Polly, Pretty Polly

This story heralds the return of Polly Wright. She has gained a modicum of fame by working at a record company called GEZ, attending showbiz parties, and mingling with celebrities great and small. Her boss, John Maurice, dies in what sounds like a tragic BDSM accident and Polly assumes his duties. That is, his duties at the record label, not the ones having a piglet licking ice cream from his toes. One of those is to attend a funeral where she sees the proverbial white light and meets a spectral female lady, you know, kind of like the European in Russian Ark. But instead of accompanying her through British history at the British Museum, it sends her on a temporal shopping trip to find the perfect dress for a Millennium party.

She finds herself first in a medieval dungeon with Maid Marion when suddenly Ian and Susan show up followed by the First Doctor. In rapid fire, Polly is transported to a variety of other times and places including a ship where she knocks back a few with Benny, a cricket match with the Fifth Doctor, Peri, Erimem, and Tegan, as well as the 11th century where she inadvertently gets Adric killed thusly preventing him from being on a freighter that crashes into the Earth and extinguishing the dinosaurs.

It turns out some mysterious entity is having her carom around in Earth's history from one "nexus point", an important moment, I presume, to another causing all manner of havoc. The Time Lords eventually rescue Polly and have their best agents, the Second Doctor and Jamie, on the case. Polly finds herself back at the funeral where she's had some kind of health crisis. Luckily the Doctor and Jamie are there and they've brought Ben with them who gives her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or the "kiss of life".

Ben and Polly pledge their love for one another and they whole gang see the new millennium in.

A very fun, irreverent little romp that veers away from convention and tells a tale from a companion's point of view. Polly is sassy, somewhat full of herself. We never spend a whole lot of time in any one situation and things move along nicely. Polly's son, Mikey, from whom she is alienated, seems never far from her mind. I think this provides a little grounding and helps her move from being a denizen of the world of celebrity to one enjoying her less celebrated but more real friends.

I think it was here that I noticed that, when an author notes that the Doctor looks older, has some grey in his hair, then we know it's Season 6b. Terrence Dicks noted the grey at the end of World Game to help retrofit "The Two Doctors" and I guess other authors picked up on this as a marker.

I also noted the protagonist here is a woman but that the author is not. No help for my theory here.