BASIC PLOT
Spain, 1937. In April, the small town of Guernica was razed to the ground in a firestorm that claimed a thousand or more lives. In May, Barcelona exploded into fierce street fighting as different political faction fought for control of the city. Who were the shadowy figures working behind the scenes? Who were 'the Doctor', 'Anji' and 'Fitz' and what were their objectives? And were there really monsters roaming the streets?

DOCTOR
Eighth.

COMPANIONS
Fitz and Anji.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 7 Paris 1937.

Pgs 40/41 Bilbao, Spain, 1937

Pgs 45/62 Barcelona, November 1936.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 2 "The Cafe en Ballena was paid enough in cheap French wine not to pay attention to whom Sabbath might meet with" Cafe en Ballena translates as "the Cafe in the Whale", a reference to Sabbath's ship, the Jonah.

Pg 20 "You mean one of those "what if Japan conquered America in the 1940s?" things?" Anji's on the lookout for parallel universes here, although she won't be later, in The Domino Effect.

Pg 21 "Apart from anything else, I've already lived through the 1930s once." The Earth arc.

Pg 33 "The TARDIS rebuilt herself from the smallest atom upwards, including all her contents." The Ancestor Cell, the Earth arc.

Pg 34 "The inside of the TARDIS was rarely affected by its surroundings, whether 'in flight' or sat on an alien planet or in the basement of a bordello." The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

Pg 88 "You're not trying to grow that bloody beard again are you?" The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

Pgs 89-90 "The Doctor had immediately turned to one side and was kneeling, frantically turning a brass handle sticking out of the side wall" The third Doctor also uses a crank to operate the doors in Death to the Daleks.

Pg 90 "The outer shell had survived two world wars already." The Turing Test and Endgame.

Pg 143 "The Doctor had likened it to his basement flat" Endgame.

Pg 154 "The bath the size of a swimming pool." The Invasion of Time.

Pg 158 "The paper felt ancient, too thin. The writing on it was neat, perfectly formed. Ah, this was the note." The Earth arc.

Pg 159 "Is that... do you recognise that handwriting?" It's confirmed that the Note isn't in Fitz's handwriting, tying in with Father Time's hint (pg 83) that it was written by Compassion.

Pg 181 "It was probably his fear of losing everything again, of finding himself stuck in the twentieth century." The Earth arc. Just a thought, but isn't it interesting that Captain Jack Harkness got abandoned and left to live all the way through the twentieth century alone, whilst never aging and without access to a proper time travel device?

Pg 183 "He patted his chest, found the chill silver chain lying under his shirt still. He absently rubbed the ridge of scar tissue it fell over" The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

Pg 188 "The ticker thundered into life." The TARDIS's ticker-tape machine was also seen in State of Decay.

Pgs 199-200 "He had vague memories of jumping off a tower, but they were indistinct, like something he'd seen in a movie. Not really him at all." Interference, book 2, although it might be worth noting that the whole point of Interference, book 2 for Fitz was that he didn't actually jump off the tower.

Pg 227 "He said: "The planet is called Albert"." Grimm Reality.

Pg 235 "La Ciutat Dels Morts" Translates as "The City of the Dead", possibly a reference to, er, The City of the Dead.

Pg 240 "I've spent a hundred years, more, on this planet." The Earth arc.

Pg 261 "He pulled the door to, tucking the key back into his shirt and absently scratching at his chest as it itched." The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

"Sabbath [...] was dressed in a linen suit, the Doctor noticed, every inch the English gentleman abroad. He was sat on the shady side of an outside table, his face half hidden under a cream fedora." Sabbath is dressed just like the seventh Doctor did in the NAs. Presumably he too had his cream fedora specially made by Groenewegen's Millinery, on Neo Sydney (First Frontier).

Pg 265 "Above him, a harsh white eye glared down" The eye that's been seen in various books since The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, although here it's white, not black.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
Pg 1 Sabbath.

Pg 118 Kim Philby makes a cameo appearance (previously seen in The Turing Test and Endgame).

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Jueves/Sasha, Blair, Eleana, McNair.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 25 "The man was sighted in Florida in 1935, next to Mexican man with a rifle. Rome, 1980" These were intended to be Roosevelt's attempted assassination (actually in 1933) and Pope John Paul's attempted assassination (actually in 1981). The latter is confirmed on page 3.
2. Pg 38 "Look at me, he wanted to scream - thought maybe he was screaming - Look at me!" Huh?
3. Pg 102 "So yes, even thought I dread to think of how this war will have affected him, I'm looking forward to seeing him again." Say what?
4. Pg 196 "The tired, charming Doctor she had known was reveal as all harsh angles" Come again?
5. Pg 222 "He lead them back into the shadows" Whah?
6. Pg 257 "Anji grinned as she spotted her pocket a box of ammo" Pardon?

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]

1. Clearly these were some other, less well known, attempted assassinations.
2. Miquel's in pain and not exactly in a place to formulate his sentences particularly well.
3. Eleana's distressed and not exactly in a place to formulate her sentences particularly well.
4. Eleana's befuddled and not exactly in a place to formulate her sentences particularly well.
5. The shadows were lined with lead.
6. Anji's overwhelmed and not exactly in a place to formulate her sentences particularly well. This clearly happens a lot in Revolutionary Spain.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
The Absolute, creatures made up of multiple forms, who like versions of events to be fixed (pg 212).

Enrique's creature, something almost like a man, joints at right angles, leaving twenty afterimages of itself (page 124).

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 7 Paris, summer 1937.

Pgs 62/267 Spain, November 1936 through May 1937.

Pg 264 The System, time unknown.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
History 101 has lots of extremely well-written scenes, but so few of them seem to connect with one another. There are far too many characters, many of whom come and go offscreen, Sabbath seems to be entirely extraneous and nothing gets explained at the end. It's a shame, because another polish could have made this work, but as it stands it's an unfortunate victim of first-author syndrome.