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Publisher’s Summary
‘Doctor!’ said Anji. This couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t just walk out on them! ‘Look, give them a chance, they’re frightened, they’re only --’
‘Human?’ The Doctor took a deep breath, as though to stop himself from saying anything more. ‘Now, stay!’
The weather is going to hell. The tigers are coming to town. And the Doctor has taken his violin and vanished.
The island world of Hitchemus is home to a colony of musicians and seemingly harmless alien animals. When the storms and the tigers break loose, the Doctor tries to protect the humans -- but the humans don’t want him. When he ventures into the wilderness in search of the tigers’ secrets, Fitz and Anji find themselves on their own, trying to prevent a war.
With both sides eager for blood, and hurricanes on the horizon, the Doctor must decide whether this time he’s on the side of the human race.
Characters
- The Doctor
- Is described as a violin virtuoso, and is fixated upon a musical rhythm he hears in his head (dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum).
- Can also play the harpsichord, flue, transverse cello, harp, banjo, theremin, and wobbleboard.
- Is said 'to have only two speeds, presto and stop.'
- Holds several dinner parties and always carried food in his pockets for his friends, having a 'maternal impulse' to feed them and be kind.
- Sets up the weather-changing technology in such a way it forces the Tigers and humans to work together.
- Fitz Kreiner
- Enjoys the bohemian lifestyle with his band, Jam Tomorrow, but worries that he's better now then he was before the TARDIS "fiddled" with his head.
- Turns out to be the writer of the aforementioned rhythm the Doctor was fixated with on Hitchemus and throughout the entire Earth Arc.
- Impersonates Greta Garbo and Humphrey Bogart.
- Is told by Anji the role of "fearless agent for La Resistance, masquerading as a concerned citizen,' really suits him.
- Anji finds it easier to tell people, ‘Dave died after a long illness’, rather than ‘Dave got stabbed and charred to death by a rocket engine’.
- Is warned by Fitz when talking to Besma that "everyone's bi in this time period."
- Has romantic desires for the Doctor.
- Drinks chocolate martinis with the Doctor.
- Joins the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji on picnics and worries if he will be seen as taking the Doctor away from his friends.
References
- Sonic Screwdriver
- Vocoder, used by the Hitchemus tigers to enable them to create speech.
- The Doctor wears a loose white shirt over hemp trousers and a black waistcoat embroidered with orange designs.
- Gidi and Lvan are Earth colonies.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
to be added
Timeline
- This story takes place after EDA: Eater of Wasps
- This story takes place before EDA: The Slow Empire
Reprint
BBC Books has announced that a "print on demand" reprint edition of this novel will be made available as of 30 September 2011 as the imprint revisits adventures featuring the first eight Doctors.