All about Rose Tyler: a Look at season one of Doctor Who

Good morning everyone! I hope your day so far is fantastic – absolutely fantastic!

After finally getting my copy of “I Love the Bones of You” by Christopher Eccleston and reading it, it felt proper to rewatch my DVDs of season one of Doctor Who – Christopher Eccleston’s run as the Ninth Doctor. I recently binge watched it and noticed, maybe way later than I should, that despite the show being named “Doctor Who,” the focus of the series is not the Doctor – but Rose Tyler. Let’s take a look episode by episode at the upstaging of Rose over The Doctor. If you have not seen Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor be warned: it’s all spoilers from here.

Episode One: Rose

“Lots of planets have a north.”

Rose challenges The Doctor over Eccleston’s Salford accent.

The title alone is a dead giveaway who the story is about. Russell T. Davies allegedly started with Rose and her life before bringing in The Doctor as a means to help the audience relate to the story. The Doctor grabs her hand with “Run” and they escape the shop before the Doctor blows it up. Throughout the focus remains on her. Rose investigates this mysterious traveler whom she chastises like she would a naughty child. Then, when they are in front of the Nestene Consciousness, it’s Rose who saves the day – not the Doctor. She even calls him “useless.”

This is not the way a person should, in my humble opinion, address a Time Lord. Russell T. Davies almost castrates the Doctor with the way Rose treats him, belittling him for not acting like a human would. If that is not enough, RTD makes the Doctor say jokes about Eccleston’s ears in the first fifteen minutes of the episode. If RTD has this low an opinion of both Christopher Eccleston and The Doctor, a person has to wonder why Doctor Who was brought back — and brought back with Eccleston as the lead — in the first place. Neither The Doctor nor Chris Eccleston deserve this opening episode.

Episode Two: The End of the World

The End of the World gives hope that it really is the Doctor in charge and Rose was simply an introduction. Rose goes off on a bit of a tantrum, picks a fight with the Doctor, and mostly ends up trapped on an observation deck while the Doctor saves the day and we learn that he’s called a “Time Lord.” A better opener for Nine and much more fun than “Rose.”

Episode Three: The Unquiet Dead

Written by Mark Gatiss, this episode is so terrifying that I refused to watch it between 2017 and March 2024. Literally gave me nightmares every time because of its creepy ending. Set in 1869 Caerdydd (Cardiff), the Doctor and Rose meet Charles Dickens just when a nightmarish species coming through gas lamps called “the Gelth” decides to visit a reading Dickens is giving of “A Christmas Carol,” on Christmas Eve, of course! Once more the focus becomes Rose, especially as she is the one to connect with Gwyneth (played by Eve Miles of spin-off series “Torchwood”), the simple minded servant girl whose psychic abilities enable her to sense the gelth. Gwyneth sees Rose as the “big bad wolf” and is terrified of her. We also learn more about Rose’s past and how she skipped classes in school to watch boys at the shops.

Gwyneth is the heroine of this story – but it is the Doctor who figures it out.

Episode Four: Aliens of London

I like Aliens of London for Penelope Wilton whom I know best as Isobel Crawley in Downton Abbey. Still disliking Rose, especially on my first watch of Doctor Who, it was Wilton’s Harriet Jones who kept me watching while my brain tried to figure out why Christopher Eccleston looked so damn familiar.

Aliens of London brings us back to the Powell Estate and to Rose’s family and boyfriend Mickey Smith. Rose is nicer to the Doctor than she was in “Rose” and doesn’t disparage him. The slitheen are a middling villain – not too scary – and the story’s plot and rendering is acceptable.

What is refreshing is getting to see more of Nine’s charming personality and his sense of adventure. Without Rose picking on him, the Doctor shows us just how brilliant (or FANTASTIC if you will) he really is. Though the writing is middling, it is refreshing to see the Doctor actually be the hero as he investigates what is going on with the apparent alien invasion.

Episode Five: World War Three

Part two of the story started with Aliens of London, the Doctor uses his wit and charm to save the day – with help from Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton), Rose, and Mickey. Jackie Tyler scolds the Doctor for allowing Rose to be in the middle of the danger. As you might expect from the previous episodes, the emotional weight is given to Rose, not the Doctor, as she is the one perceived as most in danger. Rose’s mother Jackie attacks the Doctor for Rose’s peril, putting him on defense once more. Never mind that Rose was the one who keeps deciding to put herself in peril. The Doctor is simply living his normal life of traveling and helping where he can.

Happily Mickey is the one who helps the Doctor by firing the missile that kills most of the slitheen before they can destroy Earth, reforming himself in the Doctor’s eyes as more than Rose’s idiot boyfriend.

Episode Six: Dalek

Dalek finally brings Nine into familiar Doctor Who territory. Though seen through Rose’s eyes, here we finally get some solid information about the Time War as the Doctor is confronted very directly with what he did to protect the universe.

Davros claims in season 4 to finally reveal the soul of the doctor, but I think it happens here. The rage the Doctor feels is tangible thanks to Christopher Eccleston’s perfect performance. We understand what the daleks are through the intensity of his responses – which Rose of course criticizes and chastises him for as if he were a naughty school boy.

The Twelfth Doctor describes the horrors of war.

Rose’s reactions are not empathetic. She doesn’t process that war is horrible, let alone the consequences to the Doctor for having to kill billions of his own people, including everyone and everything he loves best. If anyone ever needed a Twelfth Doctor talking to, it’s Rose in this episode.

In the quote above, Twelve is expressing exactly what Nine is feeling and what Rose is not understanding in “Dalek.” But more than Nine’s rage at the daleks, we see just how completely stupid Rose is. Time and time again she lets the dalek catch up to her and watches it kill rather than doing the smart thing and running away from it. If she processes that the dalek can and is inclined to kill her, she doesn’t act like it.

Where the dalek is concerned Rose really is a stupid ape! If Rose is supposed to be the Doctor’s equal in all things except science and technology, she blows that theory to bits by not trying very hard to escape the danger posed by the dalek – here and later on. She also falls for Adam Mitchell and insists the Doctor take him with them for the next adventure. One more boyfriend to fawn over.

As before, Rose criticizes the Doctor. This time for hating the daleks. In the “Doctor Who Confidential” for this episode much is made of the competition between Henry van Statten and the Doctor. RTD claims that the Doctor is competing for Rose’s love and attention. But as I discussed earlier, Rose doesn’t need to be there for the pair to lock horns.

Episode Seven: The Long Game

Doctor Who prepares to wrap up Eccleston’s run when the Doctor, Rose, and new boyfriend Adam (from “Dalek”) journey to the year 200,000 to Satellite Five to see Earth at the height of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Rose is so boy crazy that she gives Adam both the tardis key and her cell phone and leaves him alone to cause havoc while she and the Doctor investigate why things are not what the Doctor remembers them to be. In this episode Rose is more an equal than the superior she acts like most of the time. Together the Doctor and Rose solve the problem, save the day, and the Doctor undoes Adam’s mischief.

Episode Eight: Father’s Day

As you might expect from the title, this is another episode that is all about Rose Tyler. Rose asks the Doctor to travel back to the day her father Pete Tyler died in a car accident. He complies and she creates a world-ending paradox when she decides to prevent her father from dying in the first place. The episode explores the time Rose spends with her father during the paradox.

Once more the Doctor is barely present and takes a back seat to Rose and her family. While generally a good episode and one that helps us get to know Rose better, it feels a bit out of place for a show where the main character is supposed to be The Doctor – not her. Rose screws up and the Doctor doesn’t really hold her accountable for the damage she does. He’s too quick to forgive and panders.

In the end, it’s Peter Tyler who fixes Rose’s mess and when the timeline is restored, the Doctor returns to take her back into the tardis for another adventure.

Episode Nine: The Empty Child

Rose and Jack Harkness discuss “business” from the top of his spaceship

The Empty Child is the first half of another two-parter for the Ninth Doctor. The first time I watched it I had nightmares. This is a Steven Moffat episode and just as creepy as you might expect from his writing.

Set in 1941 during the London blitz, the episode introduces Captain Jack Harkness (played by Jack Barrowman), the “omni-sexual” rogue time agent from the 51st century who can seduce anyone by simply saying “hello” to him/her. While Rose is focused on Harkness’ seduction, the Doctor is focused on undoing Harkness’ mischief and its potentially world ending consequences. A Chula ambulance, part of Harkness’ con, crash lands in London and starts converting people into the image of a small child who died earlier that night in an air raid. The episode ends on a cliff hanger with dozens of converted people converging on the Doctor, Rose, and Harkness, ready to convert them too.

Episode Ten: The Doctor Dances

Mostly because of the ending where the Doctor actually dances (can I cut in and dance with him, please?), this is usually the episode I consider my favorite and it’s in my top 5 for the Russell T. Davies era (Fires of Pompeii being number one for casting Karen Gillian and Peter Capaldi).

We start off where Empty Child ends. “Go to your room!” booms the Doctor, allowing him, Harkness, and Rose enough breathing room to continue their investigation into what exactly happened to cause the plague Harkness triggered. Meanwhile, at the Doctor’s encouragement, Nancy conducts her own investigations. Harkness and the Doctor clash – Russell T Davies says the reason is that each want Rose romantically – and the Doctor figures out the role the nanogenes play in the disaster unfolding around them. As I’ve said before, I don’t think Rose is the actual cause of the testosterone – fulled clashes. The doctor might be “an incredible liar” as Twelve is called later, but he’s firstly a good man, an ethical man and therefore the opposite to Harkness. The Doctor doesn’t like Harkness and doesn’t trust Harkness (life imitating art as Christopher Eccleston didn’t especially like John Barrowman). Nine’s responses to Harkness are therefore the polar opposite to Rose’s.

Despite all this “Rose is the center of the universe” sub-plotting, the Doctor is the one who helps Nancy confess to the Empty Child Jamie that she is not his sister – as she’s claimed the whole time – but actually Jamie’s mother. Nancy embraces Jamie. The nanogenes figure out the connection between Nancy and Jamie and with a joyful shout of “EVERYBODY LIVES!” from the Doctor planet Earth is saved once more.

Happily Rose and the Doctor return to the Tardis for the epilogue. The Doctor remembers he can dance. Rose and the Doctor enjoy 30 seconds of dancing while Jack Harkness looks on jealously.

Episode Eleven: Boom Town

Jack, Rose, and the Doctor land in 2005 Caerdydd (Cardiff) to refuel the tardis with the energy left by the scar created in “the Unquiet Dead.” Mickey Smith joins up with them to see Rose and reignite their relationship only to notice that she’s infatuated not only with the Doctor, but Jack as well who is flirting with both the Doctor and Rose (hence the Doctor’s reply “don’t worship me, I make a very bad god”). Meanwhile, the group discovers that one of the slitheen (Blon) survived the missile Mickey helped launch (following the Doctor’s instructions) in “World War Three” and is plotting to destroy Earth again. The Doctor takes charge of Blon even as her plan clicks into place, opening the rift and causing mayhem. Rose returns to the tardis. Blon explains her plan and almost gets away with it when the Heart of the Tardis opens up and regresses her into a harmless egg. One more step towards the finale.

Episode Twelve: Bad Wolf

We return to Satellite Five – now called the “Game Station” when the Controller seeks out the Tardis from space and time and kidnaps Rose, Jack, and the Doctor in order to stop a fleet of nearly half a million daleks from ending all life on Earth in the year 200,100 – one hundred years after “The Long Game.”

Once more the focus is on Rose – on finding her in “The Weakest Link” and saving her life. That’s the whole of what the Doctor and Jack want. When the Anne Droid appears to kill Rose, the Doctor is visibly shaken and distraught, as if his soul is crushed. Not believable for a time lord – but as this episode is written by Russell T. Davies it is not surprising at this point.

Upon escaping the light Game Station security, Jack Harkness finds the Tardis and figures out Rose is not dead, but transmatted to the end of the solar system and onto a dalek ship. The daleks try to blackmail the Doctor into surrendering by offering him Rose’s life. The doctor refuses and we are all set for The Parting of Ways.

Episode Thirteen: the Parting of Ways

True to his word, the Doctor sets off in his tardis to rescue Rose. Using the extrapolator from Boom Town, the tardis has gained a shield which the Doctor skillfully uses to survive a bombardment of dalek missiles (“And for my next trick”). The tardis materializes around Rose. Instead of escaping right away, the Doctor decides to talk to the dalek to figure out their objectives. Return to Satellite Five and the Doctor and Jack form a plan to save Earth and destroy the dalek fleet. Meanwhile, recognizing the danger, the Doctor tricks Rose back into the tardis and activates his emergency protocols to send her back to London in 2005 – along with a final message to her.

But Rose doesn’t want to be home. She uses what she knows about the tardis to arrange a trip back to the doctor, taking in the Heart of the Tardis – or at least the Time Vortex part of her. Rose destroys the daleks, returns Jack to life (making him immortal in the process), and then starts to die. The Doctor gives her a romantic kiss to withdraw the Vortex, knowing it will trigger regeneration.

Rose wakes to find the Doctor in the early stages of regeneration. The Doctor explains regeneration.

“Before I go, I want you to know: you were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I!”

Regeneration takes hold and with a shower of sparks, Nine is gone, replaced with Ten who begins his new life genuinely in love with Rose – which is what she wants. Where Nine is too much a veteran of the Time War to assume human emotions towards her, Ten is Rose’s dream man which she discovers and enjoys in season 2.

Overall season one of Doctor Who should really be called “The many men Rose Tyler fancies” instead of Doctor Who. It’s a year where the Gallifreyan Time Lord and veteran of the Last Great Time War is more arm candy and transportation for Rose than he is the strong adventurer in his own right. Indeed, we don’t really see that powerful and dark, fearsome Time Lord, the true “Oncoming Storm” again until season 8 when Peter Capaldi brings back those darker traits to Doctor Who, at least not very often. Ten and Eleven are very light hearted, very human in most ways, men who try to forget about the Time War. But Nine and Twelve give us a true sense of what it means to survive the horrors of war and it is for that reason that I like Eccleston and Capaldi best.

Many people love Rose and that’s okay. But for me, I want to be awestruck by that greatest of the Time Lords, a man from Gallifrey with the dignity, power, and wisdom of a 900+ year old man who is determined to make the universe better – even if it kills him.

Book Review: “I Love the Bones of You” by Christopher Eccleston

I love the Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston. You already know that by my recent discussion about the Ninth Doctor. When I found out he wrote an autobiography focusing on his relationship with his father and his struggles with both anorexia and depression, I knew I had to buy a copy and read the book.

“I Love the Bones of You” is very much a tell-all sort of autobiography. Eccleston holds nothing back, beginning with his earliest childhood memories. The book is somewhat arranged topically and in quasi chronological order that actually works fairly fluidly – except in the final three or four chapters when it’s a bit confusing in terms of what happened relative to other events. It is certainly well written, a compliment I offer less often than people would like.

On the surface, Christopher’s life seems idyllic, especially his family life. Both his parents and his twin older brothers are loving and kind. No abuse in his family, though his father Ronnie does have a temper of sorts. Christopher emphasizes their working class status that colors almost everything in their lives. This is not the United States with its ideas of everyone being the same class (false of course – but that’s what Americans tend to believe): this is England. The England of Christopher’s time (and perhaps still true today) is very much stratified between the working class, the middle class, and the upper classes. Where you are born in that hierarchy dictates nearly everything in your life; Christopher Eccleston shows us exactly how he experienced it and how it affected each member of his family.

Christopher’s challenges with body image and eating are explored at length in often shocking detail. That he manage to survive and to do his work is very much surprising. In this he gets very honest about how the film industry works, especially towards food, eating, and body expectations. He holds nothing back and does not try to paint the film and television industry along rosy lines.

This candor persists when the subject switches to his struggles with depression. The narrative is straight forward, including the cause of his decision to seek in-patient treatment. In a pattern I recognize in my own autobiographical writings, Christopher is ruthlessly honest while still building a protective bubble of privacy. He gives you just enough details to see why he needed professional help – but no more. Skillful writing to accomplish what he does.

In the middle of this and about halfway through the book Christopher Eccleston turns to his professional life, giving us inside insights into films and television shows most of us know him for. Surprising to me because I watch the movie every December is how much he dislikes the movie “The Seeker: the Dark Also Rises” which is one of his most family-friendly films and made shortly after stepping down from Doctor Who. He covers most if not all of his major projects – what he liked, what he thinks of himself, and so forth. He’s very self critical in all of this.

Jude (1996)

The one project Christopher is not critical of is his 1996 film “Jude.” He devotes a full chapter to it entitled, “Strangled at Birth.” Jude sounds like a great film I would love to watch – until I read this chapter.

Earlier in the book Christopher tells us that shortly after finishing drama school he worked as a nude model for art classes. Okay, I knew that before I started this book. Actor straight out of college doing whatever he has to for rent money. Fine. He previewed that he did a lot a projects requiring him to take his clothes off. Fine. But it’s only in this chapter, “Strangled at Birth” where he gets graphic on the matter. Jude is absolutely not a film for children. There is a lot of very explicit sex and violence to the film. Wonderfully artistic, but not for viewers who abstain from erotica and/or horror genres. Christopher is very matter-of-fact and very honest about the film and its content. It’s also one that both he and his family happen to really like among his extensive filmography.

Logically, there’s a fair amount of Mancunian dialect and a lot of references to film, television, and footballers that most Americans probably have never heard of. These references do make the book a bit confusing at times. Chris assumes (rightly or wrongly) that these names are familiar. For me, they are not.

After Chris writes the usual career stuff, he returns to family. There are two short chapters recording what happened when he finally watched his season of Doctor Who with his son and daughter that are light and airy, a break from some of the darker material.

But inevitably the book returns to his father’s decline and 2012 death. This is a book focused on his relationship with his father, after all, a man whose life and character saturates and informs his own life, especially as he raises his son and daughter now.

The final cadence of the book is the eulogy that Chris gave at his father’s funeral. The ultimate salute to the man told him during his dementia, “I Love the Bones of You.”

If you love Christopher Eccleston’s work or simply want a great read exploring dementia, depression, and/or eating disorders, “I Love the Bones of You” is a must-read.

Four stars.

The Ninth Doctor: Why I disagree with the notion of Nine as a romantic doctor

The Ninth Doctor is my doctor – tied with Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi. As an actor, Christopher Eccleston is perfection in every role he takes up. I like everything he does – not at all unlike my similar positive feelings towards Peter Capaldi’s talents and skills as an actor.

Recently I watched for the first time the “Doctor Who Confidential” segments that appear as the final DVD for season 1 of Doctor Who – but not in the “Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant” Doctor Who boxed set. For those not familiar with Doctor Who Confidential, it’s basically ten to fifteen minute mini-documentaries, usually focusing on a specific Doctor Who episode. In series one, Simon Pegg (The Editor in “The Long Game” episode) narrates each documentary. Russell T. Davies, Christopher Eccleston, and Billie Piper are the primary cast/crew interviewed for DWC season 1. For those who love the technical side of film making, the Doctor Who Confidential documentaries are a wealth of information. It’s the insider scoop, if you will, to explain how what we see in the show comes about.

A major topic in these is the relationship between Rose and The Doctor. I watched mostly because I wanted to hear what Eccleston had to say – but now regret it. Essentially all three – Davies, Piper, and Eccleston espouse a romantic relationship interpretation for the Doctor and Rose. And they are the experts here, right?

Maybe – but if I accept that then it completely ruins my interest in this character and my interest in Doctor Who in the first place. Because you see, I do not and never have interpreted the show that way at all. It’s my hope that enjoying the series is what the cast and especially Eccleston most wants – rather than obedience to maybe what Davies and the other writers intended.

Let’s then go back to who the Doctor is and how I personally see him.

The Ninth Doctor is the survivor of the Time War. He’s the one in the original timeline (before this was modified by the addition of the Doctor of War for “Day of the Doctor”) who pressed that big red button on The Moment doomsday device and destroyed both the Daleks and the Time Lords. That the War Doctor (a character created due to Eccleston’s unavailability for the special), Ten, and Eleven went back in time for the Day of The Doctor doesn’t matter. In the original timeline it was Nine who was the doctor of war and Nine who killed billions. That’s who Nine is when we meet him. He did it. It’s on his conscience.

Understandably, the Doctor is mentally and spiritually wounded. He’s having a hard time living with himself and struggling with the moral consequences of doing what clearly needed to be done. He’s battle worn. He was a respected general in the war (explored in season 9’s “Hell Bent” featuring Peter Capaldi) and so won the admiration of those he led that when Rassilon ordered his execution, no one would comply.

This is not a man capable of romantic love. Period. He’s suffering from what reasonably would be severe post traumatic stress disorder. He probably has severe nightmares. Events may trigger memories he’s not ready to deal with. Unlike Ten and Eleven, he’s not running away from his memories of the war. He’s more in shock about what happened and his role in ending the war. This man who most wants to help save lives is the one man who has slaughtered the most lives. He couldn’t run away. As Rose notes, he took a stand and did the right thing when everyone else runs away. It’s a trait she clearly admires about him.

But admiration and romance are two completely different things. I know from my own experiences suffering from different levels of PTSD how memories of violence messes with your mind and heart. Especially in the early days, weeks, and years – which is where Nine is. The Doctor is lonely. He is in shock. He is trying to cope, knowing that no matter how depressed he might get (a normal reaction), he cannot just kill himself and end his pain that way. He has to find a way to keep moving, keep living.

When Nine meets Rose he finds someone to look after – but he is not remotely capable of falling in love. His priority is working through his pain. Having someone around helps with that. We see this time and time again across all of “new Who” that the Doctor is too extroverted to handle long periods of absolute solitude. He needs people around him – if only just one or two friends. Rose steps into that place and he appreciates her certainly. But he is not in love with her.

Instead, I see Nine and Rose having a similar level of regard and affection that we later see between Peter Capaldi’s Twelve and Bill Potts. In season 10 the professor-mentor relationship between the Doctor and Bill is explicit. The Doctor is tutoring Bill as a professor in a university towards a cafeteria worker unofficially taking his classes. With Rose it is undefined.

Rose of course is 19 and a bit boy crazy. She tells us in “The Unquiet Dead” that she hated school and liked to skip classes to go watch boys at the shops. Across season 1 she moves from boy to boy. Mickey Smith. Adam Mitchell (Dalek). Captain Jack Harkness. If Rose is in love with Nine, she’s certainly not acting like it!

Yes, there is affection. But affection and romance are not the same thing. Parents feel love towards their children – but it’s not romantic and, we hope, is not sexual.

Doctor Who Confidential asserts the romance theory by pointing to “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” where the Doctor and Captain Jack engage in a bit of “who can impress Rose the most” competition. The Doctor wouldn’t care if Rose likes Jack if he wasn’t romantically jealous right?

Not in my experience. Men will compete with men for the sake of competition. If Rose were not there, I think the Doctor and Jack would have still competed with each other. Vanity involved. If not competing over Rose, it would have been over something else.

Indeed, the first time we see Rose feeling anything romantic towards Nine is when she realizes that he is likely going to die – which Nine himself tells her is likely in the form of his holographic farewell in the TARDIS. She’s suddenly panicked at the prospect of never seeing him again – along with the prospect of going back to her former blue-collar life. When she does take in the Time Vortex her focus isn’t fixated on the Doctor either – but on Captain Jack as well.

Rose is not in love with the Doctor, however she may flirt. That doesn’t happen until she takes in the Time Vortex. But even then, I don’t think it’s really Rose being in love with the Doctor. The TARDIS is alive, remember. She has a soul which talks to the Eleventh Doctor directly in “The Doctor’s Wife.” We don’t know precisely how Rose interfaced with the Heart of the TARDIS soul – but for Rose to take in that Consciousness into her, there is bound to be some sort of communication between the two beyond “I want to go back and save the Doctor.”

This then too contributes to my belief that while Rose and the Doctor feel some level of affection for each other it is not romantic love. That comes when Nine regenerates into Ten. The immediate events before that regeneration shape the person Ten becomes. Ten falls in love with Rose and Rose in love with him – but not with Nine.

In summery I hope I have made a solid argument for why I feel the Rose-Ninth Doctor relationship is not a romantic one. You of course may disagree with me and by all means say so in the comments below.

As for me, I prefer my Doctor to be and behave like a true veteran of the Time War. I like him being the man that no Gallifreyan soldier can be ordered to kill. Nine is as much that as Twelve is. The wounded hero of the Time War.

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Spoilers! Doctor Who Easter Eggs revealed for “His Red Eminence, Armand – Jean du Plessis de Richelieu

I love the Twelfth Doctor. Peter Capaldi is perfection in Doctor Who. He is the only living person mentioned in a dedication for any of my books (the Founding Mothers of the United States and Canada are mentioned in a dedication to that book). Where many authors love dedications, I avoid them. This dedication to to Mr. Capaldi in “His Red Eminence, Armand – Jean du Plessis de Richelieu” is therefore very unique, though well deserved.

For those of you who do not know the story behind the Godiva award winning biography, here it is in brief: in December 2018 I received for Christmas a DVD copy of season one of the BBC’s “The Musketeers” which featured Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu. It’s an adventure series based on Alexandre Dumas’ novels in which the cardinal is the principle villain. Peter Capaldi was in the middle of filming the series when he was chosen to succeed Matt Smith as The Doctor, forcing him to not continue on for series 2 and 3 in favor of working on Doctor Who.

When I received the DVDs, I was enthralled. I couldn’t stop watching them and by mid January 2019 I had watched the Musketeers in full over 30 times. Realizing that I needed to do something productive about my obsession, I decided to add one of Richelieu’s contemporary ladies to the Legendary Women of World History. But no one’s story held my imagination and indeed I found Marie de Medici especially repugnant (the reasons for that are clear as her character reveals itself across Eminence). Only the cardinal’s story captured my heart. I needed to tell that story, if only to restore my mind back to a semblance of sanity!

Peter Capaldi’s performances as Richelieu inspired my work. As I read primary sources (Cardinal du Plessis was a prolific writer) and discovered the man from his own words, the images from Capaldi’s rendering of him persisted. Readers of the biography who have watched the show notice this most strongly in the clothes that we see du Plessis wear; in my mind’s eye, Capaldi’s visage and clothes merge with the historical portraits that survive.

With Peter Capaldi himself being such a huge fan of Doctor Who it therefore only made sense as I wrote Eminence that I would sneak in a couple Easter Eggs referencing Peter Capaldi’s three seasons as The Twelfth Doctor.

Easter Egg Hunt

Looking at the front of Eminence, the Easter eggs readers are to look for are: “Anne Rochefeuille quotes The Doctor in Chapter Ten (Confessions) with three little words from “Deep Breath.” What are those three words?  Hint: the Doctor says more than these three words. In Chapter Twelve (Partings and Testaments), Cardinal Richelieu’s foreign policy towards the Hapsburgs is described referencing a famous scene from series 9. Can you name the episode and quote what the Doctor says at the end of that scene when the Doctor completes his task?”

First Easter Egg: Deep Breath

Let’s start with the first Easter egg from Chapter Ten. In chapter ten, Cardinal du Plessis has just returned from the Siege of La Rochelle and its aftermath. He is a wounded veteran of a war he wanted no part of and suffers from shell shock (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) accordingly. Coming home means finding the Louvre filled with palace intrigue, much of it designed to entrap the cardinal – at the expense of his life.

To help navigate the most dangerous of these intrigues, Armand and Anne send for Armand’s surviving older brother Alphonse. Using the protection of the Confessional Seal, Armand and Anne tell the older du Plessis what they dare not permit the king to know, hence the name of the chapter. Following a mass at the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris, Alphonse starts a fight with Armand over Anne’s Protestantism. Being the peacemaker and diplomat, Armand is quick to stop the conflict before it turns too ugly, allowing Alphonse to shift focus and observe the couple, eventually remarking, “I prefer women to be quiet, obedient, and catholic.”

Anne’s reply to this is the Doctor Who Easter egg, “Boring! Not me!”

The reference of course is to the season 8 opener, “Deep Breath.” In that episode, Peter Capaldi’s first as The Doctor, Twelve has difficulty adjusting to his new self after spending 900 years on Trenzalore as Eleven (played by Matt Smith). In the wreck of himself, the Doctor’s friends, including Clara Oswald, put the Doctor to bed. When he wakes, he feels inspired to go investigate the strange murders in London we are teased about earlier. Opening the bedroom door, the Doctor says “Door – boring! Not me!” before opening a window and crying “ME!” before he sneaks out of the room that way.

Now to the second Easter egg …

Inspired by Doctor Who, I described Armand’s foreign policy towards the Hapsburgs (rulers in both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) using imagery from a specific episode from season 9. I ask you to identify that episode and the famous quote from the Doctor at the end of the scene.

Here is the paragraph I’m referencing. See if you can spot it before scrolling further down for the exact answer:

With peace within France finally established, Cardinal Richelieu refocused his efforts on the Hapsburgs, working carefully, but not always successfully to weaken the Hapsburg threat without going to war. With France being so much smaller and weaker than the combined forces of the King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, these military engagements often resulted in French defeat. Undaunted, Richelieu continued the fight to contain the Hapsburg threat, expanding the size of the French army every year until at last it could better hold its own against the superior numbers and firepower set against it. Small, careful, deliberate moves shifted the balance of power, the quiet persistence of a bird sharpening its beak on a diamond mountain. The mountain would not break apart until after the good cardinal’s death. But it was Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal and duc de Richelieu that set that bird’s beak upon it so that the new king, Louis XIV, and Richelieu’s successor in Italian Cardinal Jules Mazarin were able to break the mountain and therein complete the cardinal’s legacy in securing French security from threats put upon it by its neighbours.

The key here is the BIRD (predictable if you know anything about me). In the episode HEAVEN SENT, the Doctor escapes his prison by punching at a wall of diamond and tells a story as he does so about a shepherd’s boy answering a question about the “first second of Eternity.”

At the very end of that, as he finally breaks through he says, “Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.”

This is the answer to the final part of the Easter egg! Indeed it is a proper analogy for Richelieu’s foreign policy. Cardinal Richelieu spent his life working to secure national security for France, knowing that his goals could not be fulfilled in his lifetime alone. He worked anyway and allowed his successors to accomplish that goal. It transformed France forever.

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Spoilers! Doctor Who Easter Eggs Revealed for Cleopatra VII: Egypt’s Last Pharaoh

Since 1963 November 23rd, Doctor Who has delighted and sometimes frightened audiences with its science fiction adventures. The main character is called The Doctor, a nobleman from the planet Gallifrey who one day stole a time-travel capable spaceship to go on adventures in space and time. The full name of the ship is Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space. TARDIS for short.

As everyone who has ever watched the show for very long knows, the TARDIS has a chameleon circuit that allows the exterior of the ship to appear as anything. The aim: to blend in with the local area and not be conspicuous. After it landed on Earth in England in 1963, the TARDIS took the shape of a police box – then got stuck in that design and has looked like a blue police box ever since. It is this blue police box that everyone recognizes it by.

In July 2016 I discovered Doctor Who thanks to the show’s availability on Amazon Prime Video. Though I didn’t take to it at first, the casting of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor kept me watching until the stories themselves became interesting enough for me to watch the show on its own merits.

At the end of season one, Christopher Eccleston regenerates into the Tenth Doctor as played by David Tennant. During season four (Tennant’s third year as the Doctor), Ten takes new companion Donna Noble on an adventure back to Pompeii in the year 79 CE – just hours before Mount Vesuvius erupts on August 24th. The 2008 episode is called “The Fires of Pompeii” and it features guest stars Peter Capaldi as Caecelius and Karen Gillian as one of the priestesses of the Sibylline.

The guest appearances are notable previews for Doctor Who. In 2009 Peter was cast as John Frobisher in the Doctor Who spinoff “Torchwood” before being cast as the Twelfth Doctor for Doctor Who (2014 – 2018 with cameo in 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor.”) Karen Gillian was cast as Amelia Pond, companion for two seasons (2009 – 2012) to the Eleventh Doctor as played by Matt Smith.

In “Cleopatra VII: Egypt’s Last Pharaoh” readers are asked to find two Easter Eggs, “The first Easter Egg is a character named for someone who travelled inside the TARDIS.  The second is a phrase repeatedly used by Twelfth Doctor.  Using your knowledge of The Doctor (as played by David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi) and series 2 through 10 of Doctor Who, go find them!”

What then does The Fires of Pompeii have to do with any of this? When you know the history, it all makes sense.

Let’s begin with what happens in the Doctor Who episode. As mentioned before, the Doctor and Donna arrive in Pompeii on the eve of Mount Vesuvius’ eruption on August 24th, 79 CE. After figuring out where they are, they rush back to where the TARDIS is parked only to find out that a merchant has sold it to “old man Caecelius” (Peter Capaldi). Through the rest of the adventure they discover an alien race is messing with the mountain, preventing its scheduled eruption which is a “fixed moment in time.” The Doctor and Donna go about putting history back to where it should be so that Pompeii is destroyed – right on schedule.

This is the part everyone knows. But what most people do not know is that Caecelius, Matella, and their son Quintus are names that Russell T. Davies took from the 1970 Cambridge Latin course in which Caecelius is a banker. Davies of course was not overly concerned with history when he made his characters for the episode. What I found out working on Cleopatra VII is that Caecelius was actually a historical person whose house you can visit in Pompeii.

The historical Caecelius was named Lucius Caecelius Lucundus. He lived from 14 CE to 62 CE – the year of the earthquake mentioned in “The Fires of Pompeii.” That he had three names is significant. In the Roman Empire, when a man has three names like that, it indicates he was a Roman citizen. Free persons had two names. Slaves had one.

Cleopatra committed suicide on August 12th, 30 BCE – long before Lucius Caecelius Lucundus’ birth. But as a matter of storytelling I decided to make Caecelius one of Cleopatra’s trusted diplomats, showing how the historical Caecelius became a Roman citizen. Given that fathers and sons often had the same names (the Gaius Julius Caesar most of us know about is actually son of another Gaius Julius Caesar), it is logical that a father or grandfather of Lucius Caecelius Lucundus could have served Cleopatra in her court and through that service attained Roman citizenship.

Do we know for certain how the family became Roman citizens? No. But in inserting Caecelius into the narrative for Cleopatra, I create a plausible explanation.

Except … my Easter egg teaser speaks about travelling in the TARDIS — how does that work?

What messes people up is the expectation that traveling in the TARDIS means travelling on multiple trips. At the end of Fires of Pompeii, Donna urges the Doctor to “save someone.” After a bit, the Doctor rematerializes the TARDIS back into Caecelius’ home and brings the family aboard for a short trip outside of the city, therefore sparing them.

As for the phrase: it’s the Twelfth Doctor’s favorite: “Be Kind.”

Now you know what the Doctor Who Easter egg is, it’s time to find it! Find Cleopatra VII: Egypt’s Last Pharaoh on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and Barnes/Noble.

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Recipe: “Fish” Fingers and Custard

Reposted from http://www.sugarednerd.com/recipes-and-how-tos/2015/7/8/fish-fingers-and-custard-1.

Amelia Pond gives the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) fish fingers and custard in “The Eleventh Hour.”

Fans of Doctor Who know all about the eleventh doctor’s favourite “fish fingers and custard” which IMHO sounds absolutely horrible.  Then I found this recipe where the “fish fingers” are not actual fish sticks/fingers (as in compressed pollack or similar fish coated in bread crumbs), but cake made to look like fish fingers.

Here is Sugared Nerd’s Recipe:

ENGLISH CUSTARD

1 vanilla bean pod

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

4 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/3 cup honey or light brown sugar

Split and scrape the vanilla beans out of the pod and put them, along with the pod, into a small saucepan with the cream.  Heat until simmering.

Whisk the egg yolks with the cornstarch and sugar until combined.  Remove vanilla bean pod from the cream.

As you continue to slowly whisk the egg mixture, add a ladle of the hot cream to the eggs.  This is called tempering.  Add 2 more ladles of the cream and incorporate, before adding the whole egg mixture back into the saucepan.  Continue to heat until the mixture thickens to about the consistency of a pudding.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl to cool.

Note:  My custard got a bit “ice-y” after storing in the fridge, so if that happens to yours, just set it out on the counter 15-30 minutes before you want to serve to defrost a bit for a nice, smooth custard.

“FISH FINGERS”

1 pound cake, cut into 1 inch slices to resemble fish sticks

2 egg whites

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

5 graham crackers, processed into fine crumbs

Butter cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Mix together the egg whites, cream and cinnamon in a bowl.  Put graham cracker crumbs in another bowl.  Dip each piece of pound cake in the egg mixture, coat in the graham cracker crumbs, and put on a parchment or silicone mat lined cookie sheet.  When the sheet is full, spray with the butter spray, and put in the oven for 10 minutes, flipping once half way through.

A meal fit for a Doctor.