The Room With No Doors (novel)
The Room With No Doors is the fifty-ninth Virgin New Adventures novel. It is the second-last novel in the New Adventures series to feature the Seventh Doctor. It is the last novel to feature just the Seventh Doctor and Chris Cwej pairing.
Publisher's summary
"Dear Doctor," wrote Chris, "I give up."
Swordplay, samurai, demons, magic, aliens, adventure, excitement... Who needs them?
The Doctor and Chris travel to 16th-century Japan, a country gripped by civil war as feudal lords vie for control. Anything could tip the balance of power. So when a god falls out of the sky, everyone wants it. villagers are healed and crops grow far too fast, the Doctor and Chris try to find the secret of the miracles -- before the two rival armies can start a war over who owns the god. Chris soon finds himself alone -- except for an alien slaver, a time-travelling Victorian inventor, a gang of demons, an old friend with suspicious motives, a village full of innocent bystanders, and several thousand samurai.
Without the Doctor, someone has to take up the challenge of adventure and stop the god from falling into the wrong hands. Someone has to be a hero -- but Chris isn’t sure he wants to be a hero any more.
Chapter Titles
First Slice: The killing sword
- A better class of portentous dream
- 1: How to win
- 2: Blue-eyed samurai
- The Room With No Doors
- 3: How to lose
- 4: Rescue (hopefully)
- The Room With No Doors
- 5: Yes, but is it Kannon?
- 6: Flying Heads
- 7: Coffin cure
- 8: Waiting for the demons
- In Penelope's dream
- 9: Pigeon English
Second Slice: The life-giving sword
- 10: Changing direction
- 11: Sixteenth-century digital boy
- 12: Alienation
- 13: Manacle depression
- 14: The writing on the walls
- 15: Cat and mouse
- 16: Fourth-dimension dream
- 17: Time's arrow
- Scream of consciousness
Third Slice: No sword
- 18: Meanwhile, back at the monastery
- Falling upwards
- 19: Needlessly Messianic
- Unturtled
- 20: Half a cat is better than none
- 21: Out of the bag
- 22: Kami Chameleon
- 23: Life in linear time
- 24: Room for living
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Seventh Doctor
- Chris Cwej
- Penelope Gate
- Joel Mintz (Joel Andrew Mintz)
- Te Yene Rana
- Aoi
- Gufuu Kocho
- Kiiro
- Kosen
- Chiyono
- Kadoguchi-roshi
- Kame
References
Biology
- Regeneration was never meant to be an emergency procedure.
Corporations
- Caxtarid mining corporations have strip mined several worlds.
Culture
- Joel wears a Real Ghostbusters t-shirt.
The Doctor
- The Doctor gets shot with an arrow whilst carrying a small girl.
- The Doctor knows that his regeneration grows near.
- The Doctor meditates in a lotus position instead of sleeping, but when he does sleep he screams and shouts.
Individuals
- The death of Liz Shaw weighs heavy on Chris.
- Penelope Gate is twenty-seven years old, Victorian, red haired.
- Joel Mintz (Joel Andrew Mintz) hasn't seen the Doctor and Chris in thirteen years, but he has met the Eighth Doctor.
History
- Joel tries to advance the Japanese and manipulate history.
- Joel handled the Gaffney Incident.
Organisations
- The Doctor is President of the Intergalactic Flora Society.
Planets
- The Caxatrid's home world is the fourth planet of Lalande 21185.
Species
- Caxtarids (or at least Te Yene Rana) have metallic red hair and eyes.
Time travel
- Penelope Gate's time machine has a Tzun battery powering it.
Notes
- In a sequence cut from this novel, Wolsey was to have succumbed to the dreams plaguing Chris, meeting three other cats in the TARDIS: black, white and red, representing the three gods of Gallifrey. They are joined by the rose-woman later to appear in Lungbarrow.[1]
Continuity
- Joel Mintz first met the Doctor and Chris in PROSE: Return of the Living Dad.
- The Doctor ends this novel thinking about his next of kin and family, leading into PROSE: Lungbarrow.
- Liz Shaw is mentioned. She died in the previous story PROSE: Eternity Weeps.
External links
- The Room With No Doors at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: The Room With No Doors at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: The Room With No Doors
Footnotes
