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 By Rob McCow |
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What’s the story called? Stairway to Heaven The Collector Stairway to Heaven was published in the January 1990 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, number #156. The World Shapers Plot – Paul Cornell Script – John Freeman Pencil – Gerry Dolan Inks – Rex Ward Editor – John Freeman Fellow Travellers The Doctor encounters an impish creature in this story that repeats the words 'Excuse me,' and 'Heavenwards'. The creature starts as an egg but grows rapidly, reaching old age before the story’s end. It’s like watching The Time Warrior and School Reunion back to back. The Deal The Doctor is aiming to arrive at Chardaz Museum of Modern Art, but instead the TARDIS lands in a lush jungle. He trips over an egg, which hatches. An imp-like creature emerges, saying 'Excuse me!' It blasts flames from its nose that it uses to fire a lump of mud into a solid block. The Doctor follows the creature as it runs off and he notices that the jungle is contained in an artificial dome. The creature leads the Doctor to a stairway built of bricks and bones. The Doctor observes a pile of shattered bones, as though the creatures fell from a great height. The creature runs up the staircase. At the Chardaz Museum of Modern Art, the Genetic Sculptor Garg Ardoniquist is being interviewed by a reporter named Brin. Garg explains that he has created a sculpture that reflects the suffering that an artist must undergo to reach the top.
The Doctor reaches the summit of the staircase just behind the creature, which places a brick at the top and runs on. The Doctor is horrified to discover that the staircase ends as a sheer drop. He grabs the creature with his umbrella just before it falls. He opens a hatch at the top of the dome, which is a few feet above the top of the staircase. The hatch opens into the Chardaz Museum. The creature is embraced by Garg Ardonquist as part of his creation. The Doctor berates Garg for abusing genetic science in such a callous way. The creature jumps up to hug Garg, but knocks him through the hatch and the two of them plummet to their deaths. As the Doctor leaves security guards arrive and start picking up the stones of the staircase as collector's items. TV Action The seventh Doctor starts wearing his dark jacket from Season 26 in this story. In a way it’s a shame, as on the TV show the Doctor had just hung up his dark jacket for the last time. The 6th December 1989 saw the transmission of the final episode of Survival, the last old series story and the final McCoy story until the TV Movie in 1996. Stairway to Heaven, coming in January 1990 came at an uncertain time for Doctor Who, when the magazine was alternately confirming the show’s future and declaring it’s cancellation.
Stairways featured heavily in both Castrovalva and The Nightmare of Eden. In City of Death, the Doctor visits another art gallery; the Louvre in Paris. 4-Dimensional Vistas This story is pencilled by Gerry Dolan, who previously provided some pretty decent artwork to illustrate the text based story The Infinity Season. As in those drawings, there are some excellent renditions of McCoy in this story, although the posing of the characters tends to be a bit stiff and unnatural. One noticeable detail in this story is the unexpected appearance of Martin Jarvis as Brin, the reporter who interviews Garg. It’s definitely him! The hair and face are spot on. Many of the backgrounds in this story are left either blank or sketchy and there are quite a few occasions where the frame just shows McCoy against a white background. This is particularly noticeable in the Chardaz Museum, which seems to be completely undecorated. Fortunately the generally high quality of the artwork makes up for this. End of The Line Stairway to Heaven is a very neat one-part story, portraying a self-obsessed artist so concerned with suffering for his art that he draws others in to suffer too. Garg is a repulsive villain and the immorality of his artwork incorporating the deaths of hundreds of genetically created creatures rightly appals the Doctor. The stairway itself is a great metaphorical image, with the creator always just out of reach at the top and the creatures falling to their deaths trying to get to him. It’s easy to feel sympathy for the hopelessly cute and naïve creature that the Doctor chases up the stairway, although some may find the whole thing a bit too cute overall. As one part comic stories go, it’s the closest rival to the magnificent Spider God that the comic strip had produced at that point.
Follow That TARDIS! Paul Cornell is one of the great lost writers and was scarcely heard from again after this story was published. His brief return to the public eye saw him write the revolutionary New Adventure novel, Timewyrm: Revelation amongst many more novels, audio plays and television both within and without Doctor Who. His episodes for the new series (Fathers' Day and Human Nature / Family of Blood) are highly regarded. Aside from that though, there's been not a peep from him. Reclusive and shy, Cornell is perhaps the most inaccessible of Doctor Who writers. The Doctor has given up on getting to Bonjaxx’s party at Maruthea.
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