Though Sylvester McCoy's "people made of smoke and cities made of song" speech is fondly remembered as the closing moments of Season 26 and the end of Classic Who, the preceding scene is wonkier than a tabby's trajectory with a firework up its bottom. Exhausted and on his knees following his final confrontation, the Doctor is subjected to an anti-cat tirade from an exasperated actress. The gist is a rant about the noise coming off cat fights that may/may not have been connected to McCoy's grappling in another dimension. Why Rona Munro contributed this section is something of puzzle. It's a bit like getting to the end of Zulu then having someone come and stand among the corpses complaining about sunburn. "They want the animal... but can they keep it under control?" It's a cat. What are people meant to do, put a lead on it? In this age of Twitter and Instagram, the individual would no doubt have a regularly updated chronicle of every shriek, scratch and disturbed dustbin lid...
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
