Apollo 23 (novel)
Apollo 23 was the thirty-seventh novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Justin Richards and featured the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.
It was notable for not just being the first Eleventh Doctor NSA book, but actually the first Eleventh Doctor book to be released. It is also Amy Pond's first appearance in the NSA series.
Publisher's summary
"Houston – we have a problem."
An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt.
A photo shows an immaculately-dressed woman in her best shoes lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon – beside her beloved dog 'Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.
But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon – that's where Amy and the TARDIS are.
The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens.
Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.
Plot
While enjoying a stroll on his lunch break, Donald Babinger suffocates to death after being caught up in a quantum displacement field that momentarily transported him to the moon. Doctor Gyles Winterborne arrives on the scene and initially suspects that Babinger's death was the result of a heart attack, however he notices some signs of asphyxiation. Meanwhile, across town astronaut Marty Garrett experiences a reverse displacement as he appears from thin air in a burger bar stunning the customers who put his sudden appearance down to a publicity stunt.
The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond land on Earth shortly after and immediately find themselves pulled into the mystery after a chance encounter with Winterborne informs them of Babinger's suspicious death and the presence of an astronaut in the mall. At Base Hibiscus in Texas, General Adam Walinski and Doctor Candace Hecker are among those who are perplexed as to how their displacement technology - which when working properly allowed them to pass to and from Base Diana located on the moon at ease - so wrong. A further headache arises when they receive word of yet more victims of the displacement, Becky Starmer and her dog Poochie, who lie dead on the surface of the moon only to be recovered by Base Diana's team. While watching a video link of the bodies being recovered, the Hibiscus staff are shocked to see a London police box, the TARDIS.
Pretending to have been sent by Hibiscus to fix the displacement link, the Doctor and Amy introduce themselves to various members of Base Diana including: Colonel Cliff Davenish, Major Andrea Carlisle and Captain Jim Reeve. Before long they are paired with Professor Charles Jackson, who has the most knowledge about quantum displacement, and he offers to show them around the Base. One of their last stops was the Process Centre, Jackson informed the Doctor and Amy that Base Diana held several prisoners who were deemed too dangerous to be held on Earth due to their knowledge regarding government secrets. These prisoners were being experimented on, undergoing a painful mindwipe, in the hopes of finding a way to rehabilitate them. The Doctor and Amy watched as Jackson and Nurse Phillips performed a mindwipe on Prisoner Nine which went wrong and caused him to go into shock, the prisoner momentarily acted like he recognised the Doctor before being sedated by Nurse Phillips. His body couldn't handle the sedation on top of the mindwipe and he died.
Following this the Doctor instructed Amy to keep a close eye on Nurse Phillips, when she visited Phillips' sick bay she found that Jackson's former assistant Liz Didbrook was being observed. Didbrook had seemingly suffered a mental breakdown and Phillips told Amy that she could now only speak gibberish but, like with Prisoner Nine, Amy suspected that her gibberish held more significance. Elsewhere, the Doctor and Davenish ventured out onto the moon's surface to repair the quantum displacement equipment, they were successful and removed their helmets after passing back through to Earth. However, Amy discovered that Jackson and Phillips were villainously planning to sabotage the system again and that they had already done away with Carlisle. Phillips ordered a mindless soldier, known to them as a Blank, to sabotage the system and Amy watched helpless as he did so. The Doctor and Davenish were transported back to the moon where they began to suffocate, but the Doctor managed to make it back to Earth while Davenish succummed to lack of oxygen and died.
Back on Earth, the Doctor was rescued in the middle of the dessert by the Hibiscus crew and informed Walinski that the moonbase was being sabotaged as part of an invasion.
to be added
Characters
- Donald Babinger
- Mandy
- Becky Starmer
- Poochie
- Dr. Gyles Winterbourne
- Sgt. Rickman
- Captain Marty Garrett
- The Eleventh Doctor
- Amy Pond
- Albert Smoth
- General Adam Walinski
- Dr. Candace Hecker
- Graham Haines
- Agent Jennings
- Captain Jim Reeve
- Colonel Cliff Devenish
- Professor Charles Jackson
- Major Andrea Carlisle
- Prisoner Nine
- Nurse Phillips
- Liz Didbrook
- Commander Raraarg
- Androparg
- Blanks
References
- The Doctor mentions T-Mat, which was an important technology used in the Second Doctor story TV: The Seeds of Death.
- UNIT and Torchwood are mentioned, as well as detailed files regarding the organisation's dealings with previous incarnations of The Doctor.
- Agent Jennings says he'd have recognised the Doctor if he was older. Given he has read both the UNIT and Torchwood files, this implies he was expecting either the Third Doctor, Tenth Doctor, or the Twelfth Doctor.
Notes
- There was some initial confusion over the title of this book, as some media coverage, including Doctor Who Magazine, used the erroneous title Apollo 13.
- This story was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
Continuity
- The Doctor says he has witnessed many deaths, referring to the fact that death and bloodshed follow in the footsteps of each of his incarnations. (TV: Warriors of the Deep, Resurrection of the Daleks)
- The Doctor says death spoils his appetite. (TV: Boom Town)
- The Doctor claims that it has been a number of months since his "death". (TV: The End of Time)
- UNIT and the Torchwood Institute are referred to. In the former, there appears to be a reference to the Third Doctor.
- The Doctor says he got his Mars-Venus license. (TV: Robot)
- Once again, the Doctor instructs someone not to call him 'Doc'. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Time Meddler, The Five Doctors, The Twin Dilemma, The Ultimate Foe, Dreamland)
- At one point, the Doctor uses the catchphrase of his ninth incarnation, saying: 'That is fantastic.'
- When blasting off in the rocket, the Doctor once again exclaims: 'Geronimo!' (TV: The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Big Bang, PROSE: The Forgotten Army, GAME: City of the Daleks)
- The Doctor implies he's literally been to 'the depths of hell itself', likely a reference to TV: The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit.
- The Doctor says he usually carries around a Jammie Dodger, but doesn't find one when patting his pockets, having eaten it in TV: Victory of the Daleks.
- The Doctor enthuses about how "cool" it was to be a prisoner on the moon. (TV: Frontier in Space)
- Professor Jackson refers to the "Keller Process" in relation to the "treatments" he's giving the prisoners. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
- Agent Jennings' boss is called Control, who turns up in a number of Past Doctor Adventures, including PROSE: The King of Terror.
- The spacesuits the Doctor and Amy wear (with large translucent bubble helmets) are similar to those the Doctor and his companions wore in TV: The Moonbase.
- The fuel used in Apollo 23 is the M3 Variant designed by the British Rocket Group for the Mars Missions as seen in TV: The Ambassadors of Death.
- Base Diana uses an information storage system using water. This was last seen in AUDIO: The Genocide Machine.
Editions published outside Britain
- Published in France by Milady in 2012 as a paperback edition.
- Published in Italy by Asengard Edizioni in 2014 as a paperback edition.
- Published in China by New Star Press in 2018 as a paperback edition.
French edition
Audiobook
- This novel was released as an audiobook, in the UK, in October 2010 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by James Albrecht.
- This novel was also released as an audiobook, in Germany, on 1 March 2019 by Lübbe Audio and read by Tobias Nath.
UK Audiobook cover
External links
- Apollo 23 at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Apollo 23 at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Apollo 23
- BBC Shop - Apollo 23
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