The Black Archive #8: Black Orchid
The Black Archive – a series of book-length looks at single Doctor Who stories from 1963 to the present day. ‘Why didn’t I leave after the cricket?’ With its vintage cars, cocktails and genteel murder, Black Orchid (1982) mines comfortably familiar literary and televisual traditions. Yet within this country house is a disfigured prisoner whose history invites us to confront our prejudices about mental and physical injury, and our beliefs about colonialism and race. A two-part story without extraneous science-fiction elements, Black Orchid plays games with our ideas of monsters, doppelgangers and identity, as well as cricket. Ian Millsted has written for the You and Who series and for various comics websites and short story anthologies.
