The Roundheads (novel)



The Roundheads was the sixth BBC Past Doctor Adventures. It featured the Second Doctor with companions Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Jamie McCrimmon.

Publisher's summary
"I tell you — we will cut off this King's head. Aye, with the crown on it!"

It is December 1648. Although victorious over the Cavaliers in the Civil Wars, the Roundheads are struggling to retain power. Plans are afoot to spirit King Charles from his prison, and the Doctor and his companions become embroiled in the intrigue...

Ben finds himself press-ganged and on board a mysterious ship to Amsterdam. Polly is an unwitting accomplice in the plot to rescue the King, and the Doctor and Jamie find themselves arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London under suspicion of conspiracy.

Can the Doctor and Jamie escape, manage to find Ben and Polly and still ensure that history remains on its proper course?

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Jamie McCrimmon
 * Ben Jackson
 * Polly Wright
 * William Kemp
 * Frances Kemp
 * Thomas Pride
 * Thomas Culpeper
 * Nathaniel Scrope
 * Lord Grey of Groby
 * Sarah Kemp
 * Arthur Kemp
 * Thomas Fairfax
 * John Copper
 * Christopher Whyte
 * Benedict Moor
 * Prince Rupert
 * Captain Stanislaus
 * Oliver Cromwell
 * John Thurloe

The Doctor

 * The Doctor mentions his granddaughter, Susan Foreman.

Individuals

 * Susan was very keen on the period of history of the English civil wars.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor manages to get lost in the TARDIS on his way to the library, and in a rare display of its partial sentience (last seen in TV: The Edge of Destruction), the TARDIS guides him back to the console room by opening previously unseen doors, while showing him into a room containing the book he was looking for along the way.
 * The Doctor states that he began his travels "a very, very long time ago".

Continuity

 * The Doctor reminisces about his first trip with Ben and Polly, when Ben kept insisting to be taken back to his ship because he would be late. (TV: The Smugglers)
 * The Doctor again uses his ability to speak in a foreign accent (in this case, Scandinavian), last seen in TV: The Highlanders.
 * The Doctor induces sleep using hypnosis, a feat last seen in TV: The War Machines. It is strongly implied that he was taught this skill by the Master.
 * The Doctor, Ben and Polly previously visited this same time period in PROSE: The Feast.
 * The First Doctor previously met Charles I's father King James I in 1605 and 1609 (PROSE: The Plotters, PROSE: The Empire of Glass) whereas the Second Doctor would later meet his son King James II in November 1688 (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution).
 * Ben mentions the Daleks (TV: The Power of the Daleks) and the Cybermen (TV: The Tenth Planet, TV: The Moonbase)
 * The Doctor refers to the TARDIS' tertiary control room. (PROSE: Nightshade)