Asylum (novel)


 * For the Torchwood audio play, see Asylum (audio story).

Publisher's summary
'My view,' said the 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 Doctor
 * Nyssa
 * Alfric
 * Roger Bacon

Continuity

 * This story occurs a long time before the Doctor eventually meets Nyssa in DW:  The Keeper of Traken and a long time after Nyssa has left the Doctor in DW: Terminus.

Timeline
For the Doctor:
 * Asylum occurs after VD: UNITed We Fall
 * Asylum occurs before TN: Wonderland

For Nyssa:
 * Asylum occurs after DW: Terminus
 * Asylum occurs before BFA: Cobwebs