So Vile a Sin (novel)

So Vile a Sin
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Roz, Chris
Featuring:	Benny, Kadiatu, Jason
Main enemy:	Brotherhood of the Immanent Flesh
Main setting:	Earth Io Aegisthus Iphigenia Cassandra Janus Tethys Callisto, 2 January - 1 September 2982
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writers:	Ben Aaronovitch, Kate Orman
Cover by:	John Sullivan
Release details
Release number:	56
Release date:	May 1997
Format:	Paperback Book; 18 Chapters, 318 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20484-0
Virgin New Adventures
← Previous	Damaged Goods
Next →	Bad Therapy

So Vile a Sin was the fifty-sixth Virgin New Adventures novel in the series. However, due to writing and completion difficulties it was the last novel in the series featuring the Doctor to be published in May 1997. It was also the last novel in the series to feature Roz Forrester, depicting her death on a battlefield.

Publisher's summary

"If you step into history," said the Doctor, "I won't be able to protect you."

"This isn't history," said Roz. "This is family."

The Earth Empire — the Imperium Humanum, upon which a thousand suns never set — is dying.

The Great Houses of the Empire manoeuvre and scheme for advantage; alliances are made; and knives flash in the shadows. Out among the moons of Jupiter, another battle is just beginning, as an ancient brotherhood seeks limitless power and long-overdue revenge.

The Doctor returns to the thirtieth century, searching for the source of a terrifying weapon. He fears a nightmare from his own past may be about to destroy the future. Nothing must be allowed to get in his way.

But the Doctor has reckoned without the power of history — which has its own plans for the wayward daughter of the House of Forrester.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Roz Forrester
• Chris Cwej
• Leabie Forrester
• Armand
• Walid
• Martinique
• Emil Zatopek
• Iaomnet
• Somezi Forrester
• Gugwani Forrester
• Mantsebo Forrester
• Thandiwe Forrester
• Helen Kristiansen
• Simon Frederson
• Genevieve ap Gwalchmai

Worldbuilding

Dates

• In 2980, the Catherine the Great set off for Iphigenia.
• The Imperial Palace on Io was built by the Fifth Baron in 2870.

The Doctor

• The Doctor suffers a one sided heart attack, and has a vision of Death tormenting him about his coming demise.

Gallifreyan technology

• Roz flattens an N-Form with dwarf star alloy.

Individuals

• Leabie's youngest daughter Thandiwe was actually a clone of Roz created shortly after she disappeared following the collapse of INITEC.
• After killing Fenn Martle, Roz thought about becoming an acolyte at the Temple of the Goddess.
• Roz is buried in the Umtata Reclamation Zone on a sunny day. She is buried next to her nephew and niece.
• Chris listens to the Communards. He also listens to Sting, who he mentions went into politics and was assassinated in the 21st century. Prince went on to found a religion.

Locations

• The Reserve is located in the middle of Spaceport Five Undertown.

Moons

• On Iphigenia a quarter of the moon has a lot of Time Lord technology in it.
• The Ogrons attack the Earth Empire on the inner moons of Clytemnestra.

Planets

• Orestes is named as the Ogron homeworld.
• Planets in the Empire include the Skag world, Lacaille 8760, the Sense Sphere, Solos, Japetus and the Androzanies (Androzani Major and Androzani Minor).
• Viam is the home planet of the Listeners.
• An outbreak of Breckenridge's Scourge has wiped out most of the population on Mictlan.
• One potential future incarnation of the Doctor was worshipped as a god on Lalande 21185.

Psychic powers

• Ley lines are a "primary source" of "psi power".

Religion

• The Temple of the Goddess is in the Odysseus Crater on Tethys.

Species

• The Quoth are a subatomic life form with the power to alter matter.
• JayJaxians use shutterflies to interrogate telepaths.
• Simon thinks that the Xenomorph resin used to decorate the flats is "very ugly and retro".

TARDIS

• TARDIS warships, from the times of the battle against the Great Vampires, were comet-sized.

Cover Gallery

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  Cover

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  Textless cover

• 

  Sketch

Notes

• So Vile A Sin was to be written by Ben Aaronovitch. Due to various problems, Kate Orman assisted him in finishing it. However, it was still published late. The exact nature of the author's difficulties have never been fully clarified, with a hard drive failure and/or chronic writer's block being the two most widely reported at the time. As a result, although it occurs earlier in the continuity of the NA adventures, it was actually the last of the series to be published, being released after the NA's only Eighth Doctor novel, The Dying Days. This led to an unavoidable plot jump for readers, who went from the novel Damaged Goods to Bad Therapy only to discover the absence of Roz; they had to wait until the delayed publication of So Vile a Sin to find out what happened.
• According to the acknowledgements on page 313 of So Vile A Sin: "Kate here. After Ben's troubles in writing So Vile A Sin, including a disastrous hard-drive crash, I stepped in at the last minute to finish it. Some of the book survived the crash, other bits existed as printouts, and Ben provided me with extensive plot and background notes to complete the bulk of the story."
• FLORANCE and BAR B, from the novels Transit and SLEEPY respectively, are contacted by the Flying Dutchman, an electronic avatar of the Doctor.
• The original plan was to have an incredibly powerful and evil being living in the core of the Earth. This would tie back to stories like Inferno and The Dalek Invasion of Earth and show that the Doctor had unknowingly been fighting against it for a long time. This was abandoned when Kate Orman took over the book, though the scene with the Empress of the Earth Empire may been a retooled version of it.

Continuity

• This novel follows on from the events in PROSE: Damaged Goods.
• Death taunts the Doctor by telling him that his seventh incarnation will die without warning, without purpose, afraid and alone. (TV: Doctor Who)
• One alternative version of the Doctor was able to save Adric, (TV: Earthshock) another had his brain fried by a computer while substituting for a dead synch-op on Sea Base 4 in 2084, (TV: Warriors of the Deep) another never went to Androzani Minor, (TV: The Caves of Androzani) another had his throat cut by Shockeye, another arrived 30 seconds before Oscar Botcherby was killed by Shockeye in Seville, Spain in 1985 instead of 30 seconds afterwards, (TV: The Two Doctors) another was killed by the Silurians in the early 1970s, (PROSE: Blood Heat) another who became a dictator with his poster plastered everywhere, (TV: Inferno) another lived in a parallel universe and visited Earth occasionally spreading rumours that King Arthur was about to return, (TV: Battlefield) another had his throat torn out by a werewolf, (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) or was possessed by the Blue (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) another was able to save Jan Rydd and his fellow Travellers on Heaven in 2570, (PROSE: Love and War) another was beheaded by an Ice Warrior on Peladon in 3985, (PROSE: Legacy) another settled down at Smithwood Manor (COMIC: Fellow Travellers, et. al) and kept a pet Venusian, another organised a bloody revolution on Gallifrey, another became a scientist for the Silurians, and another settled down and lived with his wife in San Francisco (TV: Doctor Who; COMIC: The Glorious Dead).
• Leabie created Earth animals for her palace on Io, who existed before the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• Roz sees three alternate versions of herself including one where she died at Woodwicke, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) one where she married George Reed, (PROSE: Just War) and a final where she became head of the Adjudicators.

External links

• So Vile A Sin at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: So Vile a Sin at The Whoniverse
• Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide to So Vile a Sin

• The Cloister Library: So Vile a Sin