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No Man's Land
(Martin Day) |
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 November
2006’s release is "No Man's Land" written
by Martin Day. It was original due to be called "We
are the Dead". It is directed by John Ainsworth
and was recorded 29th and 30th July 2006.
Joining
Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh
Doctor are companions
Ace, played by Sophie Aldred, and Hex , played by Philip
Olivier. Also starring are: Michael Adams,
Michael Cochrane, Rob Dixon, Ian Hayles, Oliver Mellor
and Rupert Wickham.
It
is 1917 and The Doctor, Ace and Hex find themselves in
a military hospital five miles from the frontline in
northern France. It seems they were found unconscious
in No Man’s Land. They think they are prisoners
and locked up in a dingy room - before they are visited
by Lieutenant-Colonel Brook who presents The Doctor with
his military orders. Orders for The Doctor and his companions
to investigate a murder at the Charnage hospital - A
murder that has not been committed yet!
The
Doctor is up for a challenge to discover which member
of the hospital’s staff or a patient could be the
victim or the murderer. While Lieutenant-Colonel Brook
gives The Doctor a guided tour of the hospital Ace and
Hex go off to investigate themselves - during which they
get the impression that they are being followed - and
come to a revelation that the victim could be themselves
or even The Doctor…
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| Seventh Doctor |
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Hex
goes off to warn The Doctor leaving Ace on her own. She
gets talking to Captain Dudgeon and learns of the terrifying,
relentless brutality and hopeless waste the Great War
is causing.
But
the Great War that wages only a few miles away is the
least of their concerns as it seems that those in the
hospital are not staying there in harmony and some are
not pleased about The Doctor and his companions being
there. Lieutenant-Colonel Brook and Sergeant Wood are
scheming something and Captain Dudgeon, after leaving
Ace, confronts a nervous Lance-Corporal Burridge who
has blood on his hands. Hex is treated roughly by Sergeant
Wood and finds himself being tortured, in the Hate Room,
while The Doctor and Ace find a dead rat nailed to their
bedroom door and a sleepwalking Private Taylor ranting
about the best way to kill the enemy.
Realising
that Hex is missing The Doctor, in the following morning,
manages to track him down and frees him. He also deduces
that the Hate Room he is in is used for brainwashing
- but why? Hex can’t remember how he got there
and so The Doctor has a further mystery to solve.
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Ace
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Who
is the murderer and who is going to be the victim? Can
The Doctor manage to deduce what is going to happen and
so prevent it or will he be too late even though he was
given advanced warning? What is the real purpose of the
Hate Room and why is the hospital being used to instil
so much hate in those within its walls? What has been
happening at the derelict church in the middle of No
Man’s Land and what, or who, will Ace and Hex find
there, when they go to investigate, or will they be killed
by flying bullets or toxic gas? More importantly with
the orders seeming to be authentic who knows that The
Doctor is going to arrive at the hospital and so can
send them to him?
Then
the murder takes place but who did it? The Doctor has
to tread very carefully to uncover who is responsible
as well as to solve the mystery of what is going on before
the simmering hate and anger at Charnage hospital erupts
into a frenzy of violence and he is accused as a spy
and shot in front of a firing squad?
The
Doctor finds that the enemy may be closer to home and
that he may not be able to prevent a bloodbath…
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Notes:
- Featuring the Seventh
Doctor, Ace and Hex.
- Serial Number: 7WE
- Number of Episodes: 4
- Cover Length: 145 minutes
- Episode Lengths: 1 = 33'11", 2 = 27'47",
3 = 35'33", 4 = 35'25"
- Total Story Length: 131'56"
- This story takes place after "Survival" and
follows on from "The
Settling".
- Early Title: "We Are the Dead".
- Cover Illustration: Simon Holub
- Recorded: 29th and 30th July 2006
- Recording Location: The Moat Studios
- Released: November 2006
- ISBN: 1-84435-178-5
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On the Back Cover:
It is 1917 and The Doctor,
Hex and Ace find themselves in a military hospital
in northern France. But the terrifying, relentless
brutality of the Great War that wages only a few
miles away is the least of their concerns.
The travellers
become metaphysical detectives when The Doctor receives
orders to investigate a murder. A murder that has
yet to be committed...
Who will be the victim? Who will
be the murderer? What is the real purpose of the
Hate Room? Can The Doctor solve the mystery before
the simmering hate and anger at Charnage hospital
erupts in to a frenzy of violence?
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On the Inside Cover:
I’m told my paternal
grandfather was shot in the shoulder during the First
World War. A few inches further down and to the side
and...
Sometimes writing feels more
like archaeology than therapy. It certainly seems strangely
appropriate that, just as my most recent novel, Sleep
of Reason, took me back to my very first attempt to
write a Doctor Who novel, and to some of my experiences
as a teenager, so No Man’s Land should reach
back to my first, stumbling attempts at fiction, and
to a nascent, horrified interest in human evil.
The roots of No Man’s
Land go all the way back to 1984, to a short story
I wrote for a self-published fanzine. It was going
to be about werewolf creatures who were drawn to the
First World War like sadistic bees to poppies, but
I soon concluded that there was terror enough in the
Great War without adding aliens into the mix. A simple
story of ordinary soldiers, trying their best to live
through a nightmare.
I don’t seem to have
come very far in 22 years.
I’m still more interested
in emotion than entertainment, in people than polemics
- the sort of people you find, fictionalised, in Siegfried
Sassoon’s masterful Memoirs of an Infantry
Officer.
The sort of people I hope you will encounter in No
Man’s Land.
I’d
like to thank Gary Russell for giving me an opportunity
to write a proper Doctor Who script after all these
years, and, with the pardoning of soldiers executed
during the First World War once more in the news, I
humbly dedicate this work to all who died in, and survived,
that conflict.
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Martin Day,
November 2005 |
Martin
Day has written six novels, eight factual books, over
six hours of television, and lots of other things. His
big secret is that he once had a letter (about Doctor
Who, of course) read out on Noel Edmond’s Multi-Coloured
Swap Shop. He’s known Gary Russell for almost 25
years, and now feels very, very old. |
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Who's Who?
The Seventh Doctor
First television appearance: "Time
and the Rani"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Red"
He
has been exploring the universe for hundreds of years. He fights injustice.
He defeats evil. He helps people. The Doctor and Ace have had many adventures
now - and they’ve recently been joined by Hex, a youthful former nurse
from the twenty-first century. In this regeneration, The Doctor can be impish,
devious even, but also greatly compassionate; whimsy and melancholy do battle
inside this persona, but his friends know they can always rely on him...
Ace
First television appearance: "Dragonfire"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "The
Fearmonger"
Dorothy
McShane, who likes to be known as Ace, was a schoolgirl
living in Perivale West London when she was transported
far across time and space to the Iceworld colony
by a time storm Here, she met The Doctor and since
then the pair have travelled the universe together,
fighting evils and righting wrongs. Over time, a
close bond has developed between the two, and Ace
has recently
begun developing skills of leadership, cunning and
guile to equal that of her mentor himself…
Hex
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "The
Harvest"
Thomas
Hector Schofield discovered at quite an early age
that the name 'Hector' wasn’t exactly designed
to give him the easiest of times at a Merseyside
school, so he began referring to himself as 'Hex'.
Moving down from to London to complete his medical
training, Hex began working as a staff nurse at St
Gart's Hospital in Shoreditch. There he encountered
Ace and The Doctor, helped them fight off a Cyber
incursion and ended up aboard the TARDIS. Since joining
them, Hex has seen enough monsters, hostile situations
and aliens to last most people a lifetime. But clearly
not him... |
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The Cast Gallery:
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The Seventh
Doctor - Played by Sylvester
McCoy
‘Metaphysical detectives, investigating
a murder that exists only as a thought, an
impulse… a desire. It could be nothing,
of course. Some strange little coincidence,
a temporal glitch… A mere meaningless
mistake in the footnote of crime.’ |
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Ace
- Played by Sophie Aldred ‘All
I’m saying is, if we blunder in, we’re
likely to make things worse. God, I really
am turning into The Doctor!’
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Hex
- Played by Philip Oliver ‘Oh,
don’t be daft! I’m a civilian,
how can I desert? Besides, when I arrived
here I was unconscious. I don’t even
know the way back…’
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Lieutenant-Colonel
Brook - Played by Michael Cochrane
‘If the two of you can find a
way to get rid of the girl and the boy, It’ll
be much easier for me to deal with The Doctor.’
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Sergeant
Wood - Played by Rob Dixon ‘I’d
be surprised if more than one word in ten
makes it back. Never can see the point myself.
Your family don’t understand a word
you say, and your wife’s probably too
busy fooling around.’
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Private
Taylor - Played by Oliver Mellor ‘I
was getting the noses of the men, Don’t
blame ‘em, either, wanting to see the
back of me – after what happened last
night.’
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Captain
Dudgeon - Played by Rupert Wickham ‘When
you see the young German soldiers and realise
that they’re just like us, you find
yourself wondering – is what we’re
doing right, or can it be that we’re
both equally in the wrong? Whose side is
God on?’
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Lance-Corporal
Burridge - Played by Ian Hayles
‘You want to go wandering about
in No Man’s Land, that’s your funeral.’
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Full Cast List:
| The Doctor |
Sylvester McCoy |
| Ace |
Sophie Aldred |
| Hex |
Philip Olivier |
| Private Dixon |
Michael Adams |
| Lieutenant-Colonel Brook |
Michael Cochrane |
| Sergeant Wood |
Rob Dixon |
| Lance-Corporal Burridge |
Ian Hayles |
| Private Taylor |
Oliver Mellor |
| Captain Dudgeon |
Rupert Wickham |
The Production Team:
| Writer |
Martin Day |
| Director |
John Ainsworth |
| Sound/Music |
Simon Robinson |
| Theme Music |
David Darlington |
| Story Editor |
Alan Barnes |
| Producers |
Gary Russell, Nicholas Briggs
and Jason Haigh-Ellery |
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