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The Scarlet Empress (novel)

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The Scarlet Empress
AuthorPaul Magrs
Cover artistColin Howard
SeriesDoctor Who book:
Eighth Doctor Adventures
Release number
15
SubjectFeaturing:
Eighth Doctor
Sam, Iris Wildthyme
PublisherBBC Books
Publication date
September 1998
ISBN0-563-40595-3
Preceded byVanderdeken's Children 
Followed byThe Janus Conjunction 

The Scarlet Empress is an original novel written by Paul Magrs and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Sam and Iris Wildthyme.[1]

Synopsis

On the ancient planet of Hyspero, a world where magic still exists, the Doctor reads tales from the Aja’ib, a strange book full of peculiar adventure stories, while Sam goes exploring and meets an alligator skinned man, Gila, chained up in a double-decker London bus. Using the bus to come to her rescue, the Doctor and Sam are soon caught up in a struggle for survival alongside Iris Wildthyme, a fellow time-traveller, the owner of the double decker bus, a serving Conservative MP, and - possibly - a fellow Time Lord.

Iris claims to be on a mission for the current Scarlet Empress, but the Doctor suspects she has ulterior motives. However, the planet has suffered under the rule of the Scarlet Empresses for thousands of years and so the Doctor and Sam embark on a perilous journey across Hyspero to discover the truth.

Crticical response

TV Zone called the book 'a brilliantly provocative, lyrical and mature Doctor Who novel'.[2]

References

  1. ^ The Scarlet Empress
  2. ^ Adventures in Wonderland

Reviews

Iris Wildthyme
Doctor Who character
First appearanceMarked for Life
Last appearanceOngoing
Portrayed byKaty Manning (voice)
In-universe information
SpeciesHumanoid (speculated to be a Time Lord)
AffiliationNone
HomeUnknown (speculated to be Gallifrey)
Home eraIf from Gallifrey, most likely the Rassilon Era

Iris Wildthyme is a fictional character created by writer Paul Magrs, who has appeared in short stories, novels and audio dramas from numerous publishers.[1][2] She is best known from spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, where she is sometimes depicted as a renegade Time Lord.[3]

Her stories are in the New Wave mold, characterised by nonlinear, sometimes stream of consciousness narrative, intertextual references to the rest of Doctor Who and popular culture, and themes of unreliable narration. She has a playful, mischievous personality, delighting in baiting the Doctor and getting into trouble.

History

Iris Wildthyme first appears in one of Magrs's non-genre novels, Marked for Life,[4] as a lesbian novelist who has lived for far longer than a normal lifespan.[5] At the end of the novel, Iris Wildthyme seems to die and then become a baby in a scene reminiscent of regeneration. The infant Iris appears in later books by Magrs taking place in the same Phoenix Court setting, and an apparently adult version re-appears in the story "Hospitality", in the collection Iris: Abroad.

Iris's first Doctor Who appearance is in the short story "Old Flames", where she meets the Fourth Doctor and Sarah. The Doctor already knows Iris as an "old friend", and she is seen to be travelling in a 20th-century London AEC Routemaster double-decker bus (the route 22 to Putney Common), which is, in reality, her TARDIS.[6][7]

The character was described as "a studied affront" to existing Doctor Who texts[8] and "an ethical challenge" to some of the series' "main inconsistencies".[9] In 2011, SFX called Iris Wildthyme one of the 'Top 5 Spinoff Companions' and said 'her adventures (with the Doctor, and in her own line of books) are a joy'.[10]

Iris was featured at length in The Scarlet Empress[11] and The Blue Angel,[12] and went on to appear in several more short stories and novels in the BBC Books range, most recently Mad Dogs and Englishmen in 2002.[7][13][14]

Since then the character has been the subject of a number of short story anthologies, edited by Magrs and others, published by Obverse Books and one by Big Finish Productions,[15] and two novels published by Snowbooks.[16][17]

In 2001, Philip Purser-Hallard submitted a proposal for a novel, Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved, which would have seen Iris in a hedonistic artificial world at the end of time where all people are resurrected and made immortal. It was rejected as an Iris Wildthyme novel range was considered unviable at the time. Purser-Hallard reused elements of the story in 2002's The Book of the War (in which Iris appears as an unnamed traveller) and 2004's Of the City of the Saved....[18]

In 2002, the character started appearing as an occasional crossover character in audio plays by Big Finish Productions, where she is voiced by Katy Manning.[19][20] Following the casting of Manning in the role, imagery of the character used by Big Finish (and, later, Obverse Books) on packaging and covers now depicts Manning's likeness.[21]

The character has appeared as the main character in five "seasons" of audio dramas, released respectively in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2015,[21] along with a 2009 Christmas special.[22][23] Each release of the second season is a pastiche of a decade of televised Doctor Who, from the 1960s through to the 1990s. The 2012 release Iris Rides Out is a crossover with the out-of-copyright character Carnacki the Ghost-Finder.[24]

Although in some of her early appearances (including Verdigris and Wildthyme on Top) Iris is accompanied by her companion Tom (played on audio by Ortis Deley), her usual foil in her Big Finish, Obverse Books and Snowbooks appearances is Panda, a 10-inch-tall sentient, stuffed toy (played on audio by David Benson).[25]

Character

Iris claims to have been raised by a House of Aunts (as opposed to Cousins), in the mountains of southern Gallifrey,[26] and also that she has erased all of her records from the Matrix, explaining why the Time Lords know nothing about her. She is known to have survived the destruction of Gallifrey and the apparent retroactive wiping of the Time Lords from history that took place at the end of the novel The Ancestor Cell.

Iris regenerates at the end of The Scarlet Empress (into a form resembling Jane Fonda in Barbarella),[6][27] and is known to have at least six other incarnations. One of these, Bianca (voiced by Maria McErlane), appears in the Big Finish Productions audio play The Wormery and is similar to the Doctor's villainous Valeyard incarnation. Iris has also apparently worked for UNIT as a Scientific Advisor, and for the Ministry of Incursions and Ontological Wonders (MIAOW).[27]

There is no indication of what relationship the character has with the new television series. In "The End of the World" (2005), the Doctor states that his homeworld had been destroyed and that he is the last of the Time Lords.

Attempting to pin down the exact details of Iris's history is problematic because such details are not only kept deliberately vague by Magrs and other writers, but also because the accounts of her adventures may not be reliable, in whole or in part.[27][28] For example, some of her claimed exploits bear a remarkable similarity to those of the Doctor's, and some have suggested that it is the Doctor's adventures that are plagiarised from Iris's life, rather than the other way around.[27]

Her TARDIS is a double-decker red London bus, the number 22 to Putney Common.[6] In contrast with other TARDISes, hers is slightly smaller on the inside, a fact attributed to the fact that her TARDIS was dying when she found it. She also claims to have stolen the TARDIS, and to be on the run from her "mysterious superiors".

Iris has also argued that her adventures are more "true" than the Doctor's recollections because she writes them in her diaries while the Doctor does not. Magrs has explicitly stated that Iris "knows — of course she knows — that she's a very deliberate parody of Doctor Who. That's why she loves him so."[27] In postmodernist style, Iris is portrayed as playfully aware that she is a character in a television programme (or a series of books and audio dramas spun off from a television programme).[29] Even more so than the Doctor's TARDIS, Iris's bus is a device for moving her between fictional genres and even texts. In the context of the Doctor Who universe, all this may be explained by Iris's claim in the novel The Blue Angel that she is from the Obverse, a surreal parallel universe with radically different physical laws.[26][28] More recently in both Big Finish audios and Obverse Books short stories, she has claimed to come from The Clockworks, a planet in the Obverse, ruled over by a race not unlike the Time Lords.[26]

List of appearances

Phoenix Court novels by Paul Magrs

  • Marked for Life (Vintage Books 1995)
  • Does It Show? (Vintage Books 1997)
  • Could It Be Magic? (Vintage Books 1998)

BBC Doctor Who novels

Snowbooks novels

  • Enter Wildthyme by Paul Magrs (Snowbooks, 2011)
  • Wildthyme Beyond by Paul Magrs (Snowbooks, 2012)
  • From Wildthyme with Love by Paul Magrs (Snowbooks, 2013)

The New Adventures of Iris Wildthyme

  • Iris Wildthyme and the Polythene Terror (Obverse Books, 2019)
  • Mother, Maiden, Crone (Obverse Books, 2020)

Short stories by Paul Magrs

Short story anthologies

  • Wildthyme on Top ed Paul Magrs (Big Finish Productions 2005)
  • Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus eds Paul Magrs and Stuart Douglas (Obverse Books, 2009)
  • The Panda Book of Horror eds Stuart Douglas and Paul Magrs (Obverse Books, 2009)
  • Iris: Abroad eds Paul Magrs and Stuart Douglas (Obverse Books, 2010)
  • Wildthyme in Purple eds Stuart Douglas and Cody Quijano-Schell (Obverse Books, 2011)
  • Lady Stardust ed Art Critic Panda (Obverse Books, 2012)
  • Fifteen ed Stuart Douglas (Obverse Books, 2013)
  • Iris Wildthyme of Mars ed Philip Purser-Hallard (Obverse Books, 2014)
  • The Perennial Miss Wildthyme ed Dale Smith (Obverse Books, 2015)
  • A Clockwork Iris ed Stuart Douglas, George Mann, and Paul Magrs (Obverse Books, 2017)
  • Wild Thymes on the 22 ed Stewart Sheargold (Obverse Books, 2019)
  • Locked in Space ed Stewart Sheargold (Obverse Books, 2023)

Novelette anthologies

  • Ms Wildthyme and Friends Investigate (Obverse Books, 2010)

Big Finish audio plays

See also: Iris Wildthyme (audio drama series)
  • Excelis Dawns by Paul Magrs (2002)
  • The Plague Herds of Excelis by Stephen Cole (2002)
  • The Wormery by Stephen Cole and Paul Magrs (2003)
  • Wildthyme at Large by Paul Magrs (2005)
  • The Devil in Ms Wildthyme by Stephen Cole (2005)
  • The Sound of Fear by Mark Michalowski (2009)
  • Land of Wonder by Paul Magrs (2009)
  • The Two Irises by Simon Guerrier (2009)
  • The Panda Invasion by Mark Magrs (2009)
  • The Claws of Santa by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright (2009)
  • Find and Replace by Paul Magrs (2010)
  • The Iris Wildthyme Appreciation Society by Cavan Scott (2012)
  • Iris Rides Out by Guy Adams (2012)
  • Midwinter Murders by George Mann (2012)
  • Whatever Happened to Iris Wildthyme? by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright (2013)
  • Iris at the Oche by Mark Wright (2013)
  • A Lift in Time by David Bailey (2013)
  • The Elixir of Doom by Paul Magrs (2014)
  • Wildthyme Reloaded (2015)
    • Comeback of the Scorchies by James Goss
    • Dark Side by Nick Campbell
    • Oracle of the Supermarket by Roy Gill
    • Murder At The Abbey by Mark B. Oliver
    • The Slots of Giza by Hamish Steele
    • High Spirits by Cavan Scott
    • An Extraterrestrial Werewolf in Belgium by Scott Handcock
    • Looking for a Friend by Paul Magrs
  • Muse of Fire by Paul Magrs (2018)

References

  1. ^ Book News Archived 2013-07-05 at the Wayback Machine, Starburst, March 2012
  2. ^ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, eds John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight
  3. ^ "Canonicity Matters" in Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who, Lance Parkin, pp.246, 257, Manchester University Press, 2007
  4. ^ Wildthyme at Large
  5. ^ "Hypothetical Hills", in Territories of Desire in Queer Culture: Refiguring Contemporary Boundaries, James Knowles, pp.133, 140
  6. ^ a b c Pearson, Lars (1999). I, Who: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who Novels (1st ed.). Des Moines, Iowa: Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9673746-0-X.
  7. ^ a b Parkin, Lance; Lars Pearson (2007). AHistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who universe (2nd ed.). Des Moines, Iowa: Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 978-0-9759446-6-0.
  8. ^ Britton, Piers, TARDISbound: Navigating the Universes of Doctor Who, IB Tauris, p.200
  9. ^ Britton, Piers, TARDISbound: Navigating the Universes of Doctor Who, IB Tauris p.201
  10. ^ SFX - The Ultimate Dr Who Top Fives, SFX, November 2011
  11. ^ "Shelf Life", Dave Owen, Doctor Who Magazine No. 269, August 1998
  12. ^ "Shelf Life", Dave Owen, Doctor Who Magazine No. 282, August 1999
  13. ^ "Preview: Mad Dogs and Englishmen", Paul Magrs, Doctor Who Magazine No. 312, January 2002
  14. ^ "The DWM Review", Doctor Who Magazine No. 314, February 2002
  15. ^ Big Finish - Wildthyme on Top
  16. ^ Snowbooks - Enter Wildthyme! Archived 2013-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Snowbooks - Wildthyme Beyond! Archived 2013-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Purser-Hallard, Philip (2001). "Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved - Rejected Novel Proposal". infinitarian.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  19. ^ Katy Manning CV
  20. ^ Sandifer, pp. 274–275
  21. ^ a b Big Finish - Iris Wildthyme
  22. ^ The Claws of Santa
  23. ^ Katy Manning News and Event Archived 2013-07-07 at archive.today
  24. ^ "Series 3 Box Set". Big Finish Productions. August 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  25. ^ "Soho Stories", Clayton Littlewood, Polarimagazine, Feb 2010
  26. ^ a b c Parkin, Lance; Pearson, Lars (2012). AHistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe (3rd ed.). Des Moines, IA: Mad Norwegian Press. pp. 710–711. ISBN 978-193523411-1.
  27. ^ a b c d e f Magrs, Paul (5 April 2000). "Bafflement and devotion". Doctor Who Magazine (289). Panini: 26–29.
  28. ^ a b Pearson, Lars (2001). I, Who 2: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who novels and audios. New Orleans: Mad Norwegian Press. pp. 117–120. ISBN 1-57032-900-1.
  29. ^ Sandifer, Elizabeth (2013). TARDIS Eruditorum: An Unofficial Critical History of Doctor Who, Volume 3: Jon Pertwee. Danbury, Connecticut: Eruditorum Press. pp. 218–225. ISBN 9781484030233.

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