The Blue Angel

[Original blog post on Tumblr: March 4th, 2016]

Some highlights of the last EDA I’ve read (The Blue Angel).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers. And extremely long.

I started to read the EDAs more than a year ago. And people started to send me messages about this book almost as soon as I started, not to tell me it was good, but to tell me is was the most confusing thing in the entire world. It’s not that confusing in the end. Well, it is VERY confusing while you’re reading it, as you’ll see in this retroactive liveblog, but not once the book is over. There’s a lot of hints on what’s going on, and the final questions basically spell it out for you.

The Blue Angel is a book about the War, but it talks about almost anything BUT that, criticising the idea of the War itself, and demonstrating that, in its current form (as depicted since Alien Bodies), the War means the death of the story of Doctor Who. Total narrative collapse. Complete extinction, nowhere to go. The nature of the criticism itself means the main plot of this book doesn’t have a proper conclusion, so in the end, the story is fairly frustrating. But it’s basically the author saying “the only reasonable option left for our heroes at this point is to flee this insoluble situation and never look back, because war is complex, and ugly, and no-one can solve it on their own.”

And he does so with giant owls, tyrannical elephants, batlike priests, angels, sirens, glass people and emerald cities. Still a bit frustrating, but definitely brilliant. 9,5/10 (I kind of hope that the next books will be less good, because making long posts like this one is exhausting!)

---

First person. That’s very unusual in this series.

Wait whAT

WHY ARE EIGHT, FITZ AND COMPASSION LIVING ON EARTH

It’s page number one and I’m already confused.

Does Eight have amnesia again or something? That would only be the eighteenth million time so no surprise there, but still.

Also Fitz is reading the Aja’ib from The Scarlet Empress.

So... wait. Is the Doctor having flashbacks about his previous adventures? If so, why does Fitz think it’s some kind of psychotic crisis? He should know these adventures actually happened to them.

Don’t tell me they all have amnesia.

Meanwhile (?) or before (??) the Doctor is busy getting on everyone’s nerves on a spaceship. A spaceship which is kind of a Star Trek parody (but I don’t know much about Star Trek anyway, so yeah).

“HOLLOW DECK”

Meanwhile (?) or before (??), Iris Wildthyme (yay!) is meeting old ladies and a strange young guy named Ian in a shopping mall, and so far I’m still confused, how the hell do the three stories connect with each other?

Friendly reminder that Iris Wildthyme is awesome.

Also, friendly reminder that Paul Magrs’ writing is absolutely lovely, and that’s a very strange thing for me to say because so far, I don’t like most of the audios he wrote (well, the ones I’ve listened to anyway).

“Blandish snatched his hand back”

Also, Belinda sees elephants threatening to start a war. Hmmm.

This bathtub-teleporter thing is both hilarious and slightly disturbing.

Eeeeee I love this I’m so happy

Also VALHALLA

Meanwhile (?) in that strange story thread where the Doctor is living a relatively normal life on Earth with Compassion and Fitz, Compassion is burning some old books and I want to headbutt her.

Don’t you have old useless furniture you could burn BEFORE you start to burn old books - just saying?

Uh. Interesting.

Okay so Compassion is “new around here” too. So this isn’t happening in the far future. This is either a very near future or some sort of alternate universe where somehow they are all living a relatively normal life.

This (alternate?) Doctor still remembers Gila from The Scarlet Empress, to some degree.

Uh.

So... that’s not an alternate universe, then? That’s in the near future and they can’t remember what happened before?

Is... that the Third Doctor? I’m so confused.

Pretty sure that’s (alternate?) Three. What the hell is going on.

MEANWHILE, IN THE MAIN STORY THREAD:

Lightbulbs filled with luminescent worms (ʘ‿ʘ✿)

He’s clearly enjoying this.

Oooooooh. Those are the creatures that the (alternate?) Doctor from the “living-on-Earth” story thread is seeing in his dreams. So either he’s remembering them from his past, or he IS an alternate Eighth Doctor and he’s having unvolontary “glances” into the “regular” Eighth Doctor’s life.

I love the Glass Men okay

Meanwhile, Iris and the old ladies from that other story thread are... blocked in the shopping mall?

WHAT OWLS WHAT WHY HOW GIANT OWLS HOW

Okay, let me correct this - meanwhile, Iris and the old ladies from that other story thread are ATTACKED BY GIANT SNOWY OWLS, THIS IS SO COOL

“If you want to actually SAVE YOUR SCRAGGY OLD ARSES, then I suggest you follow me” Iris is on fire in this book, my god.

I love the city of the Glass Men!

HE FINALLY ADMITS IT

Eight realising why he misses his companions, everybody.

Ah, my previous visit I remember nothing about. That visit?

Must admit I laughed out loud

No, it’s definitely not unusual, but in that case it seems to be an impostor.

Oh, so, is that “living-on-Earth” story thread some kind of Human Nature situation?

Also some of the dreams looked very low-budget so they are probably not real

Glad to finally have confirmation that those kisses in the TV Movie were just like the “happy-to-be-alive” kisses that he plants on his companions in the EDAs, also it makes perfect sense.

So the owls are coming from a specific... place in space? Place in spacetime? Universe? Pocket universe? I don’t know, but it’s called the Enclave.

I LOVE THIS WHOLE DESCRIPTION - One day I’ll have to draw Iris’ bus.

Aha, Iris is calling Eight’s TARDIS for help, so two of the three story threads are now linked - things are starting to be a lot less confusing!

“We can’t have landed in forty-three places at once :P ...CAN WE? D:”

“FITZ AT THE CONTROLS WAS A HORRIFYING PROSPECT”

Oh my god

Uh. So Compassion is picking up specifics signals and interfaces from the TARDIS that the others can’t perceive. Interesting.

FITZ IS WEARING THE FOURTH DOCTOR’S SCARF OH MY GOD

???

Okay, so, in the “living-on-Earth” story thread, there’s also Iris and a version of Sarah Jane called Sally (who talks a lot to her dog, named Canine). And Sally wrote a book based on a fantasy version of Iris. That’s some hardcore mise en abyme right there.

WAIT I THINK I GET IT

SO THE “LIVING-ON-EARTH” STORY THREAD IS TAKING PLACE IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE CALLED THE OBVERSE, AND IRIS IS APPARENTLY THE ONE WHO BROUGHT EVERYONE TO THE OBVERSE, AND SHE DID SO TO PREVENT “THE ENDING OF A WAR”

I MIGHT BE WRONG ABOUT THIS BUT - IS SHE TALKING ABOUT THE FIRST VERSION OF THE TIME WAR

Okay calm down back to the main plot

So... the villain is a big jade elephant called Daedalus. Why not?

Eight sounds pretty tired of constantly meeting evil despots.

Also Eight’s memory is shittier than ever.

THAT’S A TERRIBLE COMPARISON, DOCTOR

I laughed so damn hard, I’m so sorry

Also Daedalus is a war criminal who was changed into a jade elephant by the enchanters of Hyspero as a punishment, and that’s wonderful

“PEDANTIC GUARDIANS OF CANONICITY AND LIKELIHOOD”

So the Obverse is an alternate universe.

“IT’S A HORMONAL THING” - IRIS, NO.

Compassion still has zero social skills and even if I don’t like her very much (she isn’t a very pleasant person to be around), that’s pretty funny.

...................you could have removed your coat before sitting in the mud..?

Meanwhile in the Obverse, alternate Eight likes to attend funerals what the hell

More things connecting the Obverse story to the main plot!

...

Oh my god

Okay okay I think I got it, I think I got what the author is trying to do here, and if it’s what I think it is, it’s actually brilliant.

Okay so at this point of the EDAs, the series is clearly heading towards a version of the Time War in which the Doctor is, ultimately, supposed to die ; we know this since Alien Bodies. And it was okay as long as it was supposed to happen in some distant future, because that “final chapter” of Doctor Who (of sorts) was VAGUE and DISTANT. The Doctor would ultimately die in a gigantic spacetime War, but in a long, long time in the future, after several regenerations.

But Interference clearly shows that whatever that mysterious War is, it’s going to happen very soon. And that's a problem, like, an enormous problem for the series. Because that would literally mean the death of Doctor Who as a story.

So there's three possibilities at this point if they don’t want to reboot the entire damn series:

1. the authors back out of the War storyline completely, which we know they didn’t do because it’s such a big plot point in 2005 Doctor Who,
2. or they tweak the concept of the War to the point where the Doctor doesn’t have to die in it, which we know they did because, hey, the series still exists,
3. or they do continue the War storyline as it’s supposed to happen, aka, the permanent death of the main character with no get-out clause, and the story suffers a complete friggin narrative collapse.

And at this point in the EDAs, I think the author of this book, Paul Magrs, was afraid the storyline was heading towards the third possibility.

So what I get from this Obverse thing, in which Iris put the whole current team TARDIS to “save” them, is that it's Paul Magrs's way of saying "we need to find a solution to avoid that War storyline, OR ELSE, guess what, we'll have to remove the Doctor ENTIRELY from the narrative to avoid his death, and the death of the story with him. Because that will be the only option left."

I wrote this after having a discussion with Laurelhach about that book, a few hours after I had read this part of the book. So I may be wrong, but I wanted to save this somewhere.

Resuming liveblog in 3, 2, 1:

I’m very surprised this book was written in 1999 because that sounds like a parody of Bush’s post-2001 politics, right there.

In the main story, the Doctor is also prevented from interfering in a war, on a much smaller scale, and it really echoes what I just wrote about the Obverse, and my theory is right, isn’t it, I’ve cracked this book, haven’t I, oh my god, I’m feeling some kind of rush

“I CAN DRIVE THIS THING IN MY SLEEP AND SOMETIMES I DO”

I’m getting unexpectedly emotional about the destruction of the City of the Glass Men of Valcea. The place looked very vivid and beautiful in my mind.

Daedalus understands surprisingly well what makes the Doctor tick.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT IS A SMALLER SCALE VERSION OF THE TIME WAR HOLY SHIT AND DAEDALUS JUST DECIDED TO START IT

Pretty sure he’s having flashbacks from Genesis of the Daleks.

I’m also getting very emotional about Obverse!Eight and his little garden.

He knows something is not right about his timeline but can’t do anything about it, oh no, poor dear.

...Those were my favorite flowers when I was a kid. No joke. Nowadays it’s nympheas. As if I needed yet another reason to identify to this character a bit more. This is terrible and needs to stop.

Ohhh I didn’t know that about them. Interesting!

He knows what’s going on with the Obverse on some level, I tell you.

Okay, back to the main plot.

OKAY SO THE GHILLIGHAST ARE TRADITIONAL ENEMIES OF THE GLASS MEN AND THEY ARE BATLIKE CREATURES IN ROBES AND I LOVE THEM OKAY EEEEE THIS IS WONDERFUL

ALSO THEY WANT TO THROW A LITERAL SURPRISE PARTY FOR BELINDA AND MARN THE GLASS MAN

ALSO THEIR POWERS RESIDE IN THEIR ABILITY TO MANIPULATE LICE

SO FAR THERE ISN’T A SINGLE THING I DON’T LOVE ABOUT THE GHILLIGHAST

And now back to the destruction of the Glass City and this is not okay

I kinda want to cry a little bit, usually this level of destruction in these books doesn’t make me so emotional but here we are

So this war in the Enclave, which apparently serves as a small-scale metaphor of the War, involves five races and Daedalus. Including the giant Owls from the beginning. Everything is beginning to make sense.

Obverse!Eight has a mother?

OBVERSE!EIGHT’S MOTHER IS A MERMAID IN A WHEELCHAIR?? HOW COOL IS THAT?

So first, this dialogue is lovely, and second, Obverse!Eight also has two hearts. Which is interesting. Iris literally transplanted the Doctor from one universe to the other and just let inconsistencies patch themselves. He’s got this strange biology not because he’s a Time Lord, but because, in this new life he’s got in the Obverse, his mother is a mermaid. :D

...and he has no navel.

Back to the main story!

“WATCH THIS, KIDDIWINKS”

The Doctor’s life in a nutshell: corridors, corridors, corridors.

The Ghillighast’s god is named Pesst, teehee!

Woah there Meisha, don’t use that old trope, I was hoping the Ghillighast were above terrible scifi/fantasy tropes like that one.

Meanwhile Fitz and Iris are on the Owls’ world, in their larder to be precise.

“A SODDING B MOVIE”

Ooooooh. So Ian the strange guy is both Daedalus’ kid and the Blue Angel of the title, then!

Aw he’s so disappointed. Still, could be far worse.

This war is getting more complex by the second.

This is the nicest “married to a deity from another culture” ceremony I’ve ever seen in any medium. Usually the trope is used as a horror trope. But here, it’s just a big party, and Belinda wasn’t coerced into it at all! The Ghilligast are so awesome and so nice.

I love this scene so much I’m almost crying oh my god

Compassion still has zero social skills and looks rude because of it...

That sounds like a bad idea.

Meanwhile, Fitz and Iris are fleeing the Owls! On horses!!

FITZ NO

I can’t believe this dork has a crush on Iris Wildthyme.

Wait what

FITZ HAS A CRUSH ON THE DOCTOR TOO

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

I KNEW A TON OF PEOPLE SHIPPED THEM BUT I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS THAT OBVIOUS IN THE ACTUAL BOOKS, THIS IS NOW 100% BETTER

Eight’s musical tastes, everyone!

Compassion may not be obvious companion material, but she is a good foil for the Doctor. Especially this one.

See?

I can’t tell if he genuinely doesn’t know when he’s flirting or not.

Iris no

Floating blue babies what the f█ck

Meanwhile Obverse!Eight only confirms my theory more and more and that’s very satisfying to be honest

It’s also a good character study - the series can’t work with the Doctor dead, but the Doctor can’t really work with the series dead.

Owls myths and legends! (ʘ‿ʘ✿)

Woah so Ian is also a mythical being that the Owls were supposed to prevent from hatching??

..........I also loved the story of Baba Yaga as a kid, and between this and the flower thing, this book makes me uncomfortable in very unexpected ways

Everyone is converging towards the throne room of Daedalus and I have no idea how all the plot could be solved, because the book is very nearly over?? I haven’t even screened the parts involving the Star Trek-like crew and the lizard people oh my god.

This description is painting some very impressive pictures in my head.

Again, how the hell are they going to solve this??

Wait what

Are they actually fleeing??

You’re all running away just as the shit is about to hit the fan?!

You are. You are running away from this gigantic mess.

Oh, so maybe they aren’t. My bad.

I have no words

If you were wondering how complicated the situation really is, here’s a pretty good summary.

Iris is from the Obverse??

I don’t think they can fix this, guys.

Meanwhile in the Obverse, Obverse!Fitz is talking to Canine about stories within stories. Interesting.

Also, somehow, Sally’s book narrates the dreams of Obverse!Eight. Does it mean that Sally is actually writing the whole series?

I kinda want to frame this little exchange

The Owls already killed Icarus, so this list is making me sad.

SO SHE WAS RUNNING AWAY WITH NO INTENT TO BRING THEM BACK TO THAT WAR

I JUST REALISED

SHE REMOVED HIM FROM THAT WAR TO STOP HIM FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN IT BECAUSE HE COULDN’T DO ANYTHING AT THAT POINT

THAT’S A SMALLER, SIMPLER VERSION OF WHAT SHE SUPPOSEDLY DID IN THE OBVERSE STORY THREAD OH MY GOD

My theories about things are so rarely correct that I’m practically howling internally

This book is an absolutely brilliant commentary on where the series is going at this point and why it shouldn’t go there. I love it.

Is that implying that Iris is one of the causes of the (other, bigger) War?! Wow.

No. No you don’t.

Also, in the Obverse, Iris is going for a midnight walk. Naked. WTF, Iris.

OBVERSE!EIGHT, NO.

Also you have a bad leg so that’s a terrible idea

So... Obverse!Eight had a bad leg because of that strange blue thing who touched “our” Eight’s leg, and it put a creature inside of it. The levels of whatthefuckery are very high.

That’s probably the most WTF-esque ending in the history of EDAs endings so far. Also may I remind you that they are both naked in this scene. In a park. With snow everywhere. And Obverse!Eight has a bleeding, wounded leg.