Invasion of the Cat-People (novel)

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Invasion of the Cat-People
Doctor:	Second Doctor
Companion(s):	Polly, Ben
Main enemy:	Godwanna, Thorgarsuunela, Atimkos, Queen Aysha
Main setting:	Cumbria, London, Cat-People spaceship in Earth orbit, 6-8 July 1994 Baghdad, 2000 years earlier Sydney, 10 July 1994 Hyper reality
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Gary Russell
Cover by:	Colin Howard
Release details
Release number:	13
Release date:	17 August 1995
Format:	Paperback Book; 7 Chapters, 256 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20440-9
Virgin Missing Adventures
← Previous	The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Next →	Managra

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Invasion of the Cat-People was the thirteenth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Gary Russell and featured the Second Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright.

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?

Plot

to be added

Characters

In brackets are the names Gary Russell lists as his preferred casting choices for if Invasion of the Cat-People had hypothetically been a TV story, and how he envisions each character's appearance. Not every character is assigned an actor.

TARDIS crew

• The Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
• Ben Jackson (Michael Craze)
• Polly Wright (Anneke Wills)

Cat-People

• Queen Aysha (Susan Engel)
• Pride Mother (Cynthia Grenville)
• Chosan (Patricia Maynard)
• Jodi
• Lotuss (Myra Frances)
• Jayde (Rowena Wallace)
• Aall (Maggie Kirkpatrick)
• Nihmrod (Rosalind Lloyd)
• Nypp (Lois Baxter)
• Tamora (Maggie Dence)
• Tensing (Julie T. Wallace)
• Tuq (Louise Silversen)

Euterpians

• Thorgarsuunela (Carolyn Seymour)
• Atimkos (Jude Law)
• Udentkista (John Normington)
• Tarwildbaning (Stephanie Beacham)
• Godwanna (Jacqueline Pearce)

The Grange Estate

• Professor Nicholas Bridgeman (Alan David)
• Marten Kerbe (Maurice Roëves)
• Peter Moore (Nathan Constance)
• Simon Griffiths (Simon Fenton)
• Carfrae Morgan (Siri Neal)
• George Smithers (Gerald James)
• Charlie Coates (Colin Jeavons)

Other humans

• Nate Simms (Steven Macintosh)
• Adoon
• Martin Hickman
• Martina
• Philip Jay

Worldbuilding

• When the Cat-People are searching around the Sol System, they see signs of a lost civilisation.
• Ben and Polly read Brian J Robb's biography River Phoenix: A Short Life about the actor River Phoenix at W H Smith.
• The Doctor terms the concept that interfering with one's own history having drastic consequences as chrono-chaos theory.

Culture

• High Lord Rhukk wrote An Even Briefer History of Time.
• Glasst, Proot and Lock are noted musical scholars.
• Atimkos hears two women discussing a "trendy Icelandic pop singer".
• Euterpians taught the Aborigine people about the dreamtime and the songlines.

Individuals

• Polly's uncle, Randolph Wright, died during World War II. His brother, Polly's uncle Charles Wright, was a supporter of Professor Brett and WOTAN, and got Polly her job at the Post Office Tower.
• Karen Kuykendall created the Tarot of the Cat-People in 1985.
• George Smithers' son died of leukemia in 1987 while his wife died of lung cancer in 1991.
• Polly mentions her friends Kitty and Brenda, her cousin Bette and her "old flame" Roger.

TARDIS

• The Doctor's regeneration caused the TARDIS to regenerate to some extent, shrinking fifteen centimetres. The Doctor tells Ben that it will continue to shrink into his fourth incarnation. The Doctor ties a knot in his hanky to remind himself to see about rectifiying the problem.
• Ben finds clothes in the TARDIS wardrobe which have pockets that are bigger on the inside, much like the Doctor's own coat pockets.

Time Lords

• Magnus was unconcerned about wasting regenerations and never listened to the Doctor, who advised him not to waste them.
• 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.

Species

• The Doctor suggests that a Cat-Person could be one of the Kzinti warriors.

Notes

• The novel is six "episodes" long, plus a prologue, to emulate a classic series TV serial.
• The story takes place between The Power of the Daleks and The Highlanders.
• At the beginning of this story, three weeks have passed since the Doctor's regeneration.
• This is the first story to use Polly's surname, Wright, which originated from Polly's original character outline and audition scrips for The War Machines (REF: The First Doctor Handbook) but was ultimately never given on-screen. The name became universally used for the character. It was carried over into the BBC New Series Adventures novels The Murder Game and The Roundheads, and eventually made its way into the audio stories by Big Finish Productions. The 2009 Companion Chronicles release Resistance was the first audio story to use Polly's surname. It also explores her uncle, Randolph Wright, who was also first mentioned in this story.
• When commenting on the Cat-People, the Doctor mentions they are related to races with names not previously mentioned in the Doctor Who Universe. These included: Lion-Men of Mongo (Flash Gordon), Caitians (Star Trek), Kzinti (Larry Niven's Known Space series) and agents of the Aegis (Star Trek). He also references mercenaries from Gin-Seng and the natives of Vedela and Capella.
• As well as listing his preferred casting choices for an imaginary televised version of the novel, Gary Russell also notes his preference of Graeme Harper as the director, Mike Fillis and Adrian Jack working on the music, and Michael Chapman as the producer. It would be a Virgin Films production.
• The front cover is the only one in the Virgin Missing Adventures to feature more than one other character alongside the Doctor on the left. In breaking this convention, it joins Time of Your Life, which features the Doctor only.
• The characters of Proot and Glasst are mentioned, first appearing in Audio Visuals fan productions.

Errors

• It is repeatedly stated that the Euterpians arrived 40,000 years prior to 1994, however the chapter which depicted their arrive indicates a setting of 3978 BC.
• It is suggested that Earth's contintents were significantly different 40,000 years ago, while in reality the geological timescales of continental drift are in the millions of years.
• At Heathrow Airport, Thorgarsuunela asks an attendant what the date is, and is given the date 10 June. The story had previously established that the date was 8 July.
• In Baghdad, the Doctor claims at different times that they've travelled twenty-thousand and two-thousand years back in time.

Continuity

• The Cat-People are related to the Cheetah People. (TV: Survival)
• An account of the Euterpians is present at the Braxiatel Collection (TV: City of Death, PROSE: Theatre of War (novel), et al.) written by High Lord Rhukk. (PROSE: Legacy) The book discusses the Galactic Federation. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
• The War Machines and WOTAN, (TV: The War Machines) the smugglers in Cornwall, (TV: The Smugglers) the Cybermen (TV: The Tenth Planet) and the Daleks (TV: The Power of the Daleks) are all mentioned.
• 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 fulfilled by his third incarnation (PROSE: Verdigris) and used mostly by his seventh incarnation.
• The Doctor mentions several misdeeds of his previous incarnation, suggesting that Ben ask Ian and Barbara about the caveman Za, whom he almost killed with a rock (TV: An Unearthly Child) and mention the name "Anne Chaplet" to Steven (TV: The Massacre) and that even Dodo would have some stories to tell.
• The Time Vector Generator first appeared in TV: The Wheel in Space.
• The Doctor says that he witnessed the Fall of Troy. (TV: The Myth Makers)
• The Doctor mentions his friend Magnus from the Time Lord Academy. (PROSE: Flashback
• Ben and Polly refer to their trip to the Snowcap tracking base in Antarctica in December 1986. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
• Ben and Polly discuss the Doctor's recent regeneration. (TV: The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks)
• A woman claimed that Polly looks exactly like her friend Michelle in 1966. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
• The Doctor would again encounter a humanoid species resembling cats in his tenth incarnation. (TV: New Earth)

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
• The Cloister Library: Invasion of the Cat-People
• Gary Russell's Strange Matter: Invasion of the Cat-People, notes on the writing of the novel via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
• Gary Russell: From Peladon to Placebos by Jon Preddle, Paul Scoones (Interview) - TSV 51