Search for the Doctor (novel)
Search for the Doctor was the first in a series of "choose-your-own-adventure" style gamebooks, titled Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who in the UK and released in the US in Ballantine Books' Find Your Fate line.
Publisher's summary
UK and Australian editions
Have you ever longed to climb aboard the TARDIS and enter another dimension? Meet the Doctor and join him in outwitting his enemies? Well, now's your chance! All you need is a pair of dice, a pencil, a little bit of luck and all your wits about you. Ready?
Search for the Doctor The year is 2056, and the Doctor is trapped in toroidal stasis by arch enemy Omega. But help is at hand from the Doctor's old friends Drax and K9 — and you! Now open the covers and join the Doctor in an adventure through Time and Space...
US edition
YOU are the only hope for the salvation of the Doctor in SEARCH FOR THE DOCTOR
The year is 2056. From the Fern Spacelab orbiting above the Fusion Energy Research Network in California, OMEGA has mounted a devastating attack.
OMEGA plans to take over the Doctor's mind and body. By controlling the Doctor's awesome power, OMEGA can take revenge on the Time Lords, who sacrificed him to obtain the secret of Time Travel.
YOU will join forces with DRAX and K9 to free the Doctor and defeat OMEGA. As DRAX uses his secondhand TARDIS (cleverly disguised as a 1956 Cadillac) and K9 uses his impressive electronic skills, YOU must use all your wits to FIND YOUR FATE
Plot
Marker 0
You were visiting the Natural History Museum, in the year 2056. There, a guard brought you to an obscure part of the archive. In the corner is a gray-flecked fibreglass crate. The crate reads Property of Sarah Jane Smith. Not for Exhibition. The guard asked you if Smith was a friend of yours, and you respond she was a family friend that you never knew. You signed for the crate, thus beginning the greatest adventure of your life.
Hours later, you study the crate, which has been dragged to your hotel room by two porters. You grow angry at how it is impossible to access the crate, and kick it. Then, a mysterious man appears and begins speaking to you. The man is dressed it outlandish clothes, and somehow got into your room despite it being locked. He tells you his name: Drax.
Drax studies the crate, lifting it above his head with ease. He tells you it won't be of any use to you, and asks how much you want for it. He then asks for the time and, strangely, the year. He offers you €25,500 for the crate.
- If you take the money, go to Five. If you decline it, go to Two.
Marker 5
After Drax leaves with the crate, you study the money left behind. €30,000. You ask the hotel receptionist to help you store the five gold plaques in the hotel safe, and convert the sixth into street currency. As you walk out of the hotel lobby, the receptionist makes a call...
As you study the window of a Park Lane Skyrider showroom, you're approached by a large youth, who claims he knows one of the salesmen, and he might be able to get you a demo run in one. He asks you to follow him into an underground garage.
- If you accept the youth's invitation, go to 8.
- If not, go to 13.
Marker 8
You follow the youth down into the underground garage. There, you see a figure rush through the shadows. You feel a blow hit the back of your head.
When you come to, you learn the hotel receptionist handed in his notice as soon as you left. The plaques you asked to be put in the safe are gone. Your parents come to pick you up the next day. You never hear of the crate, Drax, or the robbers ever again.
- For you, the adventure is over - this time. Next time you start, be more careful. To try again, go back to 2.
Marker 13
You suddenly realise that the youth scares you. You run, hearing him follow behind you with increasing speed. As you reach Park Lane, you realise you've escaped the youth's grasp.
Later, you return to the hotel to find Drax in a scuffle with the hotel receptionist. Drax forces the receptionist to open his hand, revealing that he has stolen the remaining five gold plates. Drax warns you to keep your money close, and you immediately deposit the gold into the National Bank.
You maintain your wealth, and live well enough. But not a day goes by where you do not think of Drax, and what was inside the crate. You can't be sure, but you always suspect that by choosing the money, you missed out on the greatest adventure of your life.
- Next time you start, remember too much caution can sometimes be as bad as too much risk.
- To see how you get on, go back to 2
Marker 2
You decide not to give in to Drax's offer. He ups his offer to €50,000, then €100,000, but you continue to turn him down. Finally, Drax asks what you want. You tell Drax that you refuse to barter until you see what's in the crate, and you have a hunch that Drax knows how to open it. Drax agrees to help you see what's inside, and hits the crate with a hammer. This reveals a number pad, which Drax suspects is set up only for your use. You press your hands against the pad, which releases the container, revealing a robot shaped like a Doctor. A letter is included from Sarah Jane, identifying this as K9 Mark III. Sarah Jane tells you that K9 will connect with a Gallifrey databank as soon as he is activated.
While K9 boots, Drax tells you a story that he had once been trapped in 1950s London after his TARDIS broke down. He attempted to steal the Crown jewels, and was put in prison for this. This was where he met K9 Mark III, who came with the Doctor to bust Drax out of prison. Drax has recently learned that the Doctor is in trouble, and has come back to get K9 in order to save him. K9 finishes his scanning of the situation and announces that the Doctor is in toroidal stasis in the Mojave Desert, where he's been since 1956. Drax indicates that his TARDIS is parked on the hotel roof, but he hasn't been able to get it to work properly.
On the roof, you find a 1956 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. Drax explains this is his TARDIS, the disguise specially chosen to blend into Los Angeles in the 1950s. Drax believes the ship can't leave, and suggests they get it off the roof and drive it to Los Angeles. To get it off the roof, you suggest he rents a Skyrider Crane.
After Drax leaves, K9 finishes his analysis of the TARDIS revealing it is still capable of dematerialisation. He suggests you leave Drax behind and "borrow" his TARDIS, as saving the Doctor is more urgent than waiting on Drax.
- To do as K9 says and leave without Drax, go to 17.
- To wait for Drax to return, go to 6.
- If you want to see what has happened to the Doctor, go to 10.
Marker 17
You follow K9's advice, and leave in Drax's TARDIS without him. You find yourself at a military base in Mojave Desert in the 1950s. A sharp whistling sound is heard, and K9 identifies that the TARDIS has brought you two a Nuclear bomb test site. He insists that dematerialisation is essential. Before you can even reach for the key, the bomb lands. You and K9 are killed instantly.
- More haste, less speed! Try again from 6.
Marker 6
Drax soon returns, and recounts that he found two men working on a Skyrider Crane. He helped them fix it, and they will be over in a few minutes. Drax asks how the repairs are going, and K9 states that interfacing with the Model 40 TARDIS is difficult, in spite of K9 claiming the TARDIS was functional minutes before.
As the Skyrider Crane arrives, Drax tells you to go down and wait for them to be lowered. At the bottom, Drax attempts to leave without you, believing he can't bring a kid on his mission. K9 interferes with this, threatening to blast the crane, killing them all.
Ultimately, Drax relents and you join him and K9 again as you drive through the night. You stop at the plastic Stonehenge which has long replaced the original, destroyed by vandals. K9 analyses the situation, and notes that Omega has escaped from his Anti-matter realm once again. The Doctor is still in stasis, and K9 theorises that if they dematerialise elsewhere, Omega will be able to track them and immediately destroy them as they arrive. However, if they dematerialise specifically at Stonehenge and arrive at the Amargosa juganetic complex at Death Valley, they can disguise their dematerialisation as juganetic wave traffic.
As K9 connects to the TARDIS guidance systems, a moth flutters between K9's disc-tipped probe. Before you can comment, the process begins and everything goes hazy. K9 exclaims that there has been a computer malfunction, and the TARDIS materialises in the wrong place. The group are now inside of an Enterprise 21 space freighter, about to attempt re-entery after a satellite-servicing trip. The extra weight of the TARDIS and the group causes the freighter become unbalanced, as it begins a dive downwards...
- Roll two dice. Score 6 and up to stay in orbit and go to 7. Five and below the story's over.
Marker 7
The extra weight of the Cadillac TARDIS has shifted the weight of the freighter forwards. It veers towards the Earth, shuddering from the gravitational pressure. K9 instructs Drax to reverse the Cadillac. In a moment of chaos, you find yourself grabbing a metal lever underneath the control panel. Drax exclaims "Don't pull that! It's the master demat-"
You are knocked out, and come around to the sound of waves tapping against the outer hull of the freighter. As they retrieve K9, he reports that they were in an unstable temporal anomaly. They look out, spotting three men in white space coveralls walking along the top of hull, all armed. They are the shuttle's crew, Captain Evans, Navigator Grundy, and Engineer Floyd. The men identify that you and Drax caused their ship to fly off-course, and threaten you with their guns until they are disarmed by K9.
You theorise that the moth landing between K9's probe caused them to land in the wrong place, and you pulling the dematerialisation master switch caused the entire shuttle to arrive in its current location. As the fog clears, the group realise they are surrounded by countless crashed ships of all eras. Fish swim through eras of skeletons. The Engineer identifies where they are: the Bermuda Triangle.
Drax notes he thought it was the Great Sargasoo Sea. K9 identifies that both are terms for the same phenomenon. K9 identifies the area as an unstable segment of time-space, left shifting between temporal matrices or universes. Any unfortunate objects which enter the segment find it impossible to leave. The Captain identifies it as a Time trap.
The group are left wandering through the shuttle, looking for any solution. You are left shocked that with all this great technology, a simple moth foiled everything. Eventually, the Engineer discovers a mass pile of gold and treasure sitting just below the shuttle's wing. The three crew members strip their clothes and jump in to retrieve the loot, but are soon overtaken by a school of small black fish. The fish latch onto the men's flesh, and after a few moments, nothing is left of them.
You see a single gold coin, sitting at the edge of the wing. You crawl towards it, before it begins to slide off. You grab it, then begin to slide off yourself, suddenly noticing the sea of black fish patiently waiting for you to fall into the water. Drax barely saves you, pulling you to safety.
You study the coin. One side depicts a woman with snake-hair, the other a Greek warrior with a sword and shield. You identify that it is Medusa the Gorgon and Perseus. K9 identifies that it might be a means of escape. Drax considers this, and theorises that if the Greek gods were really astronauts, then the coin could be a metaphor. To be trapped in the segment is to turn to stone. The fish are the serpents of Medusa's hair. And now they have a chance to stand up to Medusa.
- To find out how to escape, you have to solve this puzzle: What six-letter English word can the letters in 'Medusa' be made to spell? If you solve this puzzle correctly, go on to 9.
Marker 9
- The solution is Amused.
You and Drax set up a satellite dish at the end of the cargo-bay while K9 runs his computer program. K9 sets his blaster to its most powerful setting - dematerisalise. If all works, K9's blaster (the sword) will reflect off the dish (the shield) boosting the power of the TARDIS-dematerisalisation system. This will create an even less stable reality, potentially pushing them back into the real universe. If it doesn't work, Drax says they won't be around to find out.
K9 shoots the dish, causing a brilliant sunburst of light and then blackness.
THE END
Marker 10
The Doctor hangs, suspended and weightless in a transparent prison. He has been trapped inside the Fusion Energy Research Network, circa 1956. The Doctor looks out at the scientists walking amongst the center. However, they can not see him, for Omega has encapsulated his cel in anti-matter, making him invisible. The Doctor reflects on how he ended up in this circumstance.
Three days before, he had arrived at Death Valley and traveled to the FERN Spacelab. After giving a lecture on the caution in fusion research, he had met a young scientist named Rolf Aarup. Aarup explained to the Doctor that he had been studying anti-matter. Ever since then, he had been occasionally seeing a black cloaked shape, which he described as being like a member of the Klu Klux Klan, but in all-black. The Doctor began asking questions, before Rolf saw the figure inside of the tortus. He rushed inside with a camera and the Doctor followed. After a bright flash, the Doctor found Rolf lying down. As he turned him over, Rolf's clothing and body crumbled to white ash.
The Doctor stood, facing Omega. The Doctor reflected that Omega had become a being of pure will, self-created from the anti-matter from which he had been created. The Spacelab anti-matter experiments had lured Omega to Earth, and created an environment for his powers to grow. The FERN fusion lab, imitating the clean nuclear energy of the sun, was a perfect place for Omega, a Solar Engineer, to formulate a plan.
Omega intends to use the FERN complex to turn Earth into a boiling 'mini-sun'. The transmitter would be the nearby Amargosa juganetic complex, which would beam its power from Amargosa across space, destroying the Earth but giving Omega a connection to Gallifrey. He will then have his revenge on his home planet, not by destroying it but by conquering it. Then he will destroy time itself, leaving all in a perpetual state of the now.
Omega unleashed a stream of anti-matter, trapping the Doctor in his stasis. The Doctor offers to help Omega, believing that seeing his race enslaved is better than the death of the entire population of Earth. Omega ponders this, and states that the Doctor only has to reveal the secret to his TARDIS...
- What do you think the Doctor should do?
- If you can decide what then?
- To find out roll two dice.
- If you roll 6 to 9, go to 1.
- If you roll less than 6, go to 4
- If you roll 10 or more, go to 12
Marker 1
The Doctor continues to face Omega, and decides that the TARDIS is only a machine, and not worth the weight of a single human life. He agrees to give in to Omega's powers and demands. Taking him to the TARDIS, he reveals to Omega the secrets of the vortices of time.
As Omega stands at the TARDIS controls, the Doctor feels himself diminish. His life-force fades, his power of regeneration fades. "I am yours Omega," he says, "You have won." The Doctor is absorbed into Omega's inner darkness. Omega triumphs.
Marker 4
The Doctor knows that once Omega has possession of the TARDIS there would be no freedom to those who peopled the universe. What right was he to put the weight of the human race above all other beings? He decides he must allow Earth to be destroyed to save the universe. The Doctor tells Omega that he refuses to help him take control of the universe, and that he will never give up the secrets of time.
So be it. You shall watch the destruction of Earth and all its people. You shall watch my triumph over Gallifrey. And you shall watch your great High Council surrender. They will hand over the secrets of Time, because they will see reason. I shall triumph and you will be my witness!
All that Omega predicts comes to pass. The Earth is destroyed and Gallifrey seized. The Doctor remains in stasis forever, mute witness of Omega's bloody conquest of Space and Time.
THE END
Marker 12
Characters
- Sixth Doctor
- Human
- K9 Mark III
- Drax
- Omega
- Guard
- Hotel receptionist
- Youth
- Captain Evans
- Navigator Grundy
- Engineer Floyd
- Rolph Aarup
References
- By 2056, months have faded from use. The start of the novel is set on Day 220 (implicitly 7 August) 2056.
- In the future, Stonehenge has been replaced by a plastic replica, as the original was destroyed by vandals.
References to other stories
- Drax claims that while both he and the Doctor were found guilty of being renegades by their home planet, the Doctor was pardoned after defeating Omega the first time. (TV: The Three Doctors)
- A malfunction in Drax's TARDIS sends the shuttle it has landed in to the Bermuda Triangle. Another source suggested that the implosion of The Monk's TARDIS had created the Triangle. (COMIC: Follow That TARDIS!)
Notes
- There is a brief explanation of fission, written by the Doctor, in the back of the novel.
Alternative covers
US cover
Australian cover
Illustrations
The Doctor succumbs to the power of Omega. (Marker One)
The Doctor appears to the protagonist. (Marker 24)
