The Cabinet of Light

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The Cabinet of Light
Doctor Who book

Series	Telos Doctor Who novellas
Release number	9
Featuring	The Doctor Emily Blandish Honoré Lechasseur
Writer	Daniel O'Mahony
Publisher	Telos Publishing Ltd.
ISBN	ISBN 1-903889-18-9 (standard)
Release date	July 2003
Preceded by	Shell Shock
Followed by	Fallen Gods

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 (ISBN 1-903889-19-7). Both editions had a foreword by Chaz Brenchley.

The novella featured an unspecified future incarnation of the Doctor who appears to be travelling without a companion, although it is hinted that Emily Blandish may have been travelling with him. The story focuses mostly on Honoré Lechasseur, an ex-GI turned spiv who is searching for the Doctor. Although the novella is now out of print, the characters of Emily and Honoré continued their adventures in the Telos Time Hunter series of novellas.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Trivia
4 External links
- 4.1 Reviews

[edit] Synopsis

Honoré Lechasseur, a "fixer" with time-sensitive abilities, is hired by Emily Blandish to find someone known only as the Doctor. He soon discovers that the Doctor is a legendary figure that has drifted in and out of Earth's history. As he follows the trail of the Doctor, questions arise: what is the Doctor's connection with 1949 London and with the mysterious "cabinet of light" that another group is seeking?

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 1949, the novella tells the story of Honoré Lechasseur, an ex-GI who is living and working in London as a spiv. He is hired by a woman claiming to be Emily Blandish to track down her husband, the Doctor, and soon becomes embroiled in the machinations of a Nazi named Walken and a mysterious woman named Mestizer. Both are looking for the Doctor and something called "The Cabinet of Light", which is connected to him somehow.

Honoré is mistaken for the Doctor on more than one occasion because, as a time sensitive, his aura bears a passing similarity to the Time Lord's. This leads to him being kidnapped by Mestizer's servant, a hulking cyborg named Abraxas, and learn about the Doctor's apparent connection to "the girl in the pink pyjamas", a mysterious amnesiac who appeared in the East End of London after what was assumed to be the detonation of an unexploded bomb. In speaking to her, Honoré helps her regain a small part of her lost memory: her name - Emily Blandish.

Honoré confronts his employer, the faux Emily, but doesn't manage to get much information before she is killed by Abraxas. His investigation lead him back to Walken's club, but he is caught in the crossfire as Mestizer attacks. Honoré only manages to escape thanks to the aid of a mysterious stranger who identifies himself only as "The Doctor".

Honoré follows the Doctor to his confrontation with Mestizer, but fails to understand much of what he sees. The Cabinet of Light turns out to be the Doctor's TARDIS, and it is used to vanquish the enemy and allow the Doctor to escape. Mestizer disappears, leaving Abraxas to complete his mission: killing the real Emily Blandish.

Honoré manages to defeat the cyborg, and he and Emily head off into London.

[edit] Trivia

Honoré and Emily returned in the novella The Winning Side by Lance Parkin, the first in the Time Hunter series of novellas. These were developed as a replacement for Telos' Doctor Who novellas when the BBC decided not to renew the merchandising licence granted to the company.
Although later novellas established that Emily was a "time channeller", who could travel in time when paired with a time sensitive like Honoré, no mention was made of this in The Cabinet of Light. The author has commented that this is because the time channeller ability was introduced by Telos after the novella was written, to allow the Time Hunter series to move away from 1950s London.
The novella is an investigation of the myth of the Doctor, and as such he appears very little in the text. Instead, many characters give their own views on what the Doctor is: Honoré doubts his existence; his friend Syme thinks he is a figure from English folklore, and as real as King Arthur or Robin Hood; Walken thinks he is a creature of power; Mestizer may know the more conventional interpretation.
The character of G. Syme may be a reference to the detective Gabriel Syme in The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton.
The Cabinet of Light won Best Book in the 2003 Jade Pagoda awards, voted on by members of a Doctor Who book mailing list.[1]