The Hollow Men (Doctor Who)
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| Author |
Martin Day Keith Topping |
|---|---|
| Series |
Doctor Who book: Past Doctor Adventures |
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Release number
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10 |
| Subject | Featuring: Seventh Doctor Ace |
| Set in | Period between The Curse of Fenric and Survival |
| Publisher | BBC Books |
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Publication date
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6 April 1998 |
| Pages | 284 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Witch Hunters |
| Followed by | Catastrophea |
The Hollow Men is a BBC Books original novel written by Martin Day and Keith Topping and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, and Ace and uses elements from the Fifth Doctor serial The Awakening.
In the early years of the 21st century, the Doctor brings Ace to Hexen Bridge, site of a brutal massacre on the eve of the English Civil War. Ostensibly he's come to attend a school reunion, as he's on the board of governors, but he admits to Ace that his real interest in the village lies in its isolation, the fact that no aerial photographs of the area have ever been taken, and the striking rate of suicides amongst the alumni of the school. Ace stays at the local inn, and befriends local schoolteacher Rebecca Baber and Steven Chen, son of the owners of the local Chinese restaurant.
At the reunion, the Doctor stumbles across two alumni—Liverpudlian criminal Kenny Shanks and Britain's Minister of State for Defense, Matthew Hatch—who are engaged in a gun-running operation. When they catch the Doctor spying, Shanks kidnaps him. Later, Hatch slips into a secret tunnel beneath the school and speaks with a man who appears in an antique mirror, dressed in 17th-century clothing. Hatch is also sleeping with Rebecca but doesn't realize she has ulterior motives for their affair. That night, masked men drag young hooligan Billy Tyley onto the village green, and the next morning Ace finds a scarecrow dressed in pyjamas staked down on the green like a sacrificial figure. Searching the village for the missing Doctor, Ace discovers that the TARDIS door has been blocked off by a cordon of immovable scarecrows.
The next day, Hatch learns that animal rights activists have bombed a research centre, and the investigation is threatening to expose his ties to it. Realizing that Rebecca must be responsible, he sends a thug to break into her home to find proof that she is connected to the bombing. Dr Bevan of the Wellton Clinic has been researching the "curse" of Hexen Bridge which renders the men of the village infertile if they leave the area, and Hatch decides to kidnap Rebecca so Bevan can use her in his experiments. Meanwhile, the man who broke into Rebecca's house sees alien tentacles writhing beneath the soil of Hexen Bridge and is attacked by a scarecrow when he investigates...
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