White Darkness (novel)

White Darkness
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace, Benny
Main enemy:	Mait, Cthulhu
Main setting:	Haiti, 1915
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	David A. McIntee
Cover by:	Peter Elson
Release details
Release number:	15
Release date:	17 June 1993
Format:	Paperback Book; 24 Chapters, 244 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20395-X
Virgin New Adventures
← Previous	Lucifer Rising
Next →	Shadowmind
DWM "New Adventures order"
← Previous	Final Genesis
Next →	Shadowmind

White Darkness is the fifteenth New Adventure novel published by Virgin Publishing in the 1990s. The story is set in Haiti in 1915. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield. The book was written by David A. McIntee, who derived much of the story's material from Wade Davis' The Serpent and the Rainbow, a research into the practice of vodoun and zombification in Haiti and the Cthulhu Mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's name was given to one of the principal characters in the story, Dr. Howard Phillips, who at one point presents the Doctor with a copy of the Necronomicon in the original Eocene, given to him by Aleister Crowley.

Publisher's summary

"We believe that death should always be part of life."

The Doctor's last three visits to the scattered human colonies of the third millennium have not been entirely successful. And now that Ace has rejoined him and Bernice, life on board the TARDIS is getting pretty stressful. The Doctor yearns for a simpler time and place: Earth, the tropics, the early twentieth century.

The TARDIS lands in Haiti in the early years of the First World War. And the Doctor, Bernice and Ace land in a murderous plot involving vodoun, violent death, zombies and German spies. And perhaps something else — something far, far worse.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Ace
• Bernice Summerfield
• Howard Phillips
• Leopard Chief

Haitians

• Carrefour
• Clairvius Dubois
• Gilles "Mait" Lemaitre
• Henri Duval
• Captain Eugene Petion
• Vincent
• Dumarsais Leclerc
• Jean Vilbrun Guillame Sam
• Lecomte
• Tancred Auguste
• General Bobo
• Francois Lacombe
• General Charles Oscar Etienne
• Antoine
• Claude
• Joseph

Germans

• Leutnant Dietz
• Leutnant Katze
• Leutnant Klenze
• Kapitan Reise Heinrich
• Kapitan Weber
• General Froebe
• Professor Victor von Stein
• Dr. Ingrid Karnstein

Americans

• Major Paul Richmann
• Colonel LV Mortimer
• Captain Glen
• Admiral Caperton
• Woodrow Wilson

Worldbuilding

Books

• Howard Phillips has a copy of an Eocene Necronomicon, which was given to him by Aleister Crowley.
• Nkome/Mait possessed a copy of The Beginner's Guide to the Necronomicon, The Book of Dzyan, The Book of Eibon, Ludwig Prinn's De Vermis Mysteriis, The Golden Bough and other occult tomes.

Cultural references from the real world

• There are James Bond references.
• The Doctor is compared to "our man in Havana" because of his linen suit.

Planets

• The inhabitants of Veltroch learned of the Great Old Ones.

Species

• The Doctor can read Eocene.

Time Lords

• The Doctor learned hypnotism from the Master.

TARDIS components

• The TARDIS HADS can be overridden manually.

Timeline

• The following years / eras, 15 million BCE, 1744, 1750, 1908, 1913, 1934, 1986, the 25th century, and the 27th century, are referred to by various characters.

Notes

• Prelude White Darkness was published in DWM 201.
• This is the first novel to feature the Doctor wearing his new white linen suit, as seen on the cover.

Continuity

• In PROSE: All-Consuming Fire, the Great Old One Mait was trying to release is identified as Cthulhu.
• The brooch the Doctor wears on his suit was given to his first incarnation by Cameca, his accidental fiancé from the past, (TV: The Aztecs) although he had forgotten about it after Ian and Barbara returned home. (TV: The Chase) It seemingly re-entered his possession after the First Doctor used it to buy suits and top hats for himself and Steven Taylor in London in 1912. (AUDIO: The Suffering) The Eighth Doctor would later give it to his granddaughter Susan Foreman as a Christmas present. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions)
• The Doctor mentions having experience as a President. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
• The Doctor tells Ace not to prevent a massacre as it is part of recorded history, having had a similar discussion after he helped Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)
• The feeling that the presence of the Great Old One gives the Doctor reminds him of the Dark Tower. (TV: The Five Doctors)

Cover gallery

• 

  Original cover

• 

  Textless cover

External links

• Prelude to White Darkness as published in DWM #201
• White Darkness at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: White Darkness at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: White Darkness
• Beyond the Book: White Darkness by Paul Scoones (Article) - TSV 35