Attempted invasion of reality
In the early 21st century, the Land of Fiction was becoming overcrowded due to the sheer volume of fiction distributed through various mediums that were available during this time. It had gotten to the point where lesser-known and obscure fictional characters that had been forgotten about over time had to be erased to make room for new characters. During this time, in the English town of Eastwold, a woman named Laura Corbett, having recently been abandoned by the father of her child after he got her pregnant, created a fictional construct of a father for her child whom she told her friends and family about. The fictional father, whom she named Simon Corbett, was created so that he would do anything to be with and protect his child, Edward. This fierce determination, combined with the already overcrowded nature of his world, made Simon create a breach in the Land of Fiction so that he could be with his child. Because Simon was seemingly the perfect man for her and her child, Laura accepted his existence, although Simon himself was unaware of his true origins.
Eventually, this breach in Eastwold was discovered by the more selfish obscure characters within the Land of Fiction, who would do anything to avoid having their existences being erased. The Crooked Man—a book-dwelling monster created in a manuscript by Laura's father, Geoff Corbett, whose existence was also being threatened—led an invasion of Eastwold by crossing over into reality and murdering the town's residents, allowing for obscure fictional characters to come through the breach and take their place. After Jeff Corbett's death, Laura sold all his books at a local bookshop, accidentally leaving the manuscript for The Crooked Man among them. Knowing that destroying the manuscript was the only way of killing him, the Crooked Man made the shop's owner, Rance, his thirteenth victim and stole the manuscript.
At this time, the Fourth Doctor and Leela arrived in Eastwold where they began investigating the murders. Their investigation eventually led them to the Corbett's house, where the Crooked Man kidnapped baby Edward in order to lure Simon, the Doctor, and the others into the Land of Fiction so that could trap them there and keep the breach open. In the end, however, the Crooked Man's tricks were no match for Simon's seemingly super-human feats fueled by his determination to protect his child, allowing the Doctor to take possession of The Crooked Man manuscript and tear it up, erasing him from existence. As they were being pursued by the other fictional characters that the Crooked Man brought through, the Doctor confronted Laura about Simon's origins, revealing the truth to all, including Simon. Realising that Simon is the cause of the breach, the Doctor told him that the only way to save Laura, Edward, and the rest of reality was for him to stay behind and close the breach. Simon agreed to do so, easily fighting off the remaining characters as the others escaped through the breach, allowing him to close it for good. (AUDIO: The Crooked Man)
Sixth Doctor in the Land of Fiction
The Sixth Doctor arrived in what appeared to be the highlands of Scotland in 1780 to find an older Jamie McCrimmon, who, under the alias of the ruthless Black Donald, led a group of rebels in fighting the Redcoats. Jamie, despite having no memories of the Doctor due to the Time Lords' mindwipe, agreed to journey with him through events involving what seemed to be advanced, oil-pumping technology from 1884 on the moors, the mysterious Overlord, who was after "black water", and the creation of the Red Caps. (AUDIO: City of Spires)
Jamie accompanied the Doctor into what they realised was the Land of Fiction, where they seemed to have become involved with the RMS Titanic on 14 April 1912, which abruptly became the similarly ill-fated, but literary Titan from 1898. The adventure continued in Captain Nemo's famed submarine, the Nautilus, which faced an attack from a giant squid. After the Nautilus was attacked, the Doctor and Jamie found themselves in the White Void. (AUDIO: The Wreck of the Titan)
While facing clockwork soldiers, Jamie found an unaged Zoe Heriot, whom he didn't remember. Zoe helped return a flood of Jamie's memories with the data clusters. Jamie and Zoe met up with the Doctor and an interdimensional secret agent version of the Artful Dodger. After Oliver Twist was found to have become a partly-converted Cyberman, the group travelled to the fairy-filled Magic Forest where they met an armoured Lt Alice Liddell in the company of Dracula. The group was attacked by cyber-converted Wagnerian Valkyries. Coming across Sleeping Beauty and her spindle, like Alice, Jamie was found to be fictional, with blood of black ink, even though he had believed himself to have been a real person with a full life. The Doctor told the fictional characters to exercise their free will regardless. Jamie was rescued by the Doctor from metafictioning himself out of existence by the Cybermen in a glass cupboard.
Cybermen in Land of Fiction
Cybermen in the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
The fictional Jamie was upset about the Doctor never coming back to his companions and worried the Doctor had never checked on the real Jamie, who might have been hanged by the Redcoats after the Battle of Culloden. Moby Dick was discovered to be cyber-converted and Cpt Long John Silver's Hispaniola faced sinking from its torpedoes, but they were saved by Cpt. Nemo and Rob Roy MacGregor, who returned the barnacle-covered TARDIS to the Doctor.
The Mistress of the Land of Fiction was the real-life, older Zoe, who had found out she had mysteriously aged two years and was captured in a Cyberman attack on the Wheel. When Zoe's memories were triggered, she sent the Cybermen into the Land of Fiction and brought the Doctor there to defeat them, creating Jamie as a friend and as a mystery to solve. After a Datamat, which looked similar to a Cybermat, started climbing up Jamie's kilt, the Zoes were told to work on writing the fictional Cybermen, who had been converted from fantasy creatures, out of existence. Cpt Nemo, finding himself with a cyber-converted Dracula, was rescued by the soon-to-be-killed Karkus, sent by Zoe. The Doctor used the Datamat to erase the fictional Cybermen from existence. The fictional Zoe was killed. Alice was elected to be in charge of the Land of Fiction, as Jamie was more of a fighter. Jamie told the Doctor to find the real Jamie if he ever found himself in the Scottish highlands again. Zoe was rescued by the Doctor, but in doing so, her memories were lost to her again. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
The Seventh Doctor in the Land of Fiction
Years later, as part of his elaborate scheme to gain revenge on the Doctor, Mortimus reactivated the Land and installed Jason, a mentally unstable boy from 1993 Earth, as its new Master. Jason constructed a town called Arandale, inhabited by various fictional characters such as the White Knight and Doctor Nemesis. He trapped the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Benny in a scenario where the power source that gave the White Knight his powers would soon explode and destroy the town unless the Doctor either went along with the story and thus became trapped in the Land for good, or took the Master's place. By tricking Jason into introducing highly disruptive McAllerson's Radiation into the Land by claiming that it could be the source of the White Knight's powers, the Doctor escaped after the Radiation release damaged the Land long enough for him and his companions to return to the TARDIS. At his request the Time Lords placed beacons around the Land to warn away other travellers in space and time who might become trapped there. (PROSE: Conundrum)
Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart's time travel experiments (PROSE: Set Piece) created a space-time anomaly which allowed energy from the Land of Fiction to bleed into the real universe. This created the Miracle, an energy source which for a time sustained the dying planet Detrios. It also re-activated Jason, who sought to gain revenge on the Doctor, by creating a fictional version of him, Dr. Who. Jason employed Dr. Who in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. Although the Queen was killed by Dr. Who, Jason's distaste for bloodshed made him use his powers to restore her to life. Jason helped the real Doctor seal off the anomaly, after which the Doctor wiped Jason's memory and returned him to Earth. (PROSE: Head Games)
Shortly after Romana II became President of Gallifrey, one of the items on her agenda was to annex the Land to the Matrix. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
Undated Events
The Master visited the Land of Fiction and destroyed a council of 19th century literary villains who resided there. (COMIC: Character Assassin)
After her companion Panda was lost in the Time Vortex, the renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme searched for him in the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa)
The Tenth Doctor mentioned having met numerous fictional characters in the Land of Fiction. He told Rose Tyler he could take her to meet her childhood heroes and have honey with Winnie the Pooh, who is a right laugh. Rose thought Mr. Tickle would be annoying and had had enough of fictional characters at the time. (AUDIO: Infamy of the Zaross) When trapped inside The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage, he explained to Martha Jones that the Land of Fiction tasted like boiled cabbage and smelt like wet dog. This helped him to rule out this pocket universe as their location. (PROSE: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage)
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