Intelligence Taskforce
In the late 1960s in Jenny Cornelius's home universe, she had contacts at a secretive international Intelligence Taskforce which had an office in London. These included the local Laura Drake, who worked in the P.R. office, and the no-nonsense officer Captain Stewart. Jenny speculated that within “ten or twenty years”, Stewart would rise in the ranks and be “a brigadier or something”. (PROSE: The Folly of Men)
Laura's superiors later sent her to Slough to investigate the cultists worshipping the Tenth Lord Grell, based on a notion that a young woman would be “inconspicuous”, which Laura found rather patronising. There, she found Jenny Cornelius, who had received a tip-off from alternative means. Because Jenny didn't want Laura's bosses to know about her shifting abilities, she took care to make up a plausible cover story before she used them in Laura's vicinity, claiming to Laura that she was actually using hypnotism to make her forget the means by which they escaped their dire circumstances (rather than them having genuinely teleported to safety in the blink of an eye). Laura was personally unconvinced but agreed to write as much in her report. (PROSE: Birds and Snakes)
While on a tour of people who knew various incarnations of Jenny, Sophie Everytime dropped in on Laura while she was working in the office. Laura was surprised at the presence of a teenaged civilian in what was “supposed to be a secure facility”. (PROSE: How Jenny First Met…)
Shortly after the Post Office Tower's inauguration, Laura mentioned to Jenny that due to “work”, she was aware of there being Sygons in the Tower's basement. (PROSE: A Morning In)
At some point, “L. Drake” authored an entry in the Intelligence Taskforce employee handbook which explained that much of the Taskforce's duties amounted to gently “managing” those residents of the city who had great powers and eccentric worldviews, but not necessarily hostile intentions, writing that “Nobody ever acquires all three qualities of a reasonable outlook on life, basic common sense, and the ability to turn the population of London into gerbils” and adding that “should [a new employee] fail to master this, [the Taskforce] will make sure [they] get fresh cedar shavings regularly and a little wheel to run in”. (PROSE: Employee Training)
Behind the scenes
Captain Stewart is implied to be a younger version of Doctor Who's Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, who has yet to be granted his iconic rank of “Brigadier” within UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
Jenny suggests that Stewart will be a Brigadier in “ten or twenty years” — that is, either in the 1970s or 1980s, taking the setting of The Folly of Men to be the 1960s. Her uncertainty is a nod to the infamous “dating controversy” about the present-day of the original run of Doctor Who serials featuring the Doctor working with UNIT: these were originally broadcast in the 1970s but with a loose premise of being set in the near future. This intent was gradually lost and, during the actual 1980s, a story was broadcast which outright treated the UNIT stories as having taken place when they were broadcast, i.e. in the 1970s.
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| "Intelligence Taskforce" • Third Universe • More |
