The Feast of the Stone (short story)

The Feast of the Stone was a short story featuring the version of the Doctor who had been introduced in the 2003 animated webcast adventure Scream of the Shalka. Except for an implied cameo in the novel EDA: The Tomorrow Windows, this marked the character's only official appearance outside the original webcast before the so-called "Shalka Doctor" was removed from continuity and replaced by the official television Ninth Doctor. It also marks the only official appearances of companion Alison Cheney and the android version of The Master as featured in the animated serial.

This was the first piece of officially licensed original Doctor Who literature to be made available exclusively on the Internet.

Plot
The TARDIS materialises in a dank cavern, and when the Doctor and Alison emerge, they immediately fall victim to a force which causes them to relive old memories with strong emotional resonance. The Master realising what’s happening, opens up the doors and calls out to the Doctor, who manages to fight his way free of the illusions and return to the TARDIS. The cave is the home of an intangible force like a psychic vampire, which is still feeding off Alison’s emotions. When the Doctor taps into the psionic resonance of the cavern, he finds that Alison is somehow reliving some of the Master’s memories, and realises that the dormant vampire was woken by the arrival of the Master, whose mind contains memories of evil greater than anything the vampire had ever encountered before. The Doctor switches off the Master, but this only causes the vampire to redouble its efforts to drain the life out of Alison. The Doctor thus connects the Master’s android body to the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits, feeding the vampire such a surge of hatred and evil that the entity explodes into nothingness. Alison is saved, but realises that the Doctor did not hesitate to switch off the Master when he felt it necessary. What will he do to Alison if he believes that it’s necessary?

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Alison Cheney
 * The Master.

Story notes

 * The Doctor and Alison share a brandy together, one of the few occasions in which the Doctor or his companion have drunk alcohol.
 * As Scream of the Shalka and its version of the Doctor has been rendered officially non-canonical by the BBC, this presumably extends to this short story, as well. Nonetheless, as with Shalka, the story remains viewable on the BBC's website.
 * Discounting several occasions in which the BBC published "e-book" online versions of previously published novels, and fan fiction, this was the first original Doctor Who short story to be published exclusively online. The next exclusive-to-Internet Doctor Who short story would not appear until WC: 42 Prologue in May 2007.

Continuity
to be added