The Man in the Velvet Mask (novel)

The Man in the Velvet Mask
Doctor:	First Doctor
Companion(s):	Dodo
Main enemy:	Minski
Main setting:	Alternate Paris, July 1804
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Daniel O'Mahony
Release details
Release number:	19
Release date:	15 February 1996
Format:	Paperback Book; 11 Chapters, 250 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20461-1
Virgin Missing Adventures
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Next →	The English Way of Death

The Man in the Velvet Mask was the nineteenth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Daniel O'Mahony and featured the First Doctor and Dodo Chaplet.

This novel provided an explanation for a notable inconsistency regarding the Doctor's physiology; The Man in the Velvet Mask stated regeneration would result in the growth of a second heart. This came about due to the apparent the presence of only one heart inside the first incarnation of the Doctor, seen in the story The Edge of Destruction, before the concept of a binary cardiovascular system was introduced in Spearhead from Space, where the newly-regenerated Third Doctor displayed two hearts in an x-ray that was taken of his chest and would become the case for his future incarnations as well as the rest of the Time Lord species.

Publisher's summary

"The triumph of virtue. The misfortunes of vice. Who said the play had to be like the book?"

24 Messidor, XXII: the TARDIS has landed in post-revolutionary France, or so it appears. But the futuristic structure of the New Bastille towers over a twisted version of Paris. And First Deputy Minski, adopted son of the infamous Marquis de Sade, presides over a reign of terror that has yet to end.

Revolutionary soldiers arrest an ailing Doctor as a curfew breaker. Dodo is recruited by a band of wandering players whose intentions are less than pure. Deep in the dungeons of the Bastille, Prisoner 6 tries desperately to remember who he is. And outside time and space, a gathering of aliens watch in horror as their greatest experiment goes catastrophically wrong.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• First Doctor
• Dodo Chaplet
• Marquis de Sade
• Prisoner 6
• Minski
• The Pageant
• Sophie
• Bressac
• Garce
• Eging
• Fantômas
• Robin Goodfellow
• Edith Cameo
• Catherine Arouette
• Dalville
• Garce
• Juliette
• Larkspur
• Tyll Howlglass

References

Individuals

• Dalville offers Dodo cigars and snuff, both of which she refuses.

Locations

• Earth is referred to as "Planet D02RL in Mutter's Spiral".

Time Lords

• Time Lords grow their second heart after their first regeneration.

Notes

• This adventure takes place between The Savages and The War Machines.
• According to the novel, Time Lords grow their second heart after their first regeneration. This is an attempt to rectify the implication in the television story The Edge of Destruction that the First Doctor had only a single heart; it would later be referenced in Christmas on a Rational Planet.
• O'Mahony pitched a sequel novel to BBC Books. He described it as "a black-comedy historical set in 1916, called Viet Cong!". However, it was rejected.

Continuity

• The Doctor mistakenly calls Dodo "Susan" at one point, and again mentions how similar they look. (TV: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve)
• The Doctor tells Dodo that his time is near, (TV: The Tenth Planet) and that he has known it is coming since his latest meeting with the Toymaker. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker)
• The recent departure of Steven Taylor is mentioned twice. (TV: The Savages) and Dodo relates the story of his two-year imprisonment. (TV: The Chase)
• Dodo tells Dalville she can play the piano a bit, mentioning "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" as an example of something she can play. (TV: The Gunfighters)
• The Doctor recalls having been separated from the TARDIS in China in 1289. (TV: Marco Polo)
• When encountering aliens, Dodo compares them to the Monoids and Refusians. (TV: The Ark)
• Dodo recalls having seen the Earth destroyed in the far future. (TV: The Ark)
• Dodo mentions having once almost killed the entire human race. (TV: The Ark)
• Dodo predicts she will stop travelling with the Doctor sooner rather than later. (TV: The War Machines)
• The Doctor feels the TARDIS "calling to him" and recalls her having done so previously when he had lost her on Quinnis in the fourth universe. (TV: The Edge of Destruction; AUDIO: Quinnis)

External links

• The Man in the Velvet Mask at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Man in the Velvet Mask at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: The Man in the Velvet Mask