Verdigris (novel)

Verdigris was the thirtieth novel in the Past Doctor Adventure series.

Publisher's summary
Jo Grant had no inkling of the ship that revolved in orbit like a discreet, preposterous thought in the mind of someone serene but bonkers.

High above London and its crust of smog, stretched tall above the soapy atmosphere of the Earth, is a ship the size and exact shape of St Pancra railway station.

On board, the Doctor and that mysterious lady adventurer, Iris Wildthyme, are bargaining for their lives with creatures determined to infiltrate the 1970s in the guise of characters from nineteenth-century novels.

Without the help of UNIT, the Doctor and his friends face the daunting task of defeating aliens, marauding robot sheep, the mysterious Children of Destiny and... the being who calls himself Verdigris.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Wants to steal Iris' TARDIS so that he can escape his exile on Earth.


 * Jo Grant
 * Is trained in lock picking and escapology.


 * The Master


 * Iris Wildthyme
 * Describes her companion Jenny Winterleaf as the "butch dyke traffic warden".


 * Tom
 * Has been travelling with Iris for about a month.
 * Tom has a paranoid moment when he meets his mother and thinks he's destined to impregnate her.
 * Tom is gay.


 * Verdigris
 * Kisses Jo whilst wearing a mask which makes him look like the Master.


 * The Children of Destiny

Planets

 * Iris summoned Verdigris from the planet Makorna.
 * The Doctor and Iris agree that the Nurses of Ionicaiy Six would go to the trouble of kidnapping humans simply to play doctors and nurses.
 * In Tom's first trip with Iris she took him to the planet Calgoria.

Alcohol

 * The Doctor, Jo, Tom (and others), drink Chardonay, whiskey and multiple gin and tonics
 * The Doctor prefers lime rather than lemon in his Bombay Sapphire Gin.

Continuity

 * Iris mentions the occasion when the TARDIS fell off a cliff on Peladon. The Doctor says that that has not happened yet in his personal timeline. ( DW : The Curse of Peladon )
 * Iris was on Karn when the Fourth Doctor visited the planet. She was then a member of the Sisterhood of Karn. (DW: The Brain of Morbius)
 * Iris has an adventure in the Death Zone remarkably similar to DW: The Five Doctors.
 * The Master leaves Earth at the end of this story having escaped from prison in DW:  The Sea Devils and aims for Skaro, which leads to his next appearance in DW:  Frontier in Space.
 * At the end of the novel, Verdigris travels to the anti-matter universe to assist Omega against the Doctor. This sets up the events of DW: The Three Doctors.
 * Iris refers to her encounter with the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K9. (ST: Suitors, Inc.)
 * Jo recalls being dragged to future to face the Daleks (DW: Day of the Daleks), tussling with "fish people" (DW: The Sea Devils), being tied to an altar to be sacrificed to the Devil (DW: The Dæmons), facing "a malign alien consciousness that disguised itself variously in the form of shop dummies, plastic daffodils and trimphones" (DW: Terror of the Autons) and visiting Atlantis (DW: The Time Monster).
 * Jo and Iris would meet again in December 2010. (CC: Find and Replace)

Timeline
Placement of this story is complicated given the various references throughout the book.
 * Iris mentions when the Doctor's TARDIS fell off the cliff, see continuity), which means in theory this occurs before DW: The Curse of Peladon.
 * However, the Master is not in prison so this story must take place after DW: The Sea Devils.


 * Verdigris occurs after DWM: Target Practice
 * Verdigris occurs before: DW: The Three Doctors