Adventure on Starship UK is a romp with fake scenery and some history, literature and geography. The Starship, of course, was first seen in the 2010 episode, The Beast Below, ruled over by the near immortal Liz 10, queen of the United Kingdom. This story takes place several hundred years later, when the space whale has reached a suitable destination, but all isn’t exactly well, even so.
The three trivia questions set for The Doctor and companions by the Smiler, now reduced in power and acting as a game booth, were not difficult to set with Google at my disposal. There are plenty of website that generate Fibonacci sequences at a keystroke. Such a sequence, of course, features heavily in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, but as Amy points out, this is nothing like as complicated a quest as that, or even National Treasure. If anything, it is a bit of a dig at those kind of stories. Frankly, I don’t think Da Vinci Code is as clever a book as it appears. It doesn’t take over thirty pages to work out that a ‘rosey orb’ is an apple and find the tomb of Isaac Newton, and any American citizen ought to know about the Resolute Desks! The Doctor, Rory and Amy get straight to the point with their clues. The Doctor, who cares about such things, knows the next number in the Fibonacci sequence. Rory, who’s mum is a Cliff Richard fan, knows that Private Collection is his best selling album and Amy, who loves Roman history, instantly knows details about Boadicea. The questions are set in their favour.
The ‘Vator’ takes them to Kent, of course, while The Doctor explains WHY the word ‘elevator’ is a part of British language in the future. And they inevitably arrive at Canterbury Cathedral or the edited highlights of it, anyway. I did a story set in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral some time ago in my New Lords of Time series, but there was plenty of room for a short cameo here. The tomb of Edward, Black Prince, is, of course, a feature of the Cathedral, but he isn’t in the crypt. He seemed a perfect choice to give the message from Liz and the next clue.
Travelling on the Worth Valley Steam Railway, as seen in the classic 1970 film of The Railway Children is one of my enduring memories of a school trip that was less boring than average. The railway is beautiful, the scenery is lovely. The only fly in the ointment is the Bronte Parsonage. I have never liked their books and their life story is even duller, and the Parsonage tour is extremely boring. I am pretty sure Amy would feel the same way as me about it. Three automatons made to look like the sisters would actually be rather sinister.
They travel on from Haworth by a different kind of train, travelling through the tunnels of Starship UK. I wanted to ring the changes a bit. The Whitby scene, of course, is to see Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. I have featured the graveyard on the cliff at Whitby in stories before, too. Marion and Kristoph share their first real kiss up there on the bench where Lucy met Dracula and in New Lords of Time Davie Campbell has an adventure that starts there. It’s a fascinating location and worth revisiting from time to time!
The Duties of Clerks of Petty Session in Ireland, 1879 really is one of Bram Stoker’s works. Not recommended as a follow up to Dracula!
The last but one location isn’t quite so obvious unless you are a Torchwood fan. If you are, then you KNOW that Mermaid Quay is the place where the shrine to the late Ianto Jones is. The Water Taxi picks up near there.
The Queen is in the Tower! If not the Tower of London, there is only ONE other tower in the UK that it could be! Blackpool, of course. Just up the coast from Cardiff. Well, not ‘just’ but a water ride is called for, now. Then a lift to the top of the tower. The idea of Liz in her red gown and cloak waiting patiently on the observation deck of Blackpool Tower is just too wonderful. As for the way back to London – well, it just has to be the cable car from the Pleasure Beach! The scariest thing about those cars, apart from the fact that they’re older than I am, is having to jump aboard while they keep moving. Doing it from the top of the Tower would be terrifying.
So what is England’s smallest county? It used to be Rutland. Now it’s the Isle of Wight. It might well be again in the future. Who knows. Boundary changes make a question like that almost impossible and fights like the one Rory describes in his local pub. Google, Wikipedia and IMDB between them are the final arbiter in so many of those sort of disputes these days.
As for towing the Isle of Wight to the mainland, well, after towing planet Earth in Journey’s End, that’s hardly a struggle for the TARDIS.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Starship_UK
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Liz_Ten
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Smiler
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Winder
http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward,_the_Black_Prince
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worth_Valley_Railway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haworth_Parsonage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bront%C3%AB_sisters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_Plas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid_Quay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackpool_Pleasure_Beach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_wight
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