Prelude Blood Heat (short story)

Prelude Blood Heat was, as the name suggested, a prelude to Blood Heat by Jim Mortimore. It did not appear in the published novel.

	The Silurians
	Jim Mortimore
	Phil Bevan
	DWM 205
	30 September 1993
	27 October 1993
← Previous	Prelude Iceberg
Next →	Prelude The Dimension Riders

Summary

The Silurians Morka and Kchtaal kill primitive humans for fun. Their tribe's leader, Morka's father, tells Morka he must go hunting for primitive humans to take into the shelters to make up for the ones that were killed.

Morka and Kchtaal encounter a tribe which attacks them with rocks and sticks, killing Kchtaal and injuring Morka. He brings Kchtaal's body back to the city. They must evacuate the city because of an earthquake, and Morka must decide whether to bury Kchtaal there, leaving him behind, or carry him to the northern city.

Characters

• Morka
• Kchtaal
• Morka's father

Worldbuilding

• The story is a twist on the prologue in Malcolm Hulke's novelisation of The Silurians: both feature the species about to enter hibernation and the status of early humans, as seen by a prominent Silurian. Instead of Okdel's despondency about the situation and his concern for the humans, we have Morka's callousness and selfishness, and his last act being to kill. The last sentence, "a rage that would last a hundred million years", twists Hulke's last line about Okdel not seeing the sun "for a hundred million years".
• Morka rides a dilophosaurus, while Kchtaal rides a plateosaurus.
• A volcanic eruption causes an earthquake which endangers the Silurian city and buries the entrance to the shelter.
• Okdel is the leader of the northern city.
• Morka thinks K'to is stupid for thinking humans can speak words.

Notes

• In 2015, Jim Mortimore self-published a "Director's Cut" of Blood Heat and included the prelude as part of it (which the published novel had not). Several changes were made:
  • Kchtaal is replaced with Chtaachtl, and Chtaachtl also replaces Bokka K'to as someone Morka thinks is stupid for believing humans can speak (which evidently doesn't stop her torturing them for fun).
  • Morka and Chtaachtl bring "no raptors" rather than "no herrerasaurus".
  • When trying to link with Chtaachtl, he starts hearing "Berenice".
  • Morka's father doesn't mention Okdel and instead names the city they're going to head for (Ophidian).

Continuity

• Most of the Silurians have gone into hibernation. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)

Illustrations

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External links

• The entire text of the piece at the Doctor Who Reference Guide