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The Face of the Enemy was the seventh novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by David A. McIntee, released 5 January 1998 and featured the Master.

It was the first full length novel published by BBC books which does not feature the Doctor as the main character or in the story at all. It features primarily the Master in the lead role, whilst also featuring two previous companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

Publisher's summary[]

The Doctor and Jo have gone off in the TARDIS, leaving the Brigadier and UNIT facing a deadly mystery — and a moral dilemma...

Robbery and murder are on the increase in Britain as disputes between underworld gangs escalate into open warfare on the streets. The Master seems inextricably linked to the chaos — despite the fact he is safely under lock and key.

Meanwhile UNIT is called in when a plane missing in strange circumstances is rediscovered — contaminated with radiation and particle damage that cannot possibly have occurred on Earth.

As the mystery deepens, what little light they can shed on the matter leads the Brigadier to believe that with the Doctor away, Earth's only hope may lie with its greatest enemy...

Plot[]

to be added

Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

Individuals[]

  • Ian and Barbara's son John is in primary school.
  • Ian and Barbara eloped on the first anniversary of their returning to Earth.
  • Ian and Barbara required treatment from their exposure to radiation on Skaro.
  • Ian and Barbara are writing a journal to leave for Susan in 2167.
  • Barbara teaches history at a local comprehensive school.
  • The Brigadier meets Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan for the first time.
  • The Brigadier is now divorced from his wife.
  • The Doctor has tutored the Brigadier in how to disable a Time Lord, just in case someone needs to stop the Master again.
  • Jo and Benton are not fans of Woody Allen. Benton prefers the Carry On films.

The Master[]

Inferno Earth individuals[]

Foods and beverages[]

Notes[]

  • This story occurs concurrent with the Doctor and Jo's visit to Peladon in the television story The Curse of Peladon.
  • This story re-examines the events of the television story Inferno, and shows the after-effects of the "Inferno Project" at Eastchester on the alternate Earth which, contrary to the Doctor's assumption in that story, has not disintegrated, but has been devastated beyond recovery.
  • The Master's TARDIS is in the form of a black Rolls-Royce limousine (with darkened windows) for much of the story. It takes the appearance of a thick bulkhead door when it materialises aboard HMS Redoubt. When the Master sends his TARDIS to the cavern of the church at Devil's End, it assumes the form of the Stone of Sacrifice; he is depicted recovering it in the novel The Eight Doctors.
  • After dying in a road accident, George Boucher is taken to the afterlife by his nephew Rob Thorpe, who had been killed earlier in the story. Making The Face of the Enemy one of a small number of officially licenced Doctor Who stories to explicitly touch on, if subtly, the concept of an afterlife with no scientific or pseudoscientific explanation. While it could be rationalised as Boucher hallucinating in his final moments, just seconds earlier he was still lucid enough to attempt to send a message to UNIT about the activities of the parallel Earth infiltrators.

Continuity[]

External links[]

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