The Sun Makers

How many nostalgic articles begin by remembering when the writer first read the Target book? I can recall the start of the "Sunmakers" book, a splendidly written sequence with Citizen Cordo being told the taxes were raised without his knowledge and being literally talked into debt that he can't climb out of by the sharp-tongued Gatherer. Normally such reminisces end with the writer lamenting that the scene in question was spoiled when they finally got around to seeing the TV version, but this scene on television is just as good as it is in the book.

It's the start of a brilliantly written story, and not just because it's a half-playful half-bitterly written take on our tax system (the Collector's guards are even called the Outland Retinue! How did they get away with it?). Anyone who's had any financial dealings at all with a large ruthless company will see what a beautifully informed observation it is; the financial world is an unenforced state where the richest have the most power. If a bank decides you owe them some money, you have to pay. You can't ring the police to complain that it's been stolen from you, they'd laugh in your face. There are no doubt organisations to whom you could take a complaint, but of course as Citizen Cordo found, the debt is accruing interest while you are doing so, and what happens if you lose? You end up paying twice as much, so it's not worth the effort. And the bank are probably going to be right anyway, as there's bound to be some tiny clause in the reams of contractual small print you are obliged to sign before you deal with them and which you have no hope of understanding without the aid of a professional legal person. And you can bet they can afford a better one than you.

I know of plenty of people who've been in the same 'no win' situation as Cordo, in fact I've been there myself. My Uncle was promised a certain return on an investment which never materialised, but what can he do? The most power you have is to sue, and who can afford to take a huge company to court? It all costs too much. Now personally I've never had such problems with the real Inland Revenue, even though I've had to complete a self-assessment form for the last couple of years. Generally, they tell me what I owe and I pay, although I'd advise caution to anyone planning to complete their annual tax return on-line - the one time I tried it, it told me I owed thousands of pounds then crashed, losing all the information I'd painstakingly typed in. But I'm sure Robert Holmes' experiences mirrored those I and others have had elsewhere.

I was swayed for a while into remembering that I didn't like the story at all. It gets an impartial to hostile reception in Doctor Who fan circles, and there are a lot of plain white sets and an odd allocation of location footage (all the stuff underground is done on film whilst the Doctor using a cashpoint, presumably in a street, is done in studio). It took re-watching to remind me of why I loved it so much. Mainly because Robert Holmes obviously loves the Doctor, having him trying to cheat K9 out of a chess victory ("don't flash your eyes at me!") and eventually taking on the fight against the establishment as usual. You can't help but wonder if the writer took extra delight in having him overthrow the petty bureaucracy of a financial dictatorship because none of us ever can. The Doctor after all stands for everything The Company don't - freedom, justice and the fight against red-tape wielders, people he would later describe as "worse than criminals". As such, everything we need to be to survive our own lives (in a world that often feels like The Company are in charge) is embodied in the Doctors stance against them.