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Instruments of Darkness

A BBC novel by Gary Russell, featuring the sixth Doctor, Mel and Evelyn Smythe

Publication Date: November 2001
ISBN: 0-563-53828-7

The leaders on planet Earth think that the Magnate is a mysterious 'shadow Government' that controls the world. It isn't. The leaders believe the Network to be a ramshackle, paranoid outfit of European anarchists who will eventually blow themselves up. They won't. The leaders believe that if there are humans who can control things with their mains - ESPnets - they're few and far between, and not worth worrying about. They're wrong. The leaders believe that one minute after midnight on 31 December 1993, a new year, full of promise, will begin. They're wrong.

The Doctor and Mel arrive on Earth just days before New Year. An old friend has been kidnapped and taken to France. And two muderous enemies setting up a new life in the Peak District. Which of these threats should the Doctor deal with first? And why is his old travelling companion Evelyn Smythe using her knowledge of the future to make a fortune from chocolate cake recipes?!

Continuity

The Doctor and Mel have encounted Vervoids, pan-dimensional terrorists, Chronovores (Quantum Archangel), and eighteen-foot Chiropterons. She at least knows about the Daleks, Chelonians (Fegovy) and Marmossan Horde. They've visited the Eye of Orion and the Kurgon Wonder (Sirens of Time), but not Gallifrey. She estimates she's travelled with the Doctor for at least a year. They recently visited Australia where the Doctor "borrowed" a Volkswagon (Sleepy). The exercise bicycle now had a sheet over it and probably hasn't been used in a while. Mel is co-signatory to the Doctor's Coutts bank account (Birthright).

Mel considers contacting her parents. Bob Lines remembers her returning to them some two years prior to this adventure, however. She drinks coffee at one point "reacquanting herself with the evils of caffeine".

And at the end, Evelyn leaves with Mel and the Doctor, heading for 2000 via the scenic route...

Comments

Mel and Evelyn work especially well together in this adventure. Perhaps there will be more adventures including the both of them, possibly an audio?

This is the sequel to both Scales of Injustice and Business Unusual.

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