Who Killed Kennedy: James Stevens & David Bishop

 Who killed Kennedy?


Perhaps...perhaps.

Fans of the long-running TV series Doctor Who may find the two sentences above easier to parse. And they will be familiar with the principle that fictional works can deal with questions that will not be tolerated in the scripted reality show we call public debate.

The book revolves around James Stevens, a cynical journalist who you will see listed on the cover as an author, and begins with an excerpt from a work written by him which was forcibly withdrawn from publication before it could hit the shelves. David Bishop, also listed, doesn't appear until much later on, in a stylistic nod to Arthur Conan Doyle's role as John Watson's editor in the Sherlock Holmes stories. 

So, you might ask, and intuitively add the questionmark that is conspicuously absent from the title. Who killed Kennedy?

In this book you will come across elements you are doubtlessly familiar with: Zapruder, the Texas School Book Depository and the grassy knoll, to name but three. And, of course, one that has not previously been aired in the (supposedly factual) debate: the Doctor, but almost always seen from a distance. Look out, too, for Assistant lore utilised to maximum effect. 

Who Killed Kennedy is set in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Towards the end of that span, I found myself face-to-page with historical characters I remember such as Ted Heath and Harold Wilson, and events such as the power cuts which saw everybody buying candles.

If you are a Kennedy assassination buff, you may also know that time travel regularly appears on the conspiracy menu, and you may be interested in how all this intersects with the Doctor's struggles, still ongoing, to maintain the integrity of the time-space continuum. 

The Missing Adventures are refreshingly free of behind-the-camera feuds and agendas that have plagued the Doctor's televisual return since the mid 2000s. However, you may be interested to know that Who Killed Kennedy does not appear on the official list of missing adventures. I know for a fact - as stated above - that some of the details given are true. How many more are true but have been (semi-) fictionalised? Take a trip down the rabbit hole and decide for yourself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Doctor Who: the Edge of Destruction by Nigel Robinson - high concept sci-fi in disguise

Image
The TARDIS is hurtling towards destruction. The problem is, its fault locator is quiescent because there is no fault in the machinery.  It has to decide how to act; but even a machine as advanced as the TARDIS, although able to make such decisions, is hobbled by its limnited means of proactive communication with the crew. How to alert the Doctor and his companions - his grandaughter Susan, and her teachers Barbara and Ian - to the impending catastrophe? This two-part series was written by David Whittaker and transmitted in 1964, and was possibly rather hastily written because the BBC had opened slots for two more episodes than there were scripts due to Doctor Who 's increasing popularity. Nigel Robinson's novelisation expands somewhat on a very important story which establishes the TARDIS as a character in its own right, which would continue to be expanded upon up to the present day. What shines through to me is that Whittaker had heard of John von Neumann's 1958 lecture o...
Read more

Wednesday: A Novelisation of Series One by Tehlor Kay Mejia and the Wednesday TV Show Writers

Image
Wednesday is Pinocchio. Or, if you want, Wednesday Addams, in Tehlor Kay Mehia's excellent novelisation of Netflix's first series, reinstantiates that eternal hero (in the Joseph Campbell sense) best known in the guise of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. With the light hand of a master of their craft, Mejia pulls out the plot points charting Wednesday's journey from a wooden caricature of herself to a Real Girl. Mejia was not handed an easy job. The series, starring (in case you didn't know) Jenna Ortega as the title character, is narrated by Wednesday's inner monologue while also featuring scenes she doesn't witness, which prime viewers for plot developments Wednesday doesn't expect. Tim Burton stitches these threads together onscreen to make an organic whole, but the method wouldn't have survived migrating to the written form. So Mejia has chosen Wednesday's voice to narrate her whole journey and has had to let her incorporate developments she ...
Read more

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: from me to you to us

Image
If the Antichrist enjoys anything more than voicing bloodthirsty apocalyptic threats, it's helping to make biscuits in the kitchen. And with that, one has all one needs to see beyond his demonic provenance to the child who needs love, nurture, and a chance to have some damn good adventures. "You NEED to read The House in the Cerulean Sea !" I was told, having asked for uplifting reads to get me through a nasty bout of flu. I spent the first page or so wondering if it was written for children or adults before concluding "yes". Then I got into the serious business of enjoying this expertly woven tale of a man who comes from a faceless corporatist society to judge a chaotic but loving community, and must decide which of these he should in face be judging. Linus Baker is sent on a mission to inspect Marsyas Orphanage and its leader, Arthur Parnassus, for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He finds he has embarked not just on a train, but on the eternal...
Read more