When I think of 2019, I think of it as The Before Times. Before the world was frozen in time while researchers scrambled for a vaccine to beat back the beast known as COVID. Some pretty good things happened that year, including my first visit to a Doctor Who convention. I had the pleasure of attending Chicago TARDIS and enjoyed an all-too-brief encounter with Katy Manning.

Katy, of course, was Jo Grant, assistant to the third Doctor, played with panache by Jon Pertwee. Katy left the show after her character married environmentalist Clifford Jones. She has since played Jo Grant and Jo Jones many times for Big Finish.

She was a delight on the show and an even bigger delight in person, doling out hugs to all the fans who lined up for autographs. As we chatted, I might have let slip that I’d written a couple of stories for Big Finish. After all, “Battle Scars”, my second Short Trip for Big Finish, was released just a few months earlier. She narrated Short Trips sometimes, she said, and suggested I write one for her.

A story idea came to me almost immediately. I let it percolate until late last year when I decided to go ahead and write it as fan fiction. As I do these days when I get the urge to write Doctor Who. If there was any chance that Katy would narrate the story, I would have centred it around Jo Jones and Kate Stewart. However, since the story was going to be fan fiction, I decided that it would feature Jo Grant and the Brigadier, and as the story progressed they would bond with each other and gain a measure of mutual respect. The result is a short story called “Panic in the Cave.” It’s hosted by the Doctor Who Project.

Something is stirring in the cave system beneath Yorkshire. Locals are near deafened by eruptions of bone-rattling sound, and tremors have been reported, sufficient to split the earth and swallow vehicles. Before he can be notified, the Doctor takes his TARDIS for its first test flight since the Omega affair. Jo Grant, eager to prove her worth to the Brigadier, insists upon her involvement in the investigation. But, without the Doctor’s support, will she be able to face her fears and confront the unknown?

The Doctor Who Project hosts edited fan fiction stories which are set in alternative timeline. They also host “Brief Encounters” which are short stories set in the “classic” Doctor Who timeline. The editors had some good suggestions for improving my story. Do check the site out.

And please have a look at “Panic in the Cave” and let me know what you think of it.