Escape Velocity (novel)

Escape Velocity was the forty-second novel in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Colin Brake. It featured the Eighth Doctor and Fitz Kreiner and introduced new companion Anji Kapoor.

Publisher’s summary
''"You know me then?" asked the Eighth Doctor, a little tentatively.''

"You’re the Doctor," replied Fitz, a slight frown worming its way on to his forehead.

''"Yes, yes, yes, the Doctor, of course I am." The Doctor smiled, genuinely pleased to see a familiar face, even if for the moment he couldn’t quite put a name to it. "But, er, Doctor who?" he added, hopefully.''

The Doctor and Fitz are back together at last, but the Doctor is not the man he once was — which is a shame, because Fitz has promised Anji Kapoor that his old friend is Anji’s best hope of finding her alien-abducted boyfriend, Dave.

Soon the Doctor, Fitz and Anji find themselves involved in a desperate contest between Pierre-Yves Dudoin and Arthur Tyler the Third, each determined to be the first privately funded man in space. But not all the parties are playing fairly: members of an alien race called the Kulan are helping the Frenchman — and at the far reaches of the Solar System their battle fleet awaits...

Can the Doctor find Dave before the alien contact proves fatal? Who are the secret agents keeping tabs on the rival Space Race teams? Will the Doctor’s mysterious blue box finally reveal its purpose? And does the Doctor, now truly a man without a past, have what it takes to stop the Kulan Invasion of Earth...?

Chapter Titles

 * 1: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
 * 2: Speed
 * 3: Back to the Future
 * 4: The Man Who Fell to Earth
 * 5: Out of the Past
 * 6: Meet Me in St Louis
 * Interlude: Alien
 * 7: Gremlins
 * 8: For Your Eyes Only
 * 9: Weird Science
 * 10: Phase IV
 * 11: The Fugitive
 * 12: Deliverance
 * 13: First Contact
 * 14: Short Circuit
 * Interlude: Aliens
 * 15: Countdown
 * 16: The Time Machine
 * 17: The Hidden
 * 18: Strange Invaders
 * 19: Mission: Impossible

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Fitz Kreiner
 * Anji Kapoor
 * Dave Young
 * Compassion
 * Nivet
 * Arthur Tyler III
 * Christine Holland
 * Pierre-Yves Dudoin
 * Pippa Holland/Dudoin
 * Sa'Motta
 * Fray'kon
 * Menhira
 * Control
 * Agent Paul Fisher
 * Agent Williams
 * Agent Kruse
 * Koy'Guin
 * Marshall Spear

Cultural references from the real world

 * When Fitz and Dave Young witness a man apparently die and then arise, Young likens it to a scene from Terminator 3.

Individuals

 * Fitz Kreiner was born in 1936 and carries around a battered copy of his birth certificate. Miraculously, he convinces the British passport authorities in 2001 to issue him a passport on the basis of that document. He somehow convinces them that it reads 1976, rather than 1936.
 * For Fitz, only eight hours have passed since the destruction of Gallifrey.
 * Sam Jones told Fitz about regeneration and Fitz wonders if the Doctor will have regenerated.
 * Dave Young is Anji's boyfriend, whom she loves, but is perhaps no longer in love with.
 * The Doctor seems to recognise Perivale when he and Anji pass. When asked if he knows the place the Doctor remarks, "I don't think so. Maybe I visited here once. Or maybe I knew someone from here. It's no good. I just get something vague about cats."
 * At Arthur Tyler III's base, the Doctor is inspecting the Kulan technology and remarks that humans couldn't use it. Anji then asks why humans couldn't use it when the Kulan are humanoid like humans and don't have suckers on the end of their arms.
 * When the Kulan fleet is passing Mars Koy'Guin remarks, "Legends tell of a great race of warriors that came from this planet".

Organisations

 * Control mentions not wanting to get UNIT involved.

TARDIS

 * Compassion briefly appears, dropping Fitz off. She departs with Gallifreyan technician Nivet within her.
 * The Doctor's memory is still shaky; despite being able to pilot the TARDIS, he isn't able to immediately return Anji to Earth.

Continuity

 * Fitz last saw the Doctor after he destroyed Gallifrey in PROSE: The Ancestor Cell.
 * The end of this novel leads straight into PROSE: EarthWorld and mirrors the end of the first episode of the Doctor Who story An Unearthly Child with a ancient landscape.
 * The 1950s BBC science fiction television series Nightshade is mentioned. The Doctor tells Dave that he had "never really rated TV science fiction since they got rid of Nightshade." His seventh incarnation previously met its star Edmund Trevithick in Crook Marsham in December 1968. (PROSE: Nightshade)
 * The TARDIS "regenerates," something it would do again on two occasions. (AUDIO: Mary's Story, TV: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Fitz mentions Vega Station. (PROSE: Demontage)
 * Fitz has vague recollections of his recent adventures: running and hiding from something, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) being in an 18th century house, (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy) and being on Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
 * The house that the Doctor has in Kent is mentioned. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Warhead, et al)
 * Fitz wonders if the Doctor would steal a space shuttle. The Doctor did this in PROSE: Father Time. Later the Doctor remembers taking a look at an American space shuttle.
 * The Doctor passes Perivale while going in a car with Anji Kapoor. He has the impression that he knows this area, but the only thing he remembers is "something vague about cats". (TV: Survival)
 * Anji suggests that the Doctor may be an actor and he thinks that this can be possible, "One minute a crotchety old man, a quick make-up and costume change, and then a comic little man with a flute"