The Taint (novel)

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.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Meets Fitz while buying a dying begonia, tries to haggle for a lowered price and eventually succeeds.
 * Tells Fitz if he doesn't want to learn, he had 'best go to university, then.'
 * Plays "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on a recorder; Fitz responds by playing "Please, Please Me", which the Doctor calls, 'Rubbish.'
 * Samantha Jones
 * Fitz Kreiner
 * Is working in a garden center when he meets the Doctor.
 * Is a fan of Tolkien and lies to a customer about him to mock the customer for getting his name wrong.
 * 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.
 * Plays guitar at Molly's, playing the role of a 'struggling artist with his gammy leg' for sympathy.
 * Dr. Charles Roley
 * Azoth
 * The Beast
 * Dafydd Watson
 * Lucy Branch
 * Maria Bulwell
 * Muriel Kreiner
 * Neville Fitzwilliam Tarr
 * Oscar Austen
 * Peter Taylor
 * Russell Waller

Continuity

 * The Doctor says that he spent quite some time in 1963. His first incarnation did so in DW: 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 Alien Bodies and Unnatural History are mentioned.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after ST: Femme Fatale
 * This story takes place before EDA: Demontage