Salvation (novel)
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Salvation was the seventeenth novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Steve Lyons, released 4 January 1999 and featured the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet.
This line-up of Doctor and companions had never before been featured in novel form.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
The gods have returned, and they're here to save our world.
New York, 1965. A time of conflict between ideologies, races, generations and genders, when crime runs rife and an unpopular war drags on in a distant land. In the midst of this turmoil, people cry out to their gods.
And now, it seems, the gods have answered their call. Walking the slums and tenements of downtown Manhattan, demonstrating extraordinary powers, five strangers are gathering a growing crowd of worshippers.
Steven wants to believe in miracles, but the Doctor is more sceptical. What are the strangers' real motives, and why does history make no mention of these events? As New York begins to tear itself apart, the Doctor's principles are tested to their limits. Which side should he choose to help? And what part will a London schoolgirl named Dorothea Chaplet play in the ensuing chaos?
What price is humankind willing to pay for salvation?
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dodo sees a green light in the sky one morning and observes soldiers on Wimbledon Common after school, later reading reports of similar lights in New York City. She visits Mr Miller to do his shopping as usual and finds a being who has killed Mr Miller and taken his form and attacks her, although he claims that he is here to save Earth. The being, whose body begins to look younger, holds her captive and takes on the name "Joseph". He tries to have sex with her, but Dodo resists and escapes onto the common when he suddenly experiences a pain in his head.
Running to safety in the TARDIS, Dodo fears that she has run into Joseph's spaceship and tells the Doctor and Steven that she came to call the police because of an accident. The Doctor dematerialises the ship to keep it from being discovered by approaching policemen and they arrive on West 25th Street in New York City. Whilst Steven looks around on his own, the Doctor and Dodo explore together and go to see the Statue of Liberty, after which the Doctor apologises for kidnapping her. Dodo is grateful, however, and tells him about losing her mother and father and what her life with her great-aunt Margaret has been like. They hear rumours of the Church of the Latter-Day Pantheon and go to investigate, but are denied entry.
Without a key to the TARDIS, Steven twice returns to the ship and receives no answer when he knocks on the door. He continues to wander the city and is attacked by a gang of thieves, but he is saved and healed by Norman, the God of Order, who causes one of the thieves to go up in flames. Norman disappears and Steven goes after him with Private Stanley Emerson, a soldier who witnessed the encounter.
Eventually, Alexander Lullington-Smythe introduces the Latter-Day Pantheon: Norman, Max, Dennis, Jennifer and the Patriarch. The Doctor and Dodo are among the few chosen to commune with them inside the church and watch as the gods heal an old woman's joints and tell a poor man that money has appeared in his bank account. The Doctor asks for information on the gods' intentions, but the army storm the church and arrest the Doctor and the humans whilst the gods vanish. The Doctor and Dodo are questioned one at a time by General Marchant whilst Professor Carter performs medical tests on them, discovering the Doctor's double pulse.
Following a psychic cry, Joseph flies from Wimbledon to Rogers Air Force Base and attacks, allowing Dodo to escape from Carter. She stops him from killing Carter, who killed one of his groupmates, and realises that he belongs to the same species as the gods, whom he flies off to find. She recounts everything that happened to her in London to the Doctor, Marchant and Carter and, after calling Margaret to let her know where she is, goes with the Doctor, Smythe and the army to confront the supposed gods due to her previous interactions with Joseph, who has joined them as their God of Peace. At the church, Marchant shoots the Patriarch, who heals himself and kills Emerson.
Steven meets journalist Kathy Marchant whilst waiting at the TARDIS and is approached once again by Norman whilst a riot breaks out. Norman explains to them that the gods can do whatever the people believe that they can and intend to alter the timeline and make Steven's time happier, claiming that Steven should not listen to the Doctor as he is to blame for the death of Anne Chaplet. He and Kathy agree to join him, which is a source of contention when he returns to the TARDIS and is reunited with the Doctor, but he still has some doubts and is uncertain about the gods allowing people, including Carter, to effectively commit suicide by passing through the Gateway.
Whilst the Doctor finds Steven to convince him of the threat of the gods, Dodo looks around New York and is approached by Joseph, who feels closer to her than to the other gods as a result of his persona being moulded with her help. They explore the city and fly above it before Joseph takes her through the Gateway and leaves her on the other side. The Doctor manages to recruit Steven and Kathy to his side and they vow to stop the gods, who have started to kill people for the long-term good. Smythe, humiliated by the gods after demanding payment for his services as their manager, also turns against them. To lessen faith in them, the Doctor provokes the Patriarch into launching a fireball at him, which has little effect thanks to his lack of belief in the gods.
The gods retreat through the Gateway as "decent and honest" people turn on them. In the Land of the Gods, Dodo is reunited with Carter and learns that the land attempts to give everybody there what they want and will, once enough people arrive, rip itself apart just as Earth will. She accepts Joseph's proposal of marriage and suddenly finds herself at their wedding, at which Carter makes Joseph realise that she is unable to think for herself due to the world attempting to give him what he wants. The Patriarch, who is officiating the wedding, is angered by Joseph's change of heart and forcibly makes him human. The gods then return to Earth to end the Vietnam War and increase belief in themselves.
Steven passes through the Gateway and helps Dodo, Carter and Joseph gather all of the other humans in the Land of the Gods and get them back to Earth. Dodo asks Joseph to return with her, but he believes that he is strong enough to maintain his identity and guide the others of his kind once they return and are reborn once again. She kisses him on the cheek and leaves. The Doctor convinces people that an unarmed bomb is capable of defeating the gods, which, thanks to the power of belief, works, after which Marchant tells the media that the gods were an April Fools' Day prank orchestrated by Smythe. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS with Steven and Dodo, who confirm that they wish to stay with him, and Dodo asks to go anywhere but home.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
- First Doctor
- Steven Taylor
- Dodo Chaplet
- Charles Marchant
- Kathy Marchant
- Byron Carter
- Alexander Lullington-Smythe
- Stanley Emerson
- Henry Wilkes
- Neville Albert Miller
The Latter-Day Pantheon[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Dodo was born in 1949.
- In November 1980, a science fiction film entitled Prey for a Miracle, which was inspired by the UFO / gods scare caused by the Latter-Day Pantheon, was released.
- Steven knows of the Cybermen.
- Steven shows Dodo to her bedroom aboard the TARDIS.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The first two chapters are told from Dodo's perspective prior to her entering the TARDIS as depicted at the end of The Massacre.
- There is a reference to a movie about this event called Prey for a Miracle, which stars Peter Cushing as the "mysterious government advisor, Doctor Who". The real Peter Cushing had played Dr. Who in Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D..
- The world of the "Gods" may be the same as the Crooked World, from the novel The Crooked World, also written by Steve Lyons. Both novels detail a planet populated by life forms which are essentially blank slates, without their own form or thought, until external intelligences impose new identities on them.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Dodo listens to John Smith and the Common Men but believes that they are "a bit past it." (TV: An Unearthly Child, AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)
- The Doctor says that not even the first syllable of his name can be pronounced. The Sixth Doctor later told his companion Peri Brown the same thing (AUDIO: Slipback) as did the Seventh Doctor to Captain Hartmann. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) However, River Song was able to pronounce it. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
- Steven recalls seeing the ruins of New York City in the aftermath of the Dalek invasion and occupation of Earth in the 22nd century. The city had yet to be rebuilt in its entirety by his native time period. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- The Doctor mentions the Daleks and the Tzun as examples of hostile aliens intent on invading Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Daleks' Master Plan, PROSE: First Frontier)
- General Marchant has seen evidence of "metal monsters in Shoreditch" in November 1963 (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) and "strange goings on at Corman in Nevada" in 1957. (PROSE: First Frontier)
- The Doctor remarks that there are evil creatures in the universe which "must be fought." (TV: The Moonbase)
- When listing the Doctor's interferences in history, the Patriarch mentions his championing Greece in the Trojan War in circa 1200 BC, (TV: The Myth Makers) leaving the French Huguenots to be killed in the St Bartholomew's Day massacre on 24 August 1572, (TV: The Massacre) burning Rome in July 64, (TV: The Romans) sabotaging Barbara Wright's attempt to save the Aztecs in the 15th century, (TV: The Aztecs) arranging Rebecca Nurse's death on 19 July 1692 (PROSE: The Witch Hunters) and dragging Katarina into a conflict that she could neither understand or survive in 4000. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
- The Doctor says that his body may be "wearing a little thin." He later repeated this assessment, not long before his first regeneration. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Salvation at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Salvation at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Salvation
