The Final Sanction (novel)

The Final Sanction
Doctor:	Second Doctor
Companion(s):	Jamie, Zoe
Main enemy:	The Selachians
Main setting:	2204
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Steve Lyons
Release details
Release number:	23
Release date:	5 July 1999
Format:	Paperback Book, 34 Chapters, 285 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-55584-X
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Storm Harvest
Next →	City at World's End

The Final Sanction was the twenty-third novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Steve Lyons, released 5 July 1999 and featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot.

This was the first novel of the BBC series to feature this line-up of Doctor and companions, and the first full-length novel to do so since 1995's The Menagerie. It saw the return of the Selachians who first appeared in 1997's The Murder Game.

Publisher's summary

The year is 2204. The final confrontation between humankind and the monstrous Selachians is about to reach its tragic conclusion.

Once again the Doctor has become entangled in human history. Caught up in a brutal and bloody conflict, he knows he must do nothing to influence the outcome. But, when the TARDIS disappears and Zoe falls into Selachian hands, he is forced to intervene...

In the struggle that ensues, Jamie fights alongside the human forces and discovers for himself the true horror of war. Zoe plans her escape from an alien prison camp, only to find herself, quite literally, out of her depth. Meanwhile, the Doctor comes face to face with a man who will become one of the most vilified figures in history.

As the death toll mounts and events come to a head, the Doctor must make a painful choice: which is more important, the sanctity of the time stream or the lives of his companions?

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Second Doctor
• Jamie McCrimmon
• Zoe Heriot
• John Paterson
• Kent Michaels
• Laura Mulholland
• Wayne Redfern
• Supreme Leader
• Kukhadil
• Leanne Davidson
• Adam Dresden
• She Who Tends to the Injured and Swims with the Lonely
• Marsh
• Morgan
• York
• Wilson
• Luqman
• Klavar
• Godwin
• Ice Warrior

Worldbuilding

• The humans on the colony Regus 4 were massacred during the war with the Selachian Empire.
• The Selachians once used a sun-stoker on a Martian colony that refused to sell them arms.
• An Ice Warrior is among the Selachians' prisoners on Ockora.

Food and Beverages

• The Doctor carries an apple, which he eats here.
• Jamie eats some vitamin pills at the TSF ship.
• Zoe eats some tiny violet berries on an island on Ockora and nutrient paste whilst held captive.

Notes

• Although it is not explicitly identified as such, the Doctor's comments about the importance of the destruction of Ockora suggests that it could be retroactively defined as a fixed point in time.
• Jamie, who had not started travelling with the Doctor during the events of The Murder Game, first met the Selachians in The Selachian Gambit, which was released almost 13 years after The Final Sanction (and tries to remain a standalone story, not requiring a listener to have read any novels). Jamie does not show familiarity with the Selachians in this novel, however the full extent of his knowledge of the species is not given in detail, so things are left just vague enough to avoid any contradictions.
• This story is set between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates.

Continuity

• Zoe recalls her time on the Wheel. (TV: The Wheel in Space)
• Jamie thinks back to his journey to Atlantis. (TV: The Underwater Menace)
• The Doctor is known to the Selachians. (PROSE: The Murder Game, AUDIO: The Selachian Gambit)
• The TSF use make use of T-Mat. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
• Earth is still recovering from the Dalek invasion. John Paterson's father died in a Dalek mine. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• Aware of his further interference with the timeline, the Doctor considers what his people may do if they catch up to him. (TV: The War Games)
• The Doctor considers the moral quandary about whether it is right or wrong to kill a baby that would grow up to become a dictator who would kill millions of people. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
• The Doctor finds an apple core in his pocket. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen)

External links

• The Final Sanction at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Final Sanction at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: The Final Sanction