Heart of TARDIS (novel)
- You may be looking for the core, or "heart", of the TARDIS.
Heart of TARDIS was the thirty-second novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Dave Stone, released 5 June 2000 and featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield and the Fourth Doctor, Romana I and K9.
This was the first multi-Doctor novel in the Past Doctor Adventures line up, though in BBC Books' overall publishing line up the most recent multi-Doctor novel was PROSE: Interference - Book One/Interference - Book Two. Unlike previous multi-Doctor stories the Second and Fourth Doctors do not meet in this novel.
Publisher's summary
In the American Midwestern town of Lychburg, something is afoot. Its citizens are being killed in inexpressibly horrible and brutal ways and the police don't have a clue who's responsible. The only suspects are a mysterious and sinister stranger, who calls himself the Doctor, and his young companions Jamie and Victoria.
The Fourth Doctor and Romana, meanwhile, have been summoned by the Gallifreyan High Council. A force has been unleashed into the space/time continuum... a force so unimaginably terrible that it is set to rip the universe itself apart and plunge it into primal, screaming chaos from which nothing will survive.
Of course, since something of this nature happens every other day of the week, the Doctor's really far more interested in finding out what's happened to a close personal friend, who seems to have vanished under mysterious circumstances. And quite right, too. The fate of a universe plunging into foetid and unending chaos can look out for itself for a change...
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Second Doctor
- Jamie McCrimmon
- Victoria Waterfield
- Fourth Doctor
- Romana I
- K9 Mark II
- The Brigadier
- John Benton
- Wblk
- Clancy Tilson
- Katharine Delbane
- Joel Haasterman
- Sohn
References
Biology
- John Benton was exposed to something during his career in UNIT that enables him to hold off the effects of an anaesthetic dart for a short time.
Culture
- Monty Python and The Holy Grail is mentioned.
The Doctor
- The Second Doctor has small, neat handwriting.
- The Second Doctor can play the recorder while hanging upside down.
- The Fourth Doctor reflects that one of the things lost during his forced regenerations was the knack for making soufflés.
- Romana disapproves of the style of the Second Doctor's console room, while the Fourth Doctor at least appreciates it from a nostalgic perspective.
Individuals
- Victoria Waterfield is afraid of rats and spiders.
- The Fourth Doctor abandons the quest for the Key to Time the moment he thinks the Brigadier is in danger.
- K9 Mark II has been left behind and recovered by the Doctor after so many long absences that Romana speculates that he must be the oldest coherent lump of matter in the universe when they got him out of the Big Huge and Educational Collection of Old Galactic Stuff.
- The Brigadier meets Romana I.
- Victoria mentions her father.
Languages
- Jamie McCrimmon can now write in English although it's broken and spelt phonetically.
Species
- The Daleks, upon hearing rumours of Collectors present near their system, pretend that their planet had been destroyed.
- The Second Doctor notes that his people are sensitive to the 'shape' of the world, allowing him to sense that he is in a pocket dimension such as the one containing Lychburg.
- The Fourth Doctor met two Jarakabeth. One was impersonating Aleister Crowley, the other was Katharine Delbane.
Technology
- Victoria has trouble coping with escalators.
- There are many things rumoured to be magical that the Golgotha Project is said to have searched for. One of these is Excalibur.
Notes
- The Fourth Doctor sees and hides from the Second Doctor in the TARDIS console room at one point; the two never actually meet, with the Fourth hiding under the console on the opposite side from his past self until the Second Doctor leaves the console room again.
- Many of the characters are direct copies of The Simpsons characters in this novel (not the Doctor or any of his companions, of course). However Dr Nick (Dr Rick), Dr Hibbert, comic book guy and others all make noticeable appearances to the Second Doctor. A bartender named "Moe" is mentioned.
Continuity
- The Fourth Doctor is on his quest for the Key to Time. (TV: The Ribos Operation, etc)
- As the TARDIS malfunctions, the Fourth Doctor says, "Oh no, not again!", something his eighth incarnation would later say in a similar situation. (TV: Doctor Who)
- The Fourth Doctor claims to have witnessed some Time Wars, which might explain why he knows about the Charon. (PROSE: Sky Pirates!)
- Delbane uses the Brigadier's spacetime telegraph to contact the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons)
- Jamie mentions his first meeting with the Doctor. (TV:The Highlanders)
- Victoria, although used to technology in her travels, cannot cope with the idea of escalators. She reminds herself that she has seen "...metal men who walked (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) and people living in crystal bubbles."
- The Second Doctor refers to his body as "new," referencing his recent regeneration from his previous incarnation. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
- When the Golgotha Project activated the magical item, code-named "the Arimathea Artefact," it opened a "rift," similar to the one in Cardiff. (TV: The Unquiet Dead, etc)
- As the Fourth Doctor closes the TARDIS door, part of his scarf is shut in it, something he would later do. (TV: Shada) In this instance, the scrap of scarf stays behind, fluttering to the ground.
- As the Second Doctor is near-death, the Fourth Doctor feels weak. A similar event would happen to the Sixth Doctor. (TV: The Two Doctors)
External links
- Heart of TARDIS at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Heart of TARDIS at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Heart of TARDIS
