History 101 by: Mags L. Halliday

Whenever Doctor Who indulges in a story with a historical setting there is always the chance the audience will have little to no familiarity with the setting, so a balance must be struck to explain and explore the setting along with the plot.  History 101 is one such tale where my own knowledge of the setting is severely lacking.  The Spanish Civil War is a period of history that I only know of in passing, the American education system not really ever finding it a significant event enough to teach around in my experience.  I understand the conflict was essentially between fascists and a left wing faction of communists and socialists, and that the fascists one, but even then that is fairly limited knowledge.  Author Mags L. Halliday in writing History 101 presents this in the form of a traditional narrative, however it is explicitly wrapped in the idea of being an account of events in an attempt to be “true”.  This is while examining exactly what it means to see the “true” history of anything, Halliday never quite coming to a conclusion and much of the science fiction conflict comes from not so much altering history (though that is part of the thrust of the novel) but of altering the perception of history.  Halliday includes a rather extensive amount of resources she clearly has used for her own research and in how the novel was written.  The bombing of Guernica is the center of the novel, as well as the involvement in the Spanish Civil War of Eric Blair aka George Orwell, eventually coming to the conclusion that there was something that created an impossible question of the bombing.  It’s used to explain the Picasso masterpiece means so much because of the perception that it causes to those who view it both in person and through photographs and reproductions. 

 

Halliday as a writer is clearly inspired by Lawrence Miles’ The Adventuress of Henrietta Street in the structure of the novel, although as this is a first story her focus is never quite as direct or focused.  Once again the Eighth Doctor Adventures have a first time writer writing a good first novel before never being commissioned again (she did recently contribute to Big Finish Productions’ latest volume of Short Trips though).  History 101 is one of those novels that were it presented as a traditional novel without the pretense of preserving the “truth”, while losing some of the major thematic element might have actually flowed better because the presentation is a gimmick that only feels like lip service is played towards instead of actually integration into the novel.  Halliday’s prose, however, is actually quite easy to read, flowing quite well and keeping the cast of characters quite manageable.  The novel is only focusing on one aspect of the war after all, even if Halliday is clearly aware of how large the conflict is.  There’s also this sense that Halliday is a fan of the Hartnell historicals, at least in terms of pacing the novel because we cover quite a large timeframe which helps greatly with the immersion of the novel. 

 

Halliday excels at writing the Doctor and Fitz in particular.  They are separated for much of the novel, Anji being paired with the Doctor and sadly being characterized as a touch generic.  With the Doctor there is this sense of ephemeral fascination with history but that underlying edge that makes the Eighth Doctor work so well as a character.  When he confronts Sabbath because he’s Sabbath is in the novel and actually moving the arc forward, there is this uncertain dynamic that makes it incredibly easy to imagine how Paul McGann would have played these scenes.  Sabbath as a character is also used sparingly, but when he does appear there is that spark that really makes him work.  I don’t know if flirtatious is the word I’m looking for but there’s this fantastic connection with and parallel to who the Doctor is.  Fitz’s plot also slots very nicely into Sabbath’s plot, with the reveal that the man Fitz has been traveling with is Sabbath’s own agent in Spain, here to see the perception of history change.  Fitz is the lovable idiot, pretending to be an impartial observer even if that is something that’s an impossibility.  There’s a moment where he sings a version of “Climb Ev’ry Mountian” because he thinks that’ll work and the changes to history involved be damned.  The Absolute as a concept is also brilliant, being portrayed as almost an element of cosmic horror in terms of what it does for history and how it attempts to establish itself.  Halliday writes it almost as something that doesn’t exist, only the Doctor being able to see it for what it is, perhaps in a commentary on how people easily see what they want to see when it comes to history. 

 

Overall, History 101 is a novel that only really suffers because there are points where the author is trying too hard to do what a very different author excelled at.  It excels when it is being an examination of the perception of history through the lens of the Spanish Civil War, even if there is a lot to be packed in its pages.  There’s also a sense of direction with this and the immediate precious installment that feels as if the Eighth Doctor Adventures have somewhere to go.  7/10.