Doctor Who: The Three Doctors
Page 1
Contents
Cover
About the Book
About the Authors
Also by BBC Books
Title Page
Introduction by Alastair Reynolds
The Changing Face of Doctor Who
1. Lightning from Space
2. Attack from the Unknown
3. The Menace of the Black Hole
4. Beyond the Unknown
5. A Shock for the Brigadier
6. In the Hands of the Enemy
7. Door to Freedom
8. Escape from Omega
9. ‘All Things Shall Be Destroyed’
10. Return through the Flame
11. Three Doctors Minus Two
Between the Lines
Copyright
About the Book
A mysterious black hole is draining away power from the Universe. Even the Time Lords are threatened. The Doctor is also in trouble. Creatures from the black hole besiege UNIT Headquarters.The only person who can help the Doctor is... himself.
The Time Lords bring together the first three incarnations of the Doctor to discover the truth about the black hole and stop the energy drain. The Doctors and their companions travel back through the black hole itself, into a universe of anti-matter. Here they meet one of the very first Time Lords – Omega, who gave his race the power to travel through time.
Trapped for aeons in the black hole, he now plans to escape – whatever the cost.
This novel is based on a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 30 December 1972 to 20 January 1973.
Following the first three Doctors as played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, together with Jo Grant and the UNIT organisation commanded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
About the Authors
Terrance Dicks
Born in East Ham in London in 1935, Terrance Dicks worked in the advertising industry after leaving university before moving into television as a writer. He worked together with Malcolm Hulke on scripts for The Avengers as well as other series before becoming Assistant and later full Script Editor of Doctor Who from 1968.
Working closely with friend and series Producer Barry Letts, Dicks worked on the entirety of the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s era of the programme, and returned as a writer – scripting Tom Baker’s first story as the Fourth Doctor: ‘Robot’. He left Doctor Who to work as first Script Editor and then Producer on the BBC’s prestigious Classic Serials, and to pursue his writing career on screen and in print. His later scriptwriting credits on Doctor Who included the twentieth-anniversary story ‘The Five Doctors’.
Terrance Dicks novelised many of the original Doctor Who stories for Target books, and discovered a liking and talent for prose fiction. He has written extensively for children, creating such memorable series and characters as T.R. Bear and the Baker Street Irregulars, as well as continuing to write original Doctor Who novels for BBC Books.
Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Dave Martin was born in Bristol in 1935, and Bob Baker was born in Birmingham in 1939. Now best known as script writer for Wallace and Gromit, Bob Baker originally studied animation. After various other jobs, he met aspiring writer Dave Martin and the two began a writing career together.
One of their early ‘spec’ scripts was sent to the Doctor Who production office. Seeing potential in the team’s writing, Producer Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks invited them to suggest ideas for a Doctor Who story. Initially far too ambitious for television, their story eventually became the 1971 Third Doctor story ‘The Claws of Axos’.
Bob Baker and Dave Martin wrote extensively for television during the 1970s and 1980s both as a team – on series including Z Cars, King of the Castle, Target and Murder at the Wedding – and separately. They also wrote a total of eight stories together for Doctor Who (with Bob Baker writing another on his own) and created the ‘character’ of K-9.
Dave Martin died in 2007.
Also by BBC Books
DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS
David Whitaker
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CRUSADERS
David Whitaker
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CYBERMEN
Gerry Davis
DOCTOR WHO AND THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
Terrance Dicks
DOCTOR WHO AND THE AUTON INVASION
Terrance Dicks
DOCTOR WHO AND THE CAVE MONSTERS
Malcolm Hulke
DOCTOR WHO AND THE TENTH PLANET
Gerry Davis
DOCTOR WHO AND THE ICE WARRIORS
Brian Hayles
DOCTOR WHO AND THE DAY OF THE DALEKS
Terrance Dicks
DOCTOR WHO AND THE ARK IN SPACE
Ian Marter
DOCTOR WHO AND THE LOCH NESS MONSTER
Terrance Dicks
INTRODUCTION
BY
Alastair Reynolds
I was four when Jon Pertwee took over as the Doctor; eight when he departed. From a child’s perspective, that’s an astonishingly long interval: exactly half a lifetime, in fact. I have no memories of watching the early Pertwee adventures, some grainy and confused impressions of the early Jo Grant episodes, and fairly sharp recollections of the latter Grant / Sarah Jane Smith stories. Going back and watching some of these adventures again on pristine DVD, after an interval of nearly forty years, has been an instructive and at times thoroughly disorientating exercise.
That scene in ‘The Mutants’, for instance, in which the missiles are fired down from the space station: I could have sworn that went on for hours. The tricycle chase scene that I’d always believed to be from ‘Colony in Space’ turns out to be from ‘Day of the Daleks’ instead. The Doctor getting into some kind of futuristic vehicle that looked, to my innocent eyes, as if it was on a Hot Wheels track: that’s not from ‘Frontier in Space’ after all. (What is it from? Don’t know: haven’t got to that one yet.) Other times, I’ve been surprised at how broadly accurate my memories proved to be. Some of the Pertwee adventures have been shown on television since their original airing, it’s true, and I own VHS copies of one or two of them. But in most cases, I’m confident that I’m seeing them for the first time since I was a child. That was how it was back then: if you didn’t catch an episode of Doctor Who when it was on, you had no guarantee of seeing it again. (Trust me on this: I was so distraught at not being able to see ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ again that I wrote to Ask Aspel, requesting that a clip of it be shown. I wasn’t indulged: curse that Michael Aspel for his heartlessness.)
There is of course one significant complicating factor in all of this memory-checking. My recollections of the first four Doctors, across all their adventures, are inevitably cross-contaminated with the pervasive influence of the Target novelisations. In the absence of routine repeats, and in the wilderness years before VHS and DVD, these affordable paperbacks offered one of the few ways to ‘relive’ Doctor Who adventures, or to catch up on ones you’d never seen in the first place. So it was for me. I don’t remember which Target book I read first, but before very long I had a respectable collection of them, well-read but also cherished – I’d do anything to avoid getting them creased or dog-eared, and the slightest damage to one of my books was a cause of immense distress. My friend Stephen and I used to compare our collections – I was jealous that Stephen had a copy of Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, while I didn’t. We’d spend hours marvelling over the cover illustrations, duplicating Daleks and Wirrn and whatnot in our schoolbooks.
But the Target books offered much more than just a window back into Doctor Who: they were a formative part of my reading experience, and among the first book-length science fiction of any kind th
at was available to me then. The arrival of a new Target book was a source of considerable delight, regardless of which adventure or Doctor was featured. Memories of them are inevitably bound up with real-life circumstances. I was given Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters on my tenth birthday. A newly purchased copy of Doctor Who and the Space War accompanied me on a week-long Welsh language course in Ogmore-by-Sea, the first time I’d been away from home. Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment is inseparable in my memories from the cosy anticipation of a long-ago Christmas in Barry.
I don’t own any of my Target books now (I sent my collection to a friend’s son in New Zealand, so they went to a good home) so I can’t therefore be sure that The Three Doctors was part of my collection. I suspect it was, though; there’s no reason I wouldn’t have owned it (it was a vital part of the Doctor’s collective history, after all), and when I did catch the series on television, it felt familiar, although I don’t think I saw the original transmission. Recently I watched it on DVD again, and now I have read (or should that be re-read?) Terrance Dicks’s 1975 novelisation. What strikes me, upon this reading, is what a thoroughly useful grounding the Target books must have been for anyone with the vaguest literary pretensions. Simply put, these are good tales, well told. Dicks’s storytelling moves along with great efficiency. The characters are economically drawn, but effectively so. There’s a leavening of humour, some of it drawn directly from the dialogue, some of it attributable to Dicks himself, in his wry observations of the characters’ interactions and inner musings. There are moments of seriousness, where it’s clear that rather a lot is at stake. Above all else, the mood of the series is well captured. I am very glad that the Target books were around for me, at just the age when I most needed them, and I thank the writers involved.
What of The Three Doctors, then? Any adventure that deepens the Time Lord mythos is bound to be important, and that’s definitely the case here. The notion of reuniting the Doctor with his former incarnations is inspired, an idea that was picked up again throughout the run of classic Who. Indeed, what other show could pull off such an audacious conceit? For me, there’s a particular joy in UNIT adventures, and it’s good to see the Brig and co in such sterling form here. Omega is a fine villain – I have a particular thing for ‘baddie’ Time Lords. I admire the notion that it was Omega’s expertise in stellar engineering that bestowed upon the Time Lords the power of time travel. It’s a reminder that the Doctor’s abilities – and, indeed, those of his fellows – derive not from some mystical wellspring but from applied science; that the TARDIS is a machine, albeit a very advanced one; that the Doctor is merely a long-lived humanoid alien with a powerful vehicle, not a supernatural force. No one would ever claim that the series was scrupulous in its treatment of scientific ideas, but here at least there’s no doubting that the Who universe is governed by rational factors, and that the scientific method is (for the Doctor at least) the only valid mode of enquiry. The Doctor was one of only a handful of scientist role models on television when I grew up (Spock was another) and there’s no doubt that these figures influenced my own choice of career. In passing, I wonder: was ‘The Three Doctors’, transmitted in 1973, the first piece of televisual science fiction to make reference to the then relatively new and cutting-edge astronomical phenomena of black holes?
Enjoy, then, The Three Doctors. If you read it thirty-five years ago, read it again. If you didn’t, read it now, for the first time. I don’t think you will be disappointed. Me, I’m off to rebuild my library of Target novelisations.
The Changing Face of Doctor Who
The First Doctor
Although set during the Third Doctor’s era, this Doctor Who novel also features the very first incarnation of the Doctor. When the Doctor was younger, he was an older man. It seems strange now, but when television audiences were first introduced to the Doctor, nothing was revealed about his origins and background. We knew only that, together with his granddaughter, Susan, he has fled from his own planet in the TARDIS – which he cannot control. Every trip is a mystery and a surprise as the TARDIS could take him anywhere and anywhen.
Brilliant but crotchety, the First Doctor did not suffer fools gladly. He took his first companions – Barbara and Ian – with him out of necessity rather than choice. It was more of a kidnapping than a privilege. Over time, and perhaps because of his contact with human beings, the Doctor mellowed and became less irascible. But his brilliance and his passion for justice remained undiminished…
The Second Doctor
This novel also features the second incarnation of the Doctor. After his first encounter with the Cybermen, the Doctor changed form. His old body was apparently worn out, and so he replaced it with a new, younger one. The scratchy, arrogant old man that had been the First Doctor was replaced with a younger and apparently far softer character. The First Doctor’s cold, analytical abilities give way to apparent bluster and a tendency to panic under pressure.
But with the Second Doctor more than any other, first impressions are misleading. The Doctor’s apparent bluster and ineptitude masks a deeper, darker nature. But there are moments too when the Second Doctor’s humanity also shines through. There is ultimately no doubt that his raison d’être is to fight the evil in the universe.
The Third Doctor
This novel also features the third incarnation of the Doctor, whose appearance was altered by his own people, the Time Lords, when they exiled him to Earth. This was his punishment for daring to steal a TARDIS, leave his home world and interfere in the affairs of other life forms. The Time Lords sentenced the Doctor to exile on twentieth-century Earth. The secrets of the TARDIS were taken from him and his appearance was changed.
While on Earth, the Doctor formed an alliance and friendship with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, head of the British branch of UNIT. Working as UNIT’s Scientific Adviser, the Doctor helped the organisation to deal with all manner of threats to humanity in return for facilities to try to repair the TARDIS, and a sporty, yellow Edwardian-style car he calls Bessie.
UNIT
UNIT in the United Kingdom is under the command of the ever-practical and down-to-earth Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He first met the Second Doctor, and fought with him against the Yeti and the Cybermen. UNIT is a military organisation, with its headquarters in Geneva but personnel seconded from the armed forces of each host nation. The remit of UNIT is rather vague, but according to the Brigadier, it deals with ‘the odd, the unexplained. Anything on Earth, or even beyond…’
From mad scientists to alien invasions, from revived prehistoric civilisations to dinosaurs rampaging through London, UNIT has its work cut out.
Jo Grant
Jo Grant is an unlikely UNIT agent. Having been foisted on the Brigadier against his will at the insistence of her uncle – a high-ranking official in the UN – the Brigadier hits on the idea of assigning Jo to be the Doctor’s assistant.
Jo tells the Doctor that she is a fully qualified agent, but – since she also tells him she took an A level in General Science, only to point out later ‘I didn’t say I passed’ – this may be an exaggeration. But Jo’s abilities in escapology and her enthusiasm are never in doubt. Very quickly, the Doctor and the Brigadier come to realise what an asset she really is.
But in an organisation as professional and disciplined as UNIT, Jo – like the Doctor – will always stand out as an individual who is not afraid to speak her mind and follow her own instincts.
1
Lightning from Space
FOR AN ADVENTURE that was to be one of the most astonishing of the Doctor’s very long life, it all began very quietly. It started, in fact, with a silvery-grey balloon, drifting peacefully out of the blue morning sky to land on the flat marshy ground of an Essex bird sanctuary. Hanging from the balloon was a bright orange box, about the size and shape of a car battery.
The box bumped along the ground as a gust of wind caught in the balloon. Then its attaching wires caught fast in a clump of trees, and sent a f
lock of starlings shrieking into the sky.
On the other side of the trees a stocky grey-haired man, in anorak and rubber boots, paused to listen. Arthur Hollis was the warden of the bird sanctuary, and he knew at once, by the note of outrage in the starlings’ voices, that something unusual had happened. He made his way round the trees, and saw the brightly coloured box swinging to and fro like a stranded parachutist. He walked up to it cautiously. As he got closer he saw thick black letters on the side of the box. They read: ‘Reward! Please Contact Dr Tyler.’ An address and telephone number followed. Hollis rubbed his chin. He didn’t like mysterious objects turning up in his bird sanctuary.
The sooner it was out of there the better. He copied the telephone number on a scrap of paper. Suddenly the box crackled. Hollis jumped back. He looked at it cautiously. Nothing happened. Shaking his head suspiciously, Hollis gave the box a last distrustful glare and set off for his cottage.
Several hours later, a battered and muddy Land Rover jolted down the bumpy lane to the bird sanctuary. It was driven by a tubby, fair-haired little man in an old duffle-coat. He pulled up outside the Warden’s cottage and got out.
A pleasant-looking middle-aged woman in an apron came down the cottage path. ‘Dr Tyler, is it? From the University?’
Tyler nodded. ‘That’s me. Sorry to be a trouble. Thanks very much for calling—’
The woman interrupted him, her voice a little anxious. ‘That old box of yours is just through the trees there.’ She pointed across the fields to a small hill. Tyler could just see the silver-grey of the balloon as it caught the sunlight. ‘My Arthur’s keeping an eye on it for you,’ she went on. ‘He hasn’t touched it. Not chemicals, I hope? Only, it’s the birds, you see. He took his shot-gun in case it was dangerous.’
Tyler shook his head vigorously. ‘No, nothing like that. Just instruments. Thanks very much, Mrs Hollis, I’ll go and find your husband.’ He set off towards the trees at an eager pace. As he approached the hill, he called out, ‘Mr Hollis! Mr Hollis!’