Downtime - Marc Platt [0]
A NOVEL FEATURING THE BRIGADIER, VICTORIA AND
SARAH JANE, BASED ON THE ORIGINAL VIDEO DRAMA.
ACROSS THE ROOM, IN A HIGH-BACKED LEATHER CHAIR, VICTORIA SAW THE OLD MAN FROM THE READING ROOM. HIS
FACE WAS CURIOUSLY YOUNG FOR SOMEONE SO LONG DEAD.
n 1966 the Doctor defeated the Great Intelligence, but he knew it wasn’t a final victory. And his companion Victoria, whose mind had once hosted the evil entity, might still fall prey to its power.
Now it seems that his fears are justified. In a Tibetan monastery, the monks display unearthly powers — UNIT are investigating. A new university has opened in London with a secret agenda that may threaten the whole country. Victoria, abandoned in an age very different from her own, and haunted by visions of a father she refuses to believe is dead, is slipping into despair and madness. But are the visions which plague her really hallucinations? Or has the Great Intelligence once again made Earth its target for invasion?
This adventure takes place after Victoria’s departure from the TARDIS in FURY FROM THE DEEP. It is an expansion of the video drama of the same name, also scripted by Marc Platt, and features unique photos taken during filming.
Marc Platt has worked as both scriptwriter and author. He scripted the Doctor Who television story Ghost Light, novelized
Battlefield and wrote one of the early New Adventures, Cat’s
Cradle: Time’s Crucible.
ISBN 0 426 20462 X
DOWNTIME
Marc Platt
First published in Great Britain in 1996 by Doctor Who Books
an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd
332 Ladbroke Grove
London W10 5AH
Copyright © Marc Platt 1996
The right of Marc Platt to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
‘Doctor Who’ series copyright © British Broadcasting Corporation 1996
ISBN 0 426 20462 X
Cover illustration by Paul Campbell
Internal photographs by Robin Prichard
Typeset by Galleon Typesetting, Ipswich
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackays of Chatham PLC
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written 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.
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
1 - Victoria’s Journey
2 - Bug Alert
3 - A Day at the Zoo
4 - Home to Roost
5 - Geneva. Deadline: The Intermediate Future
6 - Putting it Together
7 - The Watch
8 - Eye Spy
9 - Flight
10 - By the Sea
11 - Neighbourhood Watch
12 - Anthony
13 - Shapes
14 - Twickers’ Big Day
15 - Gridlock
16 - The Summons
17 - Web on the Line
18 - By Appointment
19 - Blunder Days
20 - Arrivals
21 - A Reunion
22 - Light of Truth
23 - Crichton
24 - The Boat
25 - Taking the Knight’s Pawn
26 - Truth is Relative
27 - Special Powers
28 - Something in the System
29 - Call in the Cavalry
30 - Under Siege
31 - World Wide Web
32 - Access Denied
33 - Old Worlds For New
34 - Golden Afternoon Revisited
For Daniel
With alphabetical multi-thanks and love to: Ben Aaronovitch, Keith Barnfather,
Christopher and Venice Barry, Andrew Beech, Roy Bell, Nicholas Courtney, Terrance Dicks, Leoš Janáček, Emilia Marty, Simon Rooks, Lis Sladen, Mike Tucker,
Debbie Watling, James White
and all the tremendous cast and crew of Downtime
Which was more abominable?
Me or the Yeti?
Foreword
The novelization you are about to read is based on an independent drama production which I originally approached Marc Platt to write over four years ago.
Television being what it is, it took nearly three years to finally get the cameras rolling, but the end results have more than justified the producers’ faith in the project and Marc’s ability as a writer.