Tardis

New to Doctor Who or returning after a break? Check out our guides designed to help you find your way!

READ MORE

Tardis
Advertisement
Tardis
RealWorld

prose stub

Speed of Flight was the twenty-seventh novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Paul Leonard and featured the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and Mike Yates. The novel is notable for featuring Yates's apparent death, until being restored to life by the Doctor.

Leonard dedicated the novel to Jon Pertwee, who passed away on 20 May 1996 as the novel's final chapter was being edited.

Publisher's summary[]

"Those who are intelligent, strong and virtuous are promoted. The stupid, the weak and the unworthy will die. How else is it possible for the world to make progress?"

The TARDIS lands on Nooma, a world in the middle of an industrial revolution. But the Third Doctor, Jo and Mike Yates quickly discover that there is no limit to the upheaval. The sky is alive, and at war with the ground. The continents are on the move, competing for a place under the sun. And somewhere, there is a starship...

Mike finds himself committed to a fight where his only option is to kill or be killed. Jo is caught in a workers' revolt. And the Doctor must find out what is really happening to Nooma before the struggle for survival kills the world and everyone on it.

Plot[]

to be added

Characters[]

Noomans[]

Worldbuilding[]

Individuals[]

  • Sergeants Benton and Bell set up Jo and Mike on a blind date.

Literature[]

Planets[]

  • Karfel is located in the same galactic cluster as Earth. The height of its civilisation is twenty thousand years after Jo's time.

Vehicles[]

  • Ships on Nooma include steamwings and pedithopters.

Notes[]

  • This story takes place between Planet of the Daleks and The Green Death, and shortly after Leonard's preceding novel in the line, Dancing the Code.
  • The title is likely a pun on the term "speed of light".
  • The name of the planet (Nooma) is never given in the text, only on the back cover.
  • AHistory dates the story to 22,000, apparently assuming that the Doctor's attempt to visit Karfel succeeded, only getting the planet wrong.

Continuity[]

External links[]

Advertisement