The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)


 * You may be looking for the titular restaurant of this novel.

The Crystal Bucephalus was the fourth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series.

Publisher's summary
I'm a Time Lord, not a bank manager. When I invested in this place I had no idea that it would succeed. I mean - a time-travelling restaurant?

The Crystal Bucephalus: a restaurant patronised by the highest echelons of society in the 10th millennium. 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 Fifth 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.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Can "swim" through the time vortex.
 * Can forcefully control Kamelion and project his voice through Kamelion's mouth.
 * Spends an extended period trapped on an ice planet and creates the Tempus Fugit while trapped there.
 * Tegan Jovanka
 * While stranded in 1980s London, meets a young waitress in a McDonald's restaurant who is implied to be Ace.
 * Turlough
 * Kamelion
 * Because of his programming, he has the need to be controlled.
 * Has no qualms about killing because he derives his morality from the most powerful mind in the vicinity.
 * Alexhendri Lassiter
 * Believes in the Lazarus Intent.
 * Maximillian Arrestis
 * Set up the Lazarus Intent as a cover for his real interests (smuggling, weapons manufacturing and so forth).
 * Is time scooped from the Sontaran throne world after betraying the Sontaran Emperor - he's returned there in the end and executed.
 * Controls Kamelion for a time.
 * Maitre D'
 * Is Alexhendri Lassiter's brother.
 * Diva
 * Sven Tornqvist
 * Ladygay Matisse
 * Garrett Byson
 * Hellenica Monroe
 * Neil Corridge

Organisations

 * Cyberlord Hegemony
 * The Elective
 * The Union
 * Wine Lords

Planets

 * New Alexandria
 * Diadem
 * Exo III
 * Eye of Orion
 * Pluvikerr
 * Velopssi

Religion

 * Claatris
 * Lazarus Intent
 * An expy for Christianity.
 * Lizard God

Restaurants

 * Beswicks
 * Cafe de Saint Joseph
 * The Crystal Bucephalus
 * McDonald's
 * Tempus Fugit

Species

 * Alpha Centauran
 * Chelonian
 * Cyberlord
 * Cyberman
 * Draconian
 * Earth Reptile
 * Excalbian
 * Feathered people
 * Gubbage Cone
 * Legion
 * Martian
 * Ogron
 * Ooolatrii
 * Rutan
 * Sontaran
 * Terileptil
 * Thal

Continuity

 * As part of the climax of this story, the internal dimensions of the TARDIS are so massively damaged (while stopping a vortex rupture) that all is left is the cloister room and a lot of empty white space. This leads the Doctor to comment it's high time to redesign the console room. This leads directly into The Five Doctors, where he's cleaning the console.


 * The Doctor again demonstrates his psychic prowess by seizing control of Kamelion from "Lazarus" and speaking through Kamelion's mouth, coldly saying that his people have been around a lot longer then humans.


 * The Lazarus Intent is a future iteration of Christianity, with "Lazarus" saying that he created it to cover his real actions (gun running, smuggling, and general illegal activities) based on ancient scriptures he found one day and his choices of name were either "Jesus Christ" or "Lazarus".


 * Kamelion admits to needing someone to command him as free will is unsettling for him (he is, after all, a weapon of war). The TARDIS also talks to him (explaining his whereabouts between The King's Demons and Planet of Fire).


 * The Doctor claims that he has not smoked tobacco in four incarnations. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

Timeline

 * The Crystal Bucephalus occurs after: ST: Falling from Xi'an
 * The Crystal Bucephalus occurs before: DW: The Five Doctors