Baptism of Fire, Confidential

The 1916 Easter Rising is my OTHER specialist subject along with Doctor Who. Putting the two together was something I REALLY wanted to do. The biggest problem was that my audience was not likely to know a whole lot, if anything, about these events. The problem therefore was to give a History 101 of what happened, when and how, while telling a story with The Doctor in it. A pure historical story based on these events would be pretty hard work for a reader who isn’t enthusiastic about Irish history. So I mixed actual events such as the wounding of the second in command, James Connolly, and the setting fire of the building and evacuation through wall tunnels with The Doctor coming to terms with his amnesia and Rose and the boys, and later Susan trying to get back to him in the TARDIS.

I know this might in some ways be a controversial storyline. This even in Irish history is very much the blue touchpaper of a century of strife and involving The Doctor in it in a partisan way is something I did give some thought to. But I had him justify his position in the story.

“Most of the time I’ve spent on Earth I’ve lived in England. I suppose if I HAD a nationality it would be British. I have worked closely with the British military through U.N.I.T. for a long time and have a lot of respect for them. But… right here and now, I’m with the rebels. They had an honest belief in what they were doing and it is one of history’s great tragedies that they failed.”

And let that stand as saying all that needs to be said about the murky politics of this story.

The idea of him being the ‘medic’ in the GPO in Easter Week is important because, in actual fact, the rebels didn’t have one. In reality a captured British Army medic volunteered his services to the injured on a non-partisan basis. But it is not difficult for The Doctor to take his place in this fantasy based on reality. It is also true that Connolly refused to take any drugs against the pain as they would impair his judgement. In reality he didn’t have The Doctor to block his pain receptors mentally. It IS true that Patrick Pearse was the last man to leave the burning building, having gone back to check nobody was left behind. In reality, of course, nobody WAS left behind. I’m not sure he would have accepted The Doctor’s reasoning. But it worked in the story, at least.

Incidentally, one of my chief inspirations for this story is a famous drawing of ‘Inside the GPO’ which is familiar to anyone who has studied the subject at all. Most of the figures in the foreground are identifiable historical figures. All except the man in the dark jacket crouching near Connolly’s stretcher. The only one wearing a dark jacket. Ok, it doesn’t look MUCH like The Doctor, but use your imagination and suspend disbelief.