The Janus Conjunction (novel)

Publisher’s Summary
The planets Janus Prime and Menda are diametrically opposed in orbit around a vast Red Giant star. But while Menda is rich and fertile in the light of the sun, Janus Prime endures everlasting night, its moon causing a permanent solar eclipse.

When the Doctor and Sam arrive on Janus Prime, they find themselves in the middle of a war between rival humans colonising the area. The planet is littered with ancient ruins, and the Mendans are using a mysterious hyperspatial link left behind by the planet’s former inhabitants. But what is its true purpose?

The Doctor and Sam must piece together a centuries-old puzzle. How can Janus Prime’s moon weigh billions of tons more than it should? Why is the planet riddled with deadly radiation? As the violence escalates around them, will the time travellers survive to discover the answers?

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Mentions being shot in San Francisco.
 * Still carried a bag of jelly babies.
 * The Doctor trained to fly a shuttle on the Mars-Venus run in 2511.
 * The Doctor says he isn't afraid of spiders.
 * Talks to Lunder about UNIT.


 * Samantha Jones
 * Compares Janus Prime with Skaro and Hirath.
 * Is shot at; her shoulder gets glanced by a laser rifle and gets infected.
 * Is implanted with a tracer.
 * Digs out the tracer with a knife by herself.
 * Gets extreme radiation poisoning.
 * Dies of Janusian radiation poisoning at 019.04 Mendan time.
 * Is (retroactively) saved via a temporal orbit and the Doctor developing a cure.


 * Julya


 * Vigo
 * From Menda; was a engineer.
 * Is shot by Zemler and turns into porridge.


 * Lunder
 * His mother was deported to Rho Priapus


 * Kleiner
 * Saw military combat in Alphan Kundekka conflict of 2198.


 * Gustav Zemler
 * Has already gone quite mad from radiation poisoning.
 * Because of said radiation poisoning, can access the Janusians' alpha waves and communicate (after a fashion) with them.
 * Shoots Vigo.
 * Shoots a few of his officers.
 * Starts the conjunction between Janus Prime and Menda.


 * Moslei

The Doctor

 * The Doctor and Sam pull the 'Number Eleven' manoeuvre upon seeing a spidroids outside the TARDIS.
 * He gives Sam a white panama hat that can be rolled up. It smells of summer and old cricket pavilions. (It is most likely the Fifth Doctor's old hat).

Locations

 * The Doctor and Sam were meant to be heading for Earth, Egypt, 1871 for the inaugural performance at Cairo Opera House.

Planets

 * Menda has a stable climate with no carnivorous wildlife and edible plants.
 * Janus Prime has glowing blue sand, and radiation that destroys lipids and makes humans turn into porridge.
 * Rho Priapus was invaded by the Selachians, but taken back by the Space Marines.
 * The Doctor mentions meeting the spiders of Metebelis 3.
 * Janus GM2797 is the name of the red giant star in the Janus system.

Races and species

 * Sam recalls the two Arachnons she met whilst on the Dreamstone Moon as she considers the Janusians.
 * Gustav Zmerler's Special Forces unit fought the Selachians, Veltrochni and the Cybermen. It was an assault of Titan 317 that led to their discharge by Earth Control.
 * The Arcturans and the Mentors currently trade with humanity.
 * Janusians are the native spider-like beings native to Janus Prime. A grown one is about the size of a Ford Transit.
 * Spidroids are native Janusian spiders that have had their brains removed and been cybernetically augmented.
 * The Doctor has taken Sam to an opera performed by silicon-based life-forms on Thurakzima 7.

Technology

 * The Link is thought to be a matter transmitter, but isn't. It's actually used to put Janus Prime's moons into conjunction and destroy the solar system.
 * The Link affects space by warping in hyperspace.
 * The Doctor has in his pockets a sub-etheric beam locator.
 * Humans travelled out into the galaxies using star charts and technology left behind by the Daleks after the 22nd century Dalek invasion.
 * The Doctor states that "'matter transmitters were pretty crude affairs in the early twenty-third century.'".

Theories and Concepts

 * Korman radiation scale is a measurement scale used aboard the TARDIS.
 * Alpha waves are somewhere close to telepathy.
 * The Doctor 'parks' the TARDIS in a temporal orbit to spend time working on a cure for the Janusian radiation sickness.
 * Technically in the time that it takes him to get to the TARDIS while on Janus Prime Sam dies of radiation sickness.
 * Which means the Doctor travelled back in time along his own time line and then parked in a temporal orbit.

Continuity

 * Sam knows there's a cubby hole above the 'P' of the TARDIS outside Police Box. DW: Doctor Who.
 * The concept of a 'temporal orbit' first appeared in DW: Doctor Who.
 * The Doctor isn't afraid of spiders despite the whole Metebelis 3 thing in DW: Planet of the Spiders, which is odd because in EDA: The Scarlet Empress he said he was afraid of spiders.
 * Sam visited Skaro in EDA: War of the Daleks, Hirath in Longest Day and the Dreamstone moon in Dreamstone Moon.
 * The Doctor and Sam saw similar space/hyperspace warping in EDA: Vanderdeken's Children.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after EDA: The Scarlet Empress
 * This story takes place before EDA: Beltempest