Doctor Who: Goth Opera
by Paul Cornell
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- July 1994
Back Cover Blurb
'THE TIME OF HUMANITY ON THIS WORLD HAS COME TO AN END. THE LONG NIGHT IS STARTING. THE AGE OF THE UNDEAD IS UPON US.'
Manchester, 1993. The vampires of Great Britain have received a message: the lon-awaited arrival of their evil messiah is imminent. It's time for a recruitment drive.
On holiday in Tasmania with Tegan and the Doctor, Nyssa is attacked by a demonic child. She escapes unharmed — except for two small wounds in her neck.
Why are the descendants of the Great Vampire so desperate to obtain the blood of a Time Lord? And what is their connection to a forbidden ancient Gallifreyan cult?
'THE TIME OF HUMANITY ON THIS WORLD HAS COME TO AN END. THE LONG NIGHT IS STARTING. THE AGE OF THE UNDEAD IS UPON US.'
Manchester, 1993. The vampires of Great Britain have received a message: the lon-awaited arrival of their evil messiah is imminent. It's time for a recruitment drive.
On holiday in Tasmania with Tegan and the Doctor, Nyssa is attacked by a demonic child. She escapes unharmed — except for two small wounds in her neck.
Why are the descendants of the Great Vampire so desperate to obtain the blood of a Time Lord? And what is their connection to a forbidden ancient Gallifreyan cult?
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
Romana
Fifth Doctor / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
Romana
Notes
- Goth Opera takes place between the television stories Snakedance and Mawdryn Undead.
- Goth Opera was the first original Doctor Who novel that didn't feature the the Seventh Doctor, and as it was the first novel in the Missing Adventures series, it was decided that is should follow on from events in the same month's New Adventure novel, Blood Harvest by Terrance Dicks. Both books have their roots in Dicks' 1980 television story State of Decay which saw the Fourth Doctor encountering the last of the Great Vampires, who had escaped from our universe into E-Space to escape the Time Lords. In another tie to that story, Goth Opera was the first time that the character of Romana had featured in a story since she had decided to stay in E-Space at the conclusion of Warriors' Gate, the story following State of Decay.
- To date, Goth Opera is the only Doctor Who novel by Paul Cornell which hasn't featured the current Doctor.
- Famously, Alister Pearson's cover to the book had to be changed prior to publication as major book retailer WH Smith took issue with the blood on Nyssa's clothes.
Doctor Who: Evolution
by John Peel
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- September 1994
Back Cover Blurb
'SOMEONE IS TAMPERING WITH THE FABRIC OF THE HUMAN CELL,' THE DOCTOR SAID DARKLY, 'PERVERTING ITS SECRETS TO HIS OWN PURPOSES.'
Sarah Jane wants to meet her fellow journalist Rudyard Kipling, and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for England, Earth, in the Victorian Age. As usual, the TARDIS materializes in not quite the right place, and the time travellers find themselves pursued across Devon moorland by a huge feral hound.
Children have gone missing; at the local boarding school, the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the bay, and fishermen have been pulled from their boats and mutilated. Graves have been robbed of their corpses. Something is going on, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the ship's doctor from a recently berthed arctic whaler, is determined to investigate.
The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human evolution — and both Sarah Jane and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.
'SOMEONE IS TAMPERING WITH THE FABRIC OF THE HUMAN CELL,' THE DOCTOR SAID DARKLY, 'PERVERTING ITS SECRETS TO HIS OWN PURPOSES.'
Sarah Jane wants to meet her fellow journalist Rudyard Kipling, and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for England, Earth, in the Victorian Age. As usual, the TARDIS materializes in not quite the right place, and the time travellers find themselves pursued across Devon moorland by a huge feral hound.
Children have gone missing; at the local boarding school, the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the bay, and fishermen have been pulled from their boats and mutilated. Graves have been robbed of their corpses. Something is going on, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the ship's doctor from a recently berthed arctic whaler, is determined to investigate.
The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human evolution — and both Sarah Jane and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Sarah Jane Smith
Fourth Doctor / Sarah Jane Smith
Notes
- Evolution takes place between the television stories Brain of Morbius and The Seeds of Doom.
- John Peel had previously written Timewyrm: Genesys, the opening book in the New Adventures series as well as a handful of novelisations based on 1960s Dalek stories. He would go on to novelise the two Second Doctor stories, The Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks, as well as the Eighth Doctor novels War of the Daleks and Legacy of the Daleks.
- Unusually, Evolution actually features real people from history, in contrast to the television series which often saw names being dropped but rarely let viewers see them in the flesh — in this case it is two famous literary figures: Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Arthur Conan Doyle would also feature in Terrance Dicks' 2008 book Revenge of the Judoon, which featured the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. - Observant readers may have spotted the reference to a large hound on the moors, which is an obvious allusion to Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes tale The Hound of the Baskervilles. And on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, the 1994 New Adventure All-Consuming Fire had actually featured the Great Detective in a Lovecraftian tale which revealed that Holmes and Watson were real people, but Conan Doyle had changed their names for his stories. In reality, it is believed that the real inspiration for Holmes was actually Dr Joseph Bell, a lecturer of Doyle's at university in Edinburgh.
Doctor Who: Venusian Lullaby
by Paul Leonard
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- October 1994
Back Cover Blurb
'YOU WANT ME TO HELP YOU EAT YOUR CHILDREN?' IAN SAID. JELLUNHUT'S EYE-STALKS TWITCHED. 'HOW ELSE SHOULD WE REMEMBER THEM?'
Venus is dying. When the Doctor, Barbara and Ian arrive they find an ancient and utterly alien civilization on the verge of oblivion. War is brewing between those who are determined to accept death, and those desperate for salvation whatever the cost.
Then a spacefaring race arrives, offering to rescue the Venusians by moving them to Earth — three billion years before mankind is due to evolve. Are the newcomers' motives as pure as they appear? And will the Doctor allow them to save his oldest friends by sacrificing the future of humanity?
'YOU WANT ME TO HELP YOU EAT YOUR CHILDREN?' IAN SAID. JELLUNHUT'S EYE-STALKS TWITCHED. 'HOW ELSE SHOULD WE REMEMBER THEM?'
Venus is dying. When the Doctor, Barbara and Ian arrive they find an ancient and utterly alien civilization on the verge of oblivion. War is brewing between those who are determined to accept death, and those desperate for salvation whatever the cost.
Then a spacefaring race arrives, offering to rescue the Venusians by moving them to Earth — three billion years before mankind is due to evolve. Are the newcomers' motives as pure as they appear? And will the Doctor allow them to save his oldest friends by sacrificing the future of humanity?
Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman
Notes
- Venusian Lullaby takes place between the television stories The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue.
- Venusian Lullaby was the very first Doctor Who novel to be written by Paul Leonard. He went on to write a further two titles for the Missing Adventures (Dancing the Code / Speed of Flight), Toy Soldiers for the New Adventures range as well as no less than five titles for the BBC's Eighth Doctor Adventures.
Doctor Who: The Crystal Bucephalus
by Craig Hinton
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- November 1994
Back Cover Blurb
'I'M A TIME LORD, NOT A BANK MANAGER. WHEN I INVESTED IN THIS PLACE I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD SUCCEEED. I MEAN — A TIME TRAVELLING RESTAURANT?'
The Crystal Bucephalus: a restaurant patronized by the highest echelons of society in the 10th millenium. The guests are projected back in time to sample the food and drink of a bygone age.
When the galaxy's most notorious crime boss is murdered in the Bucephalus, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are immediately arrested for the killing. To prove their innocence, they must track down the perpetrators of slaughter and sabotage, and uncover a conspiracy which has been 5,000 years in the making.
'I'M A TIME LORD, NOT A BANK MANAGER. WHEN I INVESTED IN THIS PLACE I HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD SUCCEEED. I MEAN — A TIME TRAVELLING RESTAURANT?'
The Crystal Bucephalus: a restaurant patronized by the highest echelons of society in the 10th millenium. The guests are projected back in time to sample the food and drink of a bygone age.
When the galaxy's most notorious crime boss is murdered in the Bucephalus, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are immediately arrested for the killing. To prove their innocence, they must track down the perpetrators of slaughter and sabotage, and uncover a conspiracy which has been 5,000 years in the making.
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Tegan Jovanka / Turlough / Kamelion
Fifth Doctor / Tegan Jovanka / Turlough / Kamelion
Notes
- The Crystal Bucephalus takes place between the television stories The King's Demons and The Five Doctors.
- The Crystal Bucephalus was the first of five Doctor Who novels to be written by Craig Hinton, and is probably the only one which didn't involve an overdose of continuity references. That said, it did address one loose thread in Doctor Who history as it featured the shape-changing android Kamelion, who had boarded the TARDIS in the television story The King's Demons and who was then completely ignored until he was written out in Planet of Fire. The only other novel to feature the character in any significant way was Christopher Bulis's 2000 novel Imperial Moon.
Hinton's other four novels all featured returning characters. GodEngine, for the New Adventures series, involved the Ice Warriors and the beginning of the Dalek Invasion of Earth. Millennial Rites marked a return for Anne Travers and the Great Intelligence (The Web of Fear). The Quantum Archangel included the return of the Master as well as allegedly a reference to every single television story. Hinton's final novel before his death in 2006 was Synthespians™ which involved the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness.
Doctor Who: State of Change
by Christopher Bulis
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- December 1994
Back Cover Blurb
'IN LESS THAN 25 YEARS THE ROMANS HAVE INVENTED ELECTRICITY GENERATION, AIRSHIPS, RADIO AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE. IS THAT REASONABLE?'
Ancient Egypt, 41 BC. The Doctor and Peri watch as Cleopatra's pleasure barge glides up the Nile in preperation for her fateful meeting with Mark Anthony. And an alien presence observes the TARDIS, waits for it to dematerialize, then pounces.
When the ship lands, the Doctor and Peri find themselves in ancient Rome, in the tomb of Cleopatra. But something is very wrong. The tomb walls depict steam-driven galleys and other disturbing anachronisms. The Roman Empire is preparing for a devastating war — using weapons from the future capable of destroying the entire world.
'IN LESS THAN 25 YEARS THE ROMANS HAVE INVENTED ELECTRICITY GENERATION, AIRSHIPS, RADIO AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE. IS THAT REASONABLE?'
Ancient Egypt, 41 BC. The Doctor and Peri watch as Cleopatra's pleasure barge glides up the Nile in preperation for her fateful meeting with Mark Anthony. And an alien presence observes the TARDIS, waits for it to dematerialize, then pounces.
When the ship lands, the Doctor and Peri find themselves in ancient Rome, in the tomb of Cleopatra. But something is very wrong. The tomb walls depict steam-driven galleys and other disturbing anachronisms. The Roman Empire is preparing for a devastating war — using weapons from the future capable of destroying the entire world.
Regular Characters
Sixth Doctor / Peri Brown
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Rani
Sixth Doctor / Peri Brown
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Rani
Notes
- State of Change takes place between the television stories Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord.
- State of Change was the first of five books for the Missing Adventures range to be written by Christopher Bulis, making him the most prolific writer for the series.
- State of Change was one of the few novels to feature the Rani, who had first appeared in the television series in Pip and Jane Baker's The Mark of the Rani in 1985, before returning in the Seventh Doctor's debut story Time and the Rani. The only other Doctor Who novel to use the character to any great extent was Gary Russell's Divided Loyalties, which included some extensive flashbacks to the Doctor's time at the Academy on Gallifrey, and which revealed that the Rani's real name was Ushas.
