The Bushranger's Story single work   short story   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2004... 2004 The Bushranger's Story
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The year is 1876. An Australian bushranger named Lillian Robinson is hiding her loot from a stagecoach robbery when the TARDIS materialises before her, spooking her horse, Ben. The Doctor emerges with Leela, and while chatting with the bewildered Lillian, learns that a pack of wolves have been spotted in a nearby valley. Curious, the Doctor investigates and meets a pack of Wolf People, an ancient race of humans with a mystical connection to their wolven companions; this pack was brought over from the old country for the amusement of rich Irish families, but escaped and settled in the wilderness. Lillian, startled by a wolf's sudden approach, tries to shoot it but injures herself when the gun explodes in her hand. The Doctor gives her a special kind of medicine, and the Wolf People agree to let her stay with them until she is ready to return to her own people; however, she doesn't have anything special to return to, and by the time she heals, her horse has wandered off, leaving her stranded. Lillian spends decades with the Wolf People as their community slowly dies out, and when one of the women gives birth, Lillian gives the Doctor's special medicine to the newborn girl, whom she christens Erin. Eventually, they are the last of the community, and as Erin and her wolf go walkabout into the desert, Lillian walks in the opposite direction -- and encounters a strange black highway along which motorised vehicles are moving at incredible speeds. On the verge of the highway, Lillian finds an abandoned newspaper claiming that other mythical creatures have been spotted across the world, but after all she's seen, she finds this easy to believe...'

[The Doctor is the Fourth Doctor.]

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip11.htm).

Sighted: 2/6/11

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Repercussions : A Short-Story Collection Gary Russell (editor), Maidenhead : Big Finish Productions , 2004 Z1783516 2004 anthology short story science fiction

    'All across the universe, the Doctor is hailed as a hero, a benevolent force, the man who fights the monsters, topples the dictators and frees the oppressed. Repercussions demonstrates an alternative side to this. What if, whilst doing these good, even great, deeds, the Doctor is unwittingly changing the Web of Time. Giving people knowledge they're not supposed to have. Empowering races that should have remained in the dark ages. Overthrowing the evil that, had it continued to flourish, might ultimately have brought together a greater force of good to eradicate itself.'

    Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip11.htm)

    Maidenhead : Big Finish Productions , 2004
    pg. 115-26

Works about this Work

The Doctor is In (the Antipodes) : Doctor Who Short Fiction and Australian National Identity Catriona Mills , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Doctor Who and Race 2013; (p. 213-230)
'British science-fiction family television program Doctor Who has always had a strong fan-base in Australia. This essay explores the ways in which certain of those Australian fans use the shorter forms of ancillary Doctor Who fiction to question the construction and promulgation of Australian national identity. By dropping the Doctor into significant crisis points in Australian history – from Gallipoli to the Port Arthur massacre – these authors literalize and question the process of constructing national identity, drawing to the surface the troubled and often negated role that race plays in ‘Australianness’.' (Author's abstract)
The Doctor is In (the Antipodes) : Doctor Who Short Fiction and Australian National Identity Catriona Mills , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Doctor Who and Race 2013; (p. 213-230)
'British science-fiction family television program Doctor Who has always had a strong fan-base in Australia. This essay explores the ways in which certain of those Australian fans use the shorter forms of ancillary Doctor Who fiction to question the construction and promulgation of Australian national identity. By dropping the Doctor into significant crisis points in Australian history – from Gallipoli to the Port Arthur massacre – these authors literalize and question the process of constructing national identity, drawing to the surface the troubled and often negated role that race plays in ‘Australianness’.' (Author's abstract)
Last amended 4 Aug 2011 14:42:49
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