Invasion of the Cat-People (novel)

Publisher's summary

‘Explode the buoys? But that will destroy the Earth!’
‘Oh dear, so it will. Pass on my apologies to the humans, won’t you?’

Earth has been invaded. Twice. Thousands of years ago by a race searching for a new power source. More recently by the galactic marauders known as the Cat-People, who intend to continue the work done by the earlier visitors, with devastating results.

The recently regenerated Doctor, along with companions Ben and Polly, teams up with a group of amateur ghost-hunters and a mysterious white witch on a journey that takes them from twentieth-century Cumbria to the Arabian deserts of folklore and Australia 40,000 years in the past. Can the Doctor stop the invaders and disarm the bombs left buried beneath the planet’s surface - or have the ancient Aborigines of Australia sung the seeds of their own destruction?

Characters

• The Doctor
• Ben Jackson
• Polly

Cat-People

• Queen Aysha
• Pride Mother
• Chosan
• Lotuss
• Jayde

Euterpians

• Thorsuun
• Atimkos
• Udentkista
• Tarwildbaning
• Godwanna

Professors and Students

• Professor Bridgeman
• Martin Kerbe
• Peter Moore
• Simon Griffiths
• Carfrae Morgan
• George Smithers
• Charlie Coates

People from Baghdad

• Aroon
• Nypp
• Aall
• Tuq

References

• When the Cat-People are searching around the Sol System they see signs of a lost civilisation. This could be a reference to the Ice Warriors or the Osirians.
• The Doctor's regeneration caused the TARDIS to regenerate to some extent, shrinking fifteen centimetres.
• Magnus (later known as the War Chief) was unconcerned about wasting regenerations, and never listened to the Doctor, who advised him not to waste them.
• Ben finds clothes in the TARDIS wardrobe which have pockets that are bigger on the inside, much like the Doctor's own pockets.
• There were books coated in reverse tachyon-chronons (RTC) on Gallifrey, but the Time Lord leaders decided that they were too dangerous and got rid of them.

Notes

• At the beginning of this story, three weeks have passed since the Doctor's regeneration.
• When commenting on the Cat-People, the Doctor mentions they are related to races outside of normal canon. These included: Lion-Men of Mongo, Caitians, Kzinti, and agents of the Aegis. He also references mercenaries from Gin-Seng and the natives of Vedela and Capella.

Continuity

• The Cat-People are related to the Cheetah People who appeared in DW: Survival.
• The War Machines and WOTAN (DW: The War Machines), the smugglers in Cornwall (DW: The Smugglers), the Cybermen (DW: The Tenth Planet) and the Daleks (DW: The Power of the Daleks) are all mentioned.
• The RTC causes the Doctor's mind to wander back to his previous incarnation, and as a result he mistakenly refers to several of his past companions - Chesterton, Barbara, Susan, Steven, Dodo and Vicki.
• The Doctor has always told himself that he would like to buy himself a little house in Kent to use as a home whenever he came to Earth. This wish was subsequently fulfilled by his third incarnation (PDA: Verdigris) and used mostly by his seventh incarnation.
• The Doctor mentions several misdeeds of his previous incarnation, suggesting Ben ask Ian and Barbara about the caveman (DW: An Unearthly Child) and mention the name 'Anne Chaplet' to Steven (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve), and that even Dodo would have some stories to tell.
• The Time Vector Generator first appeared in DW: The Wheel in Space.
• The Doctor mentions that he witnessed the Fall of Troy. (DW: The Myth Makers)
• The Doctor mentions his friend Magnus, from the Academy. (DW: The War Games)

Timeline

• This story occurs after ST: Pluto
• This story occurs before PDA: The Murder Game

External links

• Invasion of the Cat-People at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Invasion of the Cat-People at The Whoniverse
• Gary Russell's Strange Matter: Invasion of the Cat-People, notes on the writing of the novel via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine