EarthWorld (novel)

Anji Kapoor has just had the worst week of her entire life, and things aren't getting any better. She should be back at her desk, not travelling through time and space in a police box with a couple of strange men.

The Doctor (Strange Man No. 1) is supposed to be returning her to Soho 2001 AD. So quite why there are dinosaurs outside, Anji isn't sure. Sad sixties refugee Fitz (Strange Man No. 2) seems to think they're either in prehistoric times or on a parallel Earth. And the Doctor is probably only pretending to know what's going on — because if he really knew, surely he would have mentioned the homicidal triplet princesses, the teen terrorists, the deadly android doubles (and triples) and the hosts of mad robots?

Anji's never going to complain about Monday mornings in the office again...

2013 BBC Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]

Anji has just had the worst week of her life. She should be back at her desk, not travelling through time and space in a police box. The Eighth Doctor is supposed to be taking her home, so why are there dinosaurs outside? The Doctor doesn't seem to know either, or else he surely would have mentioned the homicidal princesses, teen terrorists and mad robots? One thing is certain: Anji is never going to complain about Monday mornings in the office again.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor tries to return Anji to 2001 Soho, but mistakenly ends up on New Jupiter, a crude mock-up of historical Earth. While running from a caveman android, Anji and the Doctor are separated from Fitz and captured by guards who brand them terrorists and put them in a cell with three other prisoners, teenage boys Zequathon, Beezee, and Xernic. Anji's necklace, which had her name on it, is taken from her. It is identical to the ones worn by the teenagers, who tell the Doctor and Anji that they are members of ANJI, or the Association for New Jupitan Independence, a group trying to give New Jupiter cultural and political independence from Earth, at this time ruled by a feudal President with three daughters, Asia, Antarctica, and Africa. The Doctor and Anji are informed that they are in the death-row cell.

Fitz wanders through an Ancient Egypt zone and happens upon an android version of Antarctica, who takes him to the Twentieth Century London Zone, thinking he is a misplaced android. He tells her that he is a pop singer named Fitz Fortune, but she is unimpressed and returns to the Egypt zone. Fitz meets curator Venna Durwell, who like Antarctica thinks he is a broken android. To convince her that he is real, Fitz points out many errors after she quizzes him on 20th century "topics"--Winston Churchill didn't have seaside boxing matches and there should be no mail-delivering War Machines. Durwell decides to extract his historical knowledge and then kill him to give herself credit for her "research", but he escapes while she deals with a park emergency. A security android brings him to the President's daughters, who demand he give a concert or be killed. To prove they are serious about the latter choice, they take a trip to the Roman zone to see a robotic lion killing another abductee.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

At first the Doctor thinks they may be on a parallel world.
Fitz thinks he would have been "as big as Elvis."
Anji Kapoor has seen the film Blade Runner.
The Eighth Doctor carried elastoplast with him.
The EarthWorld guidebook claims herbivores will eat you if your name is "Herb."
Anji compares the Doctor and Fitz to characters from The Jungle Book.
At Fitz's fifth birthday party, Spam sandwiches were served.
The Doctor sings "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".
Gregor Mendel was considered to be the father of genetics on Earth.
The Ancient World Zone, the Medieval Zone, the Prehistoric Zone and the Japanese Zone are zones of Earthworld.
Anji does not know much about the King Arthur legend, mostly that he pulled the sword from the stone and something about the Holy Grail. Fitz, however, was a big fan, and is angry that Medieval World is getting everything 'wrong'.
The King Arthur legends have changed so that the Lady of the Lake transformed two fish, a marlin and a lancelet, into humans who assist Arthur; he marries Gwinnyveer; goes on a quest for the Holy Grel; and his enemies include the evil Mort, hence the name Mort and Arthur (a corruption of Le Morte d'Arthur), and his three evil sisters Morgan, Leigh, and Fay. Knight names have been corrupted to include Haywain, Gallyhad, and Purposeful.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

The novel was reprinted with a new cover on 7 March 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
In AHistory, this story is arbitrarily dated to 2800, as New Jupiter is a dependency of Earth and the androids are highly advanced.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

There are dinosaurs and cavemen in the Prehistoric Zone. (in the 2013 reprint's foreword, Rayner says the caveman was a homage to An Unearthly Child)
The Twentieth Century Zone, an inaccurate replica of 1960s London, has replicas of the 1960s monsters Robot Yeti and the War Machines. (TV: The War Machines, The Web of Fear) The curators believe that the War Machines delivered post, likely because WOTAN was situated in the Post Office Tower. Fitz, predating Web of Fear, doesn't know why a Yeti is part of the exhibit.
Fitz recounts how he joined the Doctor and the events of PROSE: The Taint.
The Doctor remembers a place where the night sky was burnt orange and the tree leaves were silver. This is almost exactly Susan's description of her home from TV: The Sensorites.
Fitz mentions being James Bond (PROSE: Demontage) and Frank Sinatra. (PROSE: Frontier Worlds)
The Doctor hates being locked up. (PROSE: Seeing I)
The Doctor remembers Alan Turing. (PROSE: The Turing Test)
Fitz mentions that they used to know a bus driver. (PROSE: The Blue Angel)
The Butterfly Room, previously destroyed in PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, is restored.
Fit'z affinity for Arthurian legends also features in PROSE: The Slow Empire where he retells the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The Holy Grel will give Arthur knowledge of good and bad holy facts. The Grel were created as data pirates obsessed with learning facts in PROSE: Oh No It Isn't!.
The Doctor pretends to be Marlin, not knowing that a future version of himself will indeed be Merlin.

Additional cover images[[edit] | [edit source]]

2013 edition. Cover by Two Associates.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]