Evolution (novel)
- For the scientific theory of the same name, see Evolution.
Publisher's Summary
'Someone is tampering with the fabric of the human cell,’ the Doctor said darkly, ‘perverting its secrets to his own dark purposes.'
Sarah Jane wants to meet her fellow journalist Rudyard Kipling, and the Doctor sets the co-ordinates for England, Earth, in the Victorian Age. As usual, the TARDIS materializes in not quite the right place, and the time travellers find themselves pursued across Devon moorland by a huge feral hound.
Children have gone missing; at the local boarding school, the young Rudyard Kipling has set up search parties. Lights have been seen beneath the waters of the bay, and fishermen have been pulled from their boats and mutilated. Graves have been robbed of their corpses. Something is going on, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the ship’s doctor from a recently berthed arctic whaler, is determined to investigate.
The Doctor and Doyle join forces to uncover a macabre scheme to interfere with human evolution - and both Sarah Jane and Kipling face a terrifying transmogrification.
Characters
References
to be added
Notes
- The Doctor is the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes (and, possibly, Professor Challenger, as mentioned in the novel's coda). Specifically referenced are Holmes's choice of dress (the Doctor wears a Deerstalker cap and long cloak), his methods of deductive reasoning, and close reading of footprints to determine events at a crime scene.
- There are also numerous references to The Hound of the Baskervilles, especially in the early parts of the novel, concerning a great dog-like beast claiming victims on the moors.
- It is also possible that the relationship between Edmund and Percival Ross is an oblique reference to the relationship between Holmes and his older brother, Mycroft Holmes, who, like Edmund Ross, was the more intelligent of the two and in some clandestine service to the Crown.
Continuity
- In several scenes told from Sarah Jane's point of view, she refers to the planet Karn and the encounter with Morbius in The Brain of Morbius. Specifically, she compares the moors to Karn and observes the effect that adventure has had on the Doctor's mood. Her observations imply this story takes place almost immediately after The Brain of Morbius concluded.
- Sarah Jane swims in the TARDIS's "bathroom", not seen onscreen until The Invasion of Time.
- A crashed Rutan ship is key to the backstory; this story occurs (within the Doctor's personal chronology) prior to Horror of Fang Rock, which is also about events set in motion by a Rutan crashing in an isolated part of the English coast.
Timeline
- Evolution occurs after: DW: The Brain of Morbius.
- Evolution occurs before: DW: The Seeds of Doom.
External Links
- The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of Evolution
- Whoniverse Discontinuity Guide entry for Evolution
