DOCSLIB.ORG

Doctor Who: Only Human

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Doctor Who: Only Human Only Human by Gareth Roberts Somebody’s interfering with time. The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive on modern‐day Earth to find the culprit – and discover a Neanderthal Man, twenty‐eight thousand years after his race became extinct. Only a trip back to the primeval dawn of humanity can solve the mystery. Who are the mysterious humans from the distant future now living in that distant past? What hideous monsters are trying to escape from behind the Grey Door? Is Rose going to end up married to a caveman? Caught between three very different types of human being – past, present and future – the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack must learn the truth behind the Osterberg experiment before the monstrous Hy‐Bractors escape to change humanity’s history forever… Featuring the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack as played by Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and John Barrowman in the hit series from BBC Television. Prologue One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Acknowledgements About the Author For Clayton, as usual, and for Da My Weekend by Chantal Osterberg (aged 7) 2 October ad 438,533 On Saturday, our cat Dusty was giving the whole family too many wrong‐feelings. She weed on the upholstery again. It’s nice to have pets to stroke, and we do love Dusty, but she has been too naughty recently. She gets in the way. Later a man over the road triped over her and broke his leg. That was inconvenient and the man needed a health‐patch. That was when I took a long look at Dusty and decided she was very inefficient. Animals run about for no reason, and they must feel all sorts of odd sensations just like people used to. I thought it would be a good idea to improve Dusty so she would be happier and would understand not to be naughty. So I went to my room and got out my pen and paper. I had lots of ideas about improvements and I wrote them all down. Then I called Dusty into my room and set to work, using Mother’s cutters and things from her work‐kit. First I took off her tail, which I consider to be a bit pointless in its present form, so I stretched it and made it scaly. Then I opened Dusty up and moved her organs about to make them more logical. Then I took her head off, pulled her brain out and studied it. It is very primitive, not really what you’d call a brain at all. I got out one of Mother’s gene sprays and dialled it to make Dusty more ferocious at catching mice and better at breeding. I made it so she would never wee again. Then I put all her bits back together and took her downstairs to show to my parents. Unfortunately, the improved Dusty gave my parents wrong‐feelings. They tried to catch her but she sped out of the door and I don’t think she’ll ever come back. All the mice are dead now. There was no need for mice, and eventually all cats will be like Dusty because of my cleverness. I like improving things. So that was my weekend. Bromley, 2005 The young Roman examined himself in the mirror. He adjusted his purple robe and straightened the circlet of plastic laurel leaves on his head. He was very pleased with himself and how he looked, as usual. An astronaut walked in behind him, crossed over to the urinal and, with some difficulty, unzipped the flies of his silver space trousers. ‘Hey, Dean,’ he called over his shoulder to the Roman. ‘There’s a bloke here really giving Nicola the eye.’ Dean felt a wave of anger rushing up inside him. Which was all right, because he liked feeling angry. Most of his Friday nights ended up like this. It didn’t take a lot. The astronaut finished and did up his flies. Dean came right up to him. ‘What bloke?’ he asked. ‘The caveman.’ A few moments later, out by the bar, Nicola, who was dressed as a chicken, looked up at Dean through her beak. Oh no, not another scene, not another fight. She shouted to make herself heard over the thudding music. ‘Dean, it doesn’t matter!’ Dean’s mate the astronaut was intent on firing him up. ‘He won’t leave her alone. Kept eyeing her up while you were in there. I told him she’s seeing you…’ Dean looked around the club, over the crowded dance floor. He searched for a caveman among the clowns, schoolgirls, vicars and punks. ‘I’m gonna sort it,’ he said, feeling the energy crackle through his powerful body. He strode away into the crowd. Nicola jumped down from her stool and, clutching her golden egg, hopped after him in her three‐clawed felt slippers. ‘Dean, leave it. It doesn’t matter! Dean, not again!’ Dean found the caveman next to the cigarette machine. He was a short‐arse, with a dirty black wig and what could have been someone’s old carpet wrapped round him. Dean came up behind him, taking long, powerful strides, and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Oi, Captain Caveman!’ he shouted. ‘You wanna be careful what you’re hunting!’ The caveman whipped round, and Dean had a moment to register two things about him: the costume was really good and he stank like a sad old brown pond. Before Dean could notice or do anything else, the caveman let out a terrifying high‐pitched wail, bent like an animal and charged him in the middle. Dean went over backwards, crashing into a table. He heard screams, shouts, the smash of shattering glass. The music stopped mid‐thud. Dean sprang back up and launched himself at the caveman, delivering his most powerful punch into his guts. The caveman staggered and then flung himself at Dean, jabbing with his strangely small fists. Dean shielded his face as he was driven back, the world spinning around him. Then he felt his legs kicked out from under him. He was twisted round and forced to his knees, and a muscular, hairy arm locked itself around his neck, squeezing with savage strength. Dean had the sudden feeling the caveman was going to kill him. Then the bouncers piled in, three heavy men in bomber jackets pulling the caveman off. Dean sank back, clutching at his throat, gasping for air, the iron tang of blood in his mouth. He looked up. The caveman was struggling with the bouncers, yelping again like a screaming child. He was uncontrollable. Two of the bouncers held him steady, the third smacked him in the jaw. He gave a final squawk and his head sagged forward. Dean was dragged to his feet by one of the bouncers, his head swimming. ‘I didn’t start it,’ he heard himself protesting. ‘He went mental.’ Nicola’s face peered at him from inside the chicken’s beak. ‘That’s it! You are chucked!’ Dean pointed feebly at the caveman, who was being dragged to a chair by the bouncers. The lights came on. ‘He just went mental,’ he repeated. The astronaut, Tony, stared at the caveman. ‘Not him,’ he said. ‘Hi.’ He pointed across the club to the mass of startled partygoers on the other side of the dance floor. A puny‐looking guy stood there in a torn leopard skin, a comedy dinosaur bone hanging by his side. Nicola sighed. ‘I’m going.’ Then she cried out to a friend, ‘Cheryl, get us a taxi!’ and stalked off. Dean looked between the two cavemen. He nodded to the one he’d fought. ‘Who’s that, then?’ Tony shrugged. He looked more closely at the unconscious caveman’s face. Under the mop of dirty black hair his bearded features were lumpy, with huge misshapen brows and cheekbones. ‘Dunno, but I think Notre‐Dame’s missing a bell‐ringer.’ Dean felt himself being dragged out. Tony tagged along as usual. They headed for the kebab shop. A lot of their Friday nights ended up like this. It wasn’t surprising Tony didn’t recognise Dean’s opponent. After all, nobody in Bromley had seen a Neanderthal man for 28,000 years. ONE ‘You are gonna love this, Rose,’ enthused the Doctor as he leaped from panel to panel of the TARDIS console, his eyes alight with childish optimism in the reflected green glow of the grinding central column. As always, Rose felt the Doctor’s enthusiasm building the same anticipation and excitement in her. She grabbed the edge of the console as the TARDIS gave one of its customary lurches and smiled over at him. ‘Tell me more.’ The Doctor spun a dial and threw a lever. ‘Kegron Pluva,’ he announced grandly. ‘OK,’ mused Rose. ‘That a person or a place? Or some sod of oven spray?’ ‘Planet.’ The Doctor beamed. ‘It’s got the maddest ecosystem in the universe.’ He flung his arms about, demonstrating. ‘You’ve got six moons going one way, three moons going the other way, and a sun that onl orbits the planet! Forty‐three seasons in one year. The top life form, it’s a kind of dog‐plant‐fungus thing…’ ‘Top dog‐plant‐fungus,’ laughed Rose. ‘Yeah.’ The Doctor nodded. ‘Plus the water’s solid and everyone eats a kind of metal plum…’ Rose held up a hand. ‘Enough spoilers. Just let me see it.’ She was tingling with pleasure, goosebumps coming up on her arms at the prospect of stepping out from the TARDIS onto this bizarre alien world.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • DOCTOR WHO: ONLY HUMAN Online
    O4sCc [Mobile book] DOCTOR WHO: ONLY HUMAN Online [O4sCc.ebook] DOCTOR WHO: ONLY HUMAN Pdf Free Gareth Roberts audiobook | *ebooks | Download PDF | ePub | DOC Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #416594 in Books imusti 2013-06-18 2013-04-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.70 x .80 x 5.00l, .52 #File Name: 1849905193240 pagesBBC Books | File size: 57.Mb Gareth Roberts : DOCTOR WHO: ONLY HUMAN before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised DOCTOR WHO: ONLY HUMAN: 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Das the TravelerBy SpikeLoverAt a dress-up party, one guest is a REAL Neanderthal. How he got to twenty first century England is a puzzle. Unfortunately, the time machine that brought him to our time was not so hot and so he couldn't go back (way back) home because he would die on the way. What good luck that Captain Jack was available to tutor Das in the ways of the modern world! He didn't volunteer for the job, but it turned out well. Das began looking for a mate nearly as soon as he learned English. The Doctor and Rose went into the past and met incredibly weird group of "researchers". They will do ANYTHING their leader tells them, even go into a cave where a large monster eats them one per day. The primitive Humans and the Neanderthals live close to each other. Rose gets engaged to one the natives and later loses her head in a literal sense.
    [Show full text]
  • Doctor Who Assistants
    COMPANIONS FIFTY YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO ASSISTANTS An unofficial non-fiction reference book based on the BBC television programme Doctor Who Andy Frankham-Allen CANDY JAR BOOKS . CARDIFF A Chaloner & Russell Company 2013 The right of Andy Frankham-Allen to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright © Andy Frankham-Allen 2013 Additional material: Richard Kelly Editor: Shaun Russell Assistant Editors: Hayley Cox & Justin Chaloner Doctor Who is © British Broadcasting Corporation, 1963, 2013. Published by Candy Jar Books 113-116 Bute Street, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5EQ www.candyjarbooks.co.uk A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. Dedicated to the memory of... Jacqueline Hill Adrienne Hill Michael Craze Caroline John Elisabeth Sladen Mary Tamm and Nicholas Courtney Companions forever gone, but always remembered. ‘I only take the best.’ The Doctor (The Long Game) Foreword hen I was very young I fell in love with Doctor Who – it Wwas a series that ‘spoke’ to me unlike anything else I had ever seen.
    [Show full text]
  • The Final Season 1
    THE DOCTOR WHO PROJECT SEASON 40: THE FINAL SEASON 1 THE DOCTOR WHO PROJECT SEASON 40: THE FINAL SEASON 2 THE DOCTOR WHO PROJECT SEASON 40: THE FINAL SEASON 3 THE DOCTOR WHO PROJECT SEASON 40: THE FINAL SEASON Copyright © Jigsaw Publications 2014 Published by Jigsaw Publications Doctor Who, TARDIS © 1963, 2014 by BBC Worldwide The Doctor Who Project © 2014 by Jigsaw Publications First Printing December 2014 Edited by Bob Furnell, Robert Mammone & Jez Strickley Cybercult © 2014 Miles Reid-Lobatto All stories reprinted by permission. The moral right of the authors have been asserted. A TDWP/Jigsaw Publications Book All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law. All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead is purely co-incidental. Typeset in Calibri Cover design by John G Swogger Book design and layout by Bob Furnell Jigsaw Publications Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 4 THE DOCTOR WHO PROJECT SEASON 40: THE FINAL SEASON Two Years Ago. “But what if I don't like her?” John rolled his eyes, not looking at Tom. “You're a basement dwelling computer nerd,” he replied with a chuckle. “I think you have to worry about her not liking you.” “That's a lie,” said Tom. “I never dwelt in a basement.” John pulled the car into the right street with a casual turn.
    [Show full text]
  • Further Approaches to Reading for Pleasure
    Further approaches to Reading for Pleasure Further approaches to Reading for Pleasure 1 Further approaches to Reading for Pleasure Contents Introduction to the May Quick Reads Learning Resources: a themed approach 3 Themes and titles grid (including links to other Quick Reads) 4 Quick Reads titles May 2006: synopsis, readability and author information: Cleanskin Val McDermid 5 Danny Wallace and the Danny Wallace 6 Centre of the Universe Desert Claw Damien Lewis 7 Grey Man Andy McNab 8 I Am a Dalek Gareth Roberts/Dr Who 9 I Love Football Hunter Davies 10 The Poison in the Blood Tom Holland 11 The Dying Wish Courttia Newland 12 The Name You Once Gave Me Mike Phillips 13 Winner Takes All John Francome 14 Acknowledgement The learning materials to accompany the Quick Reads publications have been produced as part of The Vital Link’s Reading for Pleasure campaign, funded by the Department for Education and Skills and in co-operation with World Book Day. Our thanks go to the writing and editorial team of Nancy Gidley, Kay Jackaman and Moreen Mowforth. www.vitallink.org.uk 2 Further approaches to Reading for Pleasure Introduction to the May Quick Reads Learning Resources OurPrevious approach learning resources ItThis is not set possibleof learning to teachresources people has ‘reading been written for pleasure’. to accompany We know thatpublication extensive of readingthe second practice series is of what Quick is neededReads, publishedto reinforce in and embedMay 2006. learning, The first and setthat of this learning is difficult resources, to ensure which with accompanied learners whothose have Quick never Reads had published a reading in habit.
    [Show full text]
  • The Biosemiotics of Aldo Leopold
    University of Dayton eCommons English Faculty Publications Department of English 2016 The ioB semiotics of Aldo Leopold Rebecca Potter University of Dayton, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/eng_fac_pub Part of the Communication Commons, and the Linguistic Anthropology Commons eCommons Citation Potter, Rebecca, "The iosB emiotics of Aldo Leopold" (2016). English Faculty Publications. 95. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/eng_fac_pub/95 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. SignThe Systems biosemiotics Studies of 44(1/2), Aldo Leopold 2016, 111–127 111 The biosemiotics of Aldo Leopold Rebecca C. Potter Department of English, University of Dayton 300 College Park, Dayton, OH, USA 45469 e-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Responding to Jean-Claude Gens’ article, “Uexküll’s Kompositionslehre and Leopold’s ‘land ethic’ in dialogue”, which appeared in Sign Systems Studies in 2013, the article further develops a direct connection between Aldo Leopold’s approach to eco- logy and Jakob von Uexküll’s umwelt theory. The connection between Uexküll and Leopold is especially evident in Leopold’s descriptions of animal behaviour that he presents in the first part of his seminal work, A Sand County Almanac. In this work specifically, Leopold illustrates the biosemiotic processes described by Uexküll, and does so with a purpose: to reshape our understanding of the biotic community as a place of semiotic interaction.
    [Show full text]