Only Human (novel)

Only Human
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Companion(s):	Rose, Jack
Main enemy:	Chantal Osterberg, Hy-Bractors
Main setting:	Bromley, 2005 and 24 May 29,185 BC
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Gareth Roberts
Read by:	Anthony Head
Cover by:	Henry Steadman
Release details
Release number:	5
Release date:	8 September 2005 7 March 2013
Format:	Hardcover book, 254 pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-48639-2
BBC New Series Adventures
← Previous	The Deviant Strain
Next →	The Stealers of Dreams

Only Human was the fifth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Gareth Roberts and featured the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness. It was originally released in 2005 to accompany Series 1 and was re-released in 2013 for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.

Publisher's summary

2005 BBC Books edition

Somebody's interfering with time. The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive on modern-day Earth to find the culprit — and discover a Neanderthal Man, twenty-eight thousand years after his race became extinct. Only a trip back to the primeval dawn of humanity can solve the mystery.

Who are the mysterious humans from the distant future now living in that distant past? What hideous monsters are trying to escape from behind the Grey Door? Is Rose going to end up married to a caveman?

Caught between three very different types of human being — past, present and future — the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack must learn the truth behind the Osterberg experiment before the monstrous Hy-Bractors escape to change humanity's history forever...

2013 BBC Books edition

Reports of a time disturbance lead the Ninth Doctor to modern-day London, where he discovers a Neanderthal Man, twenty-eight thousand years after his race became extinct. A trip back to the dawn of humanity only deepens the mystery: who are these strange humans from the far future now living in the distant past? The Doctor must learn the truth about the Osterberg experiment before history is changed forever.

Plot

On 2 October 438,533, seven year-old Chantal Osterberg provides an account of how over the weekend, her cat, Dusty, was giving her and her family too many "wrong-feelings." She proceeded to do surgery on her cat, making her tail scaly, rearranging her organs, and altering her brain to catch more rats. Her parents didn't like this.

In Bromley, 2005, Dean goes to a pub dressed as a Roman and gets into a fight with Das, who he believes is dressed as a caveman.

The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, and Captain Jack Harkness intend to go to Kegron Pluva, but are drawn off course due to a time distortion. Rose investigates and finds that a caveman is in a nearby hospital. They go there to find that the hospital has been quarantined and escape with Das with help from Weronica. They try to bring Das back to his time, but he disintegrates when they try to take him in the TARDIS. The Doctor believes it's because his time travel was unprotected, and tells Jack to look after him for a month while him and Rose investigate what happened.

Rose and the Doctor travel back in time to find the Osterberg Experiment led by Chantal, wherein a group of future humans travelled back in time. They discover that most future humans drug themselves in order to not feel wrong emotions. The Doctor and Rose each go with a different human — Rose with Reddy, a human who uses drugs, and the Doctor with T. P. Quilley, a "refuser." Rose throws away Reddy's "popper pack" and forces him to feel real emotions as they witness a Neanderthal birth, then is kidnapped by early humans. Quilley and the Doctor discover the Hy-Bractors and are both shortly kidnapped and drugged by Chantal.

Rose is coerced into a marriage with Tillun. The Doctor is vivisected by Chantal, before escaping as the drugs where off and helping Quilley escape as well.

To be added.

Characters

• Ninth Doctor
• Rose Tyler
• Captain Jack Harkness
• Das
• Chantal Osterberg
• Weronika
• Jacob
• Lene
• Tom
• T. P. Quilley
• Tina
• Reddy
• X01
• Hy-Bractors
• Jackie Tyler
• Stephanie
• Ka
• Sakka
• Sakka's mate
• Sakka's mate
• Neanderthal midwife
• Gual
• Nan
• Tillun
• Anna Marie O'Grady
• The Priest

Worldbuilding

• Dean refers to Das as ''Captain Caveman''.
• The Doctor doesn't want Das to watch Farscape.
• Rip engines are a dangerous and primitive form of time travel.
• The Doctor says he was married to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
• The Doctor discovers poppa packs.
• The Doctor tells Jack to buy Das clothes from the Gap in Croydon.
• The Doctor intends to take Rose and Jack to Kegron Pluva.

TARDIS

• The TARDIS translation circuit has a swear filter.
• The TARDIS key works on a kind of meson projection system.

Science & Technology

• The intriguing monotony in the occurrence of inter-caval conduction block during typical atrial flutter suggests an anatomic or electrophysiological predisposition for conduction abnormalities of the Doctor's heart.
• Chantal removed Rose's head from her body, which can be undone by reverse-locking the kinetic seal.

Story notes

• Later reprints of this book removed the image of Billie Piper from the cover.
• This story was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
• This book was reprinted in 2013 with an entirely new cover to celebrate the Doctor Who 50th anniversary.

Continuity

• The Doctor mentions that he has previously met Neanderthals. (TV: Ghost Light; PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys)
• Rose reflects on her encounter with Gwyneth in Cardiff on 24 December 1869. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)
• Rose recalls meeting Jack during the Blitz on 20 January 1941. (TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances)
• The Doctor uses the fast return switch. (TV: The Edge of Destruction)
• The Doctor refers to the destruction of Gallifrey in the Last Great Time War. (TV: The End of the World)

Additional cover images

• 

  2013 edition. Cover by Two Associates.

Editions published outside Britain

• Published in Finland by Luolamies Lontoossa in 2006 as a hardback edition, it was one of two books published in the 2000's.
• Published in China by New Star Press in 2017 as a hardback edition.

• 

  Finnish edition

• 

  Chinese edition

Audiobook

• This novel was released as an audiobook on 1 January 2013 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Anthony Head.

• 

  Audiobook cover

External links

• Official Only Human page at Penguin Books
• Only Human at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Only Human at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Only Human