Festival of Death was the thirty-fifth novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Jonathan Morris, released 4 September 2000 and featured the Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9.
- You may be looking for the titular festival.
Publisher's summary
2000 BBC Books edition
The Beautiful Death. The ultimate theme-park ride. For twenty galactic credits, you can find out what it's like to be dead.
But something has gone wrong. Visitors expecting a sightseeing tour of the afterlife have been transformed into mindless zombies, set on a killing rampage.
The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the disaster and, to the Doctor's baffled delight, he is immediately congratulated for saving the population from certain and terrible destruction.
The only problem is, he hasn't actually done it yet.
Aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter and a suicidal ship's computer, the Doctor has no choice but to travel back in time and discover exactly how he became a hero.
And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life.
2013 BBC Books edition
The Beautiful Death is the ultimate theme-park ride: a sightseeing tour of the afterlife. But something has gone wrong, and when the Fourth Doctor arrives in the aftermath of the disaster, he is congratulated for saving the population from destruction – something he hasn't actually done yet. He has no choice but to travel back in time and discover how he became a hero. And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life.
Plot
to be added
Characters
References
Alcoholic beverages
- Hoopy and his friends drink Old Bizzarre.
Cultural References
- ERIC sings Don't Dilly Dally on the Way by Charles Collins.
Drugs
- Illegal narcotics used by Hoopy and his friends include Glycerat, Novovacuous, Phenyzide, Etheramyl, Opiasamin and Tutranol
The Doctor
- The Doctor has met General George Armstrong Custer.
- The Doctor failed his Time Travel Proficiency test at the Academy because he didn't turn up for it.
- The Doctor carries in his pocket a copy of Bor Pollag's Book of Alien Monsters, which includes illustrated entries on Akker-Takkers, Algolian Sithersbacks, Apostles of Grarb, and the Arachnopods.
- The Doctor, as he is about to die, quotes multiple final phrases:
- "It is a far, far better thing that I do now, than I have ever done. And it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known" from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
- "If I should die, think only this of me..." from the poem The Soldier by Rupert Brooke.
- Oscar Wilde's last words "Either that wallpaper goes or I go!"
- "How's the empire?", from the morning of King George V's death.
- Goethe's last words "More light! More light!"
- "And so to bed," an expression often used by Samuel Pepys at the end of his day's diary entry.
- "[My life] is conquered at last", a misquote of the poem For Annie by Edgar Allan Poe.
- "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come", a line from the Shakespeare play Hamlet.
- "Out, out, brief candle!" a line from the Shakespeare play Macbeth.
Famous Persons
- Romana quotes Richard Dawkins' saying "However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain there are vastly more ways of being dead."
- The Doctor and Romana quote Shakespeare's line "What's past and what's to come is strew'd with husks, and formless ruin of oblivion." The Doctor also misquotes "Alas, poor Yorick!", a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
- The Doctor quotes "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," a quote attributed to Mark Twain.
History
- By 3012 the 20th century is considered ancient history.
Literature
- The co-pilot of the Montressor reads Shrieking Boy Veepjill - The Myth Behind the Truth - An Autobiography.
- Magazines available in the year 3012 include Guards and Guarding and Holding Captive.
- The Doctor quotes multiple passages from the Bible, including:
- "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." from Psalm 23:4
- "Oh grave, where is thy victory?" from 1 Corinthians 15:55
Planets
- In 3012 Earth colonies include Third Birmingham and Nudism Four.
Species
- Alabast elephosaurs are highly immune to painkillers.
- Gonzies are a race of short, orange-skinned reptilian humanoids from the planet Gonzos.
Spaceships
Time Lords
- Academi Plurix coined the term pre-jà vu, the sensation that one is going to have been somewhere before. It applies only to Time Lords.
- The Doctor and Romana make multiple mentions of the Web of Time and the First Law of Time.
Notes
- This novel was re-released on 7 March 2013 with a new cover to celebrate the Doctor Who 50th anniversary.
- Before the Doctor sacrifices himself he tells Romana to "Keep Australia Beautiful". This is a humourous nod to the 1979 campaign Keep Australia Beautiful advertisement where Tom Baker reprises his role for a series of adverts.
- Romana quotes Richard Dawkins and tells the Doctor that the quote was by someone he wouldn't know. This is a reference to Lalla Ward being married to Richard Dawkins after previously in a relationship with Tom Baker.
Continuity
- Romana states that if not for his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor would probably still be trapped in a cellar in Paris in 1979. (TV: City of Death)
- The TARDIS jumps a time track. (TV: The Space Museum; AUDIO: Aquitaine, Renaissance of the Daleks)
- The Doctor mentions to Romana that as Time Lords, they have a unique sensitivity to distortions in time. (TV: City of Death)
- The Doctor refers to the Repulsion as "an ancient evil from the dawn of time", a term he would later use to describe Fenric in his Seventh incarnation. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
- The Doctor says "Sorry, must dash," a phrase often used in his fifth incarnation. (TV: Time-Flight, The Five Doctors et al)
- Romana was trained in the Academy to stop her hearts beating for a short time, and enter a state of suspended animation. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
- The Doctor tracks Romana's time trail in the TARDIS, something he would do again in his Eleventh incarnation. (COMIC: Random History)
- This would not be the last time the Doctor travels back multiple times in his personal timeline and in the same adventure. Most notably, the Eleventh Doctor would do so to release his past self from the Pandorica and leaving notes for Amelia Pond. (TV: The Big Bang)
- The Doctor throws away the textbook for his basic time travel proficiency test in annoyance. The Eleventh Doctor similarly admitted that he'd disagreed with the TARDIS instruction manual so much that he threw it into a supernova. (TV: Amy's Choice)
- The Fourth Doctor and Romana discuss the possibility of travelling elsewhere for months and years and avoiding the Doctor's death. They ultimately decide against it and return immediately.
- The Eleventh Doctor would also know about his upcoming death at Lake Silencio, but unlike the Fourth Doctor spends time delaying his arrival there and putting his affairs in order. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut et al)
- Clara Oswald, in a similar situation, also decided not to return to the fixed point of her death immediately but to travel in a TARDIS with Me (TV: Hell Bent)
Additional cover images
2013 edition. Cover by Two Associates.
