Asylum (novel)

Publisher's summary
''My view,' said the Fourth Doctor, 'is that you can run - in fact it's often by far the best option - but you can't hide. I'll see myself out.''

''Nyssa felt a pang of disappointment. He had gone. She would probably never see him again.''

The town of Oxford in AD 1278 seems a haven of tranquillity. Under the summer sun, merchants, students and clerics go about their daily, unhurried tasks. Alfric, the proctor of the Franciscan friary, has only two minor problems: one of the friars has gone missing, and there's a travelling showman, calling himself the Doctor, with a pretty young noblewoman by his side, attracting crowds in the narrow streets.

When the missing friar is found dead, the Doctor is convinced he has been murdered. There is a ruthless killer at large, and Alfric reluctantly teams up with the Doctor to track him down.

Their investigation leads towards the most celebrated of the Franciscan brotherhood: Roger Bacon, famed throughout Christendom as a scholar - and, in the far future, the subject of a revolutionary thesis by technographer Nyssa of Traken.

Characters

 * The Fourth Doctor
 * Nyssa
 * Brother Alfric
 * Roger Bacon
 * Brother Oswald

Continuity

 * Later in the Doctor's personal timeline, towards the end of his fourth incarnation, he would meet Nyssa for the first time from her perspective on Traken in 1981. (DW: The Keeper of Traken) In Nyssa's personal timeline, the events of this story take place many years after she parted company with the Fifth Doctor on Terminus. (DW: Terminus)
 * Nyssa had previously been reunited with the Doctor, then in his fifth incarnation, on Gallifrey after being transported to an alternative Death Zone by Borusa. (BFA: The Five Companions) She would subsequently meet the Fifth Doctor in her mind shortly before his regeneration into his sixth incarnation. (BFA: Winter) Later still in her personal timeline but earlier in his, she would re-join him as one of his companions. (BFA: Cobwebs)
 * Nyssa recalls the Doctor's regeneration into his fifth incarnation (DW: Logopolis), visiting England in September 1666 (DW: The Visitation) and June 1925 (DW: Black Orchid) and killing several Cyberman (DW: Earthshock).

For the Doctor

 * Asylum occurs after VD: UNITed We Fall
 * Asylum occurs before TN: Wonderland

For Nyssa

 * Asylum occurs after BFA: The Butcher of Brisbane
 * Asylum occurs before BFA: Winter