Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [0]
The Dying Days
Written by Lance Parkin
6 May 1997: The Dying Days of the Twentieth Century
On the Mare Sirenum, British astronauts are walking on the surface of Mars for the first time in over twenty years.
The National Space Museum in London is the venue for a spectacular event where the great and the good celebrate a unique British achievement.
In Adisham, Kent, the most dangerous man in Britain has escaped from custody while being transported by helicopter. In Whitehal , the new Home Secretary is convinced that there is a plot brewing to overthrow the government. In west London, MI5 agents shut down a publishing company that got too close to the top secret organisation known as UNIT. And, on a state visit to Washington, the Prime Minster prepares to make a crucial speech, total y unaware that dark forces are working against him.
As the eighth Doctor and Professor Bernice Summerfield discover, all these events are connected. However, soon al wil be overshadowed.
This time, the Doctor is already too late.
CONTENTS
Author’s Preface/Introduction – Page 3
THE DYING DAYS – Page 6
Author’s Notes – Page 125
Originally published by Doctor Who Books, a division of Virgin Publishing Pty Ltd Copyright © Lance Parkin 1997, 2003
The moral right of the author has been asserted; this reproduction is made with grateful acknowledgement to the BBC website
– no infringement of copyright is intended, as this work is produced for private use only, and not for profit.
Original series broadcast on the BBC
Format © BBC 1963
DOCTOR WHO and TARDIS are trademarks of the BBC
Bernice Summerfield created by Paul Cornell
The Ice Warriors created by Brian Hayles
2
Introduction - Preface by Lance Parkin
Conservative choices
Fans in high places
I’ve heard the same story from three independent sources. That doesn’t make it true, but it makes it true enough that a newspaper editor would be more than happy to run it.
On May 1st 1997, on the night of the General Election, Tim Collins, newly-elected Conservative MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale and Doctor Who fan (he’d had letters published in fanzine DWB) sat in his local town hall, oblivious to the activity around him, frantically reading The Dying Days, ‘because he wanted to have read all the New Adventures under a Tory administration’.
Over the years I’ve talked to hundreds of people, nearly all of whom remember exactly where they were when they finished it, some of whom have admitted to bunking off school or work to do so. I think, though, that Tim Collins wins the prize for best Dying Days related anecdote. He is now the shadow cabinet office spokesman and vice-chairman of the Conservative party, and he’s on Sky News as I type this, calling for Stephen Byers’ resignation.
Licence revoked
The end of the New Adventures
So … the basics. The Dying Days was the sixty-first and last New Adventure published by Virgin Publishing.
Virgin’s licence to produce Doctor Who novels hadn’t been extended because the year before the TV Movie starring Paul McGann had come out, and the BBC were keen to bring the books in-house.
At first, this was because there was a prospect of a TV series – but even when that evaporated, the BBC
recognised that Virgin had identified a niche in the market, and the books were nicely profitable (and just as important in an unpredictable market, had very steady sales).
The Dying Days was the first original novel to feature the eighth Doctor. It was original y published in April 1997.
Selling fast
Out of stock before release
Because it was both a ‘last’ and a ‘first’ book, it sold very quickly. The Dying Days was out of stock before the official release date. That’s led to reports and persistent rumours that the book had a lower print run.
No, no, a thousand times no: the book completely sold out, so I know exactly what the print run was. The irony is that it’s easily my biggest-selling Who novel – it sold more than Just War, Cold Fusion, The Infinity Doctors and Father Time. And it’s ironic, because for five years, now,