The Bodysnatchers was the third BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel. It was written by Mark Morris. It was the first novel to feature the Zygons who had previously appeared in the 1975 Doctor Who television story Terror of the Zygons. It also featured an appearance of Professor George Litefoot whom the Fourth Doctor had met in the 1977 TV story The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
Publisher's summary
It is London, 1894. Amid the fog, cold and degradation, a gruesome business is being conducted. The bodies of the dead are being stolen from their graves - men, women and children alike - for the sinister purpose of a very mysterious gentleman.
When the Eighth Doctor and Sam arrive, they are witness to a horrifying scene in the evil-smelling fog: something rises up from the filthy waters of the Thames and devours a man - a man terrified for his life and on the run from the devil himself...
Teaming up with an old friend, pathologist Professor George Litefoot, the Doctor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Together with Sam, they discover there is a far graver threat facing London then just earthly grave robbers. Deadly alien beings the Doctor has encountered before are at work, and they bring a whole new twist to the word bodysnatchers...
Plot
to be added
Characters
References
The Doctor's items
- The Zygons destroy the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
Fashion and clothing
- Emmeline wears one of Leela's outfits that Litefoot kept from her visit.
Foods and beverages
- The Doctor eats some gumblejack fish fritters.
Individuals
- Samantha Jones is still seventeen. She wants the Doctor to be proud of her, and does all she can to appear brave to him.
- Professor George Litefoot is almost sixty years old. He's still good friends with Henry Gordon Jago. He still lives at 4 Ranskill Gardens.
Objects
- The Doctor and Sam use Daxmoil suits to protect themselves in the Thames as they escape from the Zygon ship.
Species
- The Xaranti are the enemies that wiped out the Zygons.
- Zygons are from the planet Zygor.
- Skarasens provide milk for the Zygons; baby Skarasens are thirty or forty feet long.
TARDIS
Notes
- To date, this is the only appearance of Litefoot without Henry Gordon Jago.
Continuity
- Litefoot first appeared in TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
- The Zygons first appeared in TV: Terror of the Zygons.
- The Xaranti appear in PROSE: Deep Blue.
- The Doctor tells Litefoot that Leela is married with children. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
- At the beginning of the story, the Doctor morosely evades Sam's enquiry into Jack the Ripper's true identity. (PROSE: Matrix)
- The Doctor remembers being romantically involved with Grace Holloway. (TV: Doctor Who)
- The Doctor uses a Venusian lullaby. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
- The Doctor mentions his encounter with his fourth incarnation. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)