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Instruments of Darkness was the forty-eighth BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel. It featured the Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush and Evelyn Smythe. This was the first novel to feature a character from Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio story range. Evelyn Smythe had first appeared in the audio story The Marian Conspiracy, and when this novel was published had appeared in five audio stories.
Publisher's summary
The leaders on planet Earth think that the Magnate is a mysterious "shadow Government" that controls the world. It isn't. The leaders believe the Network to be a ramshackle, paranoid outfit of European anarchists who will eventually blow themselves up. They won't. The leaders believe that if there are humans who can control things with their minds — ESPnets — they're few and far between, and not worth worrying about. They're wrong. The leaders believe that one minute after midnight on 31 December 1993, a new year, full of promise, will begin. They're wrong.
The Doctor and Mel arrive on Earth just days before New Year. An old friend has been kidnapped and taken to France. And two murderous enemies are setting up a new life in the Peak District. Which of these threats should the Doctor deal with first? And why is his old travelling companion Evelyn Smythe using her knowledge of the future to make a fortune from chocolate cake recipes?!
Chapter Titles
- Something Always Happens
- Rapt: In The Evening Air
- That Was Close
- To Add to the Confusion
- Eye of the Needle
- Why Me?
- Paranoimia
- Memento
- Shades of Paranoimia
- No Sun
- Dreaming in Colour
- I of the Needled
- A Time to Fear
- A Time to Hear (Who's Listening?)
- A Time to Clear (It Up)
- Saluting the Point of No Return
- The Holy Egoism of Genius
- Instruments of Lightness
- Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Sixth Doctor
- Melanie Bush
- Evelyn Smythe
- Ashley Moby
- Cellian
- Ciara
- Charles Dickinson
- Cummings
- Damien Braun
- Feasance
- Gary Rudge
- Janine Gilbert
- Joe Hambidge
- John Doe
- Justin Dickinson
- Kyto-Ma
- Lai-Ma
- Loretta van Cheaden
- Maurice Devin
- de Meanour
- Mike Dudley
- Richard Hope-Urwin
- Sebastian Malvern
- Shelley Kurtzmann
- Therése Gavalle
- Tim Hall
- Tko-Ma
- Trey Korte
- Woody Ashburn
References
Vehicles
- Mel scolds the Doctor for failing to return a hired Volkswagen Beetle. He protests that his former companions, Grant Markham and Evelyn Smythe, would have let him keep the car.
Notes
- This is a sequel to PROSE: The Scales of Injustice and PROSE: Business Unusual.
- This account of Mel's first meeting with Evelyn, along with Evelyn's post-TARDIS life, is in open and irresolvable conflict with AUDIO: Thicker than Water and A Death in the Family.
Continuity
- The Doctor's first meeting with Evelyn is mentioned. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) Evelyn also refers to meeting Romana II (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) and Charles Darwin. (AUDIO: Bloodtide)