that she was trying to get back, and it's unclear whether she just wants to go home or go back for a visit. The asides are wonderfully portrayed but they came out of left field a bit for me. The Doctor takes more of a part in the proceedings then he has in the past. He's much less passive (though he does spend a bit too much time brooding about the TARDIS and how she's not working). Fitz is great, though. He really comes into his own, the dialogue with Sasha crackling, especially when he realizes that there's something anachronistic about Sasha's knowledge. He alternately feels offended that Sasha's lying to him and then sheepish when he realizes that he's lying to Sasha as well.

Even better is how the regulars react when events start happening around them. Barcelona explodes in factional fighting, and all three of them have to adapt and protect themselves. In the fighting, the Doctor finally has to deal with what's going on behind the scenes. It's interesting how there isn't really a "villain" in this book, especially with all the other violence going on around the characters.

History 101 is not an exciting romp, with action filling every page and keeping the reader entranced. Instead, it's a bit more introspective, its ideas keeping you wanting to read "just a little bit more." It's a fascinating take on history, and it's a great adventure for the Doctor Who fan. Give it a shot.

David Roy

And the Doctor has lost the TARDIS, again.

"History 101" is the second and final "first novel" of the Eighth Doctor range in 2002. Like Paul Ebbs' "Book of the Still", Mags Halliday's debut book is overloaded with characters, ideas, and concepts. Unlike "Book of the Still", however, this story's central notion calls out for a more understated presentation. The back cover blurb has an amusing conceit that this is actually history text presented in fictional form, but don't be fooled -- the book doesn't read that way. The rest of the way, a bunch of characters clang into each other repeatedly in various parts of Spain. Some characters even have 2 or 3 separate roles to play throughout the book, which obviously adds to the confusion.

At the core, what Halliday is trying to say (I think) is that history is not a set text, but rather a struggle between forces for control over the perception of what actually happened. Then again, I was only a history major for a semester and a half of college, and I wasn't very good at it, either. This concept is presented in the form of an alien race called The Absolute, which in its attempts to understand this difficult time in European history, ends up causing havoc with the timeline. What happens in Spain is really backdrop to a lot of talking and theorizing -- this adventure is not the straight historical, at which "Doctor Who" has excelled in the past. There is a big riot at the end (with a polite body count), but, especially on the first read-through, it's a muddled job figuring out who's who and what's what over the first 200 pages, so the stakes seem very small. And that's a point in itself -- the Spanish Civil War is not one of the Top Ten events of the 20th century -- but not a very interesting novel. There are allusions to Sartre and Picasso and Gaudi, but not deep enough to generate much interest.

If you have the patience to go back and reread portions of the text, "History 101" does resolve itself and become more enjoyable when you mentally separate out the wheat from the chaff. I still haven't figured out exactly what Sabbath was supposed to be doing, however. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday and figure it out.

As the back cover informs us, HISTORY 101 is about (you guessed it) history and how it is perceived. And this feature of the book is one of its greatest assets. Mags L. Halliday takes this relatively unambiguous notion and draws it out to some very interesting conclusions. Upon reflection, it seems strange now that a science-fiction series like Doctor Who hasn't actually dealt with this idea before; it just seems like an obvious thing to do. Rather than being just a gimmick, the perception aspect is dealt with in a very appealing way. It affects the plot, the characters, and the whole tone of the novel. It adds a fascinating flavor to a story that was already intelligent enough on its own.

The only downside in this book is that there are a handful of places where the central concept is developed a bit too clinically for my taste. The characters are noteworthy, but there are times where I had trouble connecting with them emotionally. They obviously interact with the perception of history quite a bit, but they didn't appear to be as three-dimensional as I was expecting. There are a few notable exceptions, such as Fitz who has quite an interesting subplot of his own. He comes across realistically and forcibly, which is quite notable given how much into the background he has started to fade in the series. Unfortunately, not all of these strengths are continued on into other characters and situations, but that is still a minor defect overall.

HISTORY 101 comes as a recommended course for anyone interested in either the overall story of the current EDAs, or just for someone looking for a pretty darn good standalone story. It's a thoughtful story but with enough thrills and spills to keep one's interest going for the entirety. What struck me most about the book was the feeling at how carefully structured it felt. While this might have caused the story to feel a tiny bit forced at times (rather than flowing naturally), it makes for a very well crafted tale. I look forward to reading more novels from this newcomer to the range.