Head Games (novel)

Head Games
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Benny, Roz, Chris
Featuring:	Sixth Doctor, First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Ace, Mel, Norman, the Valeyard, Winifred Bambera, Sabalom Glitz
Main enemy:	Jason, Dr. Who
Main setting:	Avalone, Detrios and Earth, 2001
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Steve Lyons
Release details
Release number:	43
Release date:	19 October 1995
Format:	Paperback Book; 28 Chapters, 258 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20454-9
Virgin New Adventures
← Previous	Toy Soldiers
Next →	The Also People

Head Games is the forty-third Virgin New Adventures novel. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield, Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej. It also features Melanie Bush, who departed the TARDIS in Dragonfire, and Ace, who joined in that story and last appeared in Set Piece when she also stopped travelling with the Doctor. There is also a cameo appearance of Brigadier Winifred Bambera. This novel is a sequel to Conundrum published in 1994.

Publisher's summary

"This isn't Hell," the Doctor assured her. "It's only a sequel."

Stand by for an exciting new adventure with Dr Who and his companion, Jason. Once again, our time-hopping friends set out to seek injustice, raise rebel armies, overthrow dictators and beat up green monsters.

But this time, Dr Who faces a deadly new threat: a genocidal rogue Time Lord and his army of combat-hardened, gun-slinging warrior women. To make matters worse, this foe is a twisted version of the good Doctor himself — and if Dr Who and Jason can't stop him, he'll end all life on Detrios and Earth.

Armed only with their wits and with the modest power of control over reality, our heroes must face Dr Who's evil double: the megalomaniac scientist who calls himself simply... "the Doctor".

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor

• Bernice Summerfield
• Roz Forrester
• Chris Cwej
• Melanie Bush
• Ace
• Jason
• Dr. Who
• Wolsey
• The White Knight
• Darnak
• Enros
• Kat'lanna
• Thruskarr
• Elizabeth II
• Winifred Bambera

References

The Doctor

• Benny laughs until her sides ache when she finds out that the Sixth Doctor regenerated because he hit his head on the console.
• The Doctor gives Benny a UNIT pass that used to belong to Jeremy Fitzoliver.

Individuals

• Chris wonders whether he and rebel Kat'lanna might end up sleeping together.
• Mel left Sabalom Glitz after six months and tried to hitch hike to Earth. Six months after that she was stuck on the planet Avalone.
• Blinovitch's first name was Aaron.
• Jason resurrects the Queen (after she dies).
• Jason has a Def Leppard poster.

Organisations

• UNIT and Brigadier Winifred Bambera investigate one of the Land of Fiction incidences on Earth.

Other realities

• Detrios, the Miracle, ACME Lizard Monster Eradicator are all creations from the Land of Fiction / the Master of the Land.

Timeline

• Benny kicks a soft drink can in London, 2001 which through a seemingly unrelated set of events leads to a slightly less eloquent speech writer writing a speech on the eve of the Draconian War, leading to many more deaths on both sides.

Notes

• The cover of this novel was used often in many articles about The New Adventures as it showed a recognisable Doctor (in the question mark jumper), companion Mel screaming, and the Doctor holding a gun, supposedly all indicators of a New Adventures novel.
• Mel was last seen (chronologically) in TV: Dragonfire. Head Games continues her story after Dragonfire, and explains what led her to leave.

Continuity

• This novel is a sequel to PROSE: Conundrum, which in turn was a sequel to TV: The Mind Robber.
• Bernice mentions that she recently fought "evil Teddy bears". (PROSE: Toy Soldiers)
• Dr. Who tells Mel that the Doctor is responsible for destroying the seven planets of the Althosian system (PROSE: The Pit) and the Silurian Earth. (PROSE: Blood Heat)
• Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart is mentioned near the end of this novel, leading into PROSE: The Also People.
• Blinovitch was given some further history in PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation.
• In this novel it is revealed that Brigadier Winifred Bambera had twins by Ancelyn, an Arthurian knight whom she met during the events of TV: Battlefield.
• The Doctor's recollection of his predecessor's death to Benny is an exaggeration of the truth. His sixth incarnation actually regenerated from exposure to radiation which could kill Time Lords after the Rani bombarded his TARDIS with irradiated lasers. (AUDIO: The Brink of Death) However, the Doctor may not be remembering these events correctly because he was given an amnesia-inducing drug by the Rani before his regenerated self woke up, clouding his recollection of the regeneration. (TV: Time and the Rani) An echo of his sixth persona in the Eighth Doctor's mind would also remember his death as a "bang on the head." (AUDIO: Zagreus)

External links

• Head Games at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Head Games at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Head Games