Borrowed Time was the forty-eighth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Naomi A. Alderman and featured the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
- You may be looking for the comic story.
Publisher's summary
"You want more time Mr Brown, of course, you do. We all want more time. Let me make you an offer..."
Andrew Brown never has enough time. No time to call his sister, or to prepare for that important presentation at the bank where he works. The train's late, the lift jams. If only he'd had just a little more time. And time is the business of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They'll lend him some – at a very reasonable rate of interest.
Detecting a problem, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go undercover at the bank. But they have to move fast to stop Symington and Blenkinsop before they cash in their investments.
Plot
Struggling to manage his time while preparing for an important meeting, Lexington International Bank worker Andrew Brown is paid a visit by the elusive Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop who offer to give him a loan of extra time on condition that he repays them promptly and with interest. Elsewhere, Amy Pond and Rory Williams enjoy their honeymoon in the 55th century by using a Super Lucky Romance Camera to capture and prolong snapshots in time. However, things turn sour when they accidentally trap a swarm of duplicating mutated crabs inside their time bubble and they have to be rescued by the Doctor. The Doctor then whisks Amy and Rory away to 2007 in order to witness the largest bank collapse in human history, that of the Lexington Bank.
Outside of the bank the trio encounter a homeless old woman, Nadia Montgomery, who gives them her card and warns them that the bank will steal their time. Using the psychic paper the Doctor tricked the receptionist into believing he was Doctor Schmidt, an expert from Zurich, and that Amy was his assistant. For Rory, however, the paper claimed that he was a new employee for the mailroom and he was led away. The Doctor and Amy met with the bank boss Vanessa Laing-Rabdall and they came to witness the unexplained death of middle-aged worker Brian Edelman. Vanessa and her assistant Jane Blythe attempted to brush the situation under the carpet by suggesting that Edelman has passed away due to overworking himself as he refused to take holidays but the Doctor and Amy were unconvinced, especially as Amy had seen him checking his non-existent watch seconds prior to keeling over.
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Characters
References
- Earth is referred to as "the most frequently attacked, colonised, exploited and enslaved planet in the Five Galaxies".
- In the aftermath of Symington and Blenkinsop's defeat, the cleanup at the bank is taken care of by UNIT and Torchwood.
- The Doctor claims to be a unicorn.
Foods and Beverages
- The Doctor has an apple in his pocket.
- Rory's favourite sandwiches are ham and cheese.
Notes
- The Millennium Dome is being used as a secret self-storage depot for intergalactic travellers called "Little Green Storage", under the auspices of a small alien called the Yomalet-Ram.
- The Doctor gives twenty years of his own lifetime to settle the debt Amy incurred on her Time Harvester.
- This story was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions the Mandragora Helix, suggesting that a temporal flux caused by it was responsible for the death of renaissance nobleman Piero de Medici. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)
- Author Naomi A. Alderman has cited The Masque of Mandragora as one of her favourite Doctor Who stories. [1]
- The Doctor mentions World War VI. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
- The Doctor mentions needing to keep a diary again. The Second Doctor previously used a diary when he first regenerated (TV: The Power of the Daleks) and the Eighth Doctor also had one. (TV: Doctor Who)
- The Doctor encounters a group of robots attempting to assemble a TARDIS console using a burned book, which could possibly be the Doctor's TARDIS manual, recovered from the supernova he claimed to have thrown it in. (TV: Amy's Choice)
- UNIT is mentioned. (TV: Aliens of London)
- The Doctor is referred to as the "Raggedy Doctor". (TV: The Eleventh Hour, et al)
- When Amy borrows time, she visits her parents. (TV: The Big Bang)
- The Doctor mentions having faced Genghis Khan; (PROSE: Blood Harvest, TV: Rose)
Audio release
- The story was released as an audiobook download read by Meera Syal and was available from the AudioGo website before the company went into administration.
Additional cover images
2018 edition
Editions published outside Britain
- Published in France by Milady in 2012 as a paperback edition.
- Published in China by New Star Press in February 2021 as a paperback edition.
Audiobook
- This novel was released as an audiobook in April 2012 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Meera Syal.
Audiobook cover
