“It’s A Matter of Memory” - Interlude: Companion Piece
“Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind.”
A side issue of all the memory man stuff we discussed last week, and the question of whether past Doctors remember the events of multi-Doctor stories or not, is that fans have also often been prompted to ask questions about whether companions remember the events of multi-Doctor stories.
On the face of it, this is an odd question, as in the twentieth century only Jamie MacCrimmon and the Brigadier are in more than one each1 and the former is a phantom in The Five Doctors (1983) anyway. But this additional query has been prompted by a couple of things. Firstly, in The Two Doctors (1985) Jamie knows all about Time Lords despite never having heard of them in The War Games (1969) his final serial as a regular character, which we would naturally assume to antedate the events of The Two Doctors from Jamie’s perspective. This has led people to wonder if his memory of the story was wiped2 in the same cavalier manner as the master tapes of most of his adventures were.3
Fandom traditionally answers this problem by referring to “Season 6b”. This is a retcon explanation for how Doctor Who can be played by Patrick Troughton in stories fandom has decided take place after The War Games rather than simply being made after them. It was first advocated and named in Virgin’s Doctor Who – The Discontinuity Guide in 1994 and has gained wide acceptance in fandom since its publication.4
Briefly, this theory held that immediately after the end credits of The War Games the Time Lords either changed their minds or were revealed to have been play-acting for an audience unknown and then sent the Second Doctor off on missions. Terrance Dicks, who wrote The War Games and The Five Doctors, ultimately accepted the theory himself, and wrote two novels (1999’s Players and 2003’s World Game) that portrayed events during this time of the Doctor’s life.5
According to this theory, the Jamie of The Two Doctors is an older Jamie who has rejoined an older Second Doctor some years after The War Games a solution that Dicks accepts in the pages of World Game and later incorporated into some audio drama from Big Finish6.
More complex is the matter of Sarah Jane Smith. Although Sarah appears in The Five Doctors and briefly meets The Peter Davison Doctor when she does so, she doesn’t refer to this in 2007’s School Reunion (2007). She instead makes references to how she came to believe that the Tom Baker Doctor died after leaving her behind in The Hand of Fear (1976). How can these be reconciled without assuming that she has somehow, by accident or design, forgotten the events of The Five Doctors?
After all, she leaves Gallifrey in The Five Doctors in a TARDIS created by Rassilon via “temporal fission”7 and in the company of the Jon Pertwee Doctor, who is from her past. The Hurndall Doctor and Susan Foreman and the Troughton Doctor and the Brigadier also leave Gallifrey this way, and there’s an argument that, following “War Games Rules” Rassilon wipes all their memories as he send them on their way, before splitting them up. As Susan has not yet appeared in television Doctor Who again, and neither the Brigadier or the Troughton Doctor mention the events of The Five Doctors when they do, Sarah’s conduct in School Reunion might be taken to be imply that they all lose their memories of that story at the same time and in the same way.
But there is another way: In The Five Doctors a Sarah Jane from after The Hand of Fear and K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend meets and adventures with a Pertwee Doctor who is implicitly from between The Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders (both 1974). She knows this is a “past” Doctor, so this meeting wouldn’t necessarily stop her from, in later years, coming to believe that the Tom Baker Doctor had died.
“But surely,” you say, “She meets the Davison Doctor?” Well, yes. But only sort of. After the Pertwee Doctor and Sarah arrive in the Tomb, Sarah stands with and speaks to the Fifth Doctor’s companion Tegan (but we don't see what they say) but that's before Davison’s Doctor arrives in the Tomb with Borusa. So Tegan is unable to point at him and say that he is her Doctor or even find the common reference point of him being “after” their mutual Doctor - “All teeth and curls”.
The moment the Davison Doctor does arrive in the Tomb everyone but Borusa and the Doctor(s) is frozen, unable to move or speak until he gives them leave.8 Sarah and Tegan don't talk again after that onscreen and they don't have the space to talk offscreen. (We never cut away from the Tomb.) The gaggle of companions are unfrozen after Borusa becomes a statue and Rassilon goes away. Then everyone says goodbye at the end. This is what happens when Sarah meets the Davison Doctor.
PERTWEE DOCTOR:
(To DAVISON) Well, goodbye, my dear chap. I must say, I've
had the time of my lives. Haven't we, Sarah Jane?
SARAH:
(To PERTWEE) Have we? Well, I only have one life and I think
I've had too much already.
(To DAVISON) Goodbye. Er, yes, it was
really nice meeting you.
PERTWEE DOCTOR:
Thank you, Sarah Jane, it was nice meeting you, too.
SARAH:
What?
PERTWEE DOCTOR:
I'll explain later.
SARAH:
Oh. Fine.
Sladen, a thoughtful performer, ever in command of her text delivers this line to indicate that Sarah is in the process of realising that she hasn't actually met the person she is saying goodbye to. (Which she hasn't.) Then, she’s confused when the Pertwee Doctor thanks her for what she’s said to Davison Doctor. Because she doesn’t know Davison is the Doctor and Pertwee’s Doctor has realised this and made a joke about it because he thinks it’s funny. I mean, you don’t have to take my word for it.
The Pertwee Doctor, of course, does not get the chance to explain, as moments later everyone is returned to their proper place in time and space. Just taking the words on the page, but even more so when you take into account how it is played, Sarah Jane has not grasped that the cricket fella is yet another Doctor, and her confusion at Pertwee's gag underlines that. Other readings are possible, but it seems to me to be the most prominent one in the text itself.9
So there you go, nothing in The Five Doctors stops Sarah believing the Tom Baker Doctor later died and nothing in School Reunion means Sarah Jane must forget the events of The Five Doctors. I mean, she might have. If you want her to have, maybe she did. But she doesn’t need to have for her later appearances to make sense.
I think the real question is if this moment inspired someone to name their band.10
This century Yaz is in both Fugitive of the Judoon (2020) and The Power of the Doctor (2022) but she doesn’t meet more than one Doctor in either. Tegan is in The Five Doctors (1983) and The Power of the Doctor (2022), but in the latter the Fifth Doctor she meets is a hologram anyway. Kate is in The Day of the Doctor and The Power of the Doctor but nothing relevant to this debate comes up. Let’s not get into Clara’s cameo in Twice Upon a Time (2017). Except to say it’s lovely. 10/10 no notes. ↩
Some point before his memory of all his stories was wiped in The War Games, they mean. Confused? You will be! ↩
Too soon? YES. I’m sorry. I’ve upset myself now. ↩
Although it has some interesting and accidental antecedents in comic strips published in 1969. ↩
The problem with this for me is not that it can’t be made to work by bending continuity points. It can. But so can anything else. The problem is that to me it’s dramatically and emotionally wrong. I can’t imagine watching The War Games Episode Ten and then telling myself it’s not the end of everything. Or crying like a baby. But other and equally valid views are available, and people have done good work thanks to holding them. ↩
Although, to be fair, other Big Finish productions advance a different explanation for the discontinuities in The Two Doctors. Interestingly, advocates of the ‘6b’ idea never seem to notice that The Three Doctors (4x25m) The Five Doctors (1x90m) and The Two Doctors (3x45m) between them add up to roughly 14x25m worth of material. I.e. a post 1985 twentieth century series of Doctor Who’s worth. If there is a fourth Troughton series, it’s these episodes together.) ↩
Except in the “Special Edition” where she leaves via a badly designed CGI Mr Whippy effect for no reason anyone has ever been able to explain, ascertain or justify. But I digress. ↩
Although the Brigadier successfully turns his head as Borusa does his incantation, so either it takes longer to effect him than the others or this is a production mistake. *cough* ↩
I’m not bothered by the Tennant Doctor saying he’s regenerated “half a dozen” times since he last met Sarah. The term is rhetorical, not exact, although if you include John Hurt’s War Doctor, it’s exact too. Ha ha! ↩
It didn’t. They’re spelled differently, they’re their real names and they’re sisters born before the story was made. Yes, I know I’m no fun. I never said I was fun. I’d like to be fun. ↩