The Taint (novel)

The Taint was the nineteenth BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel. It was written by Michael Collier. It featured the Eighth Doctor and Samantha Jones and introduced Fitz Kreiner.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS has finally brought the Doctor and Sam back to Earth — and straight into danger.

It is 1963. Six very different people have been gathered together for study by parapsychologist Charles Roley in his stately home outside London. All of them claim to have been possessed by the devil, and all have shared similar delusions — they describe the same bizarre "death cave" riddled with demons.

Roley's experiments are having a gradual yet terrifying effect on his subjects, and the Doctor and Sam discover the connections between those tainted with the madness are more disturbing than anyone could guess.

For the Doctor, too, has seen the cave they describe — on a dead world, billions of years ago.

Chapter Titles

 * 1) Muriel Krainer Tells Dreams Down Die Phone [1963]
 * 2) The Taint
 * 3) Lucy and the Watcher Angels [1951]
 * 4) Captain Watson on Deliverance Day [1944]
 * 5) Russell. Confined Spaces and the Dark [1946-63]
 * 6) Taylor. The Golden Man and Strange Portals [1963]
 * Epilogue

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Samantha Jones
 * Fitz Kreiner
 * Dr Charles Roley
 * Azoth
 * The Beast
 * Davydd Watson
 * Lucy Branch
 * Maria Bulwell
 * Muriel Kreiner
 * Neville Fitzwilliam Tarr
 * Oscar Austen
 * Peter Taylor
 * Russell Waller

Botany

 * The Doctor meets Fitz while buying a dying begonia, tries to haggle for a lower price and eventually succeeds.

Culture

 * The Doctor plays "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on a recorder; Fitz responds by playing "Please, Please Me", which the Doctor calls "rubbish".
 * Fitz is a fan of Tolkien and lies to a customer about Tolkien to mock the customer for getting his name wrong.
 * Sam mentions Scooby Doo.

Individuals

 * After regaining consciousness, Sam considers asking, "Anyone get the number of that Dalek?"
 * The Doctor tells Fitz if he doesn't want to learn, he had "best go to university, then."
 * Fitz Kreiner is working in a garden centre when he meets the Doctor.
 * Fitz pretends to be French until he's called out by the Doctor.
 * "'On peut apprendre d'un grand homme meme lorqu'il se tait', said [the Doctor], suddenly, before looking at him expectantly."


 * Fitz plays guitar at Molly's, playing the role of a "struggling artist with his gammy leg" for sympathy.

Continuity

 * The Doctor says that he spent quite some time in 1963. His first incarnation did so leading up to TV: An Unearthly Child. 1963 was also the year in which Doctor Who was first broadcast. The Doctor compares his first incarnation to an "arthritic old buzzard".
 * The events of PROSE: Alien Bodies and Unnatural History are mentioned.
 * Sam worries that the Bel micro-organisms changed her in some way. (PROSE: Beltempest)
 * Sam recalls Janus Prime (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction) and Proxima II. (PROSE: The Face-Eater)
 * The Doctor mentions the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
 * The Doctor mentions encountering the Waro. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)