On borrowed horses, the Doctor and Beverly head to London to meet Robert Dudley. On the way, Beverly asks the Doctor what was wrong with Amye. He tells her she is dying of breast cancer and gave her a pill (from the distant future) to make her more comfortable. Beverly struggles with verb tenses, realizing that Professor Aird, who postulated that she’d had cancer, was/will be/will have been… correct.
Face in panel six is just brilliant.. Glad to see your internet problems are at an end..
“One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner’s Time Traveller’s Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations whilst you are actually travelling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own father or mother. Most readers get as far as the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up: and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs. The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term ‘Future Perfect’ has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.”
– Douglas Adams
Stoopid verb tenses. They are totally inadequate for time travel purposes.
I LOVE her face in panel 6. The expression is priceless.
Time travel tenses are difficult, unless you do what I do.
If it was my past… then it’s past tense.
If I haven’t gotten to it yet, it’s future tense.
The horses remind me of those old paintings of galloping horses where the legs looked all wrong. Not meaning to be nit-picky, but I found something jarring about the comic and it took me a few seconds to realise that it was the horses that were doing it to me. There’s that famous set of images photographed by Muybridge of a galloping horse that first showed people exactly how the legs moved during the action. It would make a good reference for anyone drawing a galloping horse, for instance.
Also, at the speed those horses seem to be travelling, they’re going to founder before they get very far
.
Not that it doesn’t fit perfectly with film/TV depiction of horse travel. Travelling at a sedate pace in order to spare the horses does not make for dramatic images.
Hans
Good to see you guys back!
Aside from the gait issues (which I didn’t notice until they were pointed out, but can now see), you’re very ON with the art in this page, Rich. As others have mentioned, Beverly’s face in panel 6 is perfect, and I love how the direction the feather in her cap is blowing changes as she turns her head. It’s just beautiful!
Don’t you think it’s a weird coincidence that the doctor mentioned Queen Bess (Elizabeth I) in the Children in Need Clip ? (even if it was a joke!)
you seem to have a strong sixth sense Rich!
Calling Dr. Dan Streetmentioner….
Of course, he hadn’t been to the year 5 Billion and change where those catgirl nurses cure all sorts of stuff. They’d cure Lady Robsart in about a half hour, I’d guess. Of course, this would have to be before the hospital got shut down due to stuff I’d be spoiling if I talked about.
Worth waiting for! Clever and (as usual) beautifully drawn. Thanks!
Hee, I love it when a companion gets confused. And I love the art. Thanks!
@Parn: Well, that bit does explain the end of “The Shakespeare Code”.
Too bad Rich and Hilary don’t include any of the current stuff in the comic. Though conceivably this could be happening before Ten shows up again.
Jonn Wolfe- Time is relative =) You’re right.
Glad to see the comic back on track.
And horsies, too!
Awwwwww……
At least she doesn’t have to deal with how do you address yourself when meeting previous incarnations.
Ha! Glad to see this up and running again, the new page wasnt showing up for me on page 11, tho the comment page on the internet outage had a working 12 link, I almost missed it! – I love how the Doctor appears to be laughing (internally) too hard to answer, which isnt easy
David Given – thanks for the Douglas Adams Hitchhikers quote!
Welcome back, Rich.
Totally worth the wait.
I think we’re making the verb tenses too complicated. “Will have been right” works. As does “was right,” since it’s in Beverly’s and the Doctor’s past.
Someone beat me to the horse leg position problem. They’re right, horses will never have their legs positioned as shown. And yes, no one gallops if they’ve got a long journey. A nice easy trot will get them there a lot faster, and with sound horses. Other than that, I’m glad to see another installment! I’ve been going through withdrawal.
Actually any tense would be correct. There is no grammar rules in time travel.
Mmmm, I wonder if the doctor had prevented her fatal stumble down the stairs with that pill???
XD I can just hear Jon laughing in panel 7 XD
I pay so much attention to the story that I kind of just glance over the art,but the others are right Beverly looks great.–You Rock
@Heather: Either the Doctor is using Time Lord techniques to make Rich draw the horses so much different, or…
Jon Pertwee is using his from BEYOND THE GRAVE SKILLZ with all vehicles to make the horses go super fast go go go pew pew pew…
Okay, I’ll stop now.
she will have had advance stages of breast cancer, and therefore professor aird will have been eventually right? something like that *grin*
The Doctor can always say that there is a perfectly good tense in his native Gallifreyan tongue but it doesn’t translate to English. (Hey, it’s true in Greek.)
No, no. What those horses actually are are magic floating carosel horses. Just add the stick and you’ve got it!
… I don’t think are are is proper grammer. I can’t even handle non-time travel tenses. XD
They’re starting the journey galloping full-tilt because 3 likes fast modes of travel!
If they were in an era with cars he’d be proto-NASCAR-ing around on the back roads joyfully.
Korafrax: What is this, Mary Poppins? (: (That lady has GOT to be a Time Lord. I mean, her bag’s bigger on the inside!)
Pretty sure Douglas Adams covered the verb tense issues with time travel — I do believe the correct form is “willan on-have”
Clever and true.
Ah, so it was just a harmless pain-killer that he gave her. Thought so.
Forget tenses!