Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [0]
MARK GATISS
Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd
Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane
London W12 OTT
First published 2000
Copyright © Mark Gatiss 2000
The moral right of the author has been asserted Original series broadcast on the BBC
Format © BBC 1963
Doctor Who and TARDIS are trademarks of the BBC
ISBN 0 563 55587 4
Imaging by Black Sheep, copyright © BBC 2000
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham Cover printed by Belmont Press Ltd, Northampton Contents
Foreword
Prologue
1 - Summer Lightning
2 – AWOL
3 - The Visitors
4 – Cargo
5 - Escape to Danger
6 - Gogon of Xanthos
7 - Legion International
8 - The New Order
9 - The Control Room
10 - ‘For God’s Sake Get Away From Here!’
11 - The Beast
12 - Friends in High Places
13 – Missing
14 - Night Takes Bishop
15 - The Wind Tunnel
16 - Jo Alone
17 - Sleeping With the Enemy
18 – Returns
19 - Sleepers
20 - Out of the Shadows
21 - Display of Power
22 - Guest of Honour
23 - Fête Worse Than Death
24 - The Marsh
25 - Lair of the Worm
26 – Resurrection
27 - The Ninth Key
28 – Improvisation
29 - Attack!
30 – Siege
31 – Scramble
32 - Desperate Measures
33 – Invasion
34 - Last of the Gaderene
35 - Peace-time
Thanks, as ever, to all my friends and family To The League of Gentlemen – for ever
and particularly to Keith, with love
Foreword
It is the year 2000 – something that was once truly the stuff of science fiction (or Blue Peter competitions) – and a good time to look back.
It’s still possible to transport some of us of a particular age back to a magical childhood time when all nights seemed wintry and dark, the football results never ended and Doctor Who was the best show on television. All you have to do is utter the simple words, ‘Remember the one with the maggots?’
It’s no good trying to explain what the show meant to us then; suffice to say it was the great constant in our little lives: the heroic Doctor, Jo Grant, the gently moralising stories, the fantastic monsters, action by HAVOC. And during the eternity between seasons we always had the Target books. They gave us exciting versions of stories we had seen, and glimpses into a strange and mysterious past where the Doctor had been someone else. Whenever I was off school, my medicine of preference was always Planet of the Daleks (and maybe oxtail soup), because it took me light years away from my four walls and into the Doctor’s Universe. What a comfort and ‘a genuine inspiration those books were. Incidentally, I feel I must point out that the cover of this book portrays the Third Doctor, whose physical appearance was altered by the Time Lords when they banished him to Earth in the twentieth century.
So, if I may, I’d like to dedicate this book to that happy time and to two men: Terrance Dicks and the late, great Jon Pertwee; for all those Saturday nights.
‘For Jesus said unto him, “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit”.
And he asked him, “What is thy name?”
And the man answered, saying “My name is Legion: for we are many.”’
Mark 5:8
Prologue
The woman’s eyes were as brown as the Bakelite wireless on the high shelf behind her head.
The song coming from the wireless was muffled and crackly, as though the singer were far away. But the voice still managed to sound sweet, wistful and achingly melancholy all at the same time. There would be blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover, the singer promised, her sweeping tones washing over the crowded bar.
A stocky young man with a neatly clipped moustache leant on the bar, his lively eyes sparkling with good humour.
He watched the woman as she looked around the room, which was a blur of blue serge. She hitched up her skirt a little and tugged at her stocking, but she was careful that other men surrounding her, their faces flushed with high spirits and too much beer, didn’t see. Such things were for his eyes only.
The young man pushed his officer’s cap back on his forehead and forced his way through the