Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma was the first novel released in The Companions of Doctor Who series. It was written by Tony Attwood.
Publisher's summary
Of all the companions ever to travel with the Fifth Doctor in the TARDIS, Turlough was the most enigmatic and the most disturbing. Exiled from his home world, he saw the Doctor as a means of escape from Earth — and for that he was prepared to kill.
But just who was Turlough? And what happened to him after he left the Doctor?
Now Turlough has returned to Trion, but to a Trion much changed since his exile. Who are the mysterious Gardsormr? What is their secret purpose? And what is the shocking and terrifying link between Trion and planet Earth?
Plot
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Characters
Worldbuilding
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Notes
- This has the distinction of being the first Doctor Who novel (as opposed to novellas or short stories) which is not based on a televised story, leading the way for the later Virgin New Adventures book series. It is also the first Doctor Who-related novel in which the Doctor does not actually play a role. It is not, however, the first original Doctor Who-related fiction to be published by Target Books. That distinction belongs to the novella Daleks: The Secret Invasion by Terry Nation, included in the 1979 release Terry Nation's Dalek Special. Other original short fiction has been published by other companies as early as the mid-1960s, and a novella, Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space, was published in 1966.
- This was also the first single Target Books release to exceed 200 pages in length -- and the only "original format" Target release (discounting the later bumper editions near the end of the line) to be published at such a length.
- The novel includes an introduction by Mark Strickson, the actor who played Turlough on television and, subsequently, audio.
- The villain is named Rehctaht which is Thatcher spelt backwards, a reference to the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
- The space station depicted on the cover is a copy of the Earth Spacedock originally featured in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The artwork had been modified from a piece of art that appeared on the back cover of the 1985 LaserDisc release of Star Trek III. The station would appear in the next three Star Trek films while the same model was subsequently used to represent four different starbases in as many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Continuity
- Turlough speculates that the Fifth Doctor was unaffected by the Blinovitch Limitation Effect when he met his previous incarnations in the Tower of Rassilon on Gallifrey due to them having different bodies. (TV: The Five Doctors)