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{{Infobox Story SMW
{{Infobox Story
|image           = Ma-2.jpg
|name= Evolution
|series         = [[Virgin Missing Adventures]]
|image= Ma-2.jpg  
|range          = Virgin Missing Adventures
|series=[[Virgin Missing Adventures]]  
|number in range = 2
|number= 2  
|number          = 2
|doctor=Fourth Doctor  
|doctor         = Fourth Doctor
|companions= [[Sarah Jane Smith]]  
|companions     = [[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah]]
|enemy= {{il|[[Percival Ross]]|[[Tobias Breckinridge]]}}
|enemy           = [[Percival Ross]], [[Tobias Breckinridge]]
|setting={{il|[[Dartmoor]], [[1880]]|The [[Andromeda (galaxy)|Andromeda Galaxy]]}}
|setting         = {{il|[[Dartmoor]], [[1880]]|[[Andromeda (galaxy)|Andromeda Galaxy]]}}
|writer= [[John Peel]]  
|writer         = John Peel
|publisher= [[Virgin Books]]
|cover          = [[Alister Pearson]]
|release date= [[15 September (releases)|15 September]] [[1994 (releases)|1994]]
|publisher       = Virgin Books
|format= Paperback Book, 256 Pages  
|release date   = 15 September 1994
|isbn= ISBN 0-426-20422-0
|format         = Paperback Book; 13 Chapters, 256 Pages
|prev= Goth Opera (novel)
|isbn           = ISBN 0-426-20422-0
|next= Venusian Lullaby (novel)
|prev           = Goth Opera (novel)
}}
|next           = Venusian Lullaby (novel)
{{you may|evolution|n1=the scientific principle}}
}}{{prose stub}}
'''''Evolution''''' was the second novel in the [[Virgin Missing Adventures]] series. It was written by [[John Peel]]. It featured the [[Fourth Doctor]] and [[Sarah Jane Smith]].
{{dab page|Evolution (disambiguation)}}
'''''Evolution''''' was the second novel in the ''[[Virgin Missing Adventures]]'' series. It was written by [[John Peel]] and featured the [[Fourth Doctor]] and [[Sarah Jane Smith]].


== Publisher's summary ==
== Publisher's summary ==
:''"Someone is tampering with the fabric of the human cell," [[Fourth Doctor|The Doctor]] said darkly, "perverting its secrets to his own dark purposes."
''"Someone is tampering with the fabric of the [[human]] [[Cell (biology)|cell]]," [[Fourth Doctor|the Doctor]] said darkly, "perverting its secrets to his own dark purposes."''


[[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah Jane]] wants to meet her fellow [[journalist]] [[Rudyard Kipling]], and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for [[England]], [[Earth]], in the [[Victorian era|Victorian Age]]. As usual, [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] materialises in not quite the right place, and the [[time travel]]lers find themselves pursued across [[Devon]] moorland by a huge feral hound.  
[[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah]] wants to meet her fellow [[journalist]] [[Rudyard Kipling]], and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for [[England]], [[Earth]], in the [[Victorian era|Victorian Age]]. As usual, [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] materialises in not quite the right place, and the [[time travel]]lers find themselves pursued across [[Devon]] [[moorland]] by a huge feral hound.


Children have gone missing; at the local boarding school, the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the bay, and [[fishing|fishermen]] have been pulled from their boats and mutilated. Graves have been robbed of their corpses. Something is going on, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], the ship's doctor from a recently berthed arctic whaler, is determined to investigate.  
[[Child]]ren have gone missing; at the local [[boarding school]], the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the [[bay]], and [[fishing|fishermen]] have been pulled from their [[boat]]s and mutilated. [[Grave]]s have been robbed of their [[corpse]]s. Something is going on, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], the ship's [[doctor]] from a recently berthed arctic [[whaler]], is determined to investigate.


The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human [[evolution]] - and both Sarah Jane and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.
The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human [[evolution]] — and both Sarah and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
Strange things are afoot in the Devonshire village of Bodham near Dartmoor. Poor and homeless children are vanishing from the docks, and fisherman Ben Tolliver is attacked by a sea monster while peering over the side of his boat at a wheel of underwater lights. Meanwhile, Roger Bridewell invites his friend Colonel Edmund Ross to Fulbright Hall, the home of his fiancée Alice and her father Sir Edward; however, Sir Edward distrusts the secretive Ross and his vulgar manservant Abercrombie, and suspects that they are not all that they seem. For now, though, he has more immediate concerns; something has been stalking and killing his ponies, and when he and his visitors hear the baying of an enormous hound out on the moors, Ross insists upon leading an expedition to find and kill the beast.  The Doctor offers to take Sarah anywhere in the Universe, and she chooses to meet her favourite author, Rudyard Kipling. The Doctor, however, miscalculates slightly and ends up on Dartmoor, where he and Susan encounter an enormous hound the size of a horse. It retreats without attacking them, and the Doctor points out to the shaken Sarah that it appeared intelligent -- and seemed to possess a rudimentary opposable thumb. He and Sarah then encounter Sir Edward’s hunting party, and when they claim to be lost, Sir Edward directs them back to Fulbright Hall to explain themselves to Sir Alexander Cromwell, the chief constable. On their way back they meet three teenage boys who have slipped away from the local boarding school, partly for an illicit smoke and partly to search for their missing friend Josh Andrews. The boys are smitten with Sarah, who is more than a little irritated with the Doctor when she realises that one of the boys is the young Rudyard Kipling.  The Doctor and Sarah reach Fulbright Hall, just as a villager arrives to report that Ben Tolliver’s boat has drifted back to the docks with only half of Ben Tolliver aboard. Sir Edward’s hunting party returns empty-handed, but the Doctor impresses Sir Edward with his keen intelligence, and convinces him to try to capture the monster alive. Ross, however, seems determined for some reason to see the beast killed. Sir Edward puts the Doctor and Sarah up for the night, and the next morning, the Doctor visits the village to investigate Tolliver’s death. The autopsy is conducted by young Arthur Conan Doyle, the medic from the whaling ship Hope, which has stopped off in Bodham on its way back to its home port. Doyle and the Doctor determine from the injuries that Tolliver was attacked by at least two seal-like creatures while peering over the side of the boat -- but why was he doing so and exactly what was it that attacked him?  Sarah is reunited with Kipling and his friends, and agrees to help them search for Josh, who went missing after they bragged about their own exploits with women and sent him to the local barmaid, Jen Anders. He never got to her, but Jen advises Sarah to ask the wharf rat Billy about other disappearances. The suspicious Billy directs Sarah to the local factory, which is owned by a man named Breckinridge; Sarah doesn’t get past the guards, but Billy has been watching her and now believes that she is genuinely interested in helping. He agrees to let her know if he learns anything more. Meanwhile, Cromwell is called out to the local cemetery, and the Doctor and Doyle accompany him to find that someone has made off with a corpse. The Doctor wonders if the Hope’s unscheduled stopover is related to these odd events, and accompanies Doyle back to the ship to question Captain Grey; instead, they find Abercrombie rifling the captain’s cabin. He flees before they can confront him, but he has left the captain’s log open, and the Doctor and Doyle see that Grey has a meeting scheduled with Breckinridge -- and Ross.  Alice overhears Ross ordering Abercrombie, the best burglar in the West End, to search the Hall for anything of value. Upset, she confronts Bridewell, convinced that his “friend” is planning to rob them. He assures her that Ross can be trusted, but as he speaks with Ross privately, urging him to come clean, Alice takes matters into her own hands and tries to search Ross’ possessions -- only to trigger a poison dart trap which knocks her out. Realising that he will never be able to explain his actions and that he has been investigating the wrong person all along, Ross clears out, intending to stake out the moors and kill his target that night.  Night falls, and the Doctor, Doyle and Sarah accompany Sir Edward on another hunt. This time they successfully locate the hound, but while it is clearly confused, hungry and desperate, it does not attack. The Doctor tries to communicate with it, but just as it seems that he is getting somewhere, Ross appears from hiding and kills the hound with a long-range, silenced air rifle. He flees before the others can capture him, and the furious Doctor has the hound’s body taken back to Fulbright Hall -- where he and Doyle discover that the “hound” was not an animal, but a horrifically mutated ten-year-old boy. Meanwhile, Cromwell convinces Breckinridge to give Sarah a tour of his factory, and although she disagrees vehemently with the industrialist on the subject of child labour, she is nevertheless impressed by his progressive views and forward thinking. He has already fitted out his factory with electric lights, and he claims to have met Grey to discuss using the Hope to lay cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Sarah departs, unsatisfied; Breckinridge is a farsighted, intelligent man with enlightened views on whaling and the uses of technology -- so why doesn’t he appear in any of her history books?  The Doctor decides to take a boat out to investigate Tolliver’s death, and Doyle and Sarah agree to accompany him. Doyle borrows a harpoon from the Hope, and takes the opportunity to ask Grey about his meeting with Breckinridge. Grey refuses to discuss it, claiming that Breckinridge was worried about the possibility of industrial espionage -- but he does let slip that it had nothing to do with laying cables. That night, the Doctor, Doyle and Sarah head out into the bay, where they see the underwater wheel of lights and are attacked by the same creatures that killed Tolliver. Sarah is knocked overboard, but as her heavy Victorian skirt starts to drag her down she is unexpectedly cut free by what appears to be a mermaid. Doyle kills one of the attacking creatures with his harpoon, but the others sever the rope with their teeth to prevent him from taking the body for examination. The Doctor pulls Sarah out of the water, and they return to shore, having confirmed to their own satisfaction that someone is using impossibly advanced technology to tamper with the course of evolution.  The mermaid, Lucy, returns to the slave pens beneath the bay, where she and the other missing children now live and work. The seal-like Guards continue to prevent their escape, and are particularly angry now that one of their own kind has been killed. Lucy, the oldest of the merchildren, soothes the others to sleep by once again telling the story of how she ended up here. She used to live on the shore with an abusive man named Colley, until she saw him murdered by two of his criminal acquaintances. To keep her silent, the two thugs took her to an underground laboratory, where a man named Ross used a “medicine” he had discovered to merge her body with an essence he had extracted from the body of a dolphin. As the first and oldest of the merchildren, Lucy feels a responsibility to look after the others, and although there are now twenty of the merchildren and only three of the Guards, she still refuses to act against their vicious captors until she feels the time is right.  While Sarah recovers at Fulbright Hall, the Doctor and Doyle visit Breckinridge’s factory. Breckinridge himself is not present, and the Doctor and Doyle thus bluff their way in, claiming to be government inspectors. While Doyle distracts the flustered foreman, the Doctor spots a hidden floor panel and detects the scent of formaldehyde -- needless in a cable-manufacturing factory, but useful for preserving body parts. He also notes that Breckinridge’s office looks out over the bay; if he works late nights as any self-made man should, then why hasn’t he reported seeing the circle of lights? He and Doyle depart, convinced that Breckinridge is involved in what is happening. Meanwhile, Sarah ignores the Doctor’s and Alice’s advice and leaves Fulbright Hall to stake out the cemetery and see if the grave robbers return for Tolliver’s body. Kipling spots her and accompanies her, hoping to impress her, but they are both captured by the grave-robbers -- the same two men who kidnapped Lucy. Billy has been keeping an eye on them, however, and he returns to the village to warn the Doctor and Doyle of Sarah’s predicament.  The Doctor sends Billy to Fulbright Hall to fetch help while he and Doyle return to the factory. On their way, they find Ross and Abercrombie heading in the same direction, and the Doctor demands an explanation. Ross admits that he is a secret agent for the British government, with a mandate to investigate matters that fall outside the purview of normal intelligence work -- and that his own brother, Percival Ross, is responsible for the events that they have witnessed here. Some time ago, Ross learned that Percival had found a means of hybridizing species, and he set about destroying his brother’s evil work. Tales of a monstrous hound on the moors led him to Bodham, where Breckinridge and Sir Edward had the money and influence to fund Percival’s experiments. Ross chose to investigate Sir Edward first, but now knows that he chose the wrong man. He knows little of Percival’s discovery, only that he can somehow use animal tissue to alter human children into hybrids, and human tissue to augment the natural abilities of animals. This explains Breckinridge’s attempt to buy supplies from the whaling ship, and the theft of corpses from the cemetery. And since Sarah is too old to survive the hybridisation process, Percival must intend to kill her…  Breckinridge’s thugs take Sarah to Percival, who explains that he witnessed the crash of an alien spaceship in Limehouse some time ago. Rather than help the amorphous alien within, he stole its healing gel and left it to die. When he tested the gel on a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog, the gel somehow caused the boy’s and dog’s cells to merge together and created a viable hybrid. Percival was forced to flee London when his brother exposed his attempts to fund his work through counterfeiting, but he has found a new patron in Breckinridge, and with his help Percival has created a wholly viable new race of merpeople as well as the augmented seal servants which act as their guards.  The Doctor, Doyle, Ross and Abercrombie break into the factory only to be captured by Breckinridge and his thugs. Breckinridge takes them to Percival’s laboratory, where the Doctor identifies the gel as a Rutan healing salve; since Rutan tissue is amorphous, the gel must analyse the cell structure of whatever it is applied to before setting to work, and when compatible types of tissue are mixed together the gel combines them into a single organism. Breckinridge intends to use it to create a new race of slaves and employ them to lay cable beneath the ocean. Stung by the Doctor’s contempt, Breckinridge takes his prisoners to an observation gallery to show them the merchildren. Josh Anders is one of them, having stumbled across the grave-robbers as they delivered illicit supplies to the factory, but the other children were kidnapped from the docks, and thus, according to Breckinridge, would have lived wasted and pointless lives had he not intervened. The wheel of lights is the training ground on which they have been taught to lay electrical cable beneath the waves; through his slaves, he will control the oceans.  Sarah, furious, informs Breckinridge that Kipling will make a bigger name for himself than Breckinridge ever will -- and to prove her wrong, the equally furious Breckinridge orders Percival to transform Kipling into a merchild, although he may be too old to survive the process. Josh, however, sees his friend’s predicament through the viewing window, and furiously attacks his Guard, taking it entirely by surprise. The other children rush their Guards, overpower them by force of numbers and kill them. The Doctor and Ross take advantage of the distraction to attack their captors, but while they are fighting a stray bullet cracks the gallery window. The Doctor and his friends flee, and when Breckinridge sets a pack of augmented dogs on them, the vicious dogs turn on him first, tearing him apart. Percival, wounded in the fighting, flees back to his laboratory and plunges his hands into the healing gel -- just as the window cracks open and the sub-basement is flooded.  Billy alerts Sir Edward and Cromwell, who arrive with reinforcements just in time to save the Doctor and his friends from the mutant dogs. Breckinridge and Percival’s plans have been foiled, and there remains only the problem of the merchildren. Ross intends to destroy them, but the Doctor instead uses the TARDIS to take them to a water world where they can live out the rest of their lives in freedom.
''to be added''


== Characters ==
== Characters ==
* The [[Fourth Doctor]]
* [[Fourth Doctor]]
* [[Sarah Jane Smith]]
* [[Sarah Jane Smith]]
* [[Rudyard Kipling]]
* [[Rudyard Kipling]]
* [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]
* [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]
* Sir [[Edward Fulbright]]
* [[Edward Fulbright|Sir Edward Fulbright]]
* [[Alexander Cromwell|Sir Alexander Cromwell]]
* [[Alexander Cromwell|Sir Alexander Cromwell]]
* [[Josh Anders]]
* [[Josh Anders]]
Line 47: Line 49:
* [[Billy (Evolution)|Billy]]
* [[Billy (Evolution)|Billy]]
* [[Tobias Breckinridge]]
* [[Tobias Breckinridge]]
* Captain [[John Gray]]
* [[John Gray|Captain John Gray]]
* [[Roger Bridewell]]
* [[Roger Bridewell]]
* [[Alice Fulbright]]
* [[Alice Fulbright]]
Line 55: Line 57:
* [[Raintree]]
* [[Raintree]]
* [[Jen Walker]]
* [[Jen Walker]]
* [[Jack Lamb]]
* [[Bernard Faversham]]
* [[Jim Brackley]]
* [[Martinson (Evolution)|Martinson]]
* [[Jack Kinney]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
* Sarah compares the moors to [[Karn]] and observes the effect that adventure has had on the Doctor's mood.
* Sarah swims in the "tub" in the "[[TARDIS swimming pool|bathroom]]" of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. The merchildren also stay in the "tub" on the trip to [[Andromeda (galaxy)|Andromeda]].
* Sarah swims in the "tub" in the "bathroom" of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. The merchildren also stay in the "tub" on the trip to [[Andromeda (galaxy)|Andromeda]].
* Colonel Ross claims to be a special agent working directly under the command and authority of Her Majesty [[Victoria|Queen Victoria]] and it is his job to investigate those matters that lie outside of the conventional.
* Colonel Ross claims to be a special agent working directly under the command and authority of Her Majesty [[Victoria|Queen Victoria]] and it is his job to investigate those matters that lie outside of the conventional.
* The Doctor can speak fluent [[dolphin]].


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* The Doctor is the inspiration for [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] (and, possibly, {{w|Professor Challenger}}, as mentioned in the novel's coda). Specifically referenced are Holmes's choice of dress (the Doctor wears a deerstalker cap and long cloak), his methods of deductive reasoning and close reading of footprints to determine events at a crime scene.
* The Doctor is the inspiration for [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]]. Specifically referenced are Holmes's choice of dress (the Doctor wears a deerstalker cap and long cloak), his methods of [[deductive reasoning]] and close reading of footprints to determine events at a crime scene. The outfit the Doctor is seen wearing on the cover of this story is also the same one worn by him in the television story ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)|The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]''.
* The relationship between the Doctor and Doyle, himself a ship's [[surgeon]], parallels that of Holmes and [[John Watson|Dr Watson]].
* The relationship between the Doctor and Doyle, himself a ship's [[surgeon]], parallels that of Holmes and [[John Watson|Dr Watson]].
* There are numerous references to {{wi|The Hound of the Baskervilles}}, especially in the early parts of the novel, concerning a great, dog-like beast claiming victims on the moors.
* There are numerous references to ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'', especially in the early parts of the novel, concerning a great, dog-like beast claiming victims on the moors.
* This novel directly contradicts ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'', published only a few months earlier, by strongly implying that Holmes and Watson are fictional characters, created by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], based on the Doctor and Doyle himself. ''Fire'', by contrast, treats Holmes and Watson as real people, fictionalised slightly by Doyle. Well after this novel's publication, other stories agreed with ''Evolution'', flatly stating that Holmes was a fictional character whose adventures, written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], were published in ''[[The Strand (magazine)|The Strand]]''. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Bodysnatchers (novel)|The Bodysnatchers]]''; [[TV]]: ''[[The Snowmen (TV story)|The Snowmen]]'')
* The novel ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'' establishes that while Sherlock Holmes is a real character in this universe, the name "Sherlock Holmes" is a pseudonym invented by [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]] to hide his true identity. This novel goes on to speculate that Doyle based some of the fictional Holmes' characteristics on the Fourth Doctor, in order to further obscure the detective's true identity. The TV story ''[[The Snowmen (TV story)|The Snowmen]]'' would later indicate that Holmes and his adventures were based on [[Vastra|Madame Vastra]].
* A crashed [[Rutan]] ship is key to the back-story. In the personal timeline of the Doctor, ''Evolution'' takes place before the television story ''[[Horror of Fang Rock (TV story)|Horror of Fang Rock]]'', which is also about events set in motion by a [[Rutan]] crashing in an isolated part of the English coast.
* [[Victoria|Queen Victoria]] is said to have secret agents who investigate unusual occurrences. This story was written twelve years before the television episode ''[[Tooth and Claw (TV story)|Tooth and Claw]]'', so any intentional reference to the [[Torchwood Institute]] is impossible.
* This story is set between ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]'' and ''[[The Seeds of Doom (TV story)|The Seeds of Doom]]''.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* In several scenes told from Sarah's point of view, she refers to the planet [[Karn]] and the encounter with [[Morbius]] in ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]''. Her observations imply this story takes place almost immediately after those events.
* Sarah refers to the planet [[Karn]] and her encounter with [[Morbius]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Brain of Morbius (TV story)}})
* The "bathroom" of the TARDIS in which Sarah swims was first seen on-screen in ''[[The Invasion of Time (TV story)|The Invasion of Time]]''.
* The Doctor mentions [[Metebelis III]] and [[Argolis]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Planet of the Spiders (TV story)}}, {{cs|The Leisure Hive (TV story)}})
* A crashed [[Rutan]] ship is key to the back-story. In the personal timeline of the Doctor, ''Evolution'' takes place before [[TV]]: ''[[Horror of Fang Rock (TV story)|Horror of Fang Rock]]'', which is also about events set in motion by a [[Rutan]] crashing in an isolated part of the English coast.
* Sarah compares the moors to [[Karn]] and observes the effect that adventure has had on the Doctor's mood. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Brain of Morbius (TV story)}})
* The Doctor mentions [[Metebelis III]] and [[Argolis]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Planet of the Spiders (TV story)|Planet of the Spiders]]'', ''[[The Leisure Hive (TV story)|The Leisure Hive]]'').
* Sarah refers to her first trip in the TARDIS to [[13th century]] [[England]] and her encounter with [[Sutekh]] in [[1911]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|The Time Warrior (TV story)}}, {{cs|Pyramids of Mars (TV story)}})
* Sarah refers to her first trip in the TARDIS to [[13th century]] [[England]] and her encounter with [[Sutekh]] in [[1911]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'', ''[[Pyramids of Mars (TV story)|Pyramids of Mars]]'').
* The Doctor would again encounter someone experimenting with human evolution. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Ghost Light (TV story)}})
* [[Victoria|Queen Victoria]] is said to have secret agents who investigate unusual occurrences. Obviously, this story was written about two decades before [[TV]]: ''[[Tooth and Claw (TV story)|Tooth and Claw]]'', so any intentional reference to the [[Torchwood Institute]] is impossible. However, it the text does ''allow'' one to imagine that ''Evolution'' dovetails rather neatly into ''Tooth and Claw''.


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{dwrefguide|who_ma02.htm|Evolution}}
{{dwrefguide|who_ma02.htm|Evolution}}
* {{whoniverse|MA02.php|Evolution}}
* {{whoniverse|ma02|Evolution}}
* [http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/cloister/evol.htm The Cloister Library: '''Evolution''']
{{MA}}
{{MA}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
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[[Category:Rutan Host novels]]
[[Category:Rutan Host novels]]
[[Category:Stories set in the Andromeda Galaxy]]
[[Category:Stories set in the Andromeda Galaxy]]
[[Category:Pseudo-historical stories]]

Latest revision as of 00:24, 22 October 2024

RealWorld.png

prose stub
You may wish to consult Evolution (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Evolution was the second novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by John Peel and featured the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.

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

"Someone is tampering with the fabric of the human cell," the Doctor said darkly, "perverting its secrets to his own dark purposes."

Sarah wants to meet her fellow journalist Rudyard Kipling, and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for England, Earth, in the Victorian Age. As usual, the TARDIS materialises in not quite the right place, and the time travellers find themselves pursued across Devon moorland by a huge feral hound.

Children have gone missing; at the local boarding school, the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the bay, and fishermen have been pulled from their boats and mutilated. Graves have been robbed of their corpses. Something is going on, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the ship's doctor from a recently berthed arctic whaler, is determined to investigate.

The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human evolution — and both Sarah and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Sarah swims in the "tub" in the "bathroom" of the Doctor's TARDIS. The merchildren also stay in the "tub" on the trip to Andromeda.
  • Colonel Ross claims to be a special agent working directly under the command and authority of Her Majesty Queen Victoria and it is his job to investigate those matters that lie outside of the conventional.
  • The Doctor can speak fluent dolphin.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor is the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Specifically referenced are Holmes's choice of dress (the Doctor wears a deerstalker cap and long cloak), his methods of deductive reasoning and close reading of footprints to determine events at a crime scene. The outfit the Doctor is seen wearing on the cover of this story is also the same one worn by him in the television story The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
  • The relationship between the Doctor and Doyle, himself a ship's surgeon, parallels that of Holmes and Dr Watson.
  • There are numerous references to The Hound of the Baskervilles, especially in the early parts of the novel, concerning a great, dog-like beast claiming victims on the moors.
  • The novel All-Consuming Fire establishes that while Sherlock Holmes is a real character in this universe, the name "Sherlock Holmes" is a pseudonym invented by Doyle to hide his true identity. This novel goes on to speculate that Doyle based some of the fictional Holmes' characteristics on the Fourth Doctor, in order to further obscure the detective's true identity. The TV story The Snowmen would later indicate that Holmes and his adventures were based on Madame Vastra.
  • A crashed Rutan ship is key to the back-story. In the personal timeline of the Doctor, Evolution takes place before the television story Horror of Fang Rock, which is also about events set in motion by a Rutan crashing in an isolated part of the English coast.
  • Queen Victoria is said to have secret agents who investigate unusual occurrences. This story was written twelve years before the television episode Tooth and Claw, so any intentional reference to the Torchwood Institute is impossible.
  • This story is set between The Brain of Morbius and The Seeds of Doom.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

v • e
Virgin Missing Adventures
First Doctor
Susan, Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara, Vicki
Vicki, Steven
Dodo
Second Doctor
Ben, Polly
Jamie, Victoria
Jamie, Zoe
Third Doctor
Liz, UNIT
Jo, UNIT
Jo, Yates
Sarah, Jeremy,
The Brig
Fourth Doctor
Sarah, Harry
Sarah
Romana I, K9
Romana II, K9
Fifth Doctor
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Nyssa, Tegan
Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion
Turlough
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Grant
Mel
Seventh Doctor
Chris, Roz
Other
Victoria, Sarah, The Brig
Second, Third, Seventh Doctors
with Dodo and UNIT
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