Daughter of the Gods by David K. Barnes
13 November 2019
Here's something that I put in my queue long after the marathon actually began. It was released two full years after the start of this whole project. I never imagined it would take quite this long to get here! It's an interesting feeling listening to and reviewing something so very new among all these very old stories, but this is all by the by.
I'd be remiss by not mentioning that this is a multi-Doctor story, with (as is usual) Frazer Hines standing in for the Second Doctor, and Peter Purves for the First. The commentary at the end of Daughter of the Gods makes mention of the fact that these things are often done in observance of anniversaries, and Nick Briggs almost playfully says that they'd conceived this story as a sort of "5 year" anniversary, which could have aired in 1968. Of course, this could never have happened, for many reasons...
Needless to say, William Hartnell would not have returned, but more importantly, Doctor Who was not yet in the habit of memorializing its own past. For all that The Daleks' Master Plan was only a couple of years in the past, it might as well have never happened for all that the show brings up the previous era. It's an admirable quality, in a way, a sort of "carry on and tell new stories" mentality that has kept it fresh. But it does mean that nobody at the time would have remembered, or necessarily cared, about poor Katarina.
Despite the fact that most of the relevant episodes are missing, it's ironic in a way that we today in the 2020s are far more likely to know and even care about the orphaned characters of yesteryear. Because, let's make no mistake, this is not a story about the First and Second Doctors; it's absolutely about Katarina. After the two TARDISes cross paths in the Time Vortex, both timeships are brought down on the planet Urbinia (named in the time-honored Terry Nation tradition, of course) at slightly different points in time. Once they've all caught up, the Second Doctor discovers to his horror that by arriving on Urbinia instead of Kembel, the First Doctor, Steven, and Katarina have created another timeline where the Daleks' plan to make the Time Destructor was never thwarted.
This is a fascinating conceit, and it leads to the brilliant moment in Atrias's office where the effects of the Time Destructor are witnessed in the last transmission of Urbinia's sister planet. I confess that, until that moment, I'd blanked on the fact that there are Daleks on the flippin' cover of the story and didn't make this particular connection! As far as consequences for messing up the timeline go, this is an appropriately big and epic one.
In response to this existential threat to sentient life, then, a hard question is put to the cast: whether it's right that Katarina may live, allowing this timeline where the Daleks have their superweapon to exist. And it is truly a hard choice! For all that Katarina was somewhat of a non-character in her original appearances, Ajjaz Awad breathes so much life and likeability into her; she's really just lovely in the role, in fact, evoking Adrienne Hill's original performance, but doing it quite a bit better. So after the better part of an hour getting to know this version of the character, we're told that she must die so that untold millions of others may live.
The story makes the right call when it places this decision firmly in Katarina's hands. Because the great flaw of the way the character was presented, back in Season Three, was that she has absolutely no agency. Vicki instructs her to help the Doctor and Steven, whereafter she boards the TARDIS with absolutely no frame of reference for what is happening to her. This all culminates in one of the most heartless moments ever put to screen in Doctor Who, where Katarina jettisons herself and her attacker into space, and dies. Although the Doctor tells the audience at that moment that she sacrificed herself knowingly, I seriously doubt that she could have had any idea of what she was doing.
So when she introduces herself in this audio telling Jamie that she's already dead, I was a little alarmed. Had she really been here with the First Doctor and Steven for that long without them ever telling her she wasn't dead?
And it turns out, of course they'd told her, many times, and we discover that she actually has a fairly good reason for still thinking so anyway. We discover that Katarina has the same gift as Cassandra. In the modern series, I suppose we'd probably have it explained to us that she's simply able to see into the Time Vortex in a way that most normal people cannot; much of a muchness, really. The point is that she's a spooky prophetess, which puts her attitude in her televised stories into a much more sensible context. And now she's haunted by nightmares, knowing that she was "supposed" to die weeks ago, but has not.
The realization of this, if anything, seems to hit the Doctor(s) harder than it does Katarina. The First Doctor, who is normally very strict about preserving history, is in character when he refuses to contemplate sacrificing Katarina, stubbornly insisting that there must be another way. And the Second Doctor seems altogether more old and more sad than usual as he realizes what needs to be done. But neither of them actually make the call. Crucially, that's given to Katarina.
There is an absolutely devastating scene where the Second Doctor pulls Katarina aside, and very gently, very sadly explains everything to her. Knowing that she can save countless people, Katarina agrees with him. It's beautiful, but heartbreaking, that scene. "Of course I'll remember you," he tells her, his tone heavy, despite knowing that he may very well not once the timelines are fixed.
Katarina, for the first time in her existence as a character, is actually given a choice, and when the cards are on the table, she makes the right call. Of course, nobody should ever be given a choice like this. It's a cruel trick of fate, but she faces it this time with dignity, and with the full knowledge of the consequences, even if she will forget them when time is set right again. But the fact that everyone forgets is almost secondary, because a heroic deed which is forgotten is heroic just the same. Two moral shortcomings of the Wiles era are finally corrected here: Katarina's absence of agency (The Daleks' Master Plan) and the crass selfishness of dooming many people just to save one friend (The Myth Makers).
Although she only ever knew the Doctor long enough to become his friend in a doomed timeline that soon disappeared, when the cards were on the table, Katarina did prove herself, even if she needed 55 years to make it there.
A long while ago, I asked:
Does Katarina even count?
As a companion, yes. Finally, belatedly, but unreservedly, yes.
For a last note on this, as well as a tie-in to the next post, I note that the scene where the Second Doctor, his companions, and Katarina are running back to the TARDIS while suffering the effects of the Time Destructor, as well as bringing to mind the last scene of DMP, also echoes a certain scene toward the end of Season Six's last story. Time is running out. The War Games will be played next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 19 March 2021.)
