Instruments of Darkness (novel)

Instruments of Darkness
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Mel
Featuring:	Evelyn, Lines
Main enemy:	Lai-Ma, Tko-Ma
Main setting:	Earth, 1993
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Gary Russell
Cover by:	Black Sheep
Release details
Release number:	47
Release date:	5 November 2001
Format:	Paperback Book; 19 Chapters, 287 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-53828-7
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Dying in the Sun
Next →	Relative Dementias

Instruments of Darkness was the forty-seventh novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Gary Russell, released 5 November 2001 and featured the Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush and Evelyn Smythe.

This was the first novel to feature a character from Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio story range. Evelyn had first appeared in the audio story The Marian Conspiracy, and when this novel was published had appeared in five audio stories.

Publisher's summary

The leaders on planet Earth think that the Magnate is a mysterious "shadow Government" that controls the world. It isn't. The leaders believe the Network to be a ramshackle, paranoid outfit of European anarchists who will eventually blow themselves up. They won't. The leaders believe that if there are humans who can control things with their minds — ESPnets — they're few and far between, and not worth worrying about. They're wrong. The leaders believe that one minute after midnight on 31 December 1993, a new year, full of promise, will begin. They're wrong.

The Doctor and Mel arrive on Earth just days before New Year. An old friend has been kidnapped and taken to France. And two murderous enemies are setting up a new life in the Peak District. Which of these threats should the Doctor deal with first? And why is his old travelling companion Evelyn Smythe using her knowledge of the future to make a fortune from chocolate cake recipes?!

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Melanie Bush
• Evelyn Smythe
• Ashley Moby
• Cellian
• Ciara
• Charles Dickinson
• Damien Braun
• Gary Rudge
• Janine Gilbert
• Joe Hambidge
• John Doe
• Justin Dickinson
• Lai-Ma
• Loretta van Cheaden
• Maurice Devin
• Ms de Meanour
• Ms Feasance
• Mike Dudley
• Richard Hope-Urwin
• Sebastian Malvern
• Shelley Kurtzmann
• Reverend Stephen Cummings
• Therése Gavalle
• Tim Hall
• Tko-Ma
• Trey Korte
• Woody Ashtree

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor took an ornithologist to see a living dodo.

Vehicles

• Mel scolds the Doctor for failing to return a hired Volkswagen Beetle. He protests that his former companions, Grant Markham and Evelyn Smythe, would have let him keep the car.

Organisations

• Richard Hope-Urwin is working for the Hirudon Conglomerate, a small and relatively new part of the tri-planet alliance of Calfedoria.

Notes

• This novel is a sequel to the novels The Scales of Injustice and Business Unusual.
• This account of Mel's first meeting with Evelyn, along with Evelyn's post-TARDIS life, is in open and irresolvable conflict with audio stories Thicker Than Water and A Death in the Family.
  • One simple explanation occurs; while travelling with the Doctor and Mel after these events, something took place that caused Mel to lose her memory of these meetings with Evelyn and would have made it dangerous for her to regain those memories, prompting Evelyn to return to Rossiter (as depicted in Thicker Than Water) and start a new life.

Continuity

• The Doctor's first meeting with Evelyn is mentioned. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) Evelyn also refers to meeting Romana II (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) and Charles Darwin. (AUDIO: Bloodtide)

External links

• Instruments of Darkness at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Instruments of Darkness at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Instruments of Darkness

• Interview: Gary Russell