The Secret of Novice Hame was a webcast that was made specifically for the Doctor Who: Lockdown! event, coinciding with a tweetalong for New Earth and Gridlock. It featured Novice Hame discussing her final wishes as she lies close to death.
Synopsis[]
As Novice Hame prepares to die, she recalls her life, meeting the Face of Boe and the how a traveller will visit her before she dies.
Plot[]
Novice Hame recalls how she is living the last day of her life. She has been laid in a bower, surrounded by white cotton so people can come to pay their last respects before she dies.
Hame recalls how she was born in the middle of battle as her mother and father were trapped in a refuge camp, the last of sixteen kittens. To feed the other kittens and escape the war zone, her parents sold Hame to the Sisters of Plentitude for ten shillings. Her family gone and now under the Sisters' care, she was taken to New Earth and given her name in honour of the Cat God of Harvest. Hame was eventually inducted as Novice Hame at thirteen years old.
Hame thinks her adventures were captured in holograms. She remembers how she used to fight in wars, sometimes alongside a Lord of Time. As she aged, she decide to atone for her sins, eventually becoming a Senator, then Vice President, then Feline Imperator of the New Earth Order. Close to death, she has returned to calling herself Novice Hame.
Hame reveals she has one last secret to reveal, much like the Face of Boe. She hopes many will celebrate her life, to come visit her. She imagines the Hippopotamus Guards watching as Dogkind relax in the bright sunlight in New New York's Apple-grass. She pictures visitors feeding swans and flamingos and by evening, Dolphin children to dance in the fire light and the Lionkind and Micekind to come to observe her. She then notes the last surviving Owl woman would stand before her, knowing what Hame knows, a similarity she notes comes between Owls and cats. She then focusses on two gold coins that her last visitor must place on her eyes as she dies to pay for her journey in to the Great Cat kingdom, her people's belief in the after life.
Hame waits and then the last visitor arrives.
"Hello."
It is the Doctor, just as Hame remembered him, still skinny, still her friend. The Doctor sits by her, observing the Moonlit Pavilion. Hame asks how he is, the Doctor revealing he has been poisoned and is on a goodbye tour. Hame grows emotional, revealing that her parents, who she lost long ago, found her and came to visit. The Doctor smiles and Hame realises that he helped them find her. The Doctor insists he merely "nudged" them. Hame gives the Doctor the two gold coins and asks him how he has lived his life, leading him to talk all night about his own adventures.
By morning, Hame realises her end is coming, thanking the Doctor for spending her last night with her. The Doctor then ponders on his own life, how it has become a story and asks what Hame believes in. Hame begins to explain, ready to tell her secret, starting by observing how New Earth exists so similarly to the original Earth. She squeezes his hand, insisting the world was maybe not a home, but actually a complex trap. Hame says she looked beneath the earth and claims she found something.
"I think she's gone."
The Doctor places the two gold coins on Hame's eyes. Indeed, Hame has passed away. Her attendants steps from the shadows and asks what Hame's last words were.
" 'I wonder'. That's all she said. Good for her, it's a fine way to live and a fine way to die. Always wondering... right to the end."
Hame realises her secret will have to wait for another time. Hame begins to feel herself fade from the world. She says she is hope, ending and beginning, and feels herself rising to the sky as she continues to wonder.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Written by by Russell T Davies
- Music by Murray Gold
- Illustrated by Juanmao
- Audio Edited by Emily Cook
- Video Edited by James Barnett
- Produced by Emily Cook
Worldbuilding[]
- Hame's parents sold her to the Sisters of Plenitude for ten shillings.
- Hame was named after the Cat God of harvest.
- There are hologram recordings of Hame's adventures.
- Hippopotamus guards stand on duty beside Hame.
- Among the individuals that visited Hame are Dogkind, Sparrowforms, flamingos, Dolphin children, Lionkind, Heron folk, Micekind, and the last Owl woman.
- Hame's beliefs are that her final visitor shall take two gold coins and put them upon her eyes, so that she can pay for her journey to the Great Cat Kingdom.
- The Spiderkind inhabit New Earth.
- The Doctor has had hundreds of "faces and forms", including men, women and animals, although many are other individuals who take his title.
Notes[]
- Novice Hame says she is "hope," which has a double meaning - this is also the surname of her performer, Anna Hope. A similar double-meaning came when the Eighth Doctor asked whether his regeneration into the War Doctor would "hurt" - the War Doctor would be played by John Hurt. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)
- A prose version of this webcast was printed in Adventures in Lockdown.
Continuity[]
- Hame mentions how the Face of Boe would tell his own final secret to a weary traveller when close to death. (TV: New Earth, Gridlock)
- Hame mentions being close to New New York, where there is Apple-grass. (TV: New Earth)
- Hame mentions how the Doctor can regenerate. (TV: The Tenth Planet, et al.)
- Hame recalls the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, while possessed by Cassandra, travelling down an elevator shaft. (TV: New Earth)
- The Tenth Doctor has been poisoned and is on a farewell tour before his death. (TV: The End of Time)
- The Tenth Doctor mentions his adventures, notably: facing scarecrows, (TV: The Family of Blood) fighting Weeping Angels, (TV: Blink) the return of the Saxon Master (TV: Utopia) and battling the Flood. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
- The Tenth Doctor hopes that his life was a good story, and hopes that people remember that story fondly. The Eleventh Doctor would later reiterate a similar belief when thinking he was close to death to Amy Pond. (TV: The Big Bang)
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