Oh No It Isn't! (novel)
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.
Characters
- Benny uses Ah: A Perfume For An Alien or Human.
- Benny has the name Dick Whittington in the panto reality.
- Is transformed into a seven-foot-tall swashbuckler with marked propensities for singing, tap-dancing, and rude jokes.
- Professor of Applied Arts at St. Oscar's University.
- This is the first appearance of Benny's robotic porter, who looks like a hovering sphere about the size of a billiard ball.
- Michael Doran
References
- 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.
- 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."
- God sends members of the Tiny But Interesting Interest Group to contact Benny about becoming an agent for them.
- The Grel's afterlife is called Slawcor.
- Benny is still working (and trying to get out of writing) her sequel to Down Among the Dead Men.
Notes
- 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.
- 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.
Continuity
- Benny was taken to Dellah by the Eighth Doctor at the end of NA: The Dying Days.
- Benny first met God in NA: The Also People.
- This novel introduces Marcus Krytell; Benny will meet him in BNA: Ship of Fools.
