The Suns of Caresh (novel)

 was the fifty-fifth novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Paul Saint, released 5 August 2002 and featured the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Publisher's summary
''Jo gripped the sides of the console. Even over the roar of the engine she could hear branches whipping and snapping against the TARDIS exterior.''

The view on the scanner was receding at the speed of an express train. It showed the swathe of destruction they were leaving behind them, a ragged, police-box-shaped tunnel through the forest.

In England, a hotel worker has been turned to stone, an ancient lake has vanished, and the inmate of a mental hospital is being terrorised by unseen creatures. In Israel, in the shadow of Masada, an archaeological dig unearths something that should have stayed buried.

The Doctor is sure he is dealing with a local and relatively straightforward temporal anomaly. Troy Game, a refugee from the planet Caresh, is not so certain. She believes the impending destruction of her home world is somehow linked to the events on Earth, and she is pinning her hopes on the Doctor to avert the catastrophe.

But can the Doctor interfere with a planet's destiny? And should he risk his new-found freedom to do it?

Plot
he pissed his pants

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Jo Grant
 * Lord Roche
 * Lady Solenti
 * Jess
 * Magus Amathon

Earthlings

 * Ezekiel Child
 * Ben Keller
 * Patric Keller
 * Donald MacRae
 * Helen Ayre
 * James Preedy
 * Michael Sheridan
 * Simon Haldane

Careshi

 * Troy Game
 * Troy Sheltek
 * Rak Shal
 * Rak Irik
 * Rak Toos
 * Sha Kal

Groups

 * The Curia of Nineteen live in the Time Vortex.

Fauna

 * Leshe are omnivorous flying insects inhabiting the colder areas on Caresh.

Literature

 * Simon had read and admired the SF authors Ursula LeGuin, Greg Egan, Gene Wolfe and David Langford. He liked James Warren even though his works had been criticised in SFX and ignored by Interzone.

Locations

 * To help recalibrate the TARDIS navigation computer, the Doctor visited several planets, including Erekan, Gau-Usu, Cern and Dagusa, each one of which was unique in some way.
 * Lady Solenti had a beach house on Lanare.
 * The TARDIS shell room was mentioned.

Technology

 * Time Lords use weapons called mercy guns.

Biology

 * Lady Solenti could have been permanently blinded across all her subsequent incarnations if the accident that made her blind had also damaged the neural pathways in her brain responsible for sight.

Time travel

 * Ezekiel Child suffered from an extreme case of Jeapes' Syndrome.

Continuity

 * The Doctor takes the recently regenerated Lord Roche to the Zero Room. (TV: Castrovalva)
 * The Doctor mentions that as a child he always wanted to drive a train. (TV: Black Orchid)
 * Jo Grant jokingly asks if the TARDIS has safety belts. (TV: Timelash)
 * The Doctor is still trying to get Jo Grant to Metebelis Three. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
 * One of the inmates of the asylum is called Judith Winters; she has been locked up there since the Shoreditch Incident in November 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks; PROSE: In the Community)
 * Jo remembers her first experience on another planet, (TV: Colony in Space) and when the TARDIS fell over a cliff on Peladon. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
 * The new incarnation of Lord Roche is identical to the Third Doctor, just as the second incarnation of Romana is identical to the princess Astra. (TV: The Armageddon Factor, Destiny of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor suggests that Lord Roche could become stroppy and paranoid just after his regeneration, ironically foreshadowing his own fifth regeneration from the Spectrox toxin. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)