The Scales of Injustice (novel)

The Scales of Injustice
Doctor:	Third Doctor
Companion(s):	The Brigadier, Liz, Benton, Yates
Featuring:	Osgood, Patsy, Bell, Hawke, Lines
Main enemy:	Auggi D'jo, The Pale Man, C19, Tobias Vaughn
Main setting:	London, 1970s Cheviot Hills, 1970s Smallmarshes, 1970s L'Ithe, 1970s
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Gary Russell
Read by:	Dan Starkey
Cover by:	Andrew Skilleter
Release details
Release number:	24
Release date:	18 July 1996
Format:	Paperback Book; 8 Chapters, 262 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20477-8
Audio clip
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Virgin Missing Adventures
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The Scales of Injustice, later reprinted as Scales of Injustice, was the twenty-fourth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Gary Russell and featured the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. This novel features Liz's departure from UNIT and the arrival of Mike Yates, reporting for duty. Yates saw his promotion to captain following the events of this story. Further developments in other Doctor Who media would contradict the events of this story.

Publisher's summary

1996 Virgin Books edition

"And what exactly, Doctor Shaw, do you think C19 does with the dead bodies of plastic dummies, reptile men, primordial throwbacks and all their human victims?"

A little boy goes missing; a policewoman begins drawing cave paintings; and the employees at the mysterious Glasshouse are desperate to keep everyone away — the Doctor suspects it's all down to a group of homo reptilia. His assistant, Liz Shaw, has ideas of her own and has teamed up with a journalist to search for people who don't exist.

While the Brigadier has to cope with UNIT funding, the breakdown of his marriage and Geneva's threats to replace him, the Doctor must find the reptiles alone.

And behind it all lies a conspiracy to exploit UNIT's achievements — a conspiracy reaching deep into the heart of the British government.

2014 BBC Books edition

When a boy goes missing and a policewoman starts drawing cave paintings, the Doctor suspects the Silurians are back. With the Brigadier distracted by questions about UNIT funding and problems at home, the Doctor swears his assistant Liz Shaw to secrecy and investigates alone.

But Liz has enquiries of her own, teaming up with a journalist to track down people who don't exist. What is the mysterious Glasshouse, and why is it so secret?

As the Silurians wake from their ancient slumber, the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier are caught up in a conspiracy to exploit UNIT's achievements — a conspiracy that reaches deep into the heart of the British Government.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Third Doctor
• Liz Shaw
• The Pale Man
• Ciara
• Cellian
• Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
• Mike Yates
• Sergeant John Benton
• Sir John Sudbury
• Sir Marmaduke Harrington-Smythe
• Dr Peter Morley
• Major General Scobie
• Corporal Carol Bell
• Icthar
• Marc Marshall
• Barbara Redworth
• Robert Lines
• Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart
• Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
• Chukk
• Auggi D'jo
• Baal D'jo
• Tahni
• Jana Kristan
• Sula
• Maisie Hawke
• Private Boyle
• Mr Campbell
• Justin Grayson
• Grant Traynor
• Jim Griffin
• Dick Atkinson
• Cathryn Wildeman
• WPC Patricia Haggard
• Receptionist
• Scibus
• Tarpok
• Krugga
• Clive Fortescue
• Alan Morton
• Michael Wagstaffe
• Corbett Woodall
• Eve
• Alan Marshall
• Sarah Marshall
• Maya der Voort
• Inspector
• Dr Moore
• Corporal Tom Osgood
• Bailey
• Corporal Jack Tracy
• Corporal Steve Champion
• Private Farley
• Private Shipman
• Lawson
• Naalix
• Millar
• Beaton
• Salt
• Ashton
• Mitchell
• PC Harry Attrill
• Andrew Montrose
• Tobias Vaughn

Worldbuilding

Individuals

• The Pale Man was modified with Cyberman technology. The Pale Man was originally an employee of International Electromatics before the Cybermen experimented on the human form.
• The Irish Twins were modified with Auton technology.
• The Stalker was created by injecting a Doberman with Stahlman's ooze.
• Sir John Sudbury and C19 control UNIT's budget in Britain.
• The Brigadier and his wife Fiona married eight years ago. Their daughter, Kate, is five years old. He and his wife are nearing divorce.
• Liz joined UNIT the previous October.
• Liz's landlady is Mrs Longhurst.
• Thomas Reynold was killed by the Silurians. His body was found by PC Stuart Halton.
• Tommy Taftitti is a janitor at Hastings General Hospital.
• John and Sheila Lawson are the owners of the Bayview Guest House.
• The Doctor, Sir John Sudbury and Lord Rowlands play bridge at the Pemburton club.
• Morley knew John Quinn and calls him "old Scotty".

Locations

• The C19 Vault contains WOTAN, the lower half of an Imperial Dalek, Nestene energy units, the Silurian virus and Cyber weapons, as well as the frozen bodies of Melvin Krimpton, Stephen Weams, George Ratcliffe, George Hibbert and Mark Gregory.
• There is a nuclear power station located in Dungeness.
• The Doctor stays at the Sandybeach Hotel.
• Sir John Sudbury is the MP for Woodhaven.

Species

• A Myrka is used by the Silurians.

Planets

• The Doctor tells Liz they could travel to Florana or Majus Seventeen in the TARDIS.

Pets

• Two guinea pigs, John-Paul and Ringo-George, were given to Liz by a friend at Cambridge when she moved to London.

Notes

• The chapters are referred to as "Episodes".
• This story was released as an ebook on the BBC website in 2006, with the book remaining on the BBC's site until 2009.
• This novel was reprinted and released as an ebook on Kindle by BBC Books on 6 March 2014 as The Monster Collection Edition.
• This story retroactively fixes some of the apparent inconsistencies of the television story Warriors of the Deep. Specifically, this story explains how the Doctor knows Icthar and how he knows of the Triad and the Myrka.
• As in Warriors of the Deep, Sea Devils are called that by the Silurians. This novel makes it clear that their full name is Sea Devil Warriors and they are a caste as much as a sub-species.
• C19 and Sir John Sudbury are mentioned on-screen only in the television story Time-Flight. C19 was also explored more fully in the novel Who Killed Kennedy.
• The Myrka, which first appeared on screen in the television story Warriors of the Deep, is used by the Silurians in this story.

Continuity

• The "Older Silurian", "Younger Silurian", and "Silurian Scientist" of TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians are here named respectively Okdel L'da, Morka and Bokka K'to.
• Sir John Sudbury mentions Sir James Quinlan's death. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death)
• The Doctor mentions using steady state micro welding to repair the TARDIS's dematerialisation circuit. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
• Sir Marmaduke shows Morley a UNIT file containing information on Major Norman Baker, Dr Charles Lawrence, Doris Squire, Edward Masters and Phyllis Dawson. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
• Captain James Munro has left UNIT to go back to the regular army. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
• Captain Jimmy Turner has married Isobel Watkins and been promoted to Major. (TV: The Invasion)
• Corporal Nutting once interrupted one of the Doctor's experiments involving non-moving air molecules. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
• Captain Walters is in charge of the UNIT hangar which was the temporary UNIT HQ during the Cyberman invasion. (TV: The Invasion)
• It was Air Commodore Ian Gilmore who suggested Lethbridge-Stewart, then a colonel, for the commander of the British branch of UNIT. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Lethbridge-Stewart reflects on how his life changed after meeting with him. (PROSE: The Dogs of War)
• The Doctor has told Liz about the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Zarbi (TV: The Web Planet) and the Drahvins. (TV: Galaxy 4) He has also mentioned Magnus Greel. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
• Professor Rachel Jensen suggested recruiting her University of Cambridge protégés Allison Williams, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Ruth Ingram (TV: The Time Monster) and Anne Travers (TV: The Web of Fear) to the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group.
• Rachel mentions Dr Judson and the ULTIMA machine, which was stored at a British Army base in Maiden's Point in 1943. Later in his personal timeline, specifically during his seventh incarnation, the Doctor and his companion Ace would visit Maiden's Point that year and defeat the ancient sentient force Fenric, who had taken possession of Judson's body. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
• Corporal Maisie Hawke mentions that she has sent a Nestene energy unit to the National Space Museum. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
• The pale young man tells the Doctor that the Vault contains two Cyber-guns, (TV: The Invasion) Nestene energy units (TV: Spearhead from Space) and phials of the Silurian plague. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians) It also contains Mars Probe 6, which Sir Marmaduke recognises. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death)
• The Doctor does not recognise what the pale young man describes as one of the Vault's first trophies: "the lower half of a cream-coloured Dalek, stained with green and pitted with bullet holes." The Doctor notes that he has never seen a Dalek of that configuration before, least of all on 20th century Earth. It was obtained by the ICMG in the aftermath of the Shoreditch Incident in November 1963. Later in his personal timeline, the Seventh Doctor and Ace would be present for that event. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
• Tobias Vaughn, (TV: The Invasion) secretly still alive, (PROSE: Original Sin) is ultimately behind the conspiracy within C19.

Illustrations

The e-book version published by the BBC on their website included several illustrations by Daryl Joyce. Titles of illustrations are as they were on BBC's site.

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  Multiple illustration some with variations

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  Image one different to image in compilation

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  Image two

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  Image three

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  Image four

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  Image five

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  Image six

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  Image seven

Alternative cover images

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  The alternate cover for the ebook publication

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  2013 edition. Cover by Two Associates.

Editions published outside Britain

• Published in Germany by Bastei Lübbe in 2021 as a paperback edition.

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  German edition

Audiobook

• This novel was released as an audiobook on 1 December 2016 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Dan Starkey.

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  Audiobook cover

External links

• The Scales of Injustice at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Scales of Injustice at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: The Scales of Injustice
• Gary Russell's Strange Matter: The Scales of Injustice, notes on the novel by the author via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
• Gary Russell: From Peladon to Placebos by Jon Preddle, Paul Scoones (Interview) - TSV 51