The Also People
 |
|
| Author | Ben Aaronovitch |
|---|---|
| Series |
Doctor Who book: Virgin New Adventures |
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Release number
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44 |
| Subject | Featuring: Seventh Doctor Bernice, Chris, Roz, Kadiatu |
| Publisher | Virgin Books |
|
Publication date
|
November 1995 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Head Games |
| Followed by | Shakedown |
The Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.
The Prologue relates a fable in which a leopard becomes caught in a trap. None of the animals will release the creature because they fear she will eat them, until a woman passes by and makes the leopard promise not to hurt her if she frees her. Out of the trap the leopard goes back on her promise and begins hunting the woman, arguing that her brothers built the trap and that killing is part of her nature. Unable to get help from the other animals, the woman eventually encounters the clever hare Tsuro, who tricks the leopard back into the trap, from where she again begins to shout for help. Tsuro turns to the woman and asks whether or not they should free her.
Following events on Detrios, the Doctor has promised to give his companions a holiday and sets the TARDIS for the Worldsphere, a Dyson Sphere that is the home of the massively technologically advanced race called the People. The People are an amalgam of several different races that banded together to build the sphere and have now evolved to an incredibly advanced state where they can change their form and sex at will. The sphere is also home to several different kinds of artificial intelligences; including the governing computer called God (a joke that stuck), spherical drones and various starships that orbit the sphere. Even household objects such as tables and baths have their own personalities. The People are so technologically advanced that they have a non-aggression treaty with the Time Lords (which the Doctor helped negotiate). One of the clauses of this treaty is that the People are not allowed to develop Time Travel technology and the Doctor parks the TARDIS a couple of seconds into the future so as to remove it as a temptation should God become curious. The travellers move into a deserted villa that overlooks the town of iSanti Jeni and wake up the following morning to find their every whim and desire catered to. Exploring this new environment, Benny makes friends with a local baker saRa!qava and Chris begins a romantic relationship with her daughter Dep. However, despite his earlier claims the Doctor has a very serious reason for visiting the Worldsphere; in a nearby wilderness he has hidden Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart under the guard of the drone aM!xitsa. After she disappeared into the Time Vortex the Doctor eventually tracked her down on board a slave ship in the Atlantic, reduced to a feral state where she attacks and kills anyone who approaches her. The Doctor brought her here for safety but fears that she is too dangerous to be kept alive. That night a thunder storm rages across the bay.
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