RECASTAWAYS - FROM McCOY'S DOCTOR TO McGANN'S

This marks the first "recastaway" theory for the Doctor in which the TV character first appeared in the fictional universe of BookWorld.  As detailed in Agatha Christie's "Sad Cypress", Dr. Peter Lord was a suspect in the death of his patient, Mrs. Laura Welman.  He further complicated matters by falsifying evidence when it appeared that Mrs. Welman's niece Elinor Carlisle was the murderess.  (Dr. Lord had fallen in love with her.)

"Sad Cypress" was then adapted for radio before it joined the pantheon of cases solved by M. Hercule Poirot in Earth Prime-Time.  Since Poirot was played by David Suchet, then it is assured that Paul McGann's portrayal of Dr. Lord is the official version, in the TV dimension we most frequently find the Doctor.

You can see what drew me to choosing this character as the donor of the Doctor's future DNA - his name.  Doctor Peter Lord.  Doctor.  Lord.  As in the Time Lord, the Doctor.

For the televersion, marking it as distinct from the novel, the case took place around the time of George Gershwin's death in 1937.  

However, there is a chronology goof regarding this.  The newsboy is seen hawking his papers, pitching as the big story that Gershwin had died.  But the paper is dated in September, as suggested by the obituary for Mrs. Welman on the opposite page.

 

George Gershwin died in July of 1937.

Sometimes I allow changes in historical dates - after all, we're dealing with Earth Prime-Time, not Earth Prime.  But here we have an opportunity to suggest a reason why the Doctor and Ace would have been in 1937 - someone had tampered with the timeline.  The difference in the dates for the death of Gershwin may have seemed a trifle to some, but it could also have a ripple effect leading to huge ramifications down the timeline.

Who to blame?  Why not the Meddling Monk?  It would have been the perfect opportunity to re-introduce him into the series and he would have been a wonderful antagonist to Sylvester McCoy's Doctor.

THE MEDDLING MONK

[A Casting Suggestion?]

And during their visit to London in September of 1937, when the Seventh Incarnation would have heard that newsboy's cries about Gershwin's death, it could be that the Time Lord Doctor might have bumped into Dr. Lord in the village of Hunterbury.

It could be that location which also drew the Doctor and Ace back to 1937.  There's a possibility that a Weeping Angel was in the area.....

At any rate, contact with Dr. Peter Lord gave the Doctor the DNA which was to be used when he regenerated in San Francisco at the end of 1999......

If you'd like to see that Poirot episode "Sad Cypress", I've embedded it for you from YouTube:

BCnU!