The Monsters Inside was the second novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Stephen Cole and featured the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Publisher's summary[]
The TARDIS takes the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler to a destination in deep space – Justicia, a prison camp stretched over seven planets, where Earth colonies deal with their criminals.
While Rose finds herself locked up in a teenage borstal, the Doctor is trapped in a scientific labour camp. Each is determined to find the other, and soon both Rose and the Doctor are risking life and limb to escape in their distinctive styles.
But their dangerous plans are complicated by some old enemies. Are these creatures fellow prisoners as they claim, or staging a takeover for their own sinister purposes? (Note: The "old enemies" are revealed in the novel to be Blathereen, related to but distinct from the Slitheen).
Plot[]
The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler arrive on Justice Alpha, a planet in the Justicia prison system in 2501, witnessing brutal slave labour. Swiftly captured, the Doctor is identified as alien and sent to the SCAT-house (Species-led Creative and Advanced Technologies) on Justice Prime, run by Lazlee Flowers. Implanted with a control chip, he is celled with two apparent **Slitheen**, Dram Fel Fotch and Ecktosca Fel Fotch Heppen-Bar. Rose is transported to a teenage borstal, Detention Centre 6 on Justice Beta, run by the harsh Warder Blanc and Warder Norris. There, she is targeted by inmate Katza but aided by "block-walker" prisoner Dennel, and befriends her cellmate, Rizwana 'Riz' Mani.
The Doctor is forced to work on gravity acceleration technology, using **mindmitters** with other alien prisoners like Nesshalop. They quickly devise a theory for faster-than-light travel using gravitational waves, overloading the SCAT-house's main console. Flowers, impressed, agrees to the Doctor's demand to bring Rose to Prime as his "expert assistant." Rose, meanwhile, suspicious of the gassy Governor of Detention Centre 6, instigates a food fight to expose him as a Slitheen, but finds no evidence and is thrown into solitary.
In solitary, Warder Norris reveals he is an EarthGov agent investigating disappearances. He confirms the Governor isn't Slitheen. Warder Blanc then enters, revealing *herself* to be a Slitheen by transforming and killing Norris. Rose narrowly escapes with the help of Warders Robsen and Jamini, but Blanc and Norris's body vanish. The Doctor communicates with Rose via videolink under the supervision of Flowers and her superior, Consul Issabel. Using coded EastEnders references, the Doctor prompts Rose to give answers related to "45 Albert Street", convincing Issabel of Rose's (feigned) expertise. An alarm sounds: Dram and Ecktosca have apparently escaped. Despite this, Issabel orders Rose transferred to Prime.
On the shuttle to Prime, Rose is joined by Dennel, who stowed away. The shuttle pilot is revealed to be another creature in a **skin suit**. On Prime, Flowers grows suspicious of Issabel, especially after seeing an Executive, Doctor Meldow, whom Issabel claimed wasn't on the station, enter a restricted lab. Issabel is seen conferring with a shadowy Raxacoricofallapatorian figure, **Don Arco**, about accelerating their plans. The shuttle crashes on Justice Delta; Rose and Dennel escape the **Blathereen** pilot. They meet Robsen, who arrived via a transport disc from Blanc's room. The Doctor confronts Dram and Ecktosca, who reveal they are actually **Blathereen**, not Slitheen, and that Issabel (Blathereen name **Ermenshrew**) is their leader. The Blathereen have been infiltrating Justicia, manipulating its planetary orbits to create a giant **gravitational centrifuge**. Their goal: to use the Doctor's amplified gravity-wave technology to open a massive **warp-hole** for their invasion fleet hidden in hyperspace.
The Doctor, Flowers, and the allied Slitheen (Dram, Ecktosca, and their aunt **Callis Fel Fotch**, who oppose the Blathereen's destructive plan) race to the main warp-hole portal in the aquaculture compound on Prime, which is hidden within a **Poppito tree**. Ermenshrew follows. The Doctor rigs the portal's nitrogen feed with a **hyper-destronic pulse** to disrupt it. Meanwhile, Rose, Dennel, and Robsen, having seen the Blathereen control centre on Delta via the crashed monitoring station's screens, use its grav-motors to pilot the station into the Blathereen lair (the Executive lecture theatre on Delta), where Don Arco (the Blathereen Patriarch) is. The group reunites amidst the chaos. A mob of borstal inmates, led by Riz, Kazta, and Maggi (who is Callis in disguise and used the transport disc), arrive and attack the Blathereen on Delta.
The Doctor confronts Ermenshrew at the gravity amplifier console in the SCAT-house workshop on Prime. He bluffs that Dram has reprogrammed the solar flare compressor to target the Blathereen mothership if she activates the centrifuge. Ermenshrew presses the switch. The resulting feedback from the sabotaged warp-hole and the primed solar compressor overloads the system, destroying Ermenshrew, the console, and the Blathereen invasion fleet as the warp-hole collapses. Don Arco is also killed in the ensuing destruction on Delta.
In the aftermath, Dram and Ecktosca reveal they faked Don Arco's death, using his skin, and plan to restart their own criminal enterprises using abandoned Blathereen warp technology. The Doctor and Rose depart in the TARDIS from Justice Alpha. Flowers and Robsen begin the process of reforming Justicia and exposing the corruption to EarthGov. Dennel, with Flowers's help, plans to find his father on Justice Epsilon, while Riz, Kazta and the other freed inmates take control of the shuttle.
Characters[]
- Ninth Doctor
- Rose Tyler
- Dram Fel Fotch Heppen-Bar Slitheen
- Ecktosca Fel Fotch Heppen-Bar Slitheen
- Arco Blathereen
- Dennel
- Lazlee Flowers
- Callis Fel-Fotch Heppen-Bar Slitheen
- Nesshalop
- Ermenshrew Blathereen
- The Governor
- Norris
- Ermenshrew Blathereen's daughter
- Blista
- Yahoomer
- Hipp Sel Hetch Blathereen
- Clem Sel Hetch Blathereen
- Rizwana Mani
- Kazta
- Maggi Jalovitch
- John Robsen
- Jamini
- Nix
Worldbuilding[]
- Justicia is a privatised penal system spanning seven planets, contracted by EarthGov in the 26th century (2501) to handle the Earth Empire's criminals.
- The Justicia corporation runs the system, with a hierarchy including Warders, Governors (per facility), Consuls (e.g., Consul Issabel for Justice Prime), and Executives (on Justice Delta).
- SCAT-house on Justice Prime exploits alien prisoners for technological development and testing.
- Prisoners are implanted with control/translation chips and monitored by globules. Violation of rules or anti-social behaviour can lead to globs "cautioning" or draining energy.
- Detention Centre 6 on Justice Beta houses young human offenders, mixing genders in common areas, a new directive.
- Prisoners earn credits for purchases (e.g., make-up, chocolate) via assigned labour (kitchens, laundrette). "Block-walkers" are prisoner trustees.
- The Justicia system's planets have unnaturally stable, equidistant circular orbits (except Prime, which has an elliptical orbit further out), later revealed to be manipulated by the Blathereen for their gravitational centrifuge plot.
- Blathereen are relatives of Slitheen, also from Raxacoricofallapatorius. They use skin suits (e.g., of humans like Warder Blanc, the Governor, Consul Issabel, or even of Slitheen as a disguise) and compression field technology. They are depicted as more conquest-focused than the commercially-driven Slitheen. They refer to their family members with titles like Patriarch (Don Arco) and Ermenshrew for Issabel.
- The Slitheen (Dram, Ecktosca, Callis) in this story are primarily antique dealers and historians, less interested in galactic conquest and more in profit and preserving their heritage, though still ruthless. They also use skin suits and compression tech.
- Poppito trees are native to Raxacoricofallapatorius and can house warp-hole portals.
- EarthGov has covert agencies that conduct deep-cover operations.
- Blathereen technology includes personal transport discs and advanced warp-hole networks. Their long-term plan involves using Justicia as a mobile weapon and resource-stripping system, breeding humans for slave labour.
Food and Beverages[]
- Prison food: congealed pasta, slops, "gloop".
- Flowers pours the Doctor a glass of water.
- Blathereen (as Don Arco, impersonating the Governor) drink from a bottle of milky fluid (to counter "stress").
Notes[]
- "Original series broadcast on BBC television Format c BBC 1963" - Standard boilerplate from the book.
- "‘Doctor Who’, ‘TARDIS’ and the Doctor Who logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence."
- The novel was first published in 2005. Copyright for the novel is Stephen Cole 2005. The cover design is by Henry Steadman, copyright BBC 2005.
- Commissioning Editors were Shirley Patton and Stuart Cooper. Creative Director and Editor was Justin Richards.
- Executive Producers for the TV series at the time were Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young. Producer was Phil Collinson.
- The book was typeset in Albertina by Rocket Editorial, Aylesbury, Bucks, and printed/bound in Germany by GGP Media GmbH.
- This novel introduces the Blathereen, relatives of the Slitheen. While Slitheen appeared in the TV series, the Blathereen made their first appearance here before later appearing in SJA: The Gift.
- The novel marks Rose's first trip to an alien planet that is a significant setting for the plot, within the narrative of the New Series Adventures.
- The AudioGO audiobook is read by Camille Coduri, who plays Jackie Tyler in the TV series.
Continuity[]
- The story features Raxacoricofallapatorians, specifically Blathereen and Slitheen. The Slitheen family previously appeared in TV: Aliens of London / World War Three and were mentioned in TV: Boom Town. Concepts of compression fields, skin suits with forehead zips, and their gassy nature (mentioned by the Doctor about Slitheen) are reused.
- The Blathereen are established as relatives of the Slitheen. They would later appear on television in SJA: The Gift.
- Rose thinks about her mum, Jackie Tyler, and home ("Mum always said it would be Mickey who’d end up inside").
- The Doctor seeing a poster of a Raxacoricofallapatorian in Martian armour in the Slitheen/Blathereen's cell is a pop-culture reference within the Whoniverse.
- The Doctor's age is stated by Rose as "900-year-old alien".
- Rose jokes, "I saved the Earth and all I got was – Aggro?".
- Rose compares a see-through plastic tunnel to "the one ET was carried through when he was dying.".
- The Doctor mentions the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius.
- Dram and Ecktosca reference the "Earthly explosion 500 years ago" where their Slitheen ancestors (the Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen) seemingly blew themselves up, a reference to the events of TV: World War Three.
- Rose uses her mum's telephone number and EastEnders characters/locations (Pauline, Martin, Sonia Fowler, Albert Square) as part of the Doctor's code during the videolink.
- The year is stated as 2501, with Rose described as being "Five hundred years out of time" from her perspective.
External links[]
- Template:Tardis Data Core
- Official Publisher's page (Archived/Current) page at Penguin Books
- The Discontinuity Guide to: The Monsters Inside (The Whoniverse Guide) at The Whoniverse
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