Tardis

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Tardis
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You may be looking for the core, or "heart", of the TARDIS.

Heart of TARDIS was the thirty-first novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Dave Stone, released 5 June 2000 and featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield and the Fourth Doctor, Romana I and K9.

This was the first multi-Doctor novel in the Past Doctor Adventures line up, though in BBC Books' overall publishing line up the most recent multi-Doctor novel was PROSE: Interference - Book One/Interference - Book Two. Unlike previous multi-Doctor stories the Second and Fourth Doctors do not meet in this novel.

Publisher's summary[]

In the American Midwestern town of Lychburg, something is afoot. Its citizens are being killed in inexpressibly horrible and brutal ways and the police don't have a clue who's responsible. The only suspects are a mysterious and sinister stranger, who calls himself the Doctor, and his young companions Jamie and Victoria.

The Fourth Doctor and Romana, meanwhile, have been summoned by the Gallifreyan High Council. A force has been unleashed into the space/time continuum... a force so unimaginably terrible that it is set to rip the universe itself apart and plunge it into primal, screaming chaos from which nothing will survive.

Of course, since something of this nature happens every other day of the week, the Doctor's really far more interested in finding out what's happened to a close personal friend, who seems to have vanished under mysterious circumstances. And quite right, too. The fate of a universe plunging into foetid and unending chaos can look out for itself for a change...

Plot[]

to be added

Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

Biology[]

  • John Benton was exposed to something during his career in UNIT that enables him to hold off the effects of an anaesthetic dart for a short time.

Culture[]

  • It features the planet Proxima XIV.
  • After the woprat's influence is removed, it becomes a short story in Astonishing!. In this version, Norman Manley meets a stripper called Dorothee McShane.

Technology[]

The Doctor[]

  • The Second Doctor can play the recorder while hanging upside down.
  • The Second Doctor claims that his own inability to control the TARDIS is the result of security protocols that prevent thieves being able to control the ship properly; he attempts to bypass these by disabling other security protocols, including those responsible for preventing the TARDIS from accidentally materialising inside other objects or in immediately hostile environments such as deep space or the heart of a sun.
  • The Fourth Doctor reflects that one of the things lost during his forced regenerations was the knack for making soufflés.
  • The Second Doctor recalls that he has been "something of an acrobat in his original body, before catabolism had taken its toll.
  • The pages of Astonishing! refer to "Dr John Smith" who "[disappears] for years at a time in the company of his young 'assistants'". It mentions his invention of the cheese drive (which he had championed in Astonishing! itself), the discovery of Pellucidor and the PrantiBrantic processes which influence the world.
  • Astonishing! reviews Dr John Smith's book Future Impact: The Apocalyptic Backlash, which asserts that the world is being invaded by Futurity, resulting in acceleration through time at 1 second per second per second.

Individuals[]

Species[]

  • The Daleks, upon hearing rumours of Collectors present near their system, pretend that their planet had been destroyed.
  • The Second Doctor notes that his people are sensitive to the "shape" of the world, allowing him to sense that he is in a pocket dimension such as the one containing Lychburg.
  • The Fourth Doctor met two Jarakabeth. One was impersonating Aleister Crowley, the other was Katharine Delbane.

Locations[]

TARDISes[]

  • If a TARDIS is stolen, then self-proliferating command-level polyviral automemes are activated which results in the ability to control the flight-path of the TARDIS.
  • Certain TARDIS fail-safes include protocols which prevent materialisation around a solid object, the heart of a sun, or in another universe.

Notes[]

  • The story is split between two connected narratives, one set in England focusing on the Fourth Doctor, Romana I and UNIT (even-numbered chapters) and the other set in the US city of Lychburg featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria (odd-numbered chapters). The final chapter, Chapter 25, features both Doctors.
  • The Fourth Doctor sees and hides from the Second Doctor in the TARDIS console room at one point; the two never actually meet, with the Fourth hiding under the console on the opposite side from his past self until the Second Doctor leaves the console room again.
  • Many of the characters in the town are references to characters from The Simpsons. Dr Nick (Dr Rick), Dr Hibbert, comic book guy and others make noticeable appearances to the Second Doctor. A bartender named "Moe" is mentioned.
  • The book Future Impact by John Smith reviewed by Astonishing! in the appendix of the novel provides a possible explanation for the UNIT dating controversy.
  • While no explicit year, or even decade is given in the story, the Prime Minister is heavily implied to be Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and One Canada Square is still considered to be "half-built" (constructed from 1987-1991).

Continuity[]

External links[]

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