The Hollow Men (novel)

The Hollow Men
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace
Main enemy:	Jerak
Main setting:	Hexen Bridge, 2000s
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writers:	Keith Topping, Martin Day
Cover by:	Colin Howard, Black Sheep
Release details
Release number:	10
Release date:	6 April 1998
Format:	Paperback Book; 20 Chapters, 284 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-40582-1
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
← Previous	The Witch Hunters
Next →	Catastrophea

The Hollow Men was the tenth novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Keith Topping and Martin Day, released 6 April 1998 and featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace.

Publisher's summary

The village was cursed centuries ago, but only now is the alien evil beginning to revive...

The children of Hexen Bridge are gifted and clever, but insanity and murder follow in their wake. The Doctor has a special interest in the village, but on his return to England in the early twenty-first century, events seem to be escalating out of control.

Kidnapped and taken to Liverpool, the Seventh Doctor realises that developments in Hexen Bridge have horrifying repercussions for the rest of the country. Ace is left in the village, where small-minded prejudices and unsettled scores are flaring into violence.

As scarecrows fashioned from the bodies of the recent and ancient dead stalk the country lanes around Hexen Bridge, a sinister dark stain is spreading over the surrounding fields. And as the fierce evil grows ever stronger, can the Doctor and Ace prevent it from engulfing the entire world?

Chapter titles

1. First Prologue - The Bloody Assizes
2. Second Prologue - Sticks and Stones

Part One - Jack of all Trades

1. Little England
2. The Butterfly Collector
3. The Village Green Preservation Society
4. I Betray My Friends

Part Two - Jack in the Box

1. Promised Land
2. City Sickness
3. Down in the Police Station at Midnight
4. The Sound of Someone You Love Who's going away and It doesn't matter

Part Three - Happy Jack

1. Twisted Firestarter
2. The St Anthony's Estate Chinese Takeaway Massacre
3. Hateful of Hollow
4. Unfinished Sympathy

Part Four - Mad Jack's Eyes

1. The Vacant Zone
2. Sacrificial Bonfire
3. Ceremony in a Lonely Place
4. Wilder

1. First Epilogue - English Settlement
2. Second Epilogue - The Angels keep turning the Wheels of the Universe

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Ace
• Jerak
• Steven Chen
• Trevor Winstone
• Kenneth Shanks
• Phillip Burridge
• Matthew Hatch
• Dr Nicholas Bevan
• Rebecca Baber
• Thomas Baber
• Nicola Denman
• Ian Denman
• Bob
• Julia
• Bob Matson
• Joanna Matson
• Billy Tyley
• Don Tyley
• Megan Tyley

Worldbuilding

• Grasmere is a place in the Lake District.
• Yarcombe is a village twelve miles fom Hexen Bridge.
• Liverpool is mentioned, as is Toxteth and Garston.
• Garside is twenty minutes from Liverpool.

Diseases

• Shanks believes the chemical being pumped into the water supply is a cure for CJD and BSE.

Individuals

• The Second Doctor had a holiday with Jamie and Victoria in Grasmere.
• Shanks met Nyssa while Denman met Tegan.
• Jerak was created by the Hakolians and is the second War Machine in their invasion.
• Jerak exists in another dimension accessible via a mirror.

Notes

Scarecrow by Colin Howard (DWM 259)

• The scarecrow on the cover was illustrated by Colin Howard.
• This book is also available as an ebook from the Amazon Kindle store.
• While the back cover sets this story between The Curse of Fenric and Survival, the fact Perivale is on the Doctor's list seems to indicate it takes place after the latter story.
• Somewhat of a sequel, this story is related to the television story The Awakening.
• The story seems to date The Dæmons to 1971.
• This story takes place in "the early years" of the 21st century, with reference made to Tuesday the 17 June. June 17 was a Tuesday only in 2003 and 2008. Another character refers to the Great Drought of '02, so it could be either year.
• Steven Taylor's name is misspelled as "Stephen."

Continuity

• The Doctor first became aware of an alien presence in Hexen Bridge during the aftermath of the Devil's End incident. (TV: The Dæmons)
• After his adventure in Little Hodcombe, the Doctor, with the help of Jane Hampden, acquired a place on the board of governors at Hexen Bridge School so that he could keep an eye on the area. (TV: The Awakening)
• Ace says she hates fascists as much as she hates clowns. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
• She tells Stephen the last time she was at a church she was being chased by vampires. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
• The Doctor remembers being in London with Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom at Christmas. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
• He has a 'To Do List' including leaving a settee in Perivale, (TV: Survival) and returning to Planet 14. (TV: The Invasion) According to one account, it was the Sixth Doctor who left the settee in Perivale. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)
• The Doctor remembers regenerating after a fatal fall. (TV: Logopolis)
• The Doctor has previously encountered alien scarecrows (COMIC: The Night Walkers) and will do so again. (TV: Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

External links

• The Hollow Men at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Hollow Men at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: The Hollow Men
• Interview: The Hollow Men.