Saturday, July 7, 2007

Aftershock

This is my second-most popular piece of writing, second only to The Penumbra Cell and a review of Picasso's Gurnica. Thus, I have gone to incredibly lengths to find a copy of it and repost it here.

###


AFTERSHOCK


###


The massive ship’s engines have all but shut down. Never mind. The heavy grasp of the young planet below has taken over. The ship begins to accelerate towards the wild geography below. Wild geography soon to be lost forever. Those on the surface look up at the new star swelling in the sky. And despair.

The boy is tapping out at the computer. Solve the code. Punch it in. There might just be enough control to steer the ship out of danger. Or achieve a landing. Or perhaps he should abandon now, search for another escape hatch. There has to be another spare. A few dozen Cybermen can’t possibly have taken them all.

He shakes his head. He must choose. Risk dying aboard the ship to save a planet, or try and escape, knowing what he had allowed.

No contest.

He continues to work at the computer. He has never appreciated how primitive such machines can be. He wouldn’t have the first idea how build one of these if it was in pieces before him, but it’s such a long and complicated method just to confirm what he hopes he already knows.

The room’s getting hotter. The ship is piercing the atmosphere.

Success! The computer, components humanly sluggish in the warmth, begins to print out the answer on the forward screen. The boy stands as close to the alien device as he can and still see the screen. Number after number appear on the screen, each one taking a life time.

But he will not panic. He will save the day or die trying.

Because it is the right thing to do.

But what’s this? The darkness of the flight deck is filled an electric blue. A box is forming in the corner with the sound of time and space undulating in agony. The boy blinks in surprise. He was not expecting that. No matter. He turns and concentrates on punching in the code which is still to be complete.

Behind him, the box doesn’t quite finish formation. It flickers and blinks, swinging randomly from solidity to translucency to nothing. The door creaks inwards. A blond head emerges, the pink face beneath twisted in pain. He shouts – he sound two rooms away. His voice cuts out in time with the flickering of the box.

“Adric! We have to leave! Adric!”

Adric shakes his head. “No, Doctor, I can do it!” he cries. Another three digits...

“No! You don’t understand!” The Doctor is screaming a breathless explanation, but Adric cannot hear it over the building roar outside the freighter.

The older man shakes his head, screws up his face and dives forward. He flickers violently and suddenly he is in the room with Adric, real and solid and in so much danger. The police box sits in the corner, barely stable for more than a second.

“Adric, you can’t finish that!”

“I can!”

“Please! Trust me!”

Adric pauses. Can he trust him?

“Adric, please!”

“I knew I was right anyway,” Adric mutters, clasping hands with his friend.

The Doctor grins with relief. The relief fades as he realizes that his time machine is now well out of phase. And now he cannot even stop the freighter – even if he was prepared to brave the consequences. He realizes that attempting to save one life has doomed his own.

The Doctor feels no regrets.

Because it is the right thing to do.

The box grows solid for a moment. The risk is death. The Doctor and Adric dive for the box. It drops out of existence and returns just in time for their feet to reach the doorway. Adric cries out, as though being cut to pieces in a hurricane. But they finally reach inside and the door slams shut.

The box vanishes for good.

And inside, Adric looks around in a daze as his senses return. He is being held upright by two women he never thought would look so pleased to see him. The Doctor is laughing with relief as he hits controls. Two silver corpses rust on the floor of the TARDIS.

Adric’s face falls. “Tegan,” he begins awkwardly. What can he say?

“I’m sorry.”

Tegan was not expecting that. She remembers his snarl to the Doctor, to leave him to his fate in order to keep her safe. Knowing if Adric was to be allowed to leave the freighter, the Cybermen would kill her instead. “What for?” she asks.

“I tried to stop it. I did.” His eyes are hot, damn them. “I’m sorry.” He lets out a sigh. “Earth’s just been destroyed. I’m sorry.”

Tegan laughs in his face. Not cruelly, but as if it is a joke.

Adric decides then and there that he will never understand her.

“You didn’t destroy Earth,” gentle Nyssa assures him. “You saved it.”

“The freighter struck,” Adric protests, part of him insisting he play along with the others. Enjoy this high esteem, even if it is misplaced. No. “It’ll wreck everything!”

“Causing a huge explosion and a resultant Ice Age?” the Doctor asks, chuckling.

What is wrong with them all? “At least!” Adric protests.

“You should have been with us in the cavern,” Nyssa explains. “We learned a lot about the development of life on Earth. Reptiles were supplanted by mammals because a massive space object caused the Ice Age and wiped out the dinosaurs.”

Adric understands – though he’s not sure if he believes. “You mean, the freighter was that object?”

“You’ve just saved my species,” says Tegan, hugging him as if saying thanks on behalf of her race.

Adric rolls his eyes. “I knew I failed. I didn’t realize it was this bad,” he jokes.

Silence.

It was a joke. He doesn’t really hate Tegan. They know that, don’t they? Don’t they?

They all start laughing, a catharsis that, if the Cybermen on the floor were still active, would have puzzled over. The Doctor adjusts the controls as a mushroom cloud forms on the primeval planet below. “Just have to collect Scott and the others, and then we can leave. Ever heard of the Great Exhibition?”

Adric shakes his head, absently pulling at the torn strands on his shirt where Ringway tore off his badge for mathematical excellence. The Doctor notices, eyes immediately flicking to the yellow crumbs scattered on the floor of the time machine. “I’m sorry about your badge,” he says with genuine regret.

Adric smiles at him with a dazzling grin that the Old Doctor would have been outshone by.

“I don’t need it any more. I know how good I am.”


###


The Doctor opened his eyes, wincing. The lights in the control room were low and the roundels in the wall burned orange. He was not alone in the control room. Scott was slumped in the corner, Cybergun cradled in his arms. His sudden violence against the corpses of the Cybermen had drained him until he dozed off while keeping watch on the Doctor.

Keeping watch. That was Nyssa’s idea. She didn't trust him on his own.

Nyssa wasn’t there, though. She had shown the grief-stricken Tegan back to their bedroom, helped out with finding rooms for Briggs, Berger and Brookes, before heading for bed herself. All of them were muted the grief the Cybermen had caused, grief the Cybermen simply couldn’t understand.

The Doctor turned his attention to the console once again as the read-outs insisted the warp ellipse around the freighter made materialization impossible. He couldn’t get onto the freighter. He couldn’t even somehow smuggle it aboard before the trouble started and save Adric, because the ship would never be free.

He couldn’t save Adric.

Even though it was the right thing to do.





The End
"Impeccably written and genuinely very moving." - Delgadofan
"I enjoyed that, as I do all your work, Youth. I have nothing I can add to it, so I'll just say how much I enjoyed your opening paragraph. I think its the fact that the detatched prose stops that makes it so good. Like seeing a planet from outer space, as a distant observer, objectively, then zooming in, and becoming more and more involved as the story goes on. Just seems to fit perfectly with...er, I'm not sure. It just sounds fab. Bloody well done, and as I can't find anything to criticise, I depart." - Dr Lorenzo
"Excellent stuff, up until the very end. I loved the pros, I loved the sense of danger, I loved the way each paragraph dovetailed into the next. I love your characterization of Scot and the others,, brief as it was. The problem was the ending, which was all about a warp elipse rather than about people, it didn't quite fit, and for those who don't know what a warp elipse is (I do, but from the point of view of a less scientific mind) I don't think it quite hits home. If I were to do that I'd give a lot more of the Doctor's point of view there, and explain what a warp elipse is and why it means there is no way to save him. It's the Doctor, Tegun and Nyssa that should hold importance to that ending, and how the story really did end and why it had to end that way, from character's point of view. That's only the last paragraph or 2 though, the rest was bloody fantastic!" - Time's Champion
"I never really liked Adric in the series - but I like him here. Which, I suppose, is testimony to how well you write him. Nice one!" - Joseph Q Publique
"Twas very moving it was." - Chris Hale
"Great stuff YOA. Better than the TV version. I'm surprised I found that quite moving, cause I burst out laughing when he died originally." - Bingo99

6 comments:

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Hey, how did this one slip me by?

Great stuff. At first I thought it was some unbearably cheap retcon, but the ending was beautiful.

And, not to belittle Times Champion's opinion, but have you ever noticed that some of the most verbosely critical people on the internet also have extreme difficulty with spelling and punctuation? On his point of contention, though, I thought the prose was perfect in those final moments - the direct and clinical analysis from the Doctor of the situation and why it was literally impossible to save Adric contrasting with the heartfelt dream-state of the first half. Perfectly demonstrating what he yearned to do, and the fact that cold hard facts prevented him.

Have I mentioned that Earthshock is probably my favourite Cybermen story? Adric's death is a great piece of writing - though it's the start of an ugly and slippery slope for Saward, at this point the unjust death has shock value rather than familiarity so it's a very haunting yarn.

Youth of Australia said...

Hey, how did this one slip me by?
Oh, you've got much better things to do than look at my stuff...

Great stuff. At first I thought it was some unbearably cheap retcon, but the ending was beautiful.
Just something I had to get out of my head before they showed Time-Flight...

And, not to belittle Times Champion's opinion, but have you ever noticed that some of the most verbosely critical people on the internet also have extreme difficulty with spelling and punctuation?
Yeah. Though we're not allowed to have a go, nowadays. Like that bloke who put up "My Big Finish Entery". Wonder why they didn't go for it?

On his point of contention, though, I thought the prose was perfect in those final moments - the direct and clinical analysis from the Doctor of the situation and why it was literally impossible to save Adric contrasting with the heartfelt dream-state of the first half.
Neat.

I mean, yeah, that was the basic idea, but that was put so eloquently.

Perfectly demonstrating what he yearned to do, and the fact that cold hard facts prevented him.
I never once bought the whole 'I won't change history' bollocks he spun the others.

Have I mentioned that Earthshock is probably my favourite Cybermen story? Adric's death is a great piece of writing - though it's the start of an ugly and slippery slope for Saward, at this point the unjust death has shock value rather than familiarity so it's a very haunting yarn.
Maybe it's down to the fact that Adric dying wasn't his idea, but Matthew Waterhouse's?

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Oh, you've got much better things to do than look at my stuff...

Hey, I am working on Attack. ;)

Just something I had to get out of my head before they showed Time-Flight...

Strangely enough, I didn't find Time Flight all that bad. Was all the crap stuff in Ep 3 (which I missed) or is it just the general cheapness/lack of understanding of how jet aeroplanes work/Master disgusied as vaguely-offensive arabic magician stuff that everyone hates?

I just couldn't shake the feeling that if it had been done in Pertwee's era with a decent budget fandom wouldn't have any problems with it...

Yeah. Though we're not allowed to have a go, nowadays. Like that bloke who put up "My Big Finish Entery". Wonder why they didn't go for it?

Come on, that word has ALWAYS felt like it needs another syllable.. especially when you speak in a cod French accent...

I mean, yeah, that was the basic idea, but that was put so eloquently.

It takes a fair bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing in front of a keyboard, though. It's arguable whether it's worth the effort to not just right "Lol kewl!"

I never once bought the whole 'I won't change history' bollocks he spun the others.

Well, I can understand the Doctor not being able to interfere with his own time-line, but Adric's death didn't seem part of it.

I'm glad that the interfering with history question is pretty much ignored now, because it really is probably the most irritating things in the Hartnell era.

In fact, because of that I wanted to put a bit like this in TCaT:

THE DOCTOR: Peri, don't be ridiculous! I'd be directly interfering with history! I can't do that!

(beat)

PERI: Is that a joke?

THE DOCTOR: What? No! It wasn't even funny...

PERI: But all you do is interfere!

THE DOCTOR: But not in the past!

PERI: Time's relative, Doctor.

THE DOCTOR: Yes... but... okay, Peri, you've GOT me, well done. I hope you're happy. I COULD change history. In fact it would be terribly easy to do. But the thing is... I really, really, really don't want to.

PERI: Why not?

THE DOCTOR: Because I like it! It's like a two-thousand year opera - hubris, murder, madness, love, joy, tragedy - it has it all! You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll change your life! If I shattered that verisimilitude I'd feel like nothing but a vandal, Peri. (sheepishly clears throat) And, besides, the Time Lords keep an eye out on Earth for big changes - they know it's my favourite planet.

Maybe it's down to the fact that Adric dying wasn't his idea, but Matthew Waterhouse's?

HOLD UP!

From everything I've read, Waterhouse was unhappy to be killed off at the end of the story. Yes, part of this comes from that "Key To Time" reference book by Peter Haining or whoever he was that everyone bags out for being poorly informed and using every book as a platform to bag out The Gunfighters unnecessarily, but also from material on Robert Patrick Sullivan's [presumably] thoroughly-researched website "A Brief History of Time".

So, apologies, but I'm having a credulity crisis here because I've never, ever heard of this before. Put your sources on the table!

Youth of Australia said...

Hey, I am working on Attack. ;)
I just meant you have a life. :)

Strangely enough, I didn't find Time Flight all that bad. Was all the crap stuff in Ep 3 (which I missed) or is it just the general cheapness/lack of understanding of how jet aeroplanes work/Master disgusied as vaguely-offensive arabic magician stuff that everyone hates?
The specific bits I was talking to was the "Adric is dead, life must go on, let us party" first scene. (Which is actually rewritten from the original where they were even LESS bothered).

I just couldn't shake the feeling that if it had been done in Pertwee's era with a decent budget fandom wouldn't have any problems with it...
Mmm. I probably would have. "Kalid, mysterious Arabian wizard in an ancient Siberian temple" is a cooler idea than "the Master needs a new car battery".

Come on, that word has ALWAYS felt like it needs another syllable.. especially when you speak in a cod French accent...
...so you're saying everyone should speak like Keep?

It takes a fair bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing in front of a keyboard, though. It's arguable whether it's worth the effort to not just right "Lol kewl!"
Yet that sums up a lot, doesn't it?

Well, I can understand the Doctor not being able to interfere with his own time-line, but Adric's death didn't seem part of it.
The point is, Nyssa and Tegan say they could rescue Adric without changing anyone's history, and the Doctor practically screams at them to shut up. Not even the kind of "we're established in events" stuff you'd expect.

I'm glad that the interfering with history question is pretty much ignored now, because it really is probably the most irritating things in the Hartnell era.
Dude, it ALL makes sense if you think about it.

DOCTOR: You can't rewrite history! Not one line!
BARBARA: Why not?
DOCTOR: Mainly because a flourishing Aztec civilization MIGHT just be noticed by the Time Lords and I am on the fucking run, people, low profile here!


changes - they know it's my favourite planet.
Very nice. I just always assumed its because any changes go out of control (ref. Kennedy surviving in Tikka to Ride). Like in Father's Day, they could have saved Pete but it would have changed Rose's entire personality and history - and no one can say the change would have made her better.

HOLD UP!
From everything I've read, Waterhouse was unhappy to be killed off at the end of the story. Yes, part of this comes from that "Key To Time" reference book by Peter Haining or whoever he was that everyone bags out for being poorly informed and using every book as a platform to bag out The Gunfighters unnecessarily, but also from material on Robert Patrick Sullivan's [presumably] thoroughly-researched website "A Brief History of Time".

Yeah, but Sullivan does summarize events a bit.

So, apologies, but I'm having a credulity crisis here because I've never, ever heard of this before. Put your sources on the table!

Sources? Uh, interviews with Matt himself, the Fifth Doctor special, the JNT memoirs... Matt hated the idea of leaving PER SE, but discussed the idea of Adric dying in Christopher Priest's "The Enemy Within". Definitely, no doubt about it, killing off Adric was NOT Saward's idea.

Basically:

JNT: Too many companions. One of them has to go.
DAVISON: You get rid of Nyssa, I break your chin.
JNT: OK. Who? Tegan or Adric.
EVERYONE: Adric.
WATERHOUSE: Fuck off the lot of you!
JNT: Come on, guy. Act your age. How do you want to go? Fall in love? Help the aged? Back to E-space? Kill him off?
WATERHOUSE: Well, we COULD kill him off, he'd never leave the Doctor any other way...
SAWARD: yeeeee-haaaaaaah!
JNT: Let's do it!
WATERHOUSE: No, wait, hang on, that means I can never turn up again!!!
JNT: Dude, two words - time travel. Or we could just make you a ghost.
WATERHOUSE: Guess so. You sure I can come back?
JNT: You betcha.
WATERHOUSE: Hey, you're crossing your fingers!
JNT: Am I? The memory cheats! Priest! Have Adric eaten by the monster that lives in the heart of the TARDIS! Priest? He's buggered off... Eric, take over.
SAWARD: NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
WATERHOUSE: I try so hard. This sucks.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

I just meant you have a life. :)

I have no idea where you get these fanciful notions from...

The specific bits I was talking to was the "Adric is dead, life must go on, let us party" first scene.

It didn't go far on the morose scale, did it?

Mmm. I probably would have. "Kalid, mysterious Arabian wizard in an ancient Siberian temple" is a cooler idea than "the Master needs a new car battery".

..yeah, I can't argue with that, really.

Incidentally, I thought of a fic to explain the incredible weirdness of the disguise, when the 6th Doctor runs into the real Kalid in another story, assuming it's the Master, and has an awkward moment where he tries to rip the mask off.

It's one of those things I can't actually be bothered to write, though...

...so you're saying everyone should speak like Keep?

Ohohoho, thet is exactely what I em say-ING, mon ami!


The point is, Nyssa and Tegan say they could rescue Adric without changing anyone's history, and the Doctor practically screams at them to shut up. Not even the kind of "we're established in events" stuff you'd expect.

Oh, yeah, I remember now... Davo just loses his temper is a very uncharacteristic way. Twas an odd moment indeed...

Dude, it ALL makes sense if you think about it.

DOCTOR: You can't rewrite history! Not one line!
BARBARA: Why not?
DOCTOR: Mainly because a flourishing Aztec civilization MIGHT just be noticed by the Time Lords and I am on the fucking run, people, low profile here!


Well, that's true enough. But Time Lords don't care about (big breath) Dulkis, Galaxy 7, Skaro, Earth post-1963, Mondas, Vulcan...

You get the idea.

Very nice. I just always assumed its because any changes go out of control (ref. Kennedy surviving in Tikka to Ride). Like in Father's Day, they could have saved Pete but it would have changed Rose's entire personality and history - and no one can say the change would have made her better.

I thought about putting some of that in as well - the whole 'what if you killed Hitler' thing, with the Doctor pointing out that Europe was 50% facist loonies at the time so if there was no Hitler Oscar Mosely or somebody else would have taken over and it may well have been even worse...

But that would mean three different explanations in the one scene about the Doctor's actions. It may be pretty par for the course in classic series continuity (three Atlantises, three Dalek histories..) but I prefer slightly less sloppiness in my scripts.

Yeah, but Sullivan does summarize events a bit.

Yeah, some of his entries are very succinct.

And last time I checked, he had just about NO behind the scenes info on the New Series episodes - which is the only reason to go to his site save for reading WHOvivor.

Sources? Uh, interviews with Matt himself, the Fifth Doctor special, the JNT memoirs...

Apocryphal, irrelevant and third-rate, sir!... okay, you've probably got me beat...

Matt hated the idea of leaving PER SE, but discussed the idea of Adric dying in Christopher Priest's "The Enemy Within". Definitely, no doubt about it, killing off Adric was NOT Saward's idea.

There you go. And once again you have eradicated a modicum of respect I had for Saward.

Maybe you should save time and tell me why I should hate The Visitation now?


JNT: Too many companions. One of them has to go.
DAVISON: You get rid of Nyssa, I break your chin.
JNT: OK. Who? Tegan or Adric.
EVERYONE: Adric.
WATERHOUSE: Fuck off the lot of you!


Lmao. Yeah, I knew that bit. I can't believe Four to Doomsday was going Nyss'as last story - worst send off possible.

WATERHOUSE: No, wait, hang on, that means I can never turn up again!!!
JNT: Dude, two words - time travel. Or we could just make you a ghost.
WATERHOUSE: Guess so. You sure I can come back?
JNT: You betcha.
WATERHOUSE: Hey, you're crossing your fingers!


Lol. One of the most ludicrous things I read was JNT's promises that Adric could come back in a story where the Doctor meets him in E-Space... before he met him. I don't think anyone has even dared something that stupid in the world of fanfic. (Though I half expect to hear the DWADs did it...)

Incidentally, does anyone else think Matthew Waterhouse is due to be in a BF? Or is it just me? I mean, every single companion of 5/6/7 have appeared EXCEPT him! I'd have thought he was more deserving of further development than Mel was..

Youth of Australia said...

I have no idea where you get these fanciful notions from...
You have a flintlock, go to the gym, TAFE...

It didn't go far on the morose scale, did it?
More than the original script which simply began with the Doctor saying, "We must accept Adric is gone. There is no greater honor for an Alzarian than to lie down his life for another." and it was never mentioned again. The cast rewrote that scene to make it even remotely believable...

..yeah, I can't argue with that, really.
I've got the novelization on disc, but it doesn't explain WHY the Master was disguised. Not even the Doctor wonders... A good book for the first two eps.

Incidentally, I thought of a fic to explain the incredible weirdness of the disguise,
Oh, I know WHY he was disguised. Quite simple.

when the 6th Doctor runs into the real Kalid in another story, assuming it's the Master, and has an awkward moment where he tries to rip the mask off.
LOL. I can see the Doctor and Peri covered with blood and, after a long embarassed pause, the Doctor flings his arms in the air and shout, "So I was WRONG for once!! GET OVER IT!"

It's one of those things I can't actually be bothered to write, though...
Like my rewrite of Timeflight...

Ohohoho, thet is exactely what I em say-ING, mon ami!
Tried to listen to part one of The Next Life this morning. Gave up after the TARDIS scene. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! I am glad to say Charley is never as annoying as she is in this one... and for fuck's sake, the TARDIS is crashing and she and C'Rizz are chatting happily. No way were the Tenth Doc and Rose THAT smug and self-absorbed. You why, in "Blake", Chris Boucher didn't have Tarrant tapdancing as Scorpio crashed? You think maybe it's a good rule of thumb?

Oh, yeah, I remember now... Davo just loses his temper is a very uncharacteristic way. Twas an odd moment indeed...
OTOH, Davo's screams DO convince that Adric cannot be saved. Just... not WHY he can't be saved.

Well, that's true enough. But Time Lords don't care about (big breath) Dulkis
Would you?

Galaxy 7
Eh? You mean giving a jumper lead to a Rill on a planet that was going to explode anyway.

Skaro
Yeah, well, that got out of hand...

Earth post-1963
And that.

Mondas
Historical event there, it's said so. The Doctor even says he doesn't want to interfere.

I thought about putting some of that in as well - the whole 'what if you killed Hitler' thing, with the Doctor pointing out that Europe was 50% facist loonies at the time so if there was no Hitler Oscar Mosely or somebody else would have taken over and it may well have been even worse...
The Doctor uses that exact same argument in Exodus. After Ace tries to kill Hitler.

Very subtle.

But that would mean three different explanations in the one scene about the Doctor's actions.
Guess so. Kaldor City subtext overload...

It may be pretty par for the course in classic series continuity (three Atlantises
No, TWO Atlantises. One before it sank, one after it sank, and a giant horned demon bragging).

three Dalek histories..)
Well, there's an excuse for two of them...

but I prefer slightly less sloppiness in my scripts.
The Antisaward strikes again.

Yeah, some of his entries are very succinct.
And good on him.

And last time I checked, he had just about NO behind the scenes info on the New Series episodes - which is the only reason to go to his site save for reading WHOvivor.
Oh, I know tones of stuff about the new series. Uh, Runaway Bride originally about Rose getting over Mickey, the Rachnoss web was at Stonehenge, the Shakespeare Idol with his daughter and Martha auditioning, the truth behind the Pig Slaves, Professor Anger and his skinsuit, the Peony System, Malcassaro being a forest, the original opening scene of Utopia (kind of like the chase scenes in City of Death, but with Duggan replaced by Captain Jack)

Apocryphal, irrelevant and third-rate, sir!... okay, you've probably got me beat...
Speaking of Spara, you've got to love his belief his work is like the Mona Lisa. No doubt an xray will reveal the words THIS IS A CHAV underneath each and every one.

There you go. And once again you have eradicated a modicum of respect I had for Saward.
Oh, well, it was Saward that came up with the whole doomed scenario on the ship, definitely. He came up with HOW Adric died, but probably would have done something very different if he'd had a choice.

Maybe you should save time and tell me why I should hate The Visitation now?
Uh... He sidelines the TARDIS Crew, the Terileptils and the locals for more Richard Mace action?

Lmao. Yeah, I knew that bit. I can't believe Four to Doomsday was going Nyss'as last story - worst send off possible.
I think they were going to turn her into an android, and leave her with the others. Bar Black Orchid and Timeflight, she was hastily added to the rest of the season.

Lol. One of the most ludicrous things I read was JNT's promises that Adric could come back in a story where the Doctor meets him in E-Space... before he met him. I don't think anyone has even dared something that stupid in the world of fanfic. (Though I half expect to hear the DWADs did it...)
JNT meant something a bit like Father's Day, with the Doctor bumping into Adric while Adric was IN N-Space. But no, I doubt it was on the cards. But Adric as a ghost turned up, at various points, in Time Flight, Arc of Infinity, The King's Demons, The Five Doctors, The Caves of Androzani, The Twin Dilemma and Attack of the Cyberman...

Incidentally, does anyone else think Matthew Waterhouse is due to be in a BF? Or is it just me? I mean, every single companion of 5/6/7 have appeared EXCEPT him! I'd have thought he was more deserving of further development than Mel was..
Matt's in America most of the time now. They wanted him to appear in Zagreus, but I dare say they wanted Janet Fielding back first.