I, Alastair (novel)

 was the sixth novel in the seventh series of Lethbridge-Stewart, released under the banner of Bloodlines, by Candy Jar Books in 2020.

Publisher's summary
Hail the Leader!

Under the gentle guidance of The Leader, Britain has flourished after the removal of the dead hand of democracy and the old, corrupt aristocracy. Dominant in Europe, a great power around the world, the Republic stands as a beacon to wise, benevolent and firm leadership.

The team led by column leader Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart is the best and brightest of us all, ensuring that attempts to overthrow the natural order will be stamped into submission.

Those who stand with the leader ensure that Britain remains great, a power to be reckoned with, and a dominant force across the globe.

Unity is strength.

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Column Leader Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart
 * Ben Knight
 * Spencer Pemberton
 * James Lethbridge-Stewart
 * Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
 * John Benton
 * Sally Wright
 * Anne Travers
 * Edward Travers
 * The Leader

Continuity

 * The Leader is implied at points to be a version of the Doctor, as first established in PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation. (This is not explicitly confirmed for legal reasons) The Leader refers to "hearts", which is taken as a slip due to ill health; there is a rumour from zealots that he could once extend his life but has had the ability taken from him; when Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart starts referring to alien infiltration, the Leader initially seems about to have him dragged away (which Gordon takes as meaning he's not convincing him).


 * In the 1940s all non-white people were deported from Britain and forced to work in poor conditions in the Caribbean and Africa; an opponent of the regime claims the death toll is between sixty to eighty per cent, although her reliability is questionable (see Errors for elaboration).


 * A system of labour camps exists to punish and rehabilitate people sentenced by the People's Court for political crimes, a particularly dense cluster of camps is located in the Home Counties surrounding London. The unknown author of the expositional memoir refers to the camp system as an "archipelago" across the country, alluding to The Gulag Archipelago by real-world author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Other camps exist in remote areas such as the Isle of Mull, presumably to make escape more difficult for detainees considered at high risk of escape attempts. Even the free civilian staff and guards consider the Mull camp unpleasant to work at.


 * Knight remembers meeting the 'false' Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart nine years ago, as depicted in The Schizoid Earth. That puts this story in 1968 - the same year that the first Lethbridge-Stewart books were set.


 * The book states the Bolsheviks lost the Russian Civil War and Knight is relieved not to be captured by "Tsarists", while Britain's uneasy American allies are headquartered in Richmond; the White Russians winning the civil war and a Confederate States of America existing was established in The Face of the Enemy.
 * Oblique references are made to Alastair having a covered-up past. PROSE: The Schizoid Earth had him come from an alternate timeline.
 * Mention is made of the RAAF, whether this is a parallel of the real-life Royal Auxiliary Air Force or an alternate name of the RAF or simply an error is unknown.
 * Alastair's great-uncle was executed at Cromer.
 * The Travers family has connections to the revolution, with Edward's uncle one of the first to break into Buckingham Palace in 1943.
 * Knight was killed in The Schizoid Earth, suggesting either he was one of the clones (more of whom Knight encounters in this book), or the Knight in this book is a clone. (His memory blanks could also be a clue to this.)
 * The RSF has rumours of odd things at Loch Ness, (TV: Terror of the Zygons) "shaggy ghosts" on the Underground and a strange intelligence, (TV: The Web of Fear) and spotted Tibetan Yeti while doing surveillance on China in the 50s.
 * While not covered in this book, Edward Travers here is from an alternate timeline. PROSE: The Schizoid Earth established the Inferno Earth Travers had died in 1930s Tibet, while the alternate Travers fled his timeline with Alastair; he was "collected" by External Security and whisked away to the Vault.

Errors

 * The book uses worldbuilding elements from The Face of the Enemy where the RSF have fought aliens since 1959. Despite this, nobody in the RSF or the Cabinet seems aware aliens exist. Even Director Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, commanding the group since before they ran into the Bannermen, only knows of aliens as rumours and old reports, and can only offer those to the Cabinet.


 * Ashes has James Lethbridge-Stewart discover that Alastair had reached Brigade Leader rank while he was away; in this story, James has not left the timeline when Alastair is promoted.


 * In I, Alastair the publicly owned broadcaster is referred to as the "RBC", despite the name "BBC" being used in both The Schizoid Earth and Still Lives.


 * An opponent of the regime claims the masses are impoverished, but it is stated elsewhere in I, Alastair that the energy crisis was a result of the economy growing faster than new power stations could be built. In Inferno foreign nationals such as Harry Slocum and Greg Sutton are shown to have sought work in the Republic, implying the economy was thriving and offered better job prospects than in their home countries. It has also been implied the Party has retained power because the public had their material needs met and thus had no appetite for rebellion. The Resistance member was held under duress with threats of violence being made against members of her family, so her statement could be unintentional exaggeration from a state of high emotion.


 * Nuclear power is said to have been banned after the IRA sabotaged Windscale. But in Still Lives the Nuton Power Complex is mentioned, with no evidence that nuclear power is prohibited, merely that the electricity grid was under-capacity and a radical solution was needed.