Blood Heat is the nineteenth novel in the Virgin New Adventures series of novels. It was written by Jim Mortimore, and features the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Bernice. This is the first New Adventure novel to delve into an alternate universe, spawned from alternate events of Doctor Who and the Silurians.
Publisher's summary
‘Not men, Ace. Silurians. The original rulers of the Earth.’
The TARDIS is attacked by an alien force; Bernice is flung into the Vortex; and the Doctor and Ace crash-land on Earth.
An attack by dinosaurs convinces the Doctor that he and Ace have arrived in the Jurassic Era. But when they find a woman being hunted by intelligent reptiles, he begins to suspect that something is very wrong.
Then they meet the embittered Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, leading the remnants of UNIT in a hopeless fight against the Silurians who rule his world. And they find out that it all began when the Doctor died...
Characters
References
Aquatic vessels
The HMS Revenge carries Nuclear missiles.
Biology
- Morka injects Bernice Summerfield with a virus which cures the Race Memory fear.
- The Silurian virus is known as the Nightmare.
The Doctor
- The Doctor has two more ribs than a human.
- Morka killed the alternative third Doctor, it shocks the Doctor this occured.
- Finds the Brigadier's actions terrible however.... the Doctor then performs a Time Ram to destroy this universe in order to save his own universe after lying to Ace and Benny about ensuring the Alternative Universe has a semi-natural lifespan.
The Doctor's items
- Ace finds a sonic screwdriver in amongst the (dead) third Doctor's pockets.
Individuals
- Jo Grant was sent to retrieve the launch codes the Brigadier planned to use. But she goes insane from a combination of radiation exposure and Race Memory fear.
- Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart injects a stimulant into Jo Grant to get information from her, it kills her.
- Liz Shaw married a man named James Lester, he hit his head looking for food and died.
- Bernice gets shot while trying to stop the nuclear missiles.
- Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart bursts into tears over all the death he caused (including the shattered eggs of the Silurians).
- Manisha saw her version of Ace die, an inversion of the case in the primary universe, where Ace saw Manisha die when her flat was firebombed. (DW: Ghost Light)
Military
- Ace has been out of the Spacefleet for a few months, though she still wears the uniform/body armour.
Species
- The Dilophosaurus is a type of theropod Dinosaur.
TARDISes
- The TARDIS falls through a puncture in the Time Vortex.
- Ace manages to lift up the TARDIS (which had fallen on its doors), single-handedly and with a broken arm.
- Ace makes the (alternate universe) TARDIS materialise around Earth (around the whole planet), forcing everything into a state of temporal grace.
- The Doctor uses the secondary console room.
- The Doctor takes his third self's TARDIS from the alternate universe as his is lost in a tar pit, this TARDIS has a working Chameleon Circuit.
Weapons
- Ace's new variant of Nitro-9 - Nitro-9 smart bombs can fly and take verbal commands.
- Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart launches a nuclear warhead at the Silurian capital city in Africa.
- Ace has an oval scar on her stomach cause by a Special Weapons Dalek.
Notes
- A prelude to this novel was published in DWM 205.
Continuity
- Blood Heat marks the beginning of the pentalogy of New Adventure novels loosely known as the Alternative Universe Arc. This comprises this novel, The Dimension Riders, The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Conundrum and No Future.
- A similar journey into an alternate universe (which has an alternate version of UNIT and Silurians) occured in DWM: Final Genesis.
- Blood Heat references DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians as its starting point for the divergent timeline. Deadly Genesis also branches off from the events seen in that story.
- The Doctor's original TARDIS (here lost in a tar pit) is returned to him in NA: Happy Endings.
- Manisha was mentioned in DW: Ghost Light.
- The TARDIS also (similarly) falls through a puncture in the time vortex in DW: The Age of Steel.
- The Doctor may have been partially aware of the events of this story, including his own involvement with them, prior to his arrival in the alternative timeline as his previous incarnation once commented to his companion Evelyn Smythe that, from what he has heard, his future self is "always blowing up planets." (BFA: The 100 Days of the Doctor)
Timeline
- This story takes place after DWM: The Last Word
- This story takes place before DWM: Final Genesis