Tears of the Oracle (novel)
Publisher's summary
'Benny, you're ill. Let us help you. We want to help you. Really we do. This paranoia. These delusions. What you've done - it's driven you insane. Nobody wants to hurt you. We're your friends.'
On Dellah, the shattered former home of Bernice Summerfield, only the Advanced Research centre survives - the last remnant of the once famous university. But it's under siege from fanatical groups of religious inquisitors, searching for new converts or dangerous heretics.
Benny would have to be mad to go back.
Jason Kane, Bernice's one-time husband and all-time opportunist, has found the ancient remains of the Oracle of the Lost on an obscure planetoid known only as KS-159. Or so he says.
Benny would have to be mad to believe him.
The mysterious Irving Braxiatel is looking for somewhere quiet to house his huge collection of... everything.
Benny would have to be mad to suggest KS-159.
The Oracle of the Lost, legend says, can answer any question. But the cryptic answers she gives are never helpful, and often dangerous.
Benny would have to be mad to reawaken her. Or ask a question. Or believe the answer.
Characters
- Bernice Summerfield
- Is diagnosed with a brain tumour.
- Irving Braxiatel
- Thinks of Bernice as family.
- Is the Doctor's older brother.
- Emilia Winston
- Chris Cwej
- Regenerates.
References
- Braxiatel wins KS-159 in a card game on Vega Station.
- Chris Cwej (following his exposure to radiation in the universe in a bottle) regenerates, not however into a killing machine, but into a short (he's now Benny's height), stocky and mellow voiced man.
- A Time Lord in a monk's robe assists Chris through his regeneration. ("We can give the process a small push" [1]. It could be Cho Je given the similarity to he said when he assisted the Third Doctor's regeneration)
- As he's regenerating he mentions body beppling.
- Benny thinks it was her Mary-Sue that gave her the brain tumour.
- Across pages 166 - 167 is a brief (yet detailed) description of Braxiatel's time prior to leaving Gallifrey, there is also the statement that the Doctor is Braxiatel's brother.
- Lack of telepathy hinders The People in mastering successful time travel.
- Advanced Research Department (ARD) on Dellah is most likely completely destroyed as it was overrun by religious extremists.
- Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal are Ice Warriors.
- Bernice holds the Watkinson Chair of Archaeology, named in honour of Edward Watkinson.
Notes
- This book was supposedly meant to be the last in the Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures line. [2]
Continuity
- Braxiatel uses a communication cube to contact his people for assistance. (DW: The War Games
- Chris was exposed to the lethal dose of radiation in BNA: Dead Romance.
- Benny got a Mary-Sue in BNA: The Mary-Sue Extrusion.
- EDA: Demontage features the Vega Station.
- There is a brief revist of Benny's wedding in NA: Happy Endings.
- !C-Mel (the ship Clarence once was) first appeared in NA: The Also People.
- When discussing his imminent regeneration of Chris Cwej the Time Lord mentions Chris had a boddy bepple to appear as a giant teddy bear in NA: Original Sin.
- Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal all first appeared in BNA: The Medusa Effect.
- Emilia Winston first appeared in BNA: Dragons' Wrath, this was also the novel in which Braxiatel worked out Joseph wasn't an 'ordinary' porter...and neglected to tell anyone.
External links
- Tears of the Oracle at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Tears of the Oracle at The Whoniverse
- Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide to Tears of the Oracle
