Some very unusual little girls playing hide and seek near a graveyard is only one strange but fascinating scene in Furies From the Deep by editor and creative consultant Richard Dinnick. Surely, this will be another intriguing story for The Legacy . Richard’s thoughts about his novella begin this way, ‘I really like the first scene in the graveyard, in which the Doctor is exploring this seemingly familiar and benign environment, but then like a snowball going down hill, he sees increasingly disturbing things, culminating in his own grave. I was conscious at the time (and still am) that this is vaguely reminiscent of a similar scene in “Revelation of the Daleks” in which Colin Baker sees his grave, but I dismissed these thoughts. The original (non clone) Doctor’s grave is part of the mythos of The Legacy and I wanted to do a bit of foreshadowing for the anniversary story that I was at that time co-authoring with Andie. Alas, I had to pull out of The Dommervoy Masterplan, but this “teaser” remains.’ Then Richard continues, ‘I also like the ending. Being such an unusual story, I didn’t want it to end conventionally and I hope people will be pleased with how it turns out. It was my intention all along for what happens to happen! Indeed, it is embedded in the Greek myth of the Furies…’ For a story that has part of its inspiration in myth, Furies (like the previous tale, Winter Light) is perhaps hard to describe except to say that it is not conventional by any means. ‘After Tiger’s Eye, which was a very traditional Doctor Who story, I wanted to move into the realms of the bizarre,’ he says. ‘I have always been a fan of the “The Mind Robber”, “Warrior’s Gate” and the like and wanted to produce my own off-the-wall Who. Also, at the time Andie was commissioning the story, he did not want it to feature any monsters, as there was a serious Cyber story coming up and he wanted Ruby to be appalled by these aliens and have travelling in the TARDIS being not at all as she expected. I toyed with several ideas (including a Silurian story called The Talons of Xieng Khouang – after all they’re not really monsters, are they??) and a straight thriller-type affair, which didn’t even have a title.’ Pausing, he adds, ‘I am quite pleased with the end result. I wanted to push boundaries a bit and I really wanted to take a look at the character of the Doctor. Of its many stems, Furies has two that readily spring to mind. One was a line from “Pyramids of Mars” in which Sutekh says something along the lines of “your evil is my good” and the other was the situation in Iraq. It seems that in these two (completely disparate) cases, the idea of right and wrong/good and evil being just matter of perspective was being argued. I wanted to put the Doctor under the microscope from that point of view and see just how “good” he actually is. I would imagine that if the diverse cultures and religions of Earth have differences of opinion on the matter, then other races and planets would be even further removed from the very Western viewpoint the Doctor often assumes. ‘What I found was that there were many grey areas with our favourite Time Lord. While he might save a race, he wouldn’t bat an eyelid at the sacrifice of an individual or sometimes vice versa. All of this came out in the wash during the latter stages of Virgin’s New Adventures, but even with The Legacy’s own 4th and now 5th Doctors, there was ammunition aplenty for the Furies (and me!) to use against him.’ Furies From the Deep then, is obviously an intricate tale, but one that was written fairly quickly, yet still took a long time to complete. ‘In terms of actually sitting down and writing, Furies did not take that long – say about two or three weeks. However, as I have many other commitments; business, family, other writing, etc, it took a while to polish it off. So, in all about four months!’ Richard explains. As for what he will write next for Doctor Who: The Legacy, he comments, ‘As I say, I had to pull out of the anniversary story, which was a big disappointment, but I am returning next year with a story entitled Timeshock. Initially, it was called Time-Quake, but its essence remains the same. It kicks off the “Triumvirate Trilogy”, about which, I have to say, I am very excited due to the ideas and people running through it. My story will be a return to the more conventional Who story, basically being a rip-roaring adventure in time and space, culminating in the period perhaps best known to readers of The Legacy – the Federation era. In the same way that Tiger’s Eye featured old foes and new creatures, this will have the Draconians, Alpha Centurians, Taureans, Ossobans et al, but will also feature my own creations in the traditional “monster” role as well as a few surprise appearances…’ A few surprises will definitely be in store as well in Furies From the Deep, the third story of the fourth season for Doctor Who: The Legacy. Teaser A shadow passed over the Doctor’s face and he raised his head to see a nasty black cloud passing across the sun. It was even more incongruous than the Police Box nestled nearby; for the sky had been completely clear a moment before. As the dark interloper drifted away to the horizon, there came a sound of creaking hinges. The Doctor looked round at the door in the far wall. As it opened, a girl of no more than about ten stepped through and started stepping carefully between the graves. The lace-trimmed dress she wore was identical in hue to the bunch of yellow Daffodils she clasped in her arms – the same flowers that adorned a number of the graves, the Doctor realised. Her flame red hair was kept in place by a starched white Alice-band and, despite her obvious familiarity with the graveyard, she seemed nervous. Somehow it felt intrusive to call to her, so the Doctor just watched as she bent down beside one of the graves and placed the bunch of flowers in a metal urn. Without ceremony, she stood once more and made her way back the way she had come - towards the door in the wall. As she did so, the Doctor realised she seemed somehow unreal, as if he were watching a film in which the colours had been enhanced by computer. ‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ he muttered. Intrigued, the Doctor strolled over to the grave she had visited. From the rear, he could see that the headstone was another new one, but this one was highly polished black granite. In moments he was standing at the foot of the grave. He squinted against the fierce sunshine and lifted a hand to shade his eyes, allowing him to read the clearly chiselled inscription. Its words chilled him to the core of his being. “Here lies The Doctor Dear friend, and trusted hero He died saving the Universe”