Emily Blandish
Encyclopedia
Emily Blandish is one of two main characters in the Doctor Who
spin-off Time Hunter
series published by Telos Publishing Ltd.
She is a time channeller, which means that she is able to physically travel along people's timelines when she is working with a time sensitive, such as her friend Honoré Lechasseur
. Emily has not yet appeared on the cover of a Time Hunter novella
, and so her physical appearance is uncertain.
for the Telos Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light
. Shortly after the novella was published, it was announced that BBC Enterprises would not be renewing Telos' licence to produce Doctor Who
novellas. Telos subsequently announced that they would begin producing a series of "Part mystery, part detective story, part dark fantasy, part science fiction" http://www.telos.co.uk/ novellas that would continue the spirit of the Doctor Who novellas. This was the Time Hunter range, which continued the adventures of Emily and Honoré Lechasseur.
Emily is a mysterious character, who due to amnesia
is unaware of her own history. She shows a great deal of affection for Honoré, but equally a great drive to find out the details of her missing memories – something which sets her apart from the character of the Doctor
in the Eighth Doctor Adventures
novels, who has a similar problem but was unwilling to investigate it.
The character continued in the Time Hunter range for 11 novellas, before Telos announced that the range was to be closed due to poor sales.
According to her creator, Emily's appearance is loosely based on that of the actress Charlotte Coleman
.
. Due to her amnesia, it is currently impossible to say for sure how she arrived in London, although her first memory being of "blinding light" and stepping out of a door of "not a house, but a cabinet or a wardrobe" would suggest that she was brought to the city in the TARDIS
– presumably by the Doctor, for reasons as yet unknown.
Emily was found dressed only in pink pyjamas at the site of an explosion in Shoreditch
by a patrolling policeman. The mystery behind her arrival there led to her story being taken up by the press, who paid for her to stay in the guest house of a Mrs Beardsley. Whilst there, Mrs Beardsley also took money from visitors wanting to see "the girl in the pink pyjamas", as the press dubbed her, and it was implied that not all of these visitors had honourable intentions.
Some time after her arrival, Emily was visited by a "fixer" or spiv
named Honoré Lechasseur, who had been hired to find a gentleman called the Doctor. Emily had no recollection of such a gentleman, but when Honoré mentioned he had been hired by a woman called Emily Blandish, Emily instantly remembered that this was in fact her own name. It was revealed later that the false Emily Blandish was actually working on the instruction of the Doctor, suggesting that his inten was to bring Emily and Honoré together.
Emily soon found herself at the centre of a plot by Nazi
sympathisers to steal "The Cabinet of Light" (the Doctor's TARDIS) for their own nefarious ends. With the help of Honoré, she managed to escape the Nazis and also her landlady/captor Mrs Beardsley.
Following this adventure, Emily and Honoré kept in touch and built a strong, platonic relationship. It was not until they both happened to spot the same man at the same time and wonder where he had come from, however, that they realised that Emily was a time sensitive. They both travelled forwards in time to an alternative 1984 (based on the novel
by George Orwell
), where they spent time trying to work out how to get back to their own time — which they ultimately did, whilst also ensuring that the future they had witnessed never came about.
Honoré and Emily eventually came to understand how they had travelled through time, and became so practised at it that they could soon travel at will to any chosen date and time. They shared various adventures, during which they fought the Fendahl and gained the enmity of a mysterious time travelling cult.
The final Time Hunter book reveals the whole truth about Emily, and the reason of why she had been so fearful of a recurrent symbol that crisscrossed her path: a small horned circle with a tail. It turned out to be the emblem of an ancient cult, the Sodality, whose premise was the extermination of all time-sensitives. In medieval Venice, they had summoned a "demon" called Mastho, who had given them certain ideas that had resulted in the creation of a time-sensitive aspect of humanity. When called back to oversee the development of the creations, he called them abominations and had the Sodality kill all time-sensitives.
On a certain point in the future, the Sodality had gained control over a sizable part of humanity and killed virtually all time-sensitives, leaving only the smartest and strongest. This turned out to be Mastho's goal all along, who possessed one of the few time-sensitives left, the so-named Child of Time, to allow his race to enter the normal continuum. Honoré and Emily had stumbled upon the corpse of the Child of Time and followed her to the future, where they crossed swords with the Sodality. In doing so, they learned their High Executioner was having serious issues with what she was being forced to do for the Sodality.
The High Executioner confronted the Sodality, and for her perceived betrayal, she was beaten within an inch of her life, being barely rescued by the Doctor. However, before she was led away into the past, Emily saw the face of the High Executioner, and realized it was her own. Realizing she had once been a monster, she tried to leave after returning to 1950s London with Honoré, only for him to convince her that Emily Blandish was no longer the Sodality's High Executioner, and that the Doctor had saved her for a reason, allowing her to leave her past behind.
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
spin-off Time Hunter
Time Hunter
The Time Hunter series of books is published by Telos Publishing Ltd. and features the characters Honoré Lechasseur and Emily Blandish from Daniel O'Mahony's Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light...
series published by Telos Publishing Ltd.
Telos Publishing Ltd.
Telos Publishing Ltd. is a publishing company, originally established by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, with their first publication being a horror anthology based on the television series Urban Gothic in 2001...
She is a time channeller, which means that she is able to physically travel along people's timelines when she is working with a time sensitive, such as her friend Honoré Lechasseur
Honoré Lechasseur
Honoré Lechasseur is one of two main characters in the Doctor Who spin-off Time Hunter series published by Telos Publishing Ltd. He is a time sensitive, which means that he possess the ability to see into people's pasts and futures when he is in their vicinity...
. Emily has not yet appeared on the cover of a Time Hunter novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, and so her physical appearance is uncertain.
Overview
The character of Emily Blandish was created by Daniel O'MahonyDaniel O'Mahony
Daniel O'Mahony is a half-British half-Irish author, born in Croydon. He is the oldest of five children, his siblings including Eoin O'Mahony of the band Hamfatter, and Madeleine O'Mahony, who has designed and made hats for Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.-Biography:O'Mahony's first professionally...
for the Telos Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light
The Cabinet of Light
The Cabinet of Light was the ninth novella published by Telos Publishing Ltd. as part of their Doctor Who novellas series. It was written by Daniel O'Mahony, and was released as a standard edition hardback, and a deluxe edition featuring a frontispiece by John Higgins...
. Shortly after the novella was published, it was announced that BBC Enterprises would not be renewing Telos' licence to produce Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
novellas. Telos subsequently announced that they would begin producing a series of "Part mystery, part detective story, part dark fantasy, part science fiction" http://www.telos.co.uk/ novellas that would continue the spirit of the Doctor Who novellas. This was the Time Hunter range, which continued the adventures of Emily and Honoré Lechasseur.
Emily is a mysterious character, who due to amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
is unaware of her own history. She shows a great deal of affection for Honoré, but equally a great drive to find out the details of her missing memories – something which sets her apart from the character of the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
in the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
novels, who has a similar problem but was unwilling to investigate it.
The character continued in the Time Hunter range for 11 novellas, before Telos announced that the range was to be closed due to poor sales.
According to her creator, Emily's appearance is loosely based on that of the actress Charlotte Coleman
Charlotte Coleman
Charlotte Ninon Coleman was an English actress best known for playing Scarlett in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral , Jess in the television drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and her childhood roles of Sue in Worzel Gummidge and the character Marmalade Atkins...
.
Biography
Emily is a young woman who was born some time in the future and somehow arrived back in 1949 LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Due to her amnesia, it is currently impossible to say for sure how she arrived in London, although her first memory being of "blinding light" and stepping out of a door of "not a house, but a cabinet or a wardrobe" would suggest that she was brought to the city in the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
– presumably by the Doctor, for reasons as yet unknown.
Emily was found dressed only in pink pyjamas at the site of an explosion in Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
by a patrolling policeman. The mystery behind her arrival there led to her story being taken up by the press, who paid for her to stay in the guest house of a Mrs Beardsley. Whilst there, Mrs Beardsley also took money from visitors wanting to see "the girl in the pink pyjamas", as the press dubbed her, and it was implied that not all of these visitors had honourable intentions.
Some time after her arrival, Emily was visited by a "fixer" or spiv
Spiv
In the United Kingdom, a spiv is a particular type of petty criminal, who deals in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity, especially a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices...
named Honoré Lechasseur, who had been hired to find a gentleman called the Doctor. Emily had no recollection of such a gentleman, but when Honoré mentioned he had been hired by a woman called Emily Blandish, Emily instantly remembered that this was in fact her own name. It was revealed later that the false Emily Blandish was actually working on the instruction of the Doctor, suggesting that his inten was to bring Emily and Honoré together.
Emily soon found herself at the centre of a plot by Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
sympathisers to steal "The Cabinet of Light" (the Doctor's TARDIS) for their own nefarious ends. With the help of Honoré, she managed to escape the Nazis and also her landlady/captor Mrs Beardsley.
Following this adventure, Emily and Honoré kept in touch and built a strong, platonic relationship. It was not until they both happened to spot the same man at the same time and wonder where he had come from, however, that they realised that Emily was a time sensitive. They both travelled forwards in time to an alternative 1984 (based on the novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
), where they spent time trying to work out how to get back to their own time — which they ultimately did, whilst also ensuring that the future they had witnessed never came about.
Honoré and Emily eventually came to understand how they had travelled through time, and became so practised at it that they could soon travel at will to any chosen date and time. They shared various adventures, during which they fought the Fendahl and gained the enmity of a mysterious time travelling cult.
The final Time Hunter book reveals the whole truth about Emily, and the reason of why she had been so fearful of a recurrent symbol that crisscrossed her path: a small horned circle with a tail. It turned out to be the emblem of an ancient cult, the Sodality, whose premise was the extermination of all time-sensitives. In medieval Venice, they had summoned a "demon" called Mastho, who had given them certain ideas that had resulted in the creation of a time-sensitive aspect of humanity. When called back to oversee the development of the creations, he called them abominations and had the Sodality kill all time-sensitives.
On a certain point in the future, the Sodality had gained control over a sizable part of humanity and killed virtually all time-sensitives, leaving only the smartest and strongest. This turned out to be Mastho's goal all along, who possessed one of the few time-sensitives left, the so-named Child of Time, to allow his race to enter the normal continuum. Honoré and Emily had stumbled upon the corpse of the Child of Time and followed her to the future, where they crossed swords with the Sodality. In doing so, they learned their High Executioner was having serious issues with what she was being forced to do for the Sodality.
The High Executioner confronted the Sodality, and for her perceived betrayal, she was beaten within an inch of her life, being barely rescued by the Doctor. However, before she was led away into the past, Emily saw the face of the High Executioner, and realized it was her own. Realizing she had once been a monster, she tried to leave after returning to 1950s London with Honoré, only for him to convince her that Emily Blandish was no longer the Sodality's High Executioner, and that the Doctor had saved her for a reason, allowing her to leave her past behind.