Heart of TARDIS (novel)


 * for the core of the TARDIS, see heart of the TARDIS

 was the thirty-second BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel. It featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Victoria Waterfield, and the Fourth Doctor, Romana I and K9 Mark II. This was the first multi-Doctor novel in the PROSE line up, though in BBC Books' overall publishing line up the most recent multi-Doctor novel was PROSE: Interference - Book One/Interference - Book Two. Unlike previous multi-Doctor stories the Second and Fourth Doctors do not meet in this novel.

Publisher's summary
''In the American Midwestern town of Lychburg, something is afoot. Its citizens are being killed in inexpressibly horrible and brutal ways and the police don't have a clue who's responsible. The only suspects are a mysterious and sinister stranger, who calls himself the Doctor, and his young companions Jamie and Victoria.''

The Fourth Doctor and Romana, meanwhile, have been summoned by the Gallifreyan High Council. A force has been unleashed into the space/time continuum... a force so unimaginably terrible that it is set to rip the universe itself apart and plunge it into primal, screaming chaos from which nothing will survive.

Of course, since something of this nature happens every other day of the week, the Doctor's really far more interested in finding out what's happened to a close personal friend, who seems to have vanished under mysterious circumstances. And quite right, too. The fate of a universe plunging into foetid and unending chaos can look out for itself for a change...

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Jamie McCrimmon
 * Victoria Waterfield
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Romana I
 * K9 Mark II
 * The Brigadier
 * John Benton
 * Clancy Tillson
 * Joel Haasterman
 * Sohn

Biology

 * John Benton was exposed to something during his career in UNIT that enables him to hold off the effects of an anaesthetic dart for a short time.

Culture

 * Many of the characters are direct copies of The Simpsons characters in this novel (not the Doctor or any of his companions, of course). However Dr Nick (Dr Rick), Dr Hibbert, comic book guy and others all make noticeable appearances to the Second Doctor. A bartender named "Moe" is mentioned.
 *  Monty Python and The Holy Grail is referenced. When listing objects collected that had magical abilities, it ends the list with "...and swords of invincibility lobbed at passing knights by a samite-wearing woman in a pond." This appears to be a reference to the famous "Dennis" scene in the film.

The Doctor

 * The Second Doctor has small, neat handwriting.
 * The Second Doctor can play the recorder while hanging upside down.
 * The Second Doctor cannot remember if you should see a body in a morgue on an empty stomach or a full one.
 * The Fourth Doctor says that if he had a penny for every time someone has said, "Not so fast, Time Lord," that he'd have "...four pounds, seven shillings and a fourpence." To the word "Silence!" he claims "Twenty-seven pounds, fifteen shillings and a tuppence."

Individuals

 * Victoria Waterfield is afraid of rats and spiders.
 * The Fourth Doctor abandons the quest for the Key to Time the moment he thinks the Brigadier is in danger.
 * K9 Mark II can climb stairs unlike K9 Mark I.
 * The Brigadier meets Romana I. He knows enough things about the esoteric fields UNIT and the Doctor move in, as well as more mundane military matters, to make him a prime target for enemy agents.
 * Victoria mentions her father.

Languages

 * Jamie McCrimmon can now write in English although it's broken and spelt phonetically.

Species

 * The Daleks, upon hearing rumours of Collectors present near their system, pretend that their planet had been destroyed.

Technology

 * Victoria has trouble coping with escalators.
 * There are many things rumoured to be magical that the Golgotha Project is said to have searched for. One of these is Excalibur.

Continuity

 * The Fourth Doctor is on his quest for the Key to Time. (DW: The Ribos Operation, etc)
 * As the TARDIS malfunctions, the Fourth Doctor says, "Oh no, not again!", something his eighth incarnation would later say in a similar situation. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * The Fourth Doctor claims to have witnessed some Time Wars, which might explain why he knows about the Charon from PROSE: Sky Pirates!.
 * Delbane uses the Brigadier's spacetime telegraph to contact the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons)
 * Jamie mentions his first meeting with the Doctor. (TV:The Highlanders)
 * Victoria, although used to technology in her travels, cannot cope with the idea of escalators. She reminds herself that she has seen "...metal men who walked (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) and people living in crystal bubbles."
 * The Second Doctor refers to his body as "new," referencing his recent regeneration from his previous incarnation. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
 * When the Golgotha Project activated the magical item, code-named "the Arimathea Artefact," it opened a "rift," similar to the one in Cardiff. (TV: The Unquiet Dead, etc) However this one went to a place.
 * As the Fourth Doctor closes the TARDIS door, part of his scarf is shut in it, something he would later do in TV: Shada. In this instance, the scrap of scarf stays behind, fluttering to the ground.
 * As the Second Doctor is near-death, the Fourth Doctor feels weak. A similar event would happen to the Sixth Doctor. (TV: The Two Doctors)