'I hope you know what you're doing,' said Chris as the Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver. 'So do I,' muttered the Doctor 'I have total faith in you,' said Chris. 'So do I,' muttered the Doctor
The Doctor looked anxiously between Chris and the old man. Chris's head was slumped back into the alcove, and the pained expression on his face was not pleasant to behold. The Doctor quickly checked Chris's lifesigns and gave him a fond kiss on the brow.
Suddenly the old man's arm jerked. He pointed with one long nailed finger and moaned. 'Gently now, take it easy,' said the Doctor, kissing the old man's brow as well for good luck.
A red mist had come down in front of the Kraag's eyes- quite literally- and the Doctor, who had made a career of shouting 'wait!' at people who were trying to shoot him, but could sense the rare occasions when that just wasn't going to work, did the only sensible thing, and ducked.
because it showed how uninterested the Doctor was in that sort of thing, when everyone else was literally throwing themselves at him and he's going "Oh look! Shiny!"
GR was mostly famous for doing really good 4/Romana II/K-9 stories for the Past Doctor Adventures book line in the 90s, and started re-evaluation of Season 17 (which was HATED when the books came out, and is now pretty popular)
he wrote the final book for the PDA line, which was pretty controversial for two reasons - 1) it had the Doctor kiss Romana, 2) it implied Season 18 and everything after that was part of an alternate universe (GR hated Season 18 and fell out of the fandom when it came out)
Suddenly [Chris] felt himself lifted up by the scruff of the neck, like a kitten being gummed by its mother. ... A loop of multicolored scarf was flung over Chris's reddened, stinging eyes and burning mouth. And then, just when he was feeling better, Chris fainted
anyway GR also wrote for the new series. he did a lot of 'Dr trying to fit in with humans' episodes like The Caretaker and the stuff with James Cordon in it.
anyway his 4 books are all absolutely excellent, and his 9/Rose/Jack book is in the same spirit and also extremely good. it's a shame he works better in print than on TV
i LOVE Skagra so much in this book, and I very almost RPed him (i ended up going for Mehendri Solon from The Brain of Morbius instead, but ohhhh I still want to play Skagra at some point)
book Skagra is my favourite, he gets a proper backstory. TV Skagra is book Skagra without any of the irony. Audio Skagra goes a VERY different direction
* though remarkably flexible in its usage, this word is unfortunately untranslatable from Old High Gallifreyan into Earth English. Very roughly speaking it conveys disdain, contempt and extreme annoyance, all wrapped up i n a generally obscene etymological parcel that is far ruder than any reader of this book can possibly imagine.
'No this cannot be,' whimpered Skagra. 'My life's work... the Universal Mind....' The Doctor gently lifted Skagra to his feet. 'The dream is over Skagra,' he said almost sadly. 'Te Great Salyavin fooled all of us. He escaped from Shada centuries ago.' Skagra almost fell into the Doctor's arms. Tears began to cascade from his eyes.
one thing i really love about the book version of Shada is how NICE the Doctor is to *Skagra. i feel he's able to see that Skagra is just a spoiled, ridiculous little boy who thinks he's a supervillain
the Doctor seeing villains as ridiculous is something that's really nice about the Four era, but sometimes he can still be extremely ruthless and mean to them in a way that doesn't feel nice (like the way he dispatches Taren Capel). but with Skagra - and this is book-exclusive - he actually tries to support him emotionally.
considering that, say, Solon was just a really annoying human with no particular special power other than being really good at surgery, and the Doctor ends up gassing him to death...
it's a nice character detail for Skagra as well, because you get WHY he wants to erase people who don't think like him and WHY he wears a sparkly disco cape
'No you couldn't, Clare, you love him' said the Doctor casually. 'Does she?' said Romana, sounding surprised. 'Why on earth would she want to do that?' .............. 'How did you know?' [Clare] asked the Doctor. The Doctor coughed and lifted a finger. '... First, you may not realise it but whenever you mention his name
The Doctor reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a golden medal with a long, multicolored ribbon. Carefully, almost formally, he pinned it to the front of her dress. The medal read in big red letters. I AM A GENIUS
since there's a bit of the Doctor was in there he was able to reverse engineer it and now everyone's mind-slaved by him and giving Skagra a big Doctor grin
The Doctor sagged, gasping for air. He'd given everything he had, and it had not been enough. After all these years, after so many battles facing down Daleks, Cybermen, even the Black Guardian, he was going to die on a Sunday afternoon. With a really stupid hat on.
I just hope they don't decide to like -_-' reboot which I don't picture Chibnall DOING because he was part of the heavy fandom keeping the show alive between 7 - 8 - 9 soooo
'So do I,' muttered the Doctor
'I have total faith in you,' said Chris.
'So do I,' muttered the Doctor
'Gently now, take it easy,' said the Doctor, kissing the old man's brow as well for good luck.
headcanon acceptedThe Doctor grinned a huge grin. 'I don't know, but it'll be fun finding out. Keep up, Bristol.'
'Well if its' not him, it's someone very handsome wearing his scarf, ' said the Doctor.
HA HA HA, ____* YOU! LOVE SALYAVIN x
The Doctor gently lifted Skagra to his feet.
'The dream is over Skagra,' he said almost sadly. 'Te Great Salyavin fooled all of us. He escaped from Shada centuries ago.'
Skagra almost fell into the Doctor's arms. Tears began to cascade from his eyes.
'Does she?' said Romana, sounding surprised. 'Why on earth would she want to do that?' ..............
'How did you know?' [Clare] asked the Doctor.
The Doctor coughed and lifted a finger. '... First, you may not realise it but whenever you mention his name
The medal read in big red letters.
I
AM A
GENIUS
and yes I am still bitter oops