The Stealers of Dreams (novel)
The Stealers of Dreams was the sixth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Steve Lyons and featured the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness.
Publisher's summary
In the far future, the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack find a world on which fiction has been outlawed. A world where it's a crime to tell stories, a crime to lie, a crime to hope, and a crime to dream.
But now somebody is challenging the status quo. A pirate TV station urges people to fight back. And the Doctor wants to help -- until he sees how easily dreams can turn into nightmares.
With one of his companions stalked by shadows and the other committed to an asylum, the Doctor is forced to admit that fiction can be dangerous after all. Though perhaps it is not as deadly as the truth...
Plot
Rose, Jack and the Doctor end up on Colony World 4378976.Delta-Four where fiction is banned… but all is not what it seems. Hal Gryder, the supposed spreader of fiction, turns people “Fiction-mad” as they are taken to the Big White House, the Home for the Cognitively Disconnected.
The Doctor sets off on a journey to find out why fiction is so dangerous, while Rose and Jack make new friends, Domnic Allen and a beggar man claiming to be Hal Gryder.
Characters
Worldbuilding
Foods and beverages
- The chips on the colony are made from a local vegetable which is blue. They are soft, oily and peppery.
Individuals
- Jack says that he knows of the "real" Face of Boe.
- Rose has trouble pronouncing the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.
- Jack mentions that he is a Time Agent and threatens the enemy with the war fleet of the Time Agency.
Locations
- Jack once ran out of fuel in the Ataline system with nothing but a traffic cone he'd picked up on a night out.
Objects
- The Doctor thinks that using his psychic paper to pretend to pay his hotel bill is justified because he's probably about to save the hotelier's world.
Story notes
- There is a reference to the events of Boom Town, placing it after that story. However, at the end of Boom Town, the Doctor stated they were going to Raxacoricofallapatorius. Then, in Bad Wolf, he said they went from there to Japan, before being caught in the transmat.
- This is the last Ninth Doctor novel.
- This story was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
Continuity
- This plot is similar to TV: The Happiness Patrol.
- When Rose calls Jackie, she mentions the events of TV: Boom Town.
- Rose recalls her first meeting with the Doctor in TV: Rose.
Editions published outside Britain
- Published in France by Milady in in 2012 as a paperback edition.
- Published in China by New Star Press in 2020 as a paperback edition.
Audiobook
- This novel was released as an audiobook in October 2012 by BBC Audio and read by Camille Coduri. The audiobook was exclusive to the AudioGo website before the company went into administration.
Audiobook cover
External links
- The Stealers of Dreams at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: The Stealers of Dreams at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: The Stealers of Dreams
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