Oh No It Isn't! (novel)
Oh No It Isn't! is the first of Virgin Books' range of Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures range of novels. This was the continuation of Bernice Summerfield's story following the loss of the Doctor Who licence. The final story featuring the Eighth Doctor and Bernice Summerfield, The Dying Days, ended with the Doctor taking Bernice to the planet Dellah, where this novel begins.
Publisher's summary
"The King's balls get bigger every year!"
Bernice Surprise Summerfield is settling into her new job as Professor of Archaeology at St. Oscar's University on the planet Dellah — one of the most prestigious centres of learning in the Milky Way. She wants to put her past, especially her failed marriage, behind her.
So she's glad when she gets the chance to take her tutorial group to investigate the lost civilisation of Perfecton. Three whole weeks of archaeological research in the field. The perfect way to forget your worries.
She doesn't bank on three things.
That Menlove Stokes, Professor of Applied Art, and various other academics would be along for the ride. That vicious alien marauders would decide to explore the planet at the same time. And that a reactivated Perfecton device would plunge her into a situation that can only be described as — panto.
Plot
to be added
Characters
References
Books
- Benny accidentally gives Michael Doran a copy of Make Dangerous Love to Me - The Erotic Poetry of Carla Tsampiras. She tries to save face by claiming "There are bits about archaeology."
- Benny is still working on (and trying to get out of writing) her sequel to Down Among the Dead Men.
- The library on Dellah contains the Book of Lies.
Culture
- Benny uses Ah A Perfume For An Alien or Human.
Individuals
- Benny has the name Dick Whittington in the panto reality.
- God sends members of the Tiny But Interesting Interest Group to contact Benny about becoming an agent for them.
- Wolsey is transformed into a seven-foot-tall swashbuckler with marked propensities for singing, tap-dancing, and rude jokes.
- Menlove Stokes is professor of Applied Arts at St. Oscar's University.
- Joseph is Benny's robotic porter, who looks like a hovering sphere about the size of a billiard ball.
Locations
- Benny usually tries to get a word out of the Goll security who guard the Advanced Research Department, but she speaks very little Goll.
- St. Oscar's University is located on the planet Dellah. The Sultan of Tashwari was the original founder of the university.
Species
- The Grel's afterlife is called Slawcor.
- The Perfectons are small blue humanoids.
Notes
- The novel's title is a reference to a traditional audience participation line common in pantomime productions. Whenever a character on stage says "Oh no it isn't!" the audience calls back "Oh yes it is!" and vice-verse.
- This novel was adapted by Jacqueline Rayner as a Big Finish audio drama (see Oh No It Isn't).
- There are quite a lot of rude jokes throughout the novel, many of them made by Wolsey. This is likely a reference to the risque double entendres aimed at the parents in panto theatre.
- Wolsey confirms Benny's suspicions about human-cat relations when he refers to her as "servant-woman".
- The image on the cover of this novel actually happens in the novel.
- This is the first novel published by Virgin following their loss of the Doctor Who licence (it returned to the BBC and they began publishing their Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures). As such in this range no direct references are made to BBC-copyrighted elements such as the Doctor or the TARDIS. However any characters and other elements could be licenced from their creators, as such multiple characters and other elements that previously appeared in other New Adventures appear in this novel and the rest of the BNA range.
Continuity
- Benny was taken to Dellah by the Eighth Doctor at the end of PROSE: The Dying Days.
- Benny first met God in PROSE: The Also People.
- This novel introduces Marcus Krytell; Benny meets him in PROSE: Ship of Fools.
External links
- Oh No It Isn't at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Oh No It Isn't! at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Oh No It Isn't!
