Republica (novelisation)

Republica was the first instalment in the Novelisations in Time & Space series. It was written by Micah K. Spurling, adapted from Mark Gatiss' script for the 1998 audio story. Unlike the original version, this story contained the licensed usage of Doctor X from Erimem.

Publisher's summary
The Professor and Ace arrive in present-day London to find the city strangely changed. England is a republic, ruled by an elderly Lord Protector more interested in a mysterious comet than the long-suppressed forces of revolution fomenting in his kingdom.

As political factions vie for power, the travellers become embroiled in the plans of King Charles XIV who stands poised to reclaim the throne. Can they discover who is behind the drastic alteration of history or will the Puritan cause triumph throughout eternity?

Plot
An alien dissident named Maxwell (though see Notes) is disintegrated for his crimes against the state but is successfully reformed & smuggle offworld. Falling through a wormhole to Oliver Cromwell's time of death, he convinces the man to appoint General John Lambert as successor rather than Richard Cromwell.

When the Professor and Ace arrive in late 1990s London, they find the world changed: technology is advanced, Puritans walk the street, catholicism is oppressed, and a British Republic rules under a hereditary Lord Protector, its Commonwealth still containing the colony of North America. Elsewhere, the latest Lord Protector, Josiah Lambert, is worried about an approaching comet and seeks the advice of his long-time seer, the Other; and a royalist spy wing under LeCompte seeks information to aid the Franco-Spanish invasion that will 'restore' King Charles XIV to his throne.

The Professor and Ace are drawn into the machinations of LeCompte's network and the threat of the British war rocket Behemoth. They discover both the Other and Le Compte are the same man (and he's been seer for many Lord Protectors), trying to manipulate the Lord Protector into firing Behemoth at the comet - which won't near Earth, and Behemoth will instead hit a nearby astrological conjunction. The Other/LeCompte are revealed to be Maxwell, who has been Chief Seers to the Lord Protectors since Cromwell's time, all to steer Earth to reach a technological point where he can attack his homeworld in revenge. (The Royalist revolt is merely him being bored)

Learning this, and realising that the wormhole to LeCompte's world goes back in time, the Professor allows Behemoth to launch: thus it will kill LeCompte in the past before he escapes, and time will reset. Ace is horrified but told this timeline isn't meant to exist, and the regular timeline is restored.

In another time and place, Ace visits an alien temple, and afer discussion with the 'cleric' computer she's shown the events of the Republic. She is unsettled by the discovery of events neither she nor the Professor remember, and wonders if this is related to an unspecified "him".

Characters
rest to be added
 * The Professor
 * Ace

Continuity
to be added