The novel “The Man From Yesterday” by Nick Walters was published for the first time in 2018.
Anne Travers, with the assistance of Lt. Bill Bishop, is investigating strange sightings of pink lightning reported in the Norfolk area. Some locals also mention the presence of strange beings with elven features. There’s something strange and the investigation continues to understand what’s behind it.
An airplane lands, an old model used during World War II. The elderly pilot looks rather confused even though he’s aware of where he landed. He remembers going on a war mission and that his name is Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. General Gore also discovers his arrival and prepares his plans.
The Lethbridge-Stewart series tells the adventures of the character who became famous in the “Doctor Who” TV show when he works without the Doctor. The stories start from the period immediately following the debut of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the TV show and then extend the period covered. These stories include some characters that appeared in the TV show, some invented for other productions connected to it, and others that were created specifically for these novels.
This series of novels delved not only into Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart’s professional story in the years he worked without the Doctor but also into his personal story, which includes his family. Various pieces of that personal story were developed in several novels and “The Man From Yesterday” brings together several pieces, especially the mystery concerning his father. During World War II, Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart led his RAF squadron on a mission but vanished while he was coming back.
Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart’s personal story was influenced by his involvement in events that are decidedly out of the ordinary. After his first meeting with the Doctor, his work brought him into contact with aliens and entities such as the Great Intelligence with various consequences. Instead, his father’s story seemed like one of the many tragedies that unfortunately take place in wartime but in “The Man From Yesterday” it turns out that there’s much more. The problem is that the coincidence that somehow brings together the lives of father and son seems truly remarkable.
It’s not the first time that in “Doctor Who” a plot is based on unlikely coincidences and it’s not the first time that a case of this kind involved Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. In my opinion, in this case, we can turn a blind eye because the novel seemed to me well developed in the introduction of what initially seems a UFO-type mystery that slowly reveals much more. The reappearance of Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is an important moment for his son but it’s handled in a very practical way by both of them, according to their character, without cheesy sentimentality.
Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart doesn’t remember where he was between 1945 and 1970 and finding out becomes central in “The Man From Yesterday”. The plot follows the protagonists’ investigations of the events surrounding the return of the man with a number of twists. In some chapters, events concerning an interstellar war are told, and their meaning in this novel is easy to understand.
A parallel investigation is being conducted by General Gore, a recurring character in this series of novels. Several stories published in this series are linked together by the presence of certain characters and with certain plots that are developed a bit at a time. From this point of view, “The Man From Yesterday” also seems made to offer a conclusion to some of these narrative threads.
“The Man From Yesterday” includes many events in a complex plot that in many ways has roots in previous stories from this series. In my opinion, the result is a good novel but due to its characteristics, it requires the knowledge of events told in previous works to understand their meaning, so I recommend it to fans of the Lethbridge-Stewart series.
