Search for the Doctor was the first in a series of "choose-your-own-adventure" style gamebooks, titled Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who in the UK and released in the US in Ballantine Books' Find Your Fate line.
Publisher's summary
UK and Australian editions
Have you ever longed to climb aboard the TARDIS and enter another dimension? Meet the Doctor and join him in outwitting his enemies? Well, now's your chance! All you need is a pair of dice, a pencil, a little bit of luck and all your wits about you. Ready?
Search for the Doctor The year is 2056, and the Doctor is trapped in toroidal stasis by arch enemy Omega. But help is at hand from the Doctor's old friends Drax and K9 — and you! Now open the covers and join the Doctor in an adventure through Time and Space...
US edition
YOU are the only hope for the salvation of the Doctor in SEARCH FOR THE DOCTOR
The year is 2056. From the Fern Spacelab orbiting above the Fusion Energy Research Network in California, OMEGA has mounted a devastating attack.
OMEGA plans to take over the Doctor's mind and body. By controlling the Doctor's awesome power, OMEGA can take revenge on the Time Lords, who sacrificed him to obtain the secret of Time Travel.
YOU will join forces with DRAX and K9 to free the Doctor and defeat OMEGA. As DRAX uses his secondhand TARDIS (cleverly disguised as a 1956 Cadillac) and K9 uses his impressive electronic skills, YOU must use all your wits to FIND YOUR FATE
Plot
Marker Zero
You were visiting the Natural History Museum, in the year 2056. There, a guard brought you to an obscure part of the archive. In the corner is a gray-flecked fibreglass crate. The crate reads Property of Sarah Jane Smith. Not for Exhibition. The guard asked you if Smith was a friend of yours, and you respond she was a family friend that you never knew. You signed for the crate, thus beginning the greatest adventure of your life.
Hours later, you study the crate, which has been dragged to your hotel room by two porters. You grow angry at how it is impossible to access the crate, and kick it. Then, a mysterious man appears and begins speaking to you. The man is dressed it outlandish clothes, and somehow got into your room despite it being locked. He tells you his name: Drax.
Drax studies the crate, lifting it above his head with ease. He tells you it won't be of any use to you, and asks how much you want for it. He then asks for the time and, strangely, the year. He offers you €25,500 for the crate.
- If you take the money, go to Five. If you decline it, go to Two.
Marker Two
You decide not to give in to Drax's offer. He ups his offer to €50,000, then €100,000, but you continue to turn him down. Finally, Drax asks what you want. You tell Drax that you refuse to barter until you see what's in the crate, and you have a hunch that Drax knows how to open it. Drax agrees to help you see what's inside, and hits the crate with a hammer. This reveals a number pad, which Drax suspects is set up only for your use. You press your hands against the pad, which releases the container, revealing a robot shaped like a Doctor. A letter is included from Sarah Jane, identifying this as K9 Mark III.
Marker One
The Doctor continues to face Omega, and decides that the TARDIS is only a machine, and not worth the weight of a single human life. He agrees to give in to Omega's powers and demands. Taking him to the TARDIS, he reveals to Omega the secrets of the vortices of time.
As Omega stands at the TARDIS controls, the Doctor feels himself diminish. His life-force fades, his power of regeneration fades. "I am yours Omega," he says, "You have won." The Doctor is absorbed into Omega's inner darkness. Omega triumphs.
Characters
References
Notes
- There is a brief explanation of fission, written by the Doctor, in the back of the novel.
Alternative covers
US cover
Australian cover
