Doctor Who worth remembering: State of Change by Christopher Bulis

The Wilderness Years gave us so many great Doctor Who novels. So is State of Change by Christopher Bulis one of them?

The Sixth Doctor in the 90s was going through a rough time, referred to as “Time’s Chump” as opposed to the Seventh Doctor’s “Time’s Champion” by the Doctor Who fandom. It was still a long way before Big Finish redeemed him, and Virgin wasn’t doing him any favors. Famously going with the idea that the Seventh Doctor had sacrificed his Sixth incarnation somehow, (as the Seventh Doctor was really what the universe needed at the time, despite how this doesn’t actually make sense,) it certainly left the Sixth Doctor in a strange position.

Well, the whole thing seems undeserved since I liked the Sixth Doctor from the moment he showed up, but then again, I was hyped up about his “unlikableness” for so long that I couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised when he was nowhere near as bad as I was told. Just like the reactions to IDW’s Transformers comics, the hate was unwarranted. I even don’t mind the coat.

Still, in the 90s Doctor Who was gone and nobody was sure if it was going to come back, and while everyone was pointing as many fingers as possible over who got it canceled, the Sixth Doctor was unfortunately often blamed for at least playing a part in it.

A slow pace?

So how does State of Change, the first Sixth Doctor Missing Adventure, handle him at this unstable time in his popularity? Well by page 68 he’s already regressed into the Fifth Doctor due to reasons after spending like five pages getting out of a tomb as slowly as possible, just to end up having to go back into the TARDIS.

Then it takes until almost page 90 for him to actually start walking around Rome after even more pages describing him coming up with a device that will allow him to actually start exploring the location he’s landed in. So, uh.

Granted, a lot of this part of the novel is simply pages upon pages of characters who might be more interesting if this was a Big Finish audio, but as is, are lacking the appeal of something written by, say, Andrew Cartmel. You can read it just fine; you don’t hate yourself doing it like if you were reading Tomb of Valdemar, but man it drags. Well, speaking of letting things drag, let’s stop avoiding the subject of what this novel is actually about.

From Egypt to Rome

The Sixth Doctor and Peri are visiting Egypt to take turns peeping at Cleopatra in the flesh, when they eventually decide to skip ahead a bit in the time stream to get to the good parts, as is the privilege of anyone with a time machine. After setting off in the TARDIS, a strange energy event happens due to outside influences that, while only mere seconds pass for the Doctor and Peri, years and years pass outside the TARDIS. Also, Peri is nude during this. (It was the 90s.)

Eventually, they realize they’ve skipped so far ahead that they ended up in Cleopatra’s tomb, and when they emerge, they find themselves in Ancient Rome, with steam-powered ships and telephone poles dotting the landscape. It’s all way too advanced for the time and the Doctor starts marking out.

What’s more, something is interfering with the Eye of Harmony, making it so the TARDIS can’t recharge. Whatever is happening, they’re stuck there. Add onto that all the stuff I mentioned earlier and this is quite a pickle to be in. 100 slow pages of pickle.

Picking up the pace

Then the Doctor invents a Ben 10 wristwatch that stops him from regressing and he goes out to find out just what the heck is going on around here. Find out why the world changed, why everything is suddenly so advanced what with the electricity and blimps, and why everything is messing him and Peri up!

This leads to what finally makes the story pick up the pace. It’s really more a shift rather than subject matter, like the writer was suddenly switched out with another one. Anyway, the Doctor hears of a mysterious Oracle, and after several pages finds it to be not a human, but an exact replica of his TARDIS console down to the very last detail. And worse, it’s giving these sneaky Romans information they shouldn’t be learning, like, how to make an atom bomb.

Previous personalities

Of course, he gets caught red-handed, which leads to the best idea in the book. That device the Doctor built for himself to keep from becoming past regenerations basically becomes a Kamen Rider Ghost-like watch, allowing him, with some adjustments, to access the skills of past Doctors, such as the Third Doctor’s sword-fighting abilities. Or, to be more precise, pretty much exclusively the Third Doctor’s sword and combat abilities. (Hey, the First Doctor could drunken box too you know! Granted he did it in a BBC novel made in 2004 but…)

While very interesting and would have frankly been great television, it does lend itself to the notion that the Sixth Doctor was an embarrassment at this point and time. As if the Sixth Doctor becoming the past more likeable versions of the Doctor might make the story more palatable to a wondering eye skimming the details of this book.

Also, Peri is nude while also being a bird.

Like a bird

Well okay, it’s not just the Doctor who’s regressing: as I mentioned earlier, Peri is too. Reverting back to how she was in Vengeance on Varos, although keeping her human face if the image on the cover is anything to go on. Since she ends up being completely covered in feathers, Peri decides she really only needs a bikini top and a belt for her modesty. (It was the 90s.)

Speaking of, and skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers for where that goes but, it’s odd. Much is made of Peri’s state of undress as a bird, along with her letting it consume her and how life is just so much better as a nude bird lady.

But when the eventuality of her becoming human again happens, it’s about all of one page and she gets dressed off-screen. Which makes me wonder why there was so much focus on her state of undress? At the very least I was expecting a big comedy scene to come out of it.

Maybe the author was working something out.

The Sixth Doctor: gladiator!

Back on topic, the Doctor is captured despite his impressive sword fighting, as his sword fighting was TOO impressive, catching the attention of one of Anthony and Cleopatra’s brat (adult) children. Soon the Doctor is told he is to fight in the gladiatorial games for his freedom for mucking about with the oracle, which, spoilers, is the best part of the entire book.

Oh sure, there’s some other stuff about Peri and the Doctor (using a two-way webcam/walkie talkie so he’s doing this alongside all that stuff I mentioned previously) helping the non-annoying child of Cleopatra and Anthony gain more favor so he can rule or something, and yeah there’s a returning villain from the TV show that wants revenge as you do.

BUT, the DOCTOR in the GLADIATOR GAMES? That’s the good stuff you want baby, it does not disappoint, outside of it not just being longer. It’s just a shame he’s channeling the Third Doctor throughout most of it.

Reliving lives

There is a scene of course where the Doctor does become all his past incarnations, ending on Hartnell so sorry, Chibnall. But it’s not excessive. In fact, to go against everything I was saying earlier about how it cheapens the Sixth Doctor in a time when he really should have been the one to shine, it’s over rather too quickly for my liking.

Similar to the Peri thing there’s a lot of set up for just like two paragraphs of the Fourth Doctor saying “WUT? JELLY BABIES? CATCHPHRASE? WOULD YOU LIKE AN oh I’m the Third Doctor now” and so on. I wonder if this novel was rushed.

Still, I liked it. If I wasn’t clear, while it does take a while for it to get going, once it does it doesn’t let up. The gladiator fight is just perfect Doctor Who in my opinion, and the parts leading up to it and after aren’t half bad either. And outside of the sudden bout of naturalism that I focused so much text on, Peri is also written rather well. Yes, it’s all great, and the ending has a nice implication in it.

Oh, and I guess Day of the Moon references this story, so look out for that.

What do you think about the Sixth Doctor’s portrayal in novels or the works of Christopher Bulis? Was the Peri bird transformation and exhibitionism not the author’s fetish and I’m just looking too much into it? Let us know in the comments below.