Who Killed Kennedy (novel)

Who Killed Kennedy was a DWU novel published by Virgin Books. It is often considered by fans to be a part of the Virgin Missing Adventures series, although it was released as a standalone novel without ties to any of Virgin's ranges. It is the first true Doctor-lite novel. It revolves around how journalist James Stevens' investigations into the Kennedy assassination led him into the world of the Doctor. This allows the author to explore a number of televised stories from the perspective of a neutral observer, much as the character of Elton Pope would later be used in Love & Monsters.

The book is further notable — perhaps even infamous — for a subplot involving the rape, near-wedding and murder of former companion Dodo Chaplet. However, this aspect of the story has often been conflated with aspects of The Man in the Velvet Mask. As a result, many fans wrongly believe that Kennedy tells the story of Dodo dying from syphilis — something that never happens in either book.^[1]

Stylistically, author David Bishop unusually attempts to present the story as genuine journalism. In pursuit of realism, he even allows Stevens front cover credit for writing the book.

Publisher's summary

The shocking secret linking a Time Lord and a President.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on 22 November, 1963.

Now, the publication of this volume reveals frightening new information about the assassination, the real reasons why the President of the United States had to die and an incredible plan to save the man known as JFK!

These stunning revelations involve an ultra-secret military force disguised as a minor off-shot of the United Nations and an international terrorist leader who has twice brought the world to the brink of nuclear conflict.

For more than three decades the public has been fed lies, half-truths and misinformation. Now despite — government attempts to halt the publication of this volume — the complete, shocking story can be told. Read the book they tried to ban!

Plot

October 1969

James Stevens is a Daily Chronicle writer, obsessed with the John F. Kennedy assassination. He is annoyed today that he has to answer the phone. The caller is a man named Mullins, a porter at Ashbridge Cottage Hospital, trying to sell the newspaper a news story. The day before, there was a heatwave across Essex and meteorites fell in Oxley Woods. Furthermore, a man with inhuman blood was found in the woods. Stevens soon found himself driving to Essex in one of the Chronicle's vehicles.

He arrived to find the hospital swarmed with news reporters, as well as members of UNIT. They were met at the door by Captain Munro, who informed them that he could tell them nothing about the man or why they were there. Stevens noted as a brigadier and his female aide walked into the hospital. Minutes later, James saw the Brigadier driving away, avoiding their questions. Noticing the hospital's phone was in use, James went to a pub to call the paper.

He returned to the register, where he turned the apparently boring story into an eighteen-page-long 'sexy' article 'of deadly debris from space and sinister cover-up scaremongering'. At 7:00 p.m, he was ready to go home, but was hesitant, due to his unhappy relationship with his wife, Natasha.

The next day, he was surprised to see the word 'UNIT' had been replaced with the phrase 'the authorities' instead. He asked who had done this and learned that an editor had changed it right before it went out. He was also shocked to see all of the other newspapers reacting with stories covering up the scene, calling the inhuman blood a '...prank gone wrong...'

Soon after, however, he received a phone call from an anonymous tipper telling him that someone tried to kidnap the alleged alien man. He called around and found one nurse who had seen the incident. She told him she had heard a gunshot and had looked outside, but had been warned to keep quiet. She refused to tell him any more and hung up. He soon realised that the target for this story shouldn't be the man, but UNIT. He went to the reference library, but was surprised to find that both "UNIT" and "Lethbridge-Stewart, Alistair Gordon" had folders, but each were empty, as if the contents had been removed.

The following day, one of the most infamous terrorist attacks of the 1960s occurred. During the early hours of Black Thursday, Terrorists began attacking helpless citizens in the street. They also turned off all power and disabled TV and radio stations, cutting off media. If the attacks had not stopped within the hour, the terrorists might have achieved their goal.

Stevens was late that day, and was shocked when told of the incident. Unlike his fellow reporters, he doubted the story, as it claimed there were only a few terrorists out of the hundreds of attackers. Despite this, the paper continued to print the official government story. Throughout the week, however, many people called the paper claiming to have been attacked by window shop dummies. This was written off with the heading 'Black Thursday Brings Mass Hysteria.'

November 1969

Things soon return to normal.

Stevens has become the correspondent for the upcoming Mars Probe flights that would occur soon. Inspired by Britain's increasing space program, James begins writing a new column for the paper on scientific breakthroughs, and starts off by interviewing Ralph Cornish and Professor J.P. Kettlewell. He also had an appointment scheduled with Frederick Masters, but that was cancelled because Masters was unavailable.

The next day, a virus spreads through London. In the middle of the chaos, Stevens receives another call from him mystery tipper. He tells him that Frederick Masters had been the first to die from the plague sweeping London. Stevens receives Wenley Moor's phone number from the tipper, and calls the Research Centre. The Brigadier answers, but on discovering Stevens is a reporter, demands to know how he got this number before hanging up.

Stevens is still able to write a good story, and the next day the Chronicle is surrounded by reporters. Apparently, his story had caused controversy in the government. Two officials already planned to quit. That night, he and his friends go to a bar to celebrate. Stevens ends up sleeping with a red-haired girl he meets, named Natasha.

Stevens returns home after his one-night-stand with the stranger. His wife, Natasha Stevens, is infuriated that he was home late, having made him a meal to celebrate that she may have been pregnant. He became enraged at her, since he had said that he had not wanted kids. He angrily left the house.

Stevens then decided that it was time to research further into this UNIT group...

December 1969

The Mars Recovery 7 went up into space to retrieve Mars Probe 7. It lost communication for a brief while, and came down without anyone in it. Days later, a second recovery mission went up, and Stevens then noticed Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart at the Space Centre on his TV set.

After finally receiving the permission to investigate UNIT, he finds a link between the group and C19, another group, which served as a link between UNIT and the government. In his research, Stevens soon found that UNIT also had an address, and he ventured there to try and meet the brigadier. He had no such luck.

After his trip to UNIT H.Q., Stevens began getting threatening mail and phone calls. Information was harder to get, and one day someone called suggesting he stop, or else he may end up in "the Glasshouse." The phone calls also soon began being sent to Natasha, who was informed that the caller had "...personal habits [of James] she might find very revealing." Stevens compared stories with his wife, and soon discovered that C19 had been trying to threaten him. Stevens decided to investigate the group further.

Unable to talk to most of his previous contacts anymore, Stevens found only one individual willing to talk him, a local fashion photographer infamous for her stories of an alien invasion, Isobel Watkins. Most had denounced her as a fraud, including Stevens, but he was interested in the fact that she also claimed UNIT and the Brigadier were involved in her invasion.

Stevens is shocked to discover that Isobel is not only not a raving insane person, but is also pretty and intelligent. She tells him of the alien invasion that she had witnessed, and describes the people she saw there, including the Brigadier, Zoe, Jamie and Doctor John Smith, or just "the Doctor." Stevens shows the most interest in the Doctor.

Walking home, Stevens notices a C19 car parked across the street from Isobel's house and runs — fearing that he is being followed.

January 1970

Stevens spent most of January 1970 secretly researching UNIT and placing it into a timeline, entitled "The UNIT Dossier."

February 1970

After typing his three-thousand word essay on UNIT, James returns to work on the newspaper. He renames his science column "Bad Science," due to all of the mistakes in science projects that had happened recently. He soon discovers another science project that had failed called the Inferno Project. In a pursuit of what had happened there, Stevens tracks down Greg Sutton who, after becoming drunk, tells about how the Inferno project had failed. He also tells him about another man named 'Doctor John Smith' who had claimed to have gone to a parallel universe where the Inferno Project had caused the destruction of the planet. More shocking is that this man's appearance matches that of the individual who went up in the second Recovery 7 mission to save Mars Probe 7.

Shortly before publishing the first section of 'Bad Science', Stevens once more receives a call from his mystery tipper. The tipper had called to congratulate Stevens on a job well done recently, but he hangs up once Stevens mentions C19 and the Glasshouse.

The next day, Stevens is shocked to find that his article has been scrapped. He finds that his friend Michael had been trying to salvage it but with no sucsess. He was sent to the editor's room, where he was offered a double-raise, and up-to £50,000 on the spot if he hands over all his evidence from his UNIT article. He refuses, and is fired automatically. He soon recieves a call from the man who had been threatening him form C19, who tells him that a surprise awaits him at home.

Stevens arrived at home to discover that his notes and tape reels had been thrown amongst the room. On his bed he finds images of him with the woman he had a one-night stand with, with Natasha's handwriting written over it: 'HOW COULD YOU?’

Stevens tries to call Natasha, but she hangs up after admitting that she is pregnant.

Worried, Stevens begins a trip to Castle Howarth to talk to Natasha. This is a long and cold journey, with all of the schools in that area shut down. A blizzard breaks out, and Stevens accidentally crashes his car into a tree. He walks the rest of the way.

Upon arriving he meets Natasha's father, Howarth, who tells him that the divorce papers have already been processed and that if he ever talks to Natasha again, he will be killed. Stevens begins to protest, but before he can Howarth begins beating him up, to the point what he can barely move. The police arrive to beat him up and to take him to a hospital. He sees a pregnant Natasha weeping before blacking out.

He does not wake for 36 hours, and does not leave the hospital for another week. He decides to continue on his search for the truth about UNIT.

April 1970

After finding a new home to live in during March, Stevens began his work as a freelance writer in April. Despite the Daily Chronicle 's attempts to ruin his name, he still won an award for his journalism, and was able to begin his new carrier, hearing enthusiasm from Metropolitan 's editor Sally Lincoln.

Following his sucsess, he is commissioned to write a book, also entitled Bad Science, based off his paper. The book, although not yet released, is having record-breaking preorders, and Stevens begins considering new ideas. He tells Henry Spencer, the person who commissioned the last book, that he had had two new book ideas, a sequel to Bad Science, and a book on the mystery of JFK's murder and the possible outcomes of it if he had lived entitled What if JFK Had Lived, cashing in on both the anniversary and the controvoursey behind Ted Kennedy's accidental killing of Mary Jo Kopechne. Stevens begins writing the two books, which come together in the deal. He finds out many new interesting stories about UNIT, including that they recalled a batch of plastic flowers, but was forced to put these aside as his Kennedy novel's deadline became closer.

June - November 1970

The Bad Science book is printed just around an election, and many news publishers criticises his book for trying to change the election. After a show where he talked off Alex MacIntosh, he goes to a bar with an old friend named Vincent Mortimer, who tells him that if he ever needs a TV appearance, just to call him.

Due to both the publicity of bad science and the research and writing of his JFK book, Stevens became behind on his UNIT papers. Four months after turning his second book in, however, Stevens is able to continue to work on his research. He is able to contact Martha, a worker at the Ministry of Science who is able to give him access to the first viewing of the Keller Process after he "makes it worth her while."

Three days later, he goes to see the process in action. There he sees for the first time one of the "Doctor" operatives and his companion. He witnesses and notes as the Doctor continuously interrupts professor Kettering, mocking the Keller Machine during it's presentation. Stevens keeps an active transcript. He sees the machine acting upon a patient, only this time failing, causing the patient to begin twitching in pain.

The scientists are dismissed, but Stevens stays, pretending to study the Keller Machine, but actually listening to the Doctor, who tells Kettering that he believes the Keller machine to be the kind of unearthly evil that units looks into. After the Doctor had left, a guard threw Stevens out.

Bothered by the Keller Machine, Stevens began researching it. Not two days later, riots began breaking out and Kettering was dead. He contacted Sally Lincoln, who agreed to print his story in the Metropolitan. It was a popular scheme amongst newspapers to print shocking reports that were only barely outlined, so that other newspapers would do further research, thus giving the original high-praise. In an attempt to learn more about UNIT, Stevens also name dropped Glasshouse, in hopes that someone would contact him about it.

December 1970

For several weeks, Stevens receives multiple calls about hypnotism, including one from an old lady who claims not only that she was attacked by a killer plastic flower, but also that deadly nightshade was not very deadly at all. He nearly gives up on Glasshouse, until one day he receives a letter from a resident who writes in halting, hesitant scrawl, yet still answers many questions he needed answered about Glasshouse. The name left was 'Dodo,' and it had a phone number left for contact.

Stevens calls the number, and discovers it belongs to a homeless shelter. There he eventually gets a hold of Dodo, who at first doesn't remember writing the letter, but eventually does. She agrees to meet him at a Café.

The next day, Stevens waits for nearly an hour at the Café before deciding to leave. That is when he meets Dodo, who tells him her story. She suffers from blackouts and memory-loss, and she often has flashbacks to scenes which could not possibly have happened to her, such as being in the old west, meeting one-eyed monsters, and [[The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)|seeing giant dolls dance around her. This all first started to happen to her on C-day, and since then she had suffered from blackouts and often woke up in hospitals. One day they put her in a psychotics hospital. He has memories of shock therapy. Before she can finish her story past there, she breaks down in tears and Stevens takes her home to his office, agreeing to get her home by 6:00, otherwise she won't have a bed to sleep in.

They went to his house, and eventually they return to the discussion, with Stevens taping the conversation. Dodo explains that she was put in a mixed-sex ward for the mentally insane, and one day one of the men had tried to rape her. She had kicked his head, causing him to fall against the wall and crack it open, dying. The tape recorder clicks, indicating the tape was full. Stevens asks Dodo is she was hungry, telling her that it had past 6, and agreeing to her staying at his house. He lets her take a shower whilst he cooks dinner. Outside the bathroom door he places some of Natasha's clothes, which he figures will fit her. He eventually returns to knock on the door, astonished to see her come out fully transformed, in a simple blue dress. They eat dinner and discuss their childhoods, avoiding talking about Glasshouse entirely.

The next day, Dodo and James continue their discussion on Glasshouse. Dodo had been sent there after she had killed the other patient, and had been strapped to a bed for her entire time spent there. She had been interrogated by a man with piercing eyes, who had constantly asked her about a doctor. She had presumed he meant the one who had given her shock-therapy, but bringing that up only made him more mad. One day after she began yelling that she wanted to be left alone, she was released, with the "evil man" telling her that she was well trained, but that he would silence her. She had beet here not seven months before, yet still could not remember where it is or any more details. She had been homeless since then.

That night, James asks Dodo to stay and live with him, and Dodo agrees, as long as she gets to pull her own weight, put away his unopened packages, and gets to leave whenever she wants. Before entry went to their separate rooms, Dodo kissed James on the cheek.

Dodo spends a fortnight working on on the house, repainting the ceiling and putting up new wall paper. He returns home early one day, to find the house completely transformed. They go out to celebrate, and come home after drinking too much wine. Dodo finds her room much too dense with paint fumes to sleep in, and states that she has to now sleep on the couch. James is tempted to say something, but does not want to ruin their friendship.

James goes to the bathroom, and when he emerges he finds Dodo trying to undo her dress. He helps her do so, and when he has, she asks him to help undo her bra as well.

January - March 1971

James goes to meet up with a source code-named "Cassandra." He tells James about an incident where UNIT had been called in to the Nuton Power Complex to fight off terrorists.

James soon realises that his book about UNIT was going nowhere, and that he needed to start it soon. Just when he was going to, he receives a call from Elisabeth Shaw, who he had been trying to contact for some time. She agrees to meet with him if he comes up to Cambridge.

After celebrating the new chance to meet someone who worked at UNIT, James and Dodo return home to find that it had been broken into and ransacked. He, however, discovered that all his important files were still in his floor-safe.

James leaves for Cambridge, where he meets Liz, who informs him that she can only conform or deny what he has to ask her. He learns that she was a part of many of the events he researched in his book, although how he did not learn. When he mentions C19, she looked shocked. She tells him that she did not support the group, and that UNIT spoke to the government through C19. She threatens to leave if he does not change the topic, due to past bad memories with C19. Liz also warns Jame shtat she believes that he has been mis interpreting UNIT, and that UNIT are actually the good of the government. She eventually leaves, and Stevens is approached by a C19 thug, who beats him up and tells him that he will be killed if he continues to research the organisation.

May 1971

to be added

Characters

References

Companions of the Doctor mentioned

Earth-based conflicts

The Shoreditch Incident
Black Thursday

Individuals

James Stevens spent time as a journalism teacher and mentored both "Ruby" (by implication Ruby Duvall, though the dates don't match) and Sarah Jane Smith.
Horatio Chinn
Group Captain Gilmore
Rachel Jensen

Time technology

Time ring

Corporations

International Electromatics

UNIT and Affliates

Notes

Though published by Virgin Books, this novel does not fit into the usual Virgin Missing Adventures or Virgin New Adventures format and stands alone. It relies exclusively on Doctor Who television continuity, though the Glasshouse, which this novel introduced, did get incorporated into the plot of The Scales of Injustice, a Missing Adventure.

However, the cover has the silver diamond Doctor Who logo usually associated with the Virgin Missing Adventures and is generally grouped with those novels.

The novel credits the fictional James Stevens as David Bishop's co-author for this book.
The book reveals some of the "in-universe" explanations and cover-ups for alien invasions; incidents like the Auton invasion are covered up as terrorist assaults and the Master (in his "Victor Magister" alias from The Dæmons) is later used as a scapegoat for them all. This leads to some incidents of discontinuity, such as the existence of the War Machines having been covered up despite them being public knowledge in DW: The War Machines.
As well as a major supporting role for Dodo Chaplet, the novel features cameo appearances by two Doctors and numerous other companions: the Third Doctor, either the Second or Seventh Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant and Sergeant Benton. Furthermore, the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Susan Foreman, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, Mike Yates, Sarah Jane Smith, Melanie Bush and Ace are mentioned but do not appear.
Of the first seven incarnations of the Doctor, the only ones who are neither seen nor mentioned are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Doctors.

Continuity

The person that James Stevens speaks to on the phone Mullins. The man with inhuman blood was the Third Doctor following regeneration, who had been sent to the hospital following a meteorite shower. Stevens was one of many reporters barred entry by the Brigadier and UNIT. The poacher Stevens had met was Sam Seeley, who had found a meteorite. The terrorist attack of Black Thursday, was actually an alien invasion of Autons. (DW: Spearhead from Space)
Stevens calls the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility and is surprised when the phone is answered by the Brigadier, who hangs up as soon as he realises that Stevens is a journalist. (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
Several weeks after the plague outbreak, a woman named Doris Squire was still being treated for shock "after claiming to see some sort of lizard walking upright like a man." According to Stevens, this story did not even make the gutter press. (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
Stevens interviews Ralph Cornish of the Space Centre on the state of British scientific development in the run-up in the Mars Probe 7 crisis (DW: The Ambassadors of Death).
Stevens inquires as to the effect of the death of International Electromatics founder Tobias Vaughn on said development, who actually died being attacked by the Cybermen. (DW: The Invasion). Refusing to answer the question directly, Cornish directs him to Vaughn's former associate Ashley Chapel. (MA: Millennial Rites)
Stevens dismisses Isobel Watkins' claims that Earth had been invaded by "robot men from outer space." All of these claims were actually true, with the robot men being the Cybermen from the same invasion that killed Tobias. (DW: The Invasion)
While interviewing Isobel Watkins, Stevens jokes that the country "...[isn't] decimalised yet..." (DW: An Unearthly Child)
He also ignores Greg Sutton's similarly outlandish claim that a green slime from the centre of the Earth transformed scientists into wolf monsters during the Inferno Project. He describes Sutton's story as sounding like the plot of a "science fiction potboiler". (DW: Inferno)
Stevens collects reports of a series of agent provcateurs known as "the Doctor" who have been involved in unusual incidents such as the ULTIMA Incident in 1943 (DW: The Curse of Fenric), the Shangri-La Incident in 1959 (DW: Delta and the Bannermen), the Shoreditch Incident in November 1963 (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks), the C-Day fiasco and the contemporaneous Gatwick Incident on 20 July 1966 (DW: The War Machines, DW: The Faceless Ones), as well as the aforementioned death of Tobias Vaughn and the Wenley Moor Incident.
After almost a year of attempting to collate information about the "Doctor" agents from disparate sources, Stevens finally sees one of them in person at the press demonstration of the experimental Keller Process at Stangmoor Prison. The Doctor was accompanied by a "small, mousy looking woman with a pleasant face." (DW: The Mind of Evil)
Stevens suspects that the Doctor and UNIT may have been involved in the disappearance of a fifteen-year-old Coal Hill School pupil named Susan Foreman and her teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright from Shoreditch in November 1963. Susan, whose home address was I.M. Foreman's junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, only spent several months at the school and had difficulty making friends. Other students described her as being strange and remembered that she mentioned that she lived with her grandfather. All of her records were later found to be clever forgeries. Despite extensive searches and appeals for assistance, Susan was never found. (DW: An Unearthly Child) Chesterton and Wright reappeared in the summer of 1965. (DW: The Chase) They claimed to have spent the previous year and a half doing missionary work in Central Africa. Not quite returning to their old lives, Wright became a university history lecturer, specialising in the Aztec period of Central American history (DW: The Aztecs) and Ian became a university science lecturer and gained a professorship within a year. He specialised in astronomy, but showed expertise across a wide range of fields beyond the scope of a former secondary school science teacher's training. (DW: An Unearthly Child, et al.) They eventually married (PDA: The Face of the Enemy, SJA: Death of the Doctor), had a son named John (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation) and began writing a diary to leave for Susan in the 22nd century (PDA: Byzantium!).
Stevens later meets a young woman named Dodo Chaplet who suffered a nervous breakdown following the events of C-Day. (DW: The War Machines) She does not remember anything about that day, but her claims to have met one-eyed reptile men (DW: The Ark) and Wild West gunfighters (DW: The Gunfighters), as well as having played games with living dolls (DW: The Celestial Toymaker), resulted in her being sent to a psychiatric institution.
Liz Shaw mentions that she has bad memories with C19. (MA: The Scales of Injustice)
In 1971, a terrorist known as Victor Magister or "the Master" is arrested following an incident at the village Devil's End. (DW: The Dæmons) He and his accomplices are subsequently charged with the attack on Black Thursday (DW: Spearhead from Space), the plague outbreak (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians) and the failure of the World Peace Conference (DW: The Mind of Evil), among other incidents. Magister escaped from custody in the autumn of 1971, causing a great deal of scandal in the prison service. (DW: The Sea Devils) Stevens notes that his terrorist activities of the early 1970s were little remembered by most British people in 1996.
A Northern Irish UNIT soldier named Francis Cleary is deeply disturbed by the sight of one of his fellow soldiers, a good friend, being killed by an alien at the Nuton Power Complex (DW: The Claws of Axos) and finally goes mad after seeing Satan himself at a church in Devil's End (DW: The Dæmons).
Following Dodo's murder, Stevens sees a television report which mentions that UNIT is providing security for the Second World Peace Conference at Auderly House. Entering the grounds of the manor house clandestinely, he is saved from death at the hands of an ape creature by the Doctor. The Brigadier later shows him its body, which finally convinces him that the various outlandish stories which he has heard about aliens visiting and/or the invading the Earth are entirely true. (DW: Day of the Daleks)
Stevens notes that the Brigadier retired from UNIT in the mid 1970s and began teaching mathematics at "a minor public school for boys." (DW: Mawdryn Undead) According to Stevens' sources, he is "occasionally wheeled out when things are going very wrong somewhere in the world". (DW: Battlefield, BFA: Minuet in Hell)
Ruby Duvall appeared in NA: Iceberg.
NA: The Dying Days mentions the fictional book-within-a-book Who Killed Kennedy. It also attempts to explain why some of the UNIT dating is wrong: it was changed prior to publication. Stevens had "gone to ground" in April 1996 whereas his co-author David Bishop was still in London in May 1997.
The Ninth Doctor was present at Kennedy's assassination. (DW: Rose)

Timeline

At various points throughout, the events of the novel take place contemporaneously with those of every Doctor Who serial from DW: Spearhead from Space to DW: Day of the Daleks.

External links

Who Killed Kennedy Full text available as an e-book at the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club Webpage
Who Killed Kennedy at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
The Discontinuity Guide to: 'Who Killed Kennedy at The Whoniverse

Footnotes

↑ Radio Free Skaro #177

[1] Radio Free Skaro #177

[1]