Timelash (novelisation)

Timelash
Based on:	Timelash
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri
Main enemy:	The Borad, Tekker
Main setting:	Karfel Scotland, 1885
Key crew
Publisher:	Target Books, W.H. Allen
Writer:	Glen McCoy
Cover by:	David McAllister
Release details
Release number:	105
Release date:	15 May 1986
Format:	Hardcover and paperback editions; 12 Chapters, 124 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20229-5
Target novelisations
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Timelash was a novelisation based on the 1985 television serial Timelash.

Publisher's summary

The inhabitants of the planet Karfel are suffering under the tyrannical rule of their leader, the Borad, who has brought his world to the brink of interplanetary war.

Those who dare to oppose the will of the Borad are mercilessly sacrificed to the Timelash, a fate considered by many to be worse than death.

When the Sixth Doctor arrives on Karfel he soon discovers the Borad's horrifying plan, a plan which will directly affect his young American assistant, Peri...

Chapter titles

1. No Escape
2. The Time Vortex
3. Whirlpool
4. Return of the Time Lord
5. Negotiating the Timelash
6. Stirring Embers
7. Fight or Perish
8. Battle Stations
9. Regrouping
10. Legacy of the Borad
11. The Bandrils' Bomb
12. Double Trouble

Deviations from televised story

• As is tradition, much of the characters' dialogue has been altered for the novelisation.
• The rebel group lead by Katz and Sezon make an appearance far earlier in the story than on television. Their new hideout is described as a disused mineral mine and the three insurgents who are captured and killed in the early hours of the story -- Gazak, Tyheer and Aram -- are noted to be the second of two paramilitary brigades attacking the Borad's power structure. Katzin "Katz" Makrif is the daughter of the former Maylin who died under suspicious circumstances in a previous "bloodless" coup.
• Peri escapes from the Citadel onto the surface of Karfel itself, catching her breath under a crimson skyline and the twin suns of Rearbus and Selynx. Faced with the decision to travel north/south into the desert, east back into the city or west into the caves, she chooses to brave the caverns.
• Tekker is wholly unaware of the Borad's plans for his people. His betrayal and death comes at his moment of realisation.
• The Doctor abandons the Borad's vault to rescue Peri and Herbert from the Morlox himself. He soaks the end of a wooden stake with the contents of the M80 cannister and thrusts it straight into the creature's mouth. The resulting chemical reaction combines the two together, killing the frenzied animal outright.
• The Central Citadel's guardoliers are discovered to be androids of a similar make to those employed directly by the Borad. When he is killed, an automatic trigger is sent down to fifty-strong to obliterate every living thing in the Citadel. Peri arms herself with a blaster and accompanies the rebels while the Doctor and Mykros attempt to shut down the power vault with the two recovered amulets.
• The Doctor explains that he "turned the TARDIS’s polarity into a field of negative energy" to attract the bendalypse warhead away from Karfel. When it impacted, they simply dematerialised.
• The Borad is said to have a series of clones in freeze-chambers. The original is cast into the time corridor at the end of the story. The Doctor instructs Mykros to destroy them by disintegrating the temperature control units, so the dictator's regime can finally become a memory.

Writing and publishing notes

• Television writer Glen McCoy made the initial suggestion to then-editor Nigel Robinson to novelise his own screenplay.
• Dedicated "To my sister, Kathy"

Additional cover images

to be added

British publication history

First publication:

• Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

• Paperback

Target

External links

• On Target a comprehensive guide to the Target novelisations by Tim Neal