Only Human (novel)

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Only Human was the fifth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Gareth Roberts and featured the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness. It was originally released in 2005 to accompany Series 1 and was re-released in 2013 for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

2005 BBC Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]

Somebody's interfering with time. The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive on modern-day Earth to find the culprit — and discover a Neanderthal Man, twenty-eight thousand years after his race became extinct. Only a trip back to the primeval dawn of humanity can solve the mystery.

Who are the mysterious humans from the distant future now living in that distant past? What hideous monsters are trying to escape from behind the Grey Door? Is Rose going to end up married to a caveman?

Caught between three very different types of human being — past, present and future — the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack must learn the truth behind the Osterberg experiment before the monstrous Hy-Bractors escape to change humanity's history forever...

2013 BBC Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]

Reports of a time disturbance lead the Ninth Doctor to modern-day London, where he discovers a Neanderthal Man, twenty-eight thousand years after his race became extinct. A trip back to the dawn of humanity only deepens the mystery: who are these strange humans from the far future now living in the distant past? The Doctor must learn the truth about the Osterberg experiment before history is changed forever.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

On 2 October 438,533, seven year-old Chantal Osterberg provides an account of how over the weekend, her cat, Dusty, was giving her and her family too many "wrong-feelings." She proceeded to do surgery on her cat, making her tail scaly, rearranging her organs, and altering her brain to catch more rats. Her parents didn't like this.

In Bromley, 2005, Dean goes to a pub dressed as a Roman and gets into a fight with Das, who he believes is dressed as a caveman.

The Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, and Captain Jack Harkness intend to go to Kegron Pluva, but are drawn off course due to a time distortion. Rose investigates and finds that a caveman is in a nearby hospital. They go there to find that the hospital has been quarantined and escape with Das with help from Weronica. They try to bring Das back to his time, but he disintegrates when they try to take him in the TARDIS. The Doctor believes it's because his time travel was unprotected, and tells Jack to look after him for a month while him and Rose investigate what happened.

Rose and the Doctor travel back in time to find the Osterberg Experiment led by Chantal, wherein a group of future humans travelled back in time. They discover that most future humans drug themselves in order to not feel wrong emotions. The Doctor and Rose each go with a different human — Rose with Reddy, a human who uses drugs, and the Doctor with T. P. Quilley, a "refuser." Rose throws away Reddy's "popper pack" and forces him to feel real emotions as they witness a Neanderthal birth, then is kidnapped by early humans. Quilley and the Doctor discover the Hy-Bractors and are both shortly kidnapped and drugged by Chantal.

Rose is coerced into a marriage with Tillun. The Doctor is vivisected by Chantal, before escaping as the drugs where off and helping Quilley escape as well.

To be added.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The TARDIS translation circuit has a swear filter.
  • The TARDIS key works on a kind of meson projection system.

Science & Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The intriguing monotony in the occurrence of inter-caval conduction block during typical atrial flutter suggests an anatomic or electrophysiological predisposition for conduction abnormalities of the Doctor's heart.
  • Chantal removed Rose's head from her body, which can be undone by reverse-locking the kinetic seal.

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Later reprints of this book removed the image of Billie Piper from the cover.
  • This story was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
  • This book was reprinted in 2013 with an entirely new cover to celebrate the Doctor Who 50th anniversary.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Additional cover images[[edit] | [edit source]]

Editions published outside Britain[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Published in Finland by Luolamies Lontoossa in 2006 as a hardback edition, it was one of two books published in the 2000's.
  • Published in China by New Star Press in 2017 as a hardback edition.
  • Finnish edition

    Finnish edition

  • Chinese edition

    Chinese edition

Audiobook[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Audiobook cover

    Audiobook cover

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

v • e
BBC New Series Adventures
 
Ninth Doctor
Main book series
Rose
Rose and Jack
 
Tenth Doctor
Main book series
Rose
Martha
Donna
Alone
Quick Reads
Rose
Martha
Alone
Audiobooks
Donna
Alone
 
Eleventh Doctor
Main book series
Amy
Amy and Rory
Alone
Clara
Quick Reads
Amy and Rory
Alone
Audiobooks
Amy
Amy and Rory
2-in-1 books
Amy and Rory
 
Twelfth Doctor
Main book series
Clara
Benny
Bill
Bill and Nardole
Audiobooks
Clara
Alex and Brandon
Alone
 
Thirteenth Doctor
Main book series
Ryan, Yaz and Graham
Ryan, Yaz, Graham and Ace
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