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{{Infobox Story
{{Infobox Story SMW
|adapted into = The Highest Science (audio story)
|adapted into = The Highest Science (audio story)
|image= NA011 highestscience.jpg
|image= NA011 highestscience.jpg
|series=[[Virgin New Adventures]]
|series = [[Virgin New Adventures]]
|range = Virgin New Adventures
|number in range = 11
|number= 11  
|number= 11  
|doctor=Seventh Doctor
|doctor = Seventh Doctor
|companions= [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]]
|companions= [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]]
|enemy= [[Sheldukher]], [[Chelonian]]s, [[Checkley's World]]
|enemy= [[Sheldukher]], [[Chelonian]]s, [[Checkley's World]]
|setting= [[Hogsumm]], [[2680]]
|setting= [[Hogsumm]], [[2680]]
|writer= [[Gareth Roberts]]
|writer= Gareth Roberts
|cover= [[Peter Elson]]
|cover= [[Peter Elson]]
|publisher= Virgin Books
|publisher= Virgin Books
|release date= [[18 February (releases)|18 February]] [[1993 (releases)|1993]]
|release date= 18 February 1993
|format= Paperback Book; 22 Chapters, 258 Pages
|format= Paperback Book;<br/>22 Chapters, 258 Pages
|isbn= ISBN 0-426-20377-1
|isbn= ISBN 0-426-20377-1
|prev= Transit (novel)
|prev= Transit (novel)
|next= The Pit (novel)
|next= The Pit (novel)
|series2 = [[Interweaving with the New Adventures|''DWM'''s "New Adventures order"]]
|series2 = [[Interweaving with the New Adventures|''DWM'' "New Adventures order"]]
|prev2 = Emperor of the Daleks! (comic story)
|prev2 = Emperor of the Daleks! (comic story)
|next2 = The Pit (novel)
|next2 = The Pit (novel)
}}{{Prose stub}}
}}
{{you may|The Highest Science (audio story)|n1=the audio adaptation}}
{{you may|The Highest Science (audio story)|n1=the audio adaptation}}
'''''The Highest Science''''', published in [[1993 (releases)|1993]], is the eleventh book in the [[Virgin New Adventures]] series. It was written by [[Gareth Roberts]] and features the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Bernice Summerfield]].
'''''The Highest Science''''', published in [[1993 (releases)|1993]], is the eleventh book in the [[Virgin New Adventures]] series. It was written by [[Gareth Roberts]] and features the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Bernice Summerfield]].
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== Plot ==
== Plot ==
While passing the apparently unremarkable planet Hogsuum, the TARDIS detects a Fortean flicker, a temporal anomaly which displaces events and objects from their proper positions in space and time. The Doctor looks up Hogsuum in the TARDIS data banks and finds a reference to Gustav Urnst, a sensationalist author of the 25th century who vanished mysteriously after claiming to have found the legendary planet Sakkrat. It is said throughout the civilised galaxy that the people of Sakkrat reached the pinnacle of technological achievement, the Highest Science, and then destroyed themselves with it. Benny is skeptical until the Doctor suggests that the Fortean flicker could be a side-effect of this Highest Science. By its very nature, a Fortean flicker causes strange juxtapositions and apparent coincidences -- and it would certainly be a coincidence if Urnst spent his life writing about lost civilisations and ancient secrets, and then actually found one…
 
A Chelonian assault force fighting human parasites on the planet Vaagon is suddenly transported to Hogsuum by the Fortean flicker. The traumatic journey causes General Fakrid to give premature birth to stillborn eggs, and the infuriated general orders his troops to destroy the enemy which has brought them here. When his troops detect an energy surge in a nearby valley, Fakrid sends them into battle although the nature of the energy can’t be identified -- and the patrol is wiped out while reporting that they have encountered “eight twelves”. Fakrid and his men try to retaliate, but are driven away by smart weaponry against which they are unable to defend themselves. Meanwhile, the TARDIS materialises nearby, and the Doctor and Benny emerge and meet a drugged-out youth named Rodomonte who seems to recognise them, or at least their description. The Chelonians then arrive to investigate the energy surge caused by the TARDIS’ materialisation, and the Doctor sends Benny and Rodomonte to safety while he stays to protect his TARDIS… which may no longer be fully capable of protecting itself.
The TARDIS approaches the planet Hogsuum in the year 2680. The Doctor is in pursuit of a temporal phenomenon called a [[Fortean Flicker|Fortean flicker]], which creates coincidences and pulls people and things from their proper places and times. His research leads him to a 25th-century scholar named Gustav Urnst, with whom Bernice Summerfield is familiar, and who allegedly found and wrote about the fabled planet of Sakkrat. His writings speak of the Highest Science, the pinnacle of Sakkratian technology; but what it is, no one can say. Urnst himself disappeared before revealing his answers. Could Hogsuum be Sakkrat?
Meanwhile, another spaceship arrives in orbit, having been guided to this planet by an organic intelligence known only as the Cell. The psychopathic criminal Sheldukher, seeking to relieve his boredom, stole the Cell from the laboratories of Checkley’s World over a century ago, and placed himself and his reluctant associates into suspended animation while the Cell searched the galaxy for Sakkrat. Over the past century, the Cell has attempted to alter its physical appearance to become more efficient, but it has made several grave errors and now lives in eternal agony, wishing for death. Sheldukher, however, refuses to release it until it has led him to the Highest Science, and at last it has found a world which perfectly matches the legendary descriptions of Sakkrat. Sheldukher’s psychotic bodyguard Postine doesn’t care what Sheldukher does as long as she gets to kill people, but his other associates, master thieves Rosheen and Klift, want only to rid themselves of him and return to their ordinary lives. However, they have no choice but to assist him; Sheldukher has implanted chemical dispensers in their bodies, and he demonstrates his power over them by causing Klift to age forty years in a second. Meanwhile, the Cell scans the planet below for some sign of intelligence, and finds a powerful mind unlike any it has ever encountered before. In its eagerness to make contact it overloads the Doctor’s brain, knocking him out and allowing the Chelonians to capture him.  
 
While following Rodomonte, Benny stumbles into a swamp inhabited by a creature which uses hallucinogenic pheromones to disable its prey. Rodomonte returns to his friends Molassi and Sendei, who, like him, were transported here from the Ragasteen Music Festival of 2112, and tells them that he’s met the pretty lady from the song. Sendei sets off to look for her, taking the psychotic Molassi’s favourite discoid to prevent him from driving off without them. Sendei has encountered the swamp predator before, and he saves Benny’s life and takes her back to the speeder. Still dazed, Benny accepts a drink from a dispenser which the boys found soon after they were transported here -- but they’re unaware that the drink is bubbleshake, a dangerous narcotic which causes immediate addiction, short-term memory loss, irritability, paranoia, and eventual death. Molassi has been drinking it for some time, and now believes that the lyrics from the classic album “Event Shift” by Zagrat are foretelling his ascension to the throne of the Wizard King. Benny realises that the similarities between the album and current events are just a coincidence, but she’s already beginning to have trouble concentrating and can’t recall why coincidences on this planet are significant… or why she should be so upset about Molassi driving off without waiting for the Doctor.  
On the planet Vaagon, a Chelonian assault force is mopping up a human colony, when the Fortean flicker transports the Chelonians to Hogsuum. The force's commanding general, Fakrid, prematurely delivers a clutch of stillborn eggs, which begins to drive him mad. He sends his troops into battle, where they confront the mysterious "eight twelves", but they are repelled by intelligent weaponry. At the same time, the TARDIS arrives, and the Doctor and Benny meet a human named Rodomonte. Strangely, he seems to know them, at least by description. Faced with the Chelonian threat, the Doctor sends Benny and Rodomonte away to safety while he stays near the TARDIS. In orbit, another ship arrives, guided by an engineered being called the Cell. It awakens its crew: first, unwilling participants and master thieves Rosheen and Klift, then the psychotic warrior Postine, and then the worst of them all: the expedition's leader, the storied criminal Sheldukher. They have been asleep for three hundred years, while the Cell searched for Sakkrat—and now it has found the planet, or so it believes. Sheldukher reasserts control over his crew by prematurely ageing Klift, forcing Rosheen to obey. The Cell can't properly scan the surface, but it telepathically contacts the Doctor, who is the first person to ever show kindness to it in its tortured existence. However, its power overwhelms him and knocks him out, and the Chelonians capture him.
The Chelonians return to the valley of the eight twelves, where the Doctor recovers just in time to pilot the battle tank away from their enemies’ sentient energy weapons. Fakrid reluctantly decides to let the Doctor live, but only if he finds a way to destroy their enemies. The Doctor rigs up a ramshackle device from spare parts, and claims that it will only work if he is allowed to use it against the eight twelves in person. Once out of sight, he disposes of the device and goes on to make peaceful contact with a group of stranded commuters from late 20th-century Earth, who were transported here by the flicker while commuting to London on the 8:12 from Aldgate. They were only defending themselves against the Chelonians, using weapons which had been brought to this planet by the Fortean flicker. The Doctor disables the dangerous weapons and promises to help the humans return home, but discovers too late that his entire conversation has been monitored by the suspicious Chelonians. As the furious Fakrid prepares to wipe them all out, Sheldukher lands in search of the mind which the Cell had detected earlier, and transmits a signal which jams the Chelonians’ cybernetic implants, paralysing them.  
 
The youths’ speeder runs out of power upon reaching the outskirts of a ruined city, and Molassi continues on foot, convinced that he will be crowned with ice at the Temple of the Event Shift. He demands that Sendei give him more bubbleshake, but the dispenser has run dry and Sendei is unable to do so. Molassi thus attacks him, and Sendei, whose own judgement has been impaired by his bubbleshake addiction, destroys Molassi’s prize discoid in a fit of rage. Molassi stabs Sendei to death and continues on to the Temple, where he is confronted by ghosts who probe his mind but are unable to find what they are looking for. Rejecting him as unsuitable, the ghosts show Molassi a vision of an ancient talk show during which Zagrat’s former lead singer admits that he made up the lyrics to “Event Shift” while on a drug trip, and that they don’t really mean anything. The devastated Molassi kills himself, and when Rodomonte stumbles across him, seeking revenge for Sendei’s murder, he too is probed, discarded, and shown visions which drive him to suicide. When Benny enters the Temple, however, the ghosts find what they’re looking for in her mind and allow her to live -- but she is falling victim to the effects of bubbleshake addiction and withdrawal, and she passes out in the ruins of the city.  
Benny happens upon a swamp creature that hypnotises its victims. Rodomonte gathers his two friends, Sendei and Molassi, who are behaving oddly; the trio also came here by way of the Fortean flicker, transported from the Ragasteen Music Festival of 2112. Sendei goes after Benny, provoking Molassi in the process; Molassi begins growing progressively more insane and dangerous. Sendei rescues Benny and takes her back to the camp, giving her drinks from a dispenser that they found after arrival. Unknown to them, the drink is from their relative future, but her past; it is called bubbleshake, and though developed as an appetite suppressant when coupled with a certain medication, by itself it is highly addictive and eventually deadly, with many mental side effects including amnesia and paranoia. As all three men have been drinking it, all of them are beginning to show the effects, with Molassi the most affected. He believes himself to be the Wizard King, adapted from the lyrics of his favourite band—lyrics which, coincidentally, seem to perfectly describe the situation they are all facing... As Benny consumes the bubbleshake, she too is affected, and soon forgets herself, the TARDIS, and the Doctor.
Sheldukher forces the Doctor to give himself up by threatening to kill one of the commuters’ babies. The Doctor reluctantly reveals what he knows about Sakkrat from Urnst’s book, which was published after Sheldukher went into cryo-sleep. Sheldukher sets off in search of the ruined city described by Urnst, and almost as an afterthought, he kills four Chelonians at random to discourge pursuit. But he has underestimated General Fakrid. The humiliations he has been forced to endure at the hands of mere humans, and the interruption of his breeding cycle, have driven Fakrid into a berzerker rage, and he now intends to wipe out all of the humans on this world, starting with Sheldukher.
 
The Cell locates the ruined city and lands the ship, but then accesses the ship’s reactors and tries to blow it up, ending its own miserable life and taking Sheldukher with it. The Doctor is able to short-circuit the airlock and escape along with the others before the ship explodes. In the ruins of the city he is reunited with Benny, and temporarily restores her mind to working order by hypnotising her. She will still require medical treatment when this is all over -- but when she realises that the Doctor is accompanied by the infamous Sheldukher, she isn’t sure she’ll survive long enough to get it. The Chelonians arrive in pursuit, and while Postine holds them off, the others enter the Temple. There, the aged Klift’s heart gives out in terror when he is confronted by the ghosts. The Doctor seems to recognise the ghosts, but he doesn’t explain himself and instead sends Benny and Rosheen to safety while he and Sheldukher continue onwards with the Cell.  
As the Chelonians move to attack the Eight Twelves, the Doctor intervenes. Bluffing, he persuades the Chelonians to let him deal with the threat. He finds that the “Eight Twelves” are twentieth-century humans; they were on the 8.12am train when they were transported here by the Fortean flicker. Two of their number, Vanessa and Hazel, happened upon the intelligent weapons — also deposited by the flicker — that have heretofore kept them alive. The Doctor gets them behaving in a way that contributes to survival, and goes back to announce their “destruction” to the Chelonians... only to find that the Chelonians have been monitoring, and know that he deceived them. He is saved, however, when Sheldukher's ship lands, and transmits a sonic signal that temporarily disables the Chelonians.
Postine manages to inflict a fatal wound on Fakrid before he kills her, and Fakrid passes on command to First Pilot Jinkwa, revealing in his dying moments that Jinkwa is his son. Benny and Rosheen emerge from the city to find themselves surrounded by angry Chelonians, but when Rosheen is killed, Benny is transported back to safety by the ghosts, who are unwilling to lose another responsive mind. Jinkwa orders three Chelonians to activate their self-destruct implants and level the city, but chooses three who have spoken out against him in public. Realising that Jinkwa is becoming corrupted by power, Trooper Ozaran tries to use his implant to kill Jinkwa, but Jinkwa, realising what is happening, orders two tanks to move between Ozaran and himself, thus sheltering himself from the blast. He then kills his own tank’s Environments Officer to prevent him from revealing that Jinkwa deliberately sacrificed other Chelonians to save himself, and orders the rest of his patrol to return with him to the valley of the eight twelves. He is unaware that the ghosts have transported the remaining two kamikaze Chelonians beyond the city, leaving it untouched by their destruction.  
 
The Doctor, Sheldukher, Benny and the Cell pass through a slow-time conversion chamber, where they are slowed down to match the flow of Time beneath the city. Anything protected by such a slow-time field, which was just a theory when Sheldukher entered cryo-sleep, may have remained unchanged for millions of years. The Cell discovers that its mental frequency matches the frequency of the conversion chamber’s lock -- another apparent coincidence -- and when the explorers pass through they are attacked by the Monumental Guardian, the fierce robot defender of the tombs. But the Guardian merely menaces them and then retreats, and the Doctor concludes that it’s just there to frighten people. Which would support his own theory about what’s really going on. Sheldukher ignores the Doctor’s warning and continues on, only to be captured and imprisoned in a force field by two blank genetic Constructs who demand the return of Project FXX Q84… the Cell. As the Doctor suspected when he first saw the Ethers, spirits of the dead enslaved with technology first developed on Checkley’s World, this entire planet was designed as a trap for Sheldukher.  
Molassi's speeder craft carries his group, and Benny, to a ruined city before breaking down. This is the location Molassi, in his madness, has been seeking, and he runs on ahead to a ruined temple. Caught in addiction, he demands more of the bubbleshake, but the dispenser is empty. Enraged, he kills Sendei. At the temple, he meets ghosts, which probe his mind for a certain response, but do not receive it. The ghosts reject him, and give him visions which disillusion him, causing him to commit suicide. Rodomonte, too, is found and probed by the ghosts, and subsequently commits suicide. However, the ghosts get the response they seek from Benny, and let her live. She subsequently passes out inside the city from bubbleshake withdrawal.
After Sheldukher stole the Cell and set off in search of Sakkrat, the consortium which owned Checkley’s World terraformed the planet Hogsuum into the image of Sakkrat to lure him in and capture him while his guard was down. The slow-time unit was set up to keep the Constructs fresh while they waited for him to arrive, but it has malfunctioned, causing the Fortean flicker. And it is the flicker which seeded the meaningless legends of Sakkrat across the galaxy in the first place. The Doctor locates the slow-time unit and removes its faulty kronos element, putting the flicker to rights, and Benny then destroys the Cell, granting it the death it has wanted all along. Having failed to recover the Cell, the Constructs melt away, and Sheldukher, realising that his great quest was all for nothing, kills himself rather than let himself be captured. As a last act of revenge, he triggers a bomb which will level the city, but the Doctor discovers that the underground complex is in fact a spaceship meant to take the Constructs back to Checkley’s World once their task was complete. He thus locates the ship’s emergency transmat, and sends himself and Benny back to the valley of the eight twelves moments before the city is destroyed.
 
The Chelonians have just captured the commuters and are preparing to kill them all horribly with zarathion gas. When the Doctor’s attempt to rescue them fails, he is forced to use the kronos element to freeze them all, Chelonians and humans alike, in a bubble of slow time. It isn’t the perfect solution, but he’s too tired to think of a better one and decides to leave them as they are until he can work out a way to free them. He and Benny return to the TARDIS, where the Doctor nurses Benny back to health and takes her to 1935 for a relaxing night out at the theatre. He refuses to discuss the odd malfunctions plaguing the TARDIS, however, and they depart from 1935 without ever realising that Gustav Urnst, displaced from his own time by a Fortean flicker, had been in the audience with them.
Sheldukher threatens the Eight Twelves to get the Doctor to lead him to Sakkrat city. The Doctor reluctantly does so, following Urnst's cryptic directions, which Sheldukher had never seen, having been in cryo-sleep at its publication. To discourage the Chelonians as he departs, Sheldukher kills four of him; however, this drives General Fakrid into a frenzy, and he takes his troops to follow Sheldukher to the city, several thousand miles away. As Sheldukher's ship lands at the city, the Cell locks everyone inside and tries to destroy the ship and end its own life — and take revenge on Sheldukher in the process — but the Doctor is able to get everyone out, including the Cell. However, the self-destruction leaves them stranded here, far from the TARDIS. The Doctor finds Benny, and manages to repair her mind telepathically, although she will still require medical treatment for the addiction and its effects. She too knows Sheldukher by reputation. Sheldukher sets Postine to hold off the pursuing Chelonians while the others enter the temple. The battle outside brings down part of the structure, trapping Klift; but he subsequently confronted by the ghosts, and dies. The Doctor seems to recognise the ghosts. Postine manages to mortally wound the general, but dies in the process. Before dying, Fakrid passes command to his First Pilot, Jinkwa, whom he reveals to secretly be his son. Jinkwa, however, is already stressed past breaking, and is just as mad as Fakrid. Benny and Rosheen escape the city, but are caught by the Chelonians, and Rosheen is killed. Benny is transmatted to safety by the ghosts. Jinkwa orders a suicide mission to destroy the city; two of the three suicide operatives carry out the mission, but are transported beyond the city by the ghosts before they can explode. The third, in an attack of conscience, returns to stop Jinkwa, and detonates near his command vehicle; however two other vehicles take the explosion instead.
 
The Doctor, Benny, and Sheldukher, with the Cell, pass through a strange chamber, a slow-time conversion chamber, which matches them to the slower passage of time beneath the city. This field of slowed time would protect whatever it encloses, possibly for millions of years. They are attacked by a robotic monster called the Monumental Guardian, but it lets them go after trying to scare them. Sheldukher is then captured by a containment field. Two humanoid genetic Constructs approach the group, and demand that they return Project FXX Q84...also known as the Cell. Finally the Doctor explains.
 
Three hundred years prior, Sheldukher stole the embryonic Cell from a horrific research world called Checkley's World, planning to use it to find Sakkrat. When Sheldukher vanished, the controlling firm of Checkley's World created a plan to trap him and recover the Cell, which had the power to become the greatest mind in existence. They altered the planet Hogsuum to more perfectly match Sakkrat's description, and created the various guardians and traps in order to lure in Sheldukher and recover the cell. However, the slow-time chamber's control globe became faulty, creating the Fortean flicker. The Doctor makes his way to the control globe and shuts off the faulty circuit, ending the flicker; however, shutting down the rest of the system proves impossible. Sheldukher overcomes that problem, however, when he cannot handle the truth, and kills himself; but he is wearing a powerful explosive on a deadman switch and a timer, and in fifteen minutes it will vaporise everything for a thousand miles around. The Doctor and Benny flee try to flee via the facility's emergency transmat, and are attacked by the Monumental Guardian along the way; they escape seconds before the explosive detonates.
 
The Doctor and Benny materialise near the TARDIS, only to find the Chelonians about to wipe out the Eight Twelves using a lethal Zarathion gas. Using the facility's control globe, he freezes the area in slow time, saving the lives of all the survivors, but leaving them as a problem to be worked out another day; he cannot enter the slow-time field, as it would kill him at this level. With Benny, he returns to the TARDIS. Inside, he administers the antidote to the bubbleshake, and she slowly recovers over several days; when she is fully recovered, he celebrates by taking her to 1935 Earth, for a meeting with Virginia Woolf, or — failing that — a night at the theatre. As they exit the TARDIS, they fail to see that it is behaving oddly; and later, they find that it has moved itself to another spot nearby. In the theatre, they watch the show before getting bored and leaving for other worlds, without realising that Gustav Urnst, the lost scholar, is there, having been displaced by the Fortean flicker to this historic time. Urnst watches them go, and muses on their existence as travellers from the future.
 
== Characters ==
== Characters ==
* [[Seventh Doctor]]
* [[Seventh Doctor]]
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* [[Jinkwa]]
* [[Jinkwa]]
* [[Klift]]
* [[Klift]]
* [[Molassi]]
* [[Jab Molassi]]
* [[Ozaran]]
* [[Ozaran]]
* [[Marjorie Postine]]
* [[Marjorie Postine]]
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* [[Jobez]]
* [[Jobez]]
* [[Ostryn]]
* [[Ostryn]]
* [[Construct One]]
* [[Construct Two]]
* [[Environments Officer]]
* [[Linta]]
* [[Izta]]
* [[Nefril]]
* [[Mr Peploe]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Astronomical objects ===
=== Astronomical objects ===
* The following [[planet]]s/systems are mentioned (and briefly explained): [[Sakkrat]], [[Vaagon]], [[Evertrin]], [[Earth]], [[Chelonia]], [[Lasty's Nebula]], [[Naiad]], [[Menelot]], [[Harma (planet)|Harma]], [[Checkley's World]], [[North Gate]], [[Tayloe]], [[Mang]], [[Miradilus Four]], [[Regurel]], [[Mars]], [[Draconia]], [[Mulkos]], [[Mordala]], [[Exalfa]], [[Adorno]], [[Alpha Centauri (planet)|Alpha Centauri]], [[Heaven (Love and War)|Heaven]], [[Sensuron]], [[Riftok]], [[Masel]], [[Arcturus (planet)|Arturus]], [[Hogsumm]], and [[Atvares Minor]].
* The following [[planet]]s/systems are mentioned (and briefly explained): [[Sakkrat]], [[Vaagon]], [[Evertrin]], [[Earth]], [[Chelonia]], [[Lasty's Nebula]], [[Naiad]], [[Menelot]], [[Harma (planet)|Harma]], [[Checkley's World]], [[North Gate]], [[Tayloe]], [[Mang]], [[Miradilus Four]], [[Regurel]], [[Mars]], [[Draconia]], [[Mulkos]], [[Mordala]], [[Exalfa]], [[Adorno]], [[Alpha Centauri (planet)|Alpha Centauri]], [[Heaven (Love and War)|Heaven]], [[Sensuron]], [[Riftok]], [[Masel]], [[Arcturus (planet)|Arturus]], [[Hogsumm]], and [[Atvares Minor]].
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=== Location ===
=== Location ===
* The Doctor had ran [[Taunton]] for two weeks in the [[18th century]].
* The Doctor ran [[Taunton]] for two weeks in the [[18th century]].
* The [[fourth zone]] is an area of the galaxy.
* The [[fourth zone]] is an area of the galaxy.


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* Bernice drinks [[Bubbleshake]], an oral appetite suppressant containing [[Fabi weed]] extract.
* Bernice drinks [[Bubbleshake]], an oral appetite suppressant containing [[Fabi weed]] extract.
* Bernice cannot find any [[alcohol]] in the TARDIS.
* Bernice cannot find any [[alcohol]] in the TARDIS.
* During Bernice's era there was ration-card [[chocolate]].
* Bernice drinks a [[cocktail]] called [[Kronka]].


=== Sports ===
=== Sports ===
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* The 2009 special ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' features elements of this story; whereas a tube train passes through a Fortean Flicker to Sakkrat here, a red London bus passes through a wormhole onto San Helios in the 2009 story.
* The 2009 special ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' features elements of this story; whereas a tube train passes through a Fortean Flicker to Sakkrat here, a red London bus passes through a wormhole onto San Helios in the 2009 story.
* The writer of both pieces, [[Gareth Roberts]], was to use the Chelonians in ''Planet of the Dead'', but the heat of the Dubai desert where filming was to be was thought too severe for an actor to wear a heavy Chelonian turtle costume in.
* The writer of both pieces, [[Gareth Roberts]], was to use the Chelonians in ''Planet of the Dead'', but the heat of the Dubai desert where filming was to be was thought too severe for an actor to wear a heavy Chelonian turtle costume in.
* [[Gareth Roberts]] named this as his favourite of the three New Adventures he wrote.
* A [[Big Finish Productions]] audio adaptation of the novel starring [[Sylvester McCoy]], [[Lisa Bowerman]] and featuring [[Sinead Keenan]], [[Daniel Brocklebank]] and [[Tom Bell]] was released in December 2014, adapted by [[Jacqueline Rayner]]. The first part of the story was issued free as a podcast prior to the CD's release.
* A [[Big Finish Productions]] audio adaptation of the novel starring [[Sylvester McCoy]], [[Lisa Bowerman]] and featuring [[Sinead Keenan]], [[Daniel Brocklebank]] and [[Tom Bell]] was released in December 2014, adapted by [[Jacqueline Rayner]]. The first part of the story was issued free as a podcast prior to the CD's release.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* The humans and Chelonians frozen in time at the climax of this story are unfrozen in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Happy Endings]]''.
* The humans and Chelonians frozen in time at the climax of this story are eventually unfrozen. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Happy Endings (novel)|Happy Endings]]'')
* On regaining consciousness, the Doctor cries out, "Where am I? Who am I? And who are you?" ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')
* On regaining consciousness, the Doctor cries out, "Where am I? Who am I? And who are you?" ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')
*Chelonians spaceships appeared when the [[Eleventh Doctor]] discovered the [[Pandorica]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')
* Chelonians spaceships appeared when the [[Eleventh Doctor]] discovered the [[Pandorica]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'')
* Benny speculates as to whether the TARDIS is supposed to have six operators rather than one. ([[TV]]: [[Journey's End (TV story)|''Journey's End'']])
* The Doctor is still carrying the Rani's spoon-like tools and uses them to build a sonic weapon. ([[TV]]: [[Time and the Rani (TV story)|''Time and the Rani'']])
 
== Cover gallery ==
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
NA011 highestscience.jpg|Original cover
NA011 highestscience textless cover.jpg|Textless cover
</gallery>


== External links ==
== External links ==
* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/whona11p.htm Prelude to '''The Highest Science''' as published in DWM #196]
* [https://doctorwho.guide/whona11p.htm Prelude to '''The Highest Science''' as published in DWM #196]
{{dwrefguide|who_na11.htm|The Highest Science}}
{{dwrefguide|who_na11.htm|The Highest Science}}
* {{whoniverse|na11|The Highest Science}}
* {{whoniverse|na11|The Highest Science}}
* [http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/cloister/highscie.htm The Cloister Library: '''The Highest Science''']
* [http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/cloister/highscie.htm The Cloister Library: '''The Highest Science''']
* [http://www.oocities.com/rico.briggs/high.html Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide to '''The Highest Science''']
* [http://www.oocities.com/rico.briggs/high.html Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide to '''The Highest Science''']
* [http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv38/garethroberts.html Gareth Roberts by Warwick Gray (Interview) - TSV 38]
* [http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv38/garethroberts.html Gareth Roberts by Warwick Gray (Interview) - TSV 38]
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[[Category:Bernice Summerfield stories]]
 
[[Category:Bernice Summerfield sources]]
[[Category:Seventh Doctor novels]]
[[Category:Seventh Doctor novels]]
[[Category:NA novels with Bernice Summerfield]]
[[Category:NA novels with Bernice Summerfield]]

Latest revision as of 20:30, 3 June 2024

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The Highest Science, published in 1993, is the eleventh book in the Virgin New Adventures series. It was written by Gareth Roberts and features the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Sakkrat.

Many legends speak of this world, home of an ancient empire destroyed by its own greatest achievement: the Highest Science, the pinnacle of technological discovery.

When the TARDIS alerts the Doctor and Bernice to the presence of an enormous temporal fluctuation on a large, green, unremarkable planet, they are not to know of any connection with the legend.

But the connection is there, and it will lead them into conflict with the monstrous Chelonians, with their contempt for human parasites; into adventure with a group of youngsters whose musical taste has suddenly become dangerously significant; and will force them to face Sheldukher, the most wanted criminal in the galaxy.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

The TARDIS approaches the planet Hogsuum in the year 2680. The Doctor is in pursuit of a temporal phenomenon called a Fortean flicker, which creates coincidences and pulls people and things from their proper places and times. His research leads him to a 25th-century scholar named Gustav Urnst, with whom Bernice Summerfield is familiar, and who allegedly found and wrote about the fabled planet of Sakkrat. His writings speak of the Highest Science, the pinnacle of Sakkratian technology; but what it is, no one can say. Urnst himself disappeared before revealing his answers. Could Hogsuum be Sakkrat?

On the planet Vaagon, a Chelonian assault force is mopping up a human colony, when the Fortean flicker transports the Chelonians to Hogsuum. The force's commanding general, Fakrid, prematurely delivers a clutch of stillborn eggs, which begins to drive him mad. He sends his troops into battle, where they confront the mysterious "eight twelves", but they are repelled by intelligent weaponry. At the same time, the TARDIS arrives, and the Doctor and Benny meet a human named Rodomonte. Strangely, he seems to know them, at least by description. Faced with the Chelonian threat, the Doctor sends Benny and Rodomonte away to safety while he stays near the TARDIS. In orbit, another ship arrives, guided by an engineered being called the Cell. It awakens its crew: first, unwilling participants and master thieves Rosheen and Klift, then the psychotic warrior Postine, and then the worst of them all: the expedition's leader, the storied criminal Sheldukher. They have been asleep for three hundred years, while the Cell searched for Sakkrat—and now it has found the planet, or so it believes. Sheldukher reasserts control over his crew by prematurely ageing Klift, forcing Rosheen to obey. The Cell can't properly scan the surface, but it telepathically contacts the Doctor, who is the first person to ever show kindness to it in its tortured existence. However, its power overwhelms him and knocks him out, and the Chelonians capture him.

Benny happens upon a swamp creature that hypnotises its victims. Rodomonte gathers his two friends, Sendei and Molassi, who are behaving oddly; the trio also came here by way of the Fortean flicker, transported from the Ragasteen Music Festival of 2112. Sendei goes after Benny, provoking Molassi in the process; Molassi begins growing progressively more insane and dangerous. Sendei rescues Benny and takes her back to the camp, giving her drinks from a dispenser that they found after arrival. Unknown to them, the drink is from their relative future, but her past; it is called bubbleshake, and though developed as an appetite suppressant when coupled with a certain medication, by itself it is highly addictive and eventually deadly, with many mental side effects including amnesia and paranoia. As all three men have been drinking it, all of them are beginning to show the effects, with Molassi the most affected. He believes himself to be the Wizard King, adapted from the lyrics of his favourite band—lyrics which, coincidentally, seem to perfectly describe the situation they are all facing... As Benny consumes the bubbleshake, she too is affected, and soon forgets herself, the TARDIS, and the Doctor.

As the Chelonians move to attack the Eight Twelves, the Doctor intervenes. Bluffing, he persuades the Chelonians to let him deal with the threat. He finds that the “Eight Twelves” are twentieth-century humans; they were on the 8.12am train when they were transported here by the Fortean flicker. Two of their number, Vanessa and Hazel, happened upon the intelligent weapons — also deposited by the flicker — that have heretofore kept them alive. The Doctor gets them behaving in a way that contributes to survival, and goes back to announce their “destruction” to the Chelonians... only to find that the Chelonians have been monitoring, and know that he deceived them. He is saved, however, when Sheldukher's ship lands, and transmits a sonic signal that temporarily disables the Chelonians.

Molassi's speeder craft carries his group, and Benny, to a ruined city before breaking down. This is the location Molassi, in his madness, has been seeking, and he runs on ahead to a ruined temple. Caught in addiction, he demands more of the bubbleshake, but the dispenser is empty. Enraged, he kills Sendei. At the temple, he meets ghosts, which probe his mind for a certain response, but do not receive it. The ghosts reject him, and give him visions which disillusion him, causing him to commit suicide. Rodomonte, too, is found and probed by the ghosts, and subsequently commits suicide. However, the ghosts get the response they seek from Benny, and let her live. She subsequently passes out inside the city from bubbleshake withdrawal.

Sheldukher threatens the Eight Twelves to get the Doctor to lead him to Sakkrat city. The Doctor reluctantly does so, following Urnst's cryptic directions, which Sheldukher had never seen, having been in cryo-sleep at its publication. To discourage the Chelonians as he departs, Sheldukher kills four of him; however, this drives General Fakrid into a frenzy, and he takes his troops to follow Sheldukher to the city, several thousand miles away. As Sheldukher's ship lands at the city, the Cell locks everyone inside and tries to destroy the ship and end its own life — and take revenge on Sheldukher in the process — but the Doctor is able to get everyone out, including the Cell. However, the self-destruction leaves them stranded here, far from the TARDIS. The Doctor finds Benny, and manages to repair her mind telepathically, although she will still require medical treatment for the addiction and its effects. She too knows Sheldukher by reputation. Sheldukher sets Postine to hold off the pursuing Chelonians while the others enter the temple. The battle outside brings down part of the structure, trapping Klift; but he subsequently confronted by the ghosts, and dies. The Doctor seems to recognise the ghosts. Postine manages to mortally wound the general, but dies in the process. Before dying, Fakrid passes command to his First Pilot, Jinkwa, whom he reveals to secretly be his son. Jinkwa, however, is already stressed past breaking, and is just as mad as Fakrid. Benny and Rosheen escape the city, but are caught by the Chelonians, and Rosheen is killed. Benny is transmatted to safety by the ghosts. Jinkwa orders a suicide mission to destroy the city; two of the three suicide operatives carry out the mission, but are transported beyond the city by the ghosts before they can explode. The third, in an attack of conscience, returns to stop Jinkwa, and detonates near his command vehicle; however two other vehicles take the explosion instead.

The Doctor, Benny, and Sheldukher, with the Cell, pass through a strange chamber, a slow-time conversion chamber, which matches them to the slower passage of time beneath the city. This field of slowed time would protect whatever it encloses, possibly for millions of years. They are attacked by a robotic monster called the Monumental Guardian, but it lets them go after trying to scare them. Sheldukher is then captured by a containment field. Two humanoid genetic Constructs approach the group, and demand that they return Project FXX Q84...also known as the Cell. Finally the Doctor explains.

Three hundred years prior, Sheldukher stole the embryonic Cell from a horrific research world called Checkley's World, planning to use it to find Sakkrat. When Sheldukher vanished, the controlling firm of Checkley's World created a plan to trap him and recover the Cell, which had the power to become the greatest mind in existence. They altered the planet Hogsuum to more perfectly match Sakkrat's description, and created the various guardians and traps in order to lure in Sheldukher and recover the cell. However, the slow-time chamber's control globe became faulty, creating the Fortean flicker. The Doctor makes his way to the control globe and shuts off the faulty circuit, ending the flicker; however, shutting down the rest of the system proves impossible. Sheldukher overcomes that problem, however, when he cannot handle the truth, and kills himself; but he is wearing a powerful explosive on a deadman switch and a timer, and in fifteen minutes it will vaporise everything for a thousand miles around. The Doctor and Benny flee try to flee via the facility's emergency transmat, and are attacked by the Monumental Guardian along the way; they escape seconds before the explosive detonates.

The Doctor and Benny materialise near the TARDIS, only to find the Chelonians about to wipe out the Eight Twelves using a lethal Zarathion gas. Using the facility's control globe, he freezes the area in slow time, saving the lives of all the survivors, but leaving them as a problem to be worked out another day; he cannot enter the slow-time field, as it would kill him at this level. With Benny, he returns to the TARDIS. Inside, he administers the antidote to the bubbleshake, and she slowly recovers over several days; when she is fully recovered, he celebrates by taking her to 1935 Earth, for a meeting with Virginia Woolf, or — failing that — a night at the theatre. As they exit the TARDIS, they fail to see that it is behaving oddly; and later, they find that it has moved itself to another spot nearby. In the theatre, they watch the show before getting bored and leaving for other worlds, without realising that Gustav Urnst, the lost scholar, is there, having been displaced by the Fortean flicker to this historic time. Urnst watches them go, and muses on their existence as travellers from the future.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Astronomical objects[[edit] | [edit source]]

Location[[edit] | [edit source]]

People from the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

Books[[edit] | [edit source]]

Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

Sports[[edit] | [edit source]]

Theories and concepts[[edit] | [edit source]]

Newspapers[[edit] | [edit source]]

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • A prelude to this novel was published in DWM 196.
  • The 2009 special Planet of the Dead features elements of this story; whereas a tube train passes through a Fortean Flicker to Sakkrat here, a red London bus passes through a wormhole onto San Helios in the 2009 story.
  • The writer of both pieces, Gareth Roberts, was to use the Chelonians in Planet of the Dead, but the heat of the Dubai desert where filming was to be was thought too severe for an actor to wear a heavy Chelonian turtle costume in.
  • Gareth Roberts named this as his favourite of the three New Adventures he wrote.
  • A Big Finish Productions audio adaptation of the novel starring Sylvester McCoy, Lisa Bowerman and featuring Sinead Keenan, Daniel Brocklebank and Tom Bell was released in December 2014, adapted by Jacqueline Rayner. The first part of the story was issued free as a podcast prior to the CD's release.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Original cover

    Original cover

  • Textless cover

    Textless cover

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

v • e
Virgin Books New Adventures
Seventh
Doctor
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
Bernice
Summerfield
1997
1998
1999
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