The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a book concerning Henry Jekyll and his alter ego Edward Hyde.
According to most accounts, it was a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, (AUDIO: Medicinal Purposes, PROSE: The Iytean Menace) released soon before the 1890s. (AUDIO: Stage Fright) It was fiction, (COMIC: Character Assassin) albeit potentially based on real events. (GAME: The Iytean Menace [+]Loading...["The Iytean Menace (game)"])
However, another account suggested that Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde had really existed. The book was an "account" of real events, written by Utterson, an old friend of Jekyll's. (COMIC: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
History[[edit] | edit source]
According to one account, Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde after an encounter in 1885 with the Time Lord Rollo, who told him about an adventure he'd recently been involved in, (GAME: "The Hunters Home From the Hill" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedep":"The Hunters Home From the Hill","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) which concerned a reputed physician named Henry Jellicoe. Jellicoe had been possessed without his knowledge by an Iytean symbiont, who influenced him to drink a "will-sapping drug" which allowed it to take control of Jellicoe's body and physically alter it to a more bestial form, adopting the alias of "Ned Hines". Because the alien had blocked out his memory of originally being possessed, Jellicoe believed he had invented the drug himself and that Ned Hines was an artificial alter ego. (GAME: "Solving the Mystery" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedep":"Solving the Mystery","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"}) Rollo had never heard of Stevenson or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and did not realise the significance of his conversation with Stevenson until he walked back to his TARDIS and was shown the book by his companion Verika. (GAME: "The Hunters Home From the Hill" [+]Part of The Iytean Menace, Loading...{"namedep":"The Hunters Home From the Hill","1":"The Iytean Menace (game)"})
According to another account, after investigating his friend Henry Jekyll and eventually figuring out the truth about him and Edward Hyde upon their dual death, Jekyll's lawyer Utterson wrote an "account" of the strange misadventure. This account was later perused by the Fourth Doctor, who credited its factual nature. (COMIC: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot were familiar with the book in the 1890s, and suggested that it needed a theatre revival. (AUDIO: Stage Fright)
A copy of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was among many books owned by Doctor John Smith, the amnesiac human persona of the Decayed Master. (AUDIO: Master)
References[[edit] | edit source]
When the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and the professor Hayter found a sarcophagus with a being that had a split personality, the Doctor made a reference to Jekyll and Hyde. (TV: Time-Flight)
In 1828, Doctor Robert Knox alluded to the novel during a conversation with Evelyn Smythe. Given that Stevenson would not be born until the 1850s, the Sixth Doctor realised that he mentioned the novel as a test for Evelyn whom he correctly believed may be another time traveller. (AUDIO: Medicinal Purposes)
In 1936, Charley Pollard described the Slaverings as a "cross between a silver-backed gorilla and Mr. Hyde". (AUDIO: The Shadow at the Edge of the World)
