Mad Dogs and Englishmen (novel)

Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Fitz, Anji
Main enemy:	Princess Margaret
Main setting:	The dogworld Hotel on an asteroid England, 1942 Las Vegas, 1960s Los Angeles, 1978 The Very Fabric of Space and Time
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Paul Magrs
Release details
Release number:	52
Release date:	7 January 2002
Format:	Paperback Book; 34 Chapters, 256 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-53845-7
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	The Adventuress of Henrietta Street
Next →	Hope

Mad Dogs and Englishmen was the fifty-second novel in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Paul Magrs, released 7 January 2002 and featured the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kapoor.

Publisher's summary

"Grrrrr."

The greatest book ever written.

Professor Reginald Tyler's The True History of Planets was a twentieth-century classic; an epic of dwarves and swords and wizardry. And definitely no poodles. Or at least there weren't when the Doctor read it.

Now it tells the true tale of how the Queen of the poodles was overthrown; it's been made into a hit movie, and it's going to cause a bloodbath on the dogworld — unless the Doctor, Fitz and Anji (and assorted friends) can sort it all out.

The Doctor infiltrates the Smudgelings, Tyler's elite Cambridge writing set of the early twentieth century; Fitz falls for flamboyant torch singer Brenda Soobie in sixties Las Vegas, and Anji experiences some very special effects in seventies Hollywood. Their intention is to prevent the movie from ever being made. But there is a shadowy figure present in all three time zones who is just as determined to see it completed... so the poodle revolution can begin.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Eighth Doctor
• Fitz Kreiner
• Anji Kapoor
• "Shirley Bassey" Iris (alias Brenda Soobie)
• Reginald Tyler
• John Cleavis
• Enid Tyler
• Fritter
• Char
• Professor Alid Jag
• Martha
• Flossie
• Noël Coward
• William Freer
• John Fuchas
• Ron Von Arnim
• Princess Margaret
• Mida Slike
• Brewster
• Emily

Worldbuilding

The Doctor

• The Doctor tells Enid Tyler that he is from somewhere in the south of Ireland beginning with the letter G.

Earth mammals

• The Doctor was responsible for the repopulation of Britain by the wild boar in 1987.

Foods and beverages from the real world

• Freer eats mock turtle soup.

Individuals

• Fritter and Char are poodle archivists from the dogworld.

Organisations

• Mida Slike is an agent of Ministry for Incursions and Ontological Wonders.
• Professor Alid Jag is of an aphid-like species and also an agent of MIAOW.
• Mida Slike mentions the Circle Hermeneutic and the New Dehistoricists.

Planets

• Karim is a planet inhabited by lobster-people.

Species

• The Doctor accidentally created the Tusken race.

Towns and cities

• Whitby is a town in North Yorkshire.

Time travel

• Noel Coward has a set of pinking shears that allow him to time travel.

Colleges and universities

• Mida Slike holds a Chair of Bastardisation at the University of Outer Angila.

Notes

• This is the hundredth BBC Books Novel (EDA and PDA combined). The cover's Doctor Who logo was printed in reflective gold foil in celebration.
• The novel contains a spoof of J. R. R. Tolkien's experiences writing The Lord of the Rings. The character representing C. S. Lewis in this also appears in Magrs' novel To the Devil - a Diva! and the Smudgelings reappear in his Brenda and Effie Mysteries novel, Something Borrowed.

Continuity

• MIAOW were previously mentioned in PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion.
• The Doctor still has a beard. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
• The Doctor is interested in the works of Fox Soames. (PROSE: To the Devil — a Diva!, Kept Safe and Sound)
• The Doctor's earliest memory is of waking up on a train. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
• Iris mentions coming to visit the Doctor in the nineteen-eighties, but the Doctor couldn't remember it. (PROSE: Father Time)
• Fitz somewhat remembers his previous encounter with Iris Wildthyme. (PROSE: The Blue Angel)
• Many of the Smudgelings' stories resemble elements of the Doctor's past adventures.
  • William Freer's latest novel is titled The Slaves of Sutekh. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
  • The Diamond Mines of Marion are a location in Reginald Tyler's The True History of Planets; their name is one letter off from the Diamond Mines of Marlion. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion, Verdigris)
  • Cleavis is writing a novel involving a "dear old aunt [who] happens to own a double-decker bus that can travel to [another] world". (PROSE: Old Flames, The Scarlet Empress, Verdigris)
  • After joining the Smudgelings, the Doctor pretends that he is writing a novel about "terrible shape-shifting aliens who have lived beneath Loch Ness for millions of years". (TV: Terror of the Zygons) Later, when giving details on the novel, the Doctor says, "There is a world where the creatures who live there are building perfect replicas of English villages from plastic... (TV: The Android Invasion) And they are sending automata in coffins to crash land on the earth (TV: Spearhead from Space) and, um, well one of these goes wrong and he's a creature of shreds and patches with a brain in a glass case instead of a head (TV: The Brain of Morbius) and... um, he's possessed by a gigantic spider that attaches itself to his back..." (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
  • Johnson is writing an epic poem about "silver Vikings who are frozen in a tomb". (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)

External links

• Mad Dogs and Englishmen at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Mad Dogs and Englishmen at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Mad Dogs and Englishmen