Unnatural History (novel)

Unnatural History was the twenty-third BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel. It featured the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and two versions of Samantha Jones. This novel explained several issues concerning Sam Jones that were introduced in Alien Bodies.

Publisher’s Summary
'They called it the Millennium Effect', said the Doctor. ‘But the millennium was only beginning.’

San Francisco has changed since the start of 2000. The laws of physics keep having acid flashbacks. There are sightings of creatures from outside our dimensions, stranded aliens and surrealist street performers. The city has become a mecca for those who revel in impossible creatures -- and those who want to see them pinned down and put away.

Sam’s past is catching up with her - a past she didn’t know she had. The Doctor is in danger of becoming the pièce de résistance in a twisted collection of creatures. And beneath the waters of the Bay, something huge is waiting.

With time running out, the Doctor must choose which to sacrifice -- a city of wonders, or the life of an old and dear friend.

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Samantha Jones (Dark haired Sam)
 * Samantha Jones (Blonde Sam)
 * Fitz Kreiner
 * Eldin Sanchez
 * Kyra Skye
 * Professor Daniel Joyce
 * Griffin - the Unnaturalist
 * Little Brother of the Faction Paradox

Books

 * Introduction to Quantum Esotericism by Watkinson and Thripsted discusses the Book of Lies.

Biology

 * Griffin manipulates the Doctor's biodata, removing his awareness of violet and all the UV ranges.
 * Fitz states that there are several unconfirmed "cryptozoological sightings."

Culture

 * The Doctor can't remember etiquette and gets confused between "twenty-first century America and the planet Quinnis in the fourth universe."

The Doctor

 * The Doctor's biodata contains seventeen conflicting streams.
 * Griffin removes the Doctor's ability to see the colour violet (although later the Doctor fixes this).
 * The Doctor uses the alias 'Doctor Bowman'.
 * The Doctor tells Sam (upon seeing her light up) that he gave up smoking "six or seven lifetimes ago".
 * The Doctor might have been ten years old.
 * The Doctor might have got caught skinny-dipping with a pretty female cousin of his.
 * The Doctor no longer has a shadow.
 * The Doctor contacts UNIT through General Adrienne Kramer concerning what's going on in San Francisco.
 * The Doctor summons the Little Brother of the Faction Paradox using a ritual and an extract of his biodata.

Drugs and medicines

 * The Doctor last dropped acid in 1968.
 * The Doctor had flashbacks for decades as a result of Jo Grant's hayfever tablets.
 * Sam smokes Benson and Hedges cigarettes.
 * Sam Jones has needle injection scars on her arms.
 * Gives up cigarettes to be the 'nice one', the good companion for the Doctor.

Fashion and clothing

 * Fitz wears a fedora and a long black coat while gathering information from his 'contacts'. He also wears small round sunglasses like John Lennon.
 * Fitz's hair is still growing back after his experiences with communist China.

Foods and Beverages

 * The Doctor pours out a bottle of beer in Kyra Skye's memory.
 * Sam takes her coffee black; Fitz, white with two sugars.
 * Daniel Joyce offers Sam some tea. She says she prefers coffee.

Gallifrey

 * The Doctor is not sure who is President of Gallifrey, Romana or Flavia.

Individuals

 * The Doctor tells Sam (dark haired) "about being President Elect of the High Council of Time Lords, keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time and Protector of Galloway. Or something."


 * Samantha Jones is dark haired. She lives in a King's Cross bedsit.
 * Gives the Doctor a back massage. He rather enjoys it. Then Sam tries to seduce him.
 * Sam has sex with Fitz.


 * Sam's parents have postcards and letters that Samantha Jones had/will been sending to them from:
 * San Franscico, 1 August, 1997
 * A letter from 1894, London
 * A postcard from Kursaal
 * A photobooth postcard with her and the Doctor from Paphos
 * They began arriving around the Mars, 1997 mission.


 * The Doctor tells Sam Jones (dark haired Sam) that 'his Sam' (blonde haired Sam):
 * Stopped the smugglers of Nephelokokkugian and the Dalek invasion of Tuvulu.
 * Battled the tyrant queen of Hyspero.
 * Returned a Triceratops infant to its mother.


 * The Doctor phones Dr Grace Holloway.
 * Blinovitch was a member of the Faction Paradox.
 * The Doctor mentions Tubby Rowlands
 * Sam no longer finds the idea "that a few years from now she could be anywhere, doing anything" exciting.
 * Fitz Kreiner uses the alias 'Fitzwilliam Fort' while working as a paranormal investigator for the Doctor.
 * Professor Daniel Joyce has a tattoo on the cuff of his sleeve that he looks like he has tried to get rid of. He has a red headed assistant called Larna.
 * Little Brother of the Faction Paradox calls the Doctor 'granddad'.

Languages

 * Despite Fitz' months in Mao's communist people's collective in China, he never learnt how to read Chinese properly.

Locations

 * The location of the Scar is the alleyway where the Doctor was shot.
 * Fitz has meditated on top of Mount Tamalpais.
 * Griffin is from one of the higher dimensions. He's from somewhere near the Needle.

Media

 * Eldin Sanchez writes for the Interesting Times.

Occult

 * Kyra Skye is a witch.

Planets

 * The Doctor cleared up the after affects of Daniel Joyce's visit to Youkali.

Professions

 * Griffin is an Unnaturalist.
 * Daniel Joyce does work for the Advanced Research Projects at Berkeley.

Psychic powers

 * Kyra Skye can see/read the 'ley lines' of San Francisco. She discusses psychokinesis and Snoopy when she first meets Fitz.

Species

 * A Kraken comes from the higher dimensions and floats in the void, almost twisting itself through incomprehensible space. It grazes on exotic matter, plumes of raw cosmological power, fountains of energy in the upper reaches that is undetectable in normal space. It's big enough to flatten San Francisco.
 * The unicorns can teleport, but the Scar prevents them from escaping San Francisco.
 * Griffin takes apart a chimera making it simpler, so it is just a dragon, a lion and goat.

Technology

 * The Doctor uses a 'Time Lord message pod', a white cube to send to the Time Lords, requesting help. It appears to be intercepted (an impossible thing according to the Doctor) by Faction Paradox.
 * He expected a reply "Once the epistopic interfaces of the space-time continuum are properly aligned."


 * Datagel is compact "but if you rupture the cell your computing power oozes out through the cracks."
 * The Henches (the 'men in grey') are from BioHazCorp and were supposed to be delivered to a warzone on Teso Peope.
 * Daniel Joyce got a spare beryllium chip for Wagg following the Doctor's theft of his first one.

Timeline

 * On 31 December 1999 a singularity opened in San Francisco and the Earth was forced through an opening the size of a bath plug.
 * This was the Eye of Harmony.
 * This was then undone, via a temporal orbit.


 * The Faction Paradox agent takes an old memory of the Doctor's:
 * The fruity scent of karamine pudding.
 * When the Doctor was barely a loomling.
 * When his father was present in a Great House.
 * He'd caught a cobblemouse.
 * Mr Saldaamir is present.


 * After her timeline is converged, Samantha Jones still gets flashes of memory from the 'other Sam', including that her other self and Fitz "shagged like rabbits".
 * Little Brother comments on "The whole post-destination thing with the Vervoids." and the way the Doctor "tricked the Dalek Empire into tangling their timeline so bad that their history collapsed under the weight of the paradoxes.".

Time travel

 * Little Brother uses a Blinovitch generator to create copies of himself and time travels using the energy built up from crossing his timestream.

Theories and Concepts

 * The paradox agent takes the Doctor's Volkswagen Beetle as payment for information, intending to take it back in time and melt it down, ensuring that its own steel would be used in its construction: a paradox.
 * Kyra Skye is killed by Griffin by folding her through the higher dimensions.
 * The Wild Hunt is part of the Scar's healing process, energy washing out in a reverse ripple. When it hits Sam she experiences alternate timelines and if the energy catches her up in it minutely alters her biodata.

Vehicles

 * The Doctor's Volkswagen Beetle has a cutomised Y2K number plate.

Continuity

 * Sam's postcards are from; San Francisco (EDA: Vampire Science), 1894 (EDA: The Bodysnatchers), Kursaal (EDA: Kursaal)
 * The Doctor mentions himself and Sam (blonde) defeating the tyrant queen on Hyspero and meeting Iris Wildthyme, both during EDA: The Scarlet Empress.
 * The Doctor mentions that he used to smoke. The only televised occasion of this was DW: An Unearthly Child.
 * The events of the Mars 1997 mission were covered in NA: The Dying Days.
 * The events of EDA: The Eight Doctors occurred, only without Sam or the Doctor's involvement. (the first time around)
 * Fitz' talks about his time in communist China with Sam (dark haired), also his hair is still growing back following the events of EDA: Revolution Man.
 * The planet Quinnis was mentioned (briefly) by the Doctor and Susan in DW: The Edge of Destruction
 * Youkali was mentioned in NA: Return of the Living Dad.
 * Joyce states/accuses the Doctor of toppling governments on his spare weekends (a long list but for example): DW: The Happiness Patrol, The Christmas Invasion.


 * When the Little Brother of the Faction tries to tell the Doctor of his future exploits he says "No spoilers." a statement that would come back to him in DW: Silence in the Library, but also because he doesn't want to know about the future he first learned of in EDA: Alien Bodies.


 * The Doctor last dropped acid in 1968 and nearly got transformed into an Aztec god in NA: The Left-Handed Hummingbird.


 * Daniel Joyce's assistant is (suggested as being) Larna from PDA: The Infinity Doctors.


 * The events of DW: Doctor Who began the anomalies throughout San Francisco.
 * The Doctor was last in San Francisco in EDA: Vampire Science.
 * EDA: Alien Bodies first introduced the concept of an alternate version of Samantha Jones who smoked Benson & Hedges cigarettes and had dark hair.


 * Blinovitch (of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect) was mentioned in DW: Day of the Daleks.


 * The Doctor doesn’t have a shadow. Reasons for this are revealed in EDA: Interference - Book Two.
 * There are some interesting references to various characters from PDA: The Infinity Doctors, such as Professor Joyce who works at Berkeley. In The Infinity Doctors the Doctor thinks that his father might be a professor at Berkeley. EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles suggests that Professor Daniel Joyce and his wife are the Doctor's parents.
 * The Doctor last contacted Grace Holloway in The Fallen.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after EDA: Dominion
 * This story takes place before EDA: Autumn Mist