Hi Johnny,

In the Doctor Who story The Massacre, the First Doctor and Steven believe that the French servant girl Anne Chaplet could have survived the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 1572, because centuries later they meet Dodo Chaplet and wonder whether Dodo could be a descendent of Anne's.

However, even if Anne had survived to produce any offspring, they would have inherited their father's surname, rather than their mother's maiden name, so the time-travellers' theory is nonsense. How could they make such a basic mistake?

Lawrence Michaels

Johnny Fanboy replies:

Steven Taylor comes from centuries in our future, by which time the conventions of marriage and the nuclear family will have changed considerably compared with those of 1572. Even today, some single mothers pass on their own surnames to their children. This would not have been the case in Anne's time, but Steven may not have realised this.

We would expect the Doctor to have been more knowledgeable about social customs throughout history, but then he had a good reason not to dismiss the possibility of a connection between Dodo and Anne. Remember that Steven had just stormed out of the TARDIS because of what he saw as callousness on the part of the Doctor for abandoning Anne to her fate. Therefore the Doctor could have been prepared to say anything to persuade his companion to forgive him.

It is also possible that the Doctor did make the same mistake but didn't realise it immediately. (At a later point, the Time Lord might have gone "D'oh!"... or perhaps "D'oh-d'oh!")

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