Doctor Who_ The Visitation - Eric Saward [0]
unintentionally became a member of the
TARDIS’s crew, wants to return to her own
time, but when the Doctor tries to take her
back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth
century the TARDIS lands instead on the
outskirts of seventeenth-century London
The Doctor and his companions receive a
decidedly unfriendly welcome – but it soon
becomes clear that the sinister activities of
other visitors from time and space have made
the villagers extremely suspicious of outsiders.
And as a result of the aliens’ evil schemes, the
Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a
key role in a gruesome historical event . . .
DOCTOR WHO
AND
THE VISITATION
Based on the BBC television series by Eric Saward by
arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation
ERIC SAWARD
A TARGET BOOK
published by
the Paperback Division of
W. H. ALLEN & Co. PLC
A Target Book
Published in 1982
By the Paperback Division of W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd.
A Howard & Wyndham Company
44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB
First Published in Great Britain by
W. H. Allen & Co. PLC. 1982
Novelisation copyright © Eric Saward 1982
Original Script Copyright © Eric Saward 1981
'Doctor Who' series copyright © British Broadcasting
Corporation 1981, 1982
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading
ISBN 0 426 20135 3
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
For Paula, with fondest love
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter One
It was a warm summer evening. The rays of the setting sun bathed the old manor house in subtle shades of red and gold. Evening stars appeared as the light continued to fade.
From a high branch, a sleepy owl watched a fox break cover and silently pad towards the west wing of the manor house.
Night was awakening. Small furry animals with bright, shiny eyes scurried through the undergrowth in search of food. A grass snake, warm and refreshed from a day spent lying in the sun, tentatively flexed his body and explored the air with a series of short, sharp, flicking movements of his highly sensitive tongue. The owl, now fully awake, stared fixedly, saucer-eyed, at a shadow below. Suddenly he launched himself into space, and on silent wings, talons extended, sped towards a tiny harvest mouse. A moment later, the bird's hooked beak was tearing at his supper. It was the first kill of the evening.
With her day book before her on the window seat of her bedroom, Elizabeth watched the fox as he trotted by below. Smiling, she picked up her quill, dipped it into her pewter ink pot and recorded the sighting in her best copperplate handwriting. She then replenished her quill, and, at the bottom of the entry, set its creaking, scratchy nib to uncoil, in black ink, the date: 5th August 1666. Blotting the sheet carefully, she closed the day book, rose, picked up the candle and crossed to the door.
With long skirts carefully controlled, Elizabeth started to negotiate the steep, narrow stairs from her bedroom. As she descended she heard the distant bark of the fox.
Hoping to catch a last glimpse, she paused at the stairway's tiny lancet window and peered out. But the only moving thing visible was what appeared to be a bal of light slowly crossing the sky. Elizabeth stared at the object, puzzled by its slowness and the acute angle at which it was travelling towards Earth. If it was a shooting star, she thought, it was unlike any she had seen before.
Surprise replaced puzzlement when, at great speed, a tiny but very distinct bolt of light was ejected from the main ball. Elizabeth watched as the