The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)

The Crystal Bucephalus was the fourth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Craig Hinton. It is the only Missing Adventure novel to feature the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough travelling together. In addition, Kamelion makes a rare appearance.

Publisher's summary

 * "I'm a Time Lord, not a bank manager. When I invested in this place I had no idea that it would succeed. I mean — a time-travelling restaurant?"

The Crystal Bucephalus: a restaurant patronised by the highest echelons of society in the 10th millennium. The guests are projected back in time to sample the food and drink of a bygone age.

When the galaxy's most notorious crime boss is murdered in the Bucephalus, The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are immediately arrested for the killing. To prove their innocence, they must track down the perpetrators of slaughter and sabotage, and uncover a conspiracy which has been 5,000 years in the making.

Plot
At the end of the tenth millennium, the elite of the galactic Union dine at the Crystal Bucephalus, a temporal projector which allows its patrons to dine at famous historical restaurants.

The time equipment, designed by Alexhandri Lassiter, projects the visitors through time with a reduced reality quotient, ensuring that they are able to spend brief periods in the past without altering history.

When Maximillian Arrestis, the kingpin of a criminal syndicate called the Elective, is poisoned by a bottle of wine sent from the Benefactor’s Cubiculo, the fact that it killed him proves that he was murdered by someone from his own time zone.

The Maitre D’ retrieves and arrests the occupants of the Benefactor’s Cubiculo -- and the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, who had just arrived at a quaint 18th-century French restaurant in the TARDIS, are surprised to be dragged over 8000 years into the future and accused of murder. Tegan impulsively flees into the corridors of the Bucephalus, where she meets Arrestis’ consort Diva -- who is being pursued by a man in a shielded combat suit. The man in the suit forces them both into an empty Cubiculo and transports them all into the past, intending to use Diva as bait to make his enemy show his hand.

to be added

Characters

 * Fifth Doctor
 * Tegan Jovanka
 * Vislor Turlough
 * Kamelion
 * Alexhendri Lassiter
 * Maximillian Arrestis
 * Sebastian Lassiter
 * Sven Tornqvist
 * Ladygay Matisse
 * Garrett Byson
 * Hellenica Monroe
 * Hercule DeSalle
 * Neil Corridge

The Doctor

 * The Fifth Doctor can "swim" through the Time Vortex.
 * The Doctor again demonstrates his psychic prowess by seizing control of Kamelion from "Lazarus" and speaking through Kamelion's mouth.
 * The Doctor spends an extended period trapped on the ice planet Pella Satyrnis and creates the Tempus Fugit while trapped there.

Individuals

 * While stranded in 1980s London, Tegan meets a young waitress in a McDonald's restaurant.

Continuity

 * The Doctor claims that he has not smoked tobacco in four incarnations. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
 * The Doctor remembers Alexander the Great being "a dreadful bore". (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)
 * Tegan refers to her encounters with the Cybermen, (TV: Earthshock) the Terileptils (TV: The Visitation) and the Mara. (TV: Kinda, Snakedance, AUDIO: The Cradle of the Snake)
 * The Doctor recalls his most recent encounter with the Time Lords (TV: Arc of Infinity) as well as his encounters with Ruath (PROSE: Goth Opera) and Omega. (TV: Arc of Infinity; AUDIO: Omega)
 * The Doctor once again refers to humanity as being "indomitable". (TV: The Ark in Space, Utopia)
 * The Doctor's jacket was given to him by Professor George Litefoot. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
 * Tegan recalls that she was last in a medieval castle only a few days before. (TV: The King's Demons)
 * The Doctor laments the destruction of his sonic screwdriver by the Terileptil leader in September 1666, and opines that he should have sued the Terileptils for criminal damage. (TV: The Visitation)
 * A book by Ernst Findecker is in the TARDIS library. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)