The Roof of the World

The Doctor, Peri and Erimem arrive in Tibet in 1917 and the Doctor is invited to a cricket game held by English explorers and military personnel. High up in the Himalayas, though, and ancient evil is sitting waiting to awaken and resume a spree of destruction and terror it commenced centuries before being banished to this place. And as the TARDIS arrives, it senses its opportunity at last.

No, it's not another Great Intelligence story. I myself thought it might be what with the setting not being too far down the road from the old Det-Sen Monastary of The Abominable Snowmen, but no. In fact there's no reference to it at all, although the Doctor does drop the name of Lord Cranleigh from Black Orchid to smooth the way a bit with the English army.

What this story is, though, is a big character peice about Erimem, who is feeling a bit distant and traumatized by recent events. Peri is at least somewhat braced for her adventures with the Doctor due to her contemporary (insofar as 1984 can be contemporary when writing from a 2007 viewpoint) background, but for Erimem things are not always as easy to absorb or understand. Her cultural isolation from her companions makes her ripe for an attack by the disembodied force in the mountains, and it plays upon her feelings of abandonment and insignificanc, even convincing her that the Doctor and Peri feel relieved at the idea of being without her, when the reality of it is they are desperate to find her and bring her back to the fold.

Now I'll admit that I found the whole Erimem as fish-out-of-water a bit irritating after a while, but that's what happens when one tries to pack away a whole adventure every day and not space them out to an extent. As you can see by the date it's been quite a while since I blogged any of this - and for a time I considered stopping altogether but there's just something about Doctor Who that makes you want to talk about, it to write about it, to think about the characters and dig into what motivates them. Erimem's motivation is unique; in the eyes of her people she has trancended life itself and lives amongst the gods, but she knows that she is a mere mortal, as are her companions, and they deal with the god-like. What her destiny would have been if she had stayed on Earth is anyone's guess, and what it will ultimately be with the Doctor is a greater puzzle still, but her perspective on the TARDIS and her companions is unique as the only period companion since Victoria Waterfield.

For now, though, she does have a future. Of course the Doctor saves her. Of course they go on.

NEXT EPISODE : THREE'S A CROWD