Alien Bodies (novel)

Alien Bodies is the sixth instalment in the series of BBC Eighth Doctor Adventure novels. It was written by Lawrence Miles and first published in 1997.

Publisher's summary
On an island in the East Indies, in a lost city buried deep in the heart of the rainforest, agents of the most formidable powers in the galaxy are gathering. They have been invited there to bid for what could turn out to be the deadliest weapon ever created.

When the Doctor and Sam arrive in the city, the Time Lord soon realises they've walked into the middle of the strangest auction in history - and what's on sale to the highest bidder is something more horrifying than even the Doctor could have imagined, something that could change his life forever.

And just when it seems things can't get any worse, the Doctor finds out who else is on the guest list.

Characters

 * The Eighth Doctor
 * The Doctor, in thinking about Homunculette (being the High Council's puppet), considers the ways he's been pushed around in the past; "Gallifrey had pushed him around, too. A show-trial here, a subtle manipulation there. Exarius. Peladon. Solos. Skaro."


 * Samantha Jones
 * Is tormented by an extract of biodata from her alternate timeline.


 * Marie
 * Is a Type 103 TARDIS.


 * Qixotl


 * The Shift
 * The Shift put the idea of 'paranoia' into Marie's weapons systems to make her turn them on herself.
 * The Shift can only manipulate ideas, it works with them.
 * The Shift is working for The Enemy.


 * Homunculette
 * At the training complex on Gallifrey XII Homunculette was taught escapology by the War Cardinals.
 * Swears in Old High Gallifreyan.
 * Cousin Justine


 * Little Brother Manjuele


 * Kathleen Bregman
 * Is tormented by the City's defences by attacking her psychologically through her body image and how she is viewed by others.


 * Kortez
 * Colonel in UNISYC, has met the Doctor before when he was a Sergeant.
 * Was part of the ISC division of UNISYC during the Cyberbreaches in the 2030s.


 * Trask
 * Is dead.
 * Is representing the Celestis' interests.
 * The Doctor killed Trask.
 * Trask was from era of Earth's history where the White House and the House of Commons were political centres.


 * Bregman
 * E-Kobalt
 * Kroton commander


 * Tschike

Books

 * Genetic Politics Beyond the Third Zone by Gustous R Thripsted contains a preface about cross species translation conventions.
 * The Doctor accesses the things he needs in his pockets from reading; Karma and Flares: The Importance of Fashion Sense to the Modern Zen Master.

Cultural references

 * The Doctor mentions Ace when talking about Sam and popular cultural reference.
 * The Raston Hardware Company made the Raston cybernetic lapdancers Qixotl has in the auction room.

Dalek history

 * In the "Late twenty-first century...by now, most of the Daleks are scattered around the edges of the Mutters' Spiral, trying to build up a decent galactic powerbase. The ones who got left behind on Skaro are just starting to think about putting together their own little empire. The 'static electricity' phase of the Dalek development"'.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor recalls finding his (faked) gravestone on Necros.
 * The Doctor is up to his seventh regeneration.
 * In his sixth body the Doctor had begun to see the logic in cold blooded murder.

The Doctor's items

 * The Doctor uses his mark one sonic screwdriver which was destroyed "centuries ago". He explains how this occurs to Sam as "'It's a Time Lord tool. Time doesn't work the same way for Time Lord tools.'".
 * The Doctor at one point had a winklegruber neural parameter predictor; you tell it what you're looking for and it works out the last place you'd think of searching.

Earth

 * UNIT was superseded by UNISYC "the militant wing of the UN's 'Security Yard'".
 * Which means that UNISYC probably stands for United Nations Intelligence Security Yard Corps


 * Kathleen Bregman joined UNISYC to fight Cybermen.
 * Cannabis cigarettes are manufactured in Birmingham and are legal at some time after 2069.
 * The Toy Store is where the Americans store their alien technology.

Enemies of the Time Lords

 * The Doctor has met the Faction Paradox once before.
 * The Enemy are time-active.
 * The Faction's Shrine is like a TARDIS modelled out of pure mathematics.

Gallifreyan artefacts

 * In wearing the Sash of Rassilon it changed elements of the Doctor's biology, giving the Doctor's biodata the High Council's security codes.
 * The Doctor liked to take the Hand of Omega around for walks when he was on Earth.

Planets

 * Qixotl is what they call the god of ludicrous profit on Golobus.
 * A "couple of weeks ago" Sam says she was in the 40th century.
 * Faction Paradox cultists came to Dronid from far off places such as Lurma and Salostophus

Species

 * The organic ships of the Zygons and the thinker-weapons of the Selachians are mentioned with regard to the Faction Paradox's Shrine.
 * The Celestis are Time Lords who saw the war coming and removed themselves from existence and turned themselves into idea based lifeforms.
 * Inside a Dalek spacecraft the walls are luminescent black, not visible by humanoid eyes.
 * The Enemy is described as; "...stood a shape dressed in an ornate golden robe, a huge semicircular collar raised behind its head."
 * The Shift was a Gabrielidean, a liquid based lifeform on Simia KK98, he was fighting as part of the military, for the Time Lords.
 * The Kroton's original homeworld was called Krosi-Aspai-Core. The Kroton Absolute evolved from a quasi-organic tellurium-based crystal.

TARDISes

 * Marie started her life on Simia KK98. She mated with a Type 105, when the mini-TARDIS had grown in her womb the Time Lords took it from her.

Temporal Wars

 * "The Time Lords had fought the first battle of their war on Dronid almost half a century ago...the off worlders liked to think of it as a War in Heaven, all hellfire and thunder".
 * The Time Lords are fighting a four dimensional war against the Enemy.
 * The Time Lords need the Relic for the biodata codes.
 * At the start of the war a lot of stuff was wiped out by the Enemy. The De-mat Gun and the Sash of Rassilon were taken out early on. The Hand of Omega was also (probably) lost early on.
 * A future Doctor, probably 'the last one' visited Mictlan and made a deal with the Celestis for them not to involve themselves in the attack on Dronid, for his body, with a few stipulations attached.
 * At some time around the local Dronid year of 15367 the Time Lords launched an offensive on Dronid, The Enemy took counter-measures, the Doctor was there and (probably) died during the assault. Qixotl was there.
 * Justine believes/understands that (from the point where Homunculette is from) the Time Lords have been fighting the war for half a millennium.

Theories and Concepts

 * Silverberg energy is present when there is signs of psychic energy.
 * The Faction Paradox cultists wear masks that look a bit like bats which looked the way they did because...: "'The Time Lords fought a great war many years ago...They won. If they'd lost, by the grace of Time, then this is how they would have looked.'"
 * "Homunculette is a Time Lord, one from an era of Gallifrey's future, How far in the future, I'm not sure."
 * Learning about future history (possibly Gallifrey's, or your own personal future) is against the Laws of Time (probably the third).
 * Displacer syndrome is the likelyhood of going mad/comitting suicide after seeing the things UNISYC deal with.
 * The Doctor says in passing that Susan was the psychic one in the family.

Time Lords

 * Homunculette spent time in his house on Simia KK98 sealed in under silos and permafrost trying to go made or get drunk.
 * Homuncultte is (like all Time Lords) alcohol-immune.
 * The Doctor has childhood memories of "the Spirits of the Faction had been numbered among Time's bogeymen just like Rassilon's Mimic or the Great Vampires."
 * Biodata goes deeper than DNA and genetics, though it is part of the biodata matrix, as certain experiences [particularly those involving time travel] get encoded into the biology of the being whose biodata it is. Time Lords have certain mechanisms built into their biodata that makes them sensitive to distortions in the biodata around them.

Weapons

 * Colonel Kortez gives the Doctor a Selachian thermosystron bomb, which he uses to destroy the Relic.
 * Bio-induction pumps genetic material into an eco-system. But was also used as a security system that protected the Relic using biodata.
 * Homunculette is paranoid about Anarchitects when visiting 22nd century Earth to look for artefact.

Continuity

 * NA: Christmas on a Rational Planet is the first Doctor Who novel to mention Grandfather Paradox.
 * The Doctor pulls a sink plunger from his pocket to operate a Dalek craft, similar to the one he used in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks.
 * The Faction Paradox make further appearances in; EDA: Unnatural History, Interference, The Ancestor Cell.
 * Effects of The War crop up in various novels; Unnatural History Interference, The Taking of Planet 5, The Shadows of Avalon, The Banquo Legacy, The Ancestor Cell and BNA: Dead Romance.
 * This is the first mention of Sam Jones' 'dark Sam' Sam's true timeline, this would be explained throughout EDA: Unnatural History.
 * The final events of DW: Earthshock are mentioned by the Doctor's psychosis.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after EDA: War of the Daleks
 * This story takes place before EDA: Kursaal

For the Third Doctor

 * After DW: The Monster of Peladon
 * BeforeEDA: Interference - Book One