Parasite (novel)

Parasite
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace, Benny
Main enemy:	Mark Bannen
Main setting:	The Artifact, circa 2515
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Jim Mortimore
Release details
Release number:	33
Release date:	1 December, 1994
Format:	Paperback Book; 43 Chapters, 306 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20425-5
Virgin New Adventures
← Previous	Falls the Shadow
Next →	Warlock

Parasite was the thirty-third New Adventures novel. It featured the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield. This was author Jim Mortimore's third of four novels for the Virgin New Adventures novel range.

Publisher's summary

"Change, Benny. It's the most terrifying thing of all."

"And that's what's happening to you, is it, Doctor?"

"It's what's happening to all of us."

The TARDIS has arrived in the Elysium system, lost colony of distant Earth and site of the Artifact: a world turned inside out, a world of horrific secrets.

For more than a century scientists have studied the ecosystem flourishing within the Artifact. Now the system is in collapse and even the humans trapped inside are changing into something new and strange.

With the members of one expedition murdered, those of another fighting for their lives and a solar system on the brink of civil war, can the Doctor, Ace and Benny survive a journey to the heart of the Artifact in their search for the truth?

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Ace
• Bernice Summerfield
• Benjamin Green
• Mark Bannen
• Drew Chandor
• Elenchus
• Gail Reardon
• Rhiannon
• Alison Tsien-Lowell
• Iaine Tsien-Lowell
• Sahvteg Mudan
• Sal Benjamin
• Sjilal Urquardt
• Edward Stott
• Rob D'Amato
• Lucia Sheffeld
• Geoff D'Amato
• Paul Moran
• Jenny Latello
• Tyrella Ka

References

Biology

• Ace injects Benny with poison to save her from a parasite.

The Doctor

• The Seventh Doctor momentarily begins a regeneration and glimpses his eighth self.
• The Doctor gets shot through the heart.

Foods and beverages

• The Doctor carries instant soup in his pockets.

Individuals

• Some of Bernice Summerfield's early history is revealed:

• When Benny was young she ran away from her foster parents in a landing boat. It crash-landed outside a monastery on Olundrum VII.
• On a dig on Auriga she fell down a cliff (breaking both her legs in the process) thirty km from the dig site. It took her a month to crawl back to the site.
• Benny mentions the Vartaq Veil.

• Ace suffers radiation poisoning.
• Bernice gets a hairline fracture to the skull, requiring the pressure to be relieved...via drilling into the skull.
• Ace is considering when she will leave the Doctor permanently.

Planets

• Elysium is an Earth colony with at least one ocean.

Theories and concepts

• The universe has eleven dimensions.

TARDIS

• The Doctor's TARDIS telepathic circuits translate alien languages for the Doctor and his companions.

Notes

• A prelude to this novel was published in DWM 220.

Continuity

• Mark Bannen is the son of Alex Bannen. (PROSE: Lucifer Rising)
• There are more details to Benny's adventure on Auriga. (PROSE: Steal from the World)

The planet is called Capella Four in that story.

• The Daleks used slythers on Lan Beta. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• The Doctor recalls that he was once trapped inside a newborn planet. (TV: Underworld)
• Ace is once again considering when she'll leave the Doctor. (PROSE: First Frontier)
• The Doctor previously encountered a creature that hatched from an egg resembling a moon, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible) and will encounter another later. (TV: Kill the Moon)

External links

• Parasite at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Parasite at The Whoniverse
• Prelude to Parasite as published in DWM#220
• The Cloister Library: Parasite