Shroud of Sorrow (novel)

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Shroud of Sorrow is one of three Eleventh Doctor novels published in April 2013 and the first to feature Clara Oswald.

Publisher's summary

23 November 1963

It is the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination and the faces of the dead are everywhere. PC Reg Cranfield sees his late father in the mists along Totter's Lane. Reporter Mae Callon sees her grandmother in a coffee stain on her desk. FBI Special Agent Warren Skeet finds his long-dead partner staring back at him from raindrops on a window pane.

The faces begin to talk and scream and push through into our world as the alien Shroud begins to feast on the grief of a world in mourning. Can the Doctor dig deep enough into his own sorrow to save mankind?

Plot

After Clara and the Doctor help a ship to fly away, from a world covered in a vast, bubble bath filled liquid, they are entailed in an adventure that involves them thwarting an aliens plot to send the whole world into grief. They end up meeting a news reporter and an FBI agent on the 23 November 1963, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who help the Doctor along with an army of clowns to stop the Shroud from draining the world full of happiness.

Characters

References

  • A character in this book, Reg Cranfield, is a policeman patrolling Totter's Lane, and is named for the actor who played the policeman at the beginning of TV: "An Unearthly Child".
  • Mae works at the Dallas Morning News on Young Street.
  • As the Doctor starts up the TARDIS, he mentions fueling the thermo buffer and flash updating the nano-ram.
  • The Doctor says that the wormhole circling Earth is similar to a doughnut before redacting his statement and saying that it's more like a Scotch egg.
  • An ambulance is used as the Doctor's main mode of transportation when the TARDIS doesn't work.
  • By using some form of telepathy, the Doctor travels inside Ben's mind to see what the Shroud is doing to him.
  • The Doctor says that he left primary school when he was 45 years old.
  • The Doctor brings up his degree in cheese again, but specifies that it's "only the stinky, blue kind".
  • Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and her book, On Death and Dying, are brought up when the Doctor realises that her theory about the five stages of grief were correct. The two of them apparently argued about it.
  • The Doctor spent his gap year in the Bethlem Royal Hospital, mentioning that it was a nice place before he went to visit Peter Streete. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
  • The Doctor once met John F. Kennedy at a party in the 1950's, just before getting engaged to Marilyn Monroe at Frank Sinatra's house. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
  • The Doctor uses Lethbridge-Stewart's name and rank as an alias (though he quickly swaps "brigadier" for "colonel" mid-sentence), and dons a moustache for the occasion.
  • When Clara asks how the Doctor changed his outfit so quickly, he replies with "wibbly-wobbly wardrobe".
  • The Doctor uses the foot of a sock, a satsuma, a nectarine, and a length of string to explain how a wormhole works.
  • The Doctor describes the Time Vortex as a "huge, complicated, multidimensional, trans-temporal thingy" that comes in two colors.
  • The wormhole in this story is described as unique; there was a tunnel that needed to be traversed, unlike other wormholes that were instantaneous, there was breathable air, it had a solid area to walk across (though it was described as uneven), it resembled a "dead" Time Vortex, and had the bodies of the Shroud's previous victims spread across its walls. The Doctor mentions that the bodies greatly resembled the bodies of Pompeii. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii; AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan) People that travel across the wormhole also have a chance of experiencing a mental jump and going through what one of the victims went through before their death.
  • The houses built into the side of the hill are described as hobbit holes by Clara.
  • The entire contents of the Doctor's pockets include the Sonic Screwdriver, the Psychic Paper, a satsuma, a nectarine, a piece of string, a pair of scissors, a carrot, an original Paul E. Wirt pen, given to him by Mark Twain after he had written the first draft of Huckleberry Finn (Twain was apparently a terrible speller), a large key, a computer mouse, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, and a recorder.
  • Semtis is a planet situated in the top left-hand corner of the Andromeda galaxy.
  • The Doctor refers to clown cars as the only other dimensionally transcendental vehicle in the universe besides the TARDIS. They are inspired by Gallifreyan technology such as the Type 40 TARDIS.
  • Clara comes across a sauna in the TARDIS.
  • The Doctor mentions that he met a Sontaran stand-up comedian.
  • The Doctor asks Mae if her grandmother is an alien or at least an Auton.

Notes

  • Of the three novels released in April 2013, this is the only one to feature Clara Oswald and marks her literary debut.
  • At the time of its release, this was the only piece of spin-off fiction confirmed to feature Clara, as neither the Doctor Who Magazine nor Doctor Who Adventures comic strips, nor AudioGO talking books line had announced any upcoming stories featuring the companion.
  • The novel is set on and around 23rd November, 1963, the day Doctor Who debuted, and revisits Totter's Lane.
  • This was the last BBC New Series Adventures novel featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Continuity

Audio release

An audiobook version of the story, read by Frances Barber, was released by AudioGO, with a play time of 5h, 41min.

External links

to be added

v • e
BBC New Series Adventures
 
Ninth Doctor
Main book series
Rose
Rose and Jack
 
Tenth Doctor
Main book series
Rose
Martha
Donna
Alone
Quick Reads
Rose
Martha
Alone
Audiobooks
Donna
Alone
 
Eleventh Doctor
Main book series
Amy
Amy and Rory
Alone
Clara
Quick Reads
Amy and Rory
Alone
Audiobooks
Amy
Amy and Rory
2-in-1 books
Amy and Rory
 
Twelfth Doctor
Main book series
Clara
Benny
Bill
Bill and Nardole
Audiobooks
Clara
Alex and Brandon
Alone
 
Thirteenth Doctor
Main book series
Ryan, Yaz and Graham
Ryan, Yaz, Graham and Ace
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