Doctor Who_ The Sleep of Reason - Martin Day [0]
The past: an asylum struggles to change Victorian attitudes to the mentally ill. It catches fire in mysterious circumstances.
Now: a young woman takes an overdose and slips into a coma. She dreams of death falling like a shroud over a benighted gothic building.
Caroline ‘Laska’ Darnell is admitted to the Retreat after her latest suicide attempt. To her horror, she recognises the medical centre from recent nightmares of an old building haunted by a ghostly dog with glowing eyes.
She knows that something is very wrong with the institute. Something, revelling in madness, is growing ever stronger. The mysterious Dr Smith is fascinated by Laska’s waking dreams and prophetic nightmares. But if Laska is unable to trust her own perceptions, can she trust Dr Smith?
And, all the while, the long-dead hound draws near. . .
This is another in the series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor.
THE SLEEP OF REASON
MARTIN DAY
DOCTOR WHO: THE SLEEP OF REASON
Commissioning Editor: Ben Dunn
Editor & Creative Consultant: Justin Richards Project Editor: Jacqueline Rayner
Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd
Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane
London W12 0TT
First published 2004
Copyright © Martin Day 2004
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 48620 1
Cover imaging by Black Sheep, copyright © BBC 2004
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackays of Chatham
Cover printed by Belmont Press Ltd, Northampton Thanks to Ian Abrahams (always Mausoleum’s biggest fan), Ian Atkins, Bob Baker, Terry Barker, Paul Cornell, Diane Culverhouse, Russell T Davies, Paul Ebbs, Sarah Emsley, Sandy Hastie, Mike Heales, Jill James, Rebecca Levene, Sean McCormack, John McLaughlin, Steven Moffat, the late Dennis Potter (who would, of course, have made a much better job of chapter one), Eric Pringle, Jac Rayner, Helen Raynor, Justin Richards and Keith Topping.
Dedicated, as always, to Helen
Contents
Prologue: Dreams Never End
(The Secret of Patient # 1759)
1
1: Do You Remember the First Time?
(A Brief History of Self-Harm)
3
2: Suicide Isn’t Painless
(In Fact It Hurts Like Hell)
11
3: Architecture and Morality
(Angel of Death)
17
4: There’s a Ghost in My House
(Frontier Psychiatrists)
29
5: Caroline Says
(I’ve Got My TV and My Pills)
41
6: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity
(Communion)
49
7: I’ll Be Your Mirror
(Reflect What You Are)
61
8: Cellar Door
(The Place You Fear the Most)
75
9: The Stolen Child
(World Full of Weeping)
89
10: Mad World
(The Start of the Breakdown)
99
11: Spy vs Spy
(Life’s a Riot)
107
12: A Million Manias
(Torment)
119
13: My Life in a Bell Jar
(Where is My Mind?)
125
14: Basket Case
(Where’s Your Head At?)
133
15: A Hideous Strength
(Dominion)
141
16: The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
(Kill Your Sons)
145
17: Matters of Life and Death
(Chiaroscuro)
157
18: The World, the Flesh and the Devil
(O King of Chaos)
165
19: No Alarms
(No Surprises)
169
20: No One Here Gets Out Alive
(A Person Isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days)
179
21: The Sweet Unknown
(Mausoleum)
187
22: Time’s Tides
(The Sleep of Reason)
193
23: There by the Grace of God
(The Dream of Reason)
201
24: This is the Way the World Ends
(The Tooth)
211
25: Soldier Girl
(She’s Leaving)
215
26: Good Riddance
(Time of Your Life)
223
Epilogue: P.S. Goodbye
(Cuckoo’s Nest)
225
Beware the Sholem Luz –
Made mighty by madness,
Birthed in fire,
Reborn in terrible destruction.
Graffito etched into wall of
Bethlehem Royal Hospital (‘Bedlam’), c. 1790
Prologue
Dreams Never End
(The Secret of Patient No. 1759)
‘It’s the stars I miss the most,’ the patient announced suddenly.
The nurse turned to look at the man. He hadn’t said a word since she had entered to clean his room, staring