Via Mr Guerrier comes this lovely factoid.
You may have noticed that Dan Brown has been in court this week defending some novel or other from the allegation that it is ripped off from a non-fiction (in the loose sense) work called The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. His publisher is being sued by that book’s authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.
Apparently due to illness, the third co-author of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail is not a party to the law suit (but perhaps will benefit from increased sales from the publicity without the risk of court costs if his co-authors lose the case). His name is Henry Soskin, but his nom de plume is Henry Lincoln.
Back in the swinging sixties, he wrote, with Mervyn Haisman, such Doctor Who stories as The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and The Dominators.
I will not, of course, suggest that Yetis on the Underground are a more convincing prospect than JC marrying Mary Magdalene and the church concealing their ongoing bloodline. That would be cheap.
If the win there absurd case then presumably Dr Who will be banned for having nicked ideas from HG WELLS.
Actually, HG Wells ripped off Baigent and Leigh. They have an actual time machine, that’s how they know everything!
Sorry, did I say “everything”?
Surely a more cromulent question to ask is why, when the Great Intelligence is supposed to be, well, of above-average intellect, would he (or, indeed, she) employ robotic yetis to invade the London Underground? I mean, sure – go for it in Tibet, but surely some sort of robotic tramp stinking of urine and surreptitiously concealing his silver balls in a brown paper bag would be more apt for the Tube?
Mind the doors!