Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Decalog 3 Consequences by Andy Lane Virgin Decalog. The Virgin Decalog books were collections of short stories published by Virgin Publishing based on the television series Doctor Who : they gained their name from the fact that each volume contained ten stories (although the last collection contains eleven). Five volumes were published between 1994 and September 1997, although volumes 4 and 5 did not feature the Doctor or any other non-Virgin copyrighted characters. This is because the BBC decided not to renew Virgin's licence to produce original fiction featuring the Doctor or any characters featured in the TV series (Virgin transitioned to featuring characters created for literature over which the BBC had no rights). Following this, the BBC began producing their own Doctor Who fiction, including short stories under the name Short Trips . Contents. The Books Decalog Decalog 2: Lost Property Decalog 3: Consequences Decalog 4: Re-Generations Decalog 5: Wonders See also. The Books. Decalog. The first volume of stories published was Decalog (Virgin, 17 March 1994), edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. It contained the following stories: Title Author Doctor/Companion Playback Stephen James Walker Seventh Doctor Fallen Angel Andy Lane Second Doctor, Jamie & Zoe The Duke of Dominoes Marc Platt Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back Vanessa Bishop Third Doctor, Liz, UNIT Scarab of Death Mark Stammers Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith The Book of Shadows Jim Mortimore First Doctor, Ian & Barbara Fascination David J. Howe Fifth Doctor, Peri The Golden Door David Auger First Doctor, Dodo, Steven and the Sixth Doctor Prisoners of the Sun Tim Robins Third Doctor, Liz Shaw and UNIT Lackaday Express Paul Cornell Fifth Doctor, Nyssa & Tegan. The Story Playback by Stephen James Walker was a short linking piece that recurred between the other stories, detailing the story of an amnesiac claiming to be the Doctor having his memories restored by going through the items in his pockets: each item relates to one of the stories. Decalog 2: Lost Property. The next volume was Decalog 2: Lost Property (Virgin Publishing, 20 July 1995), again edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. This volume abandoned the linking story concept used in Decalog , and instead concentrated on having all its stories written on the same theme – a property that the Doctor owns somewhere or when in the universe. It contained the stories: Title Author Doctor/Companion Vortex of Fear Gareth Roberts Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe Crimson Dawn Tim Robins Fourth Doctor, Leela & K-9 Where the Heart Is Andy Lane Third Doctor, Jo & UNIT The Trials of Tara Paul Cornell Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Housewarming David A. McIntee Sarah Jane Smith, Mike Yates & K9 The Nine Day Queen Matthew Jones First Doctor, Ian & Barbara Lonely Days Daniel Blythe Fifth Doctor, Nyssa People of the Trees Pam Baddeley Fourth Doctor, Leela Timeshare Vanessa Bishop Sixth Doctor, Peri Question Mark Pyjamas Mike Tucker and Robert Perry Seventh Doctor, Ace & Bernice. Decalog 3: Consequences. The final Decalog collection before Virgin lost their licence to use The Doctor and characters from the 1963-89 series was called Decalog 3: Consequences (Virgin Publishing, 18 July 1996), and was joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. It introduced a new idea for linking the stories whereby each story would contain an element from the previous and subsequent stories, and the first contained an element from the last and vice versa. It contained the following stories: Title Author Doctor/Companion . . . And Eternity in an Hour Stephen Bowkett Third Doctor, Jo Moving On Peter Anghelides Sarah Jane Smith, K9 Tarnished Image Guy Clapperton First Doctor, Dodo Past Reckoning Jackie Marshall Fifth Doctor, Nyssa UNITed We Fall Keith R. A. DeCandido Fourth Doctor, the Brigadier Aliens and Predators Colin Brake Second Doctor, Jamie & Zoe Fegovy Gareth Roberts Sixth Doctor, Mel Continuity Errors Steven Moffat Seventh Doctor, Bernice Timevault Ben Jeapes Fourth Doctor, K9 Zeitgeist Craig Hinton Fifth Doctor, Turlough. This was Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who work. He later went on to write for the 2005 revival of the television series, and would become head writer for the series from the 2010 season onwards. Jackie Marshall was an established writer of Doctor Who fan fiction at the time. DeCandido went on to write novels for the Star Trek franchise. Moffat would later use many plot elements from Continuity Errors as the basis for the 2010 Christmas Special, as well as for River Song's backstory in "Let's Kill Hitler". Decalog 4: Re-Generations. The first Decalog collection after Virgin lost their licence to use Doctor Who TV characters was called Decalog 4: Re-Generations (Virgin Publishing, 15 May 1997), and was again joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. In order to try to keep the audience of previous Decalogs even though the Doctor could no longer appear in the stories, it was decided to theme the collection around the family history of one of the Doctor's companion Roz Forrester. As this companion had been created by co-editor Andy Lane for the Virgin New Adventures , there were no copyright issues in including her. It contained the following stories: Title Author Second Chances Alex Stewart No One Goes to Halfway There Kate Orman Shopping for Eternity Gus Smith Heritage Ben Jeapes Burning Bright Liz Holliday C9H13NO3 Peter Anghelides Approximate Time of Death Richard Salter Secret of the Black Planet Lance Parkin Rescue Mission Paul Leonard Dependence Day Justin Richards and Andy Lane. Decalog 5: Wonders. The final Decalog collection was called Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing, 18 September 1997), and was jointly edited by Paul Leonard and Jim Mortimore. This time, all but one story were free-standing science fiction pieces on the theme of "the Ten Wonders of the Universe", without direct connection to the Doctor Who universe. One story, The Judgement of Solomon by Lawrence Miles, however features former New Adventures companion, Bernice Summerfield. The collection contained the following stories: Title Author The Place of All Places Nakula Somana Poyekhali 3201 Stephen Baxter King's Chambers Dominic Green City of Hammers Neil Williamson Painting the Age with the Beauty of Our Days Mike O'Driscoll The Judgement of Solomon Lawrence Miles The Milk of Human Kindness Liz Sourbut Bibliophage Stephen Marley Negative Space Jeanne Cavelos Dome of Whispers Ian Watson Waters of Starlight Stephen Marley. Following the publication of this book, Virgin produced no further Decalog collections. Decalog 3: Consequences. The new editors of Virgin's annual collection of Doctor Who short fiction are to be commended for steering away from the usual stable of novelists. Gareth Roberts and Craig Hinton are the only two established Doctor Who authors represented here, and not one of the remaining eight have appeared in either of Decalog 3 's pair of predecessors. The collection is therefore almost entirely fresh territory, though the quality is variable. Moving On is a tediously introspective piece of writing that in writing about Sarah Jane's readjustment to life after the Doctor treads the same path of many fan fiction authors, and Peter Angelides doesn't do any better than the others I've read in this vein. Guy Clapperton's Tarnished Image experiments with the format by presenting a First Doctor and Dodo story through a series of news reports published after their adventure. Although initially interesting, the story became boring long before it ended simply because the plot itself was largely inconsequential. Having seen Jackie Marshall's name bandied about for some years by the likes of Paul Cornell, I was expecting great things from my first exposure to the work of this veteran of Doctor Who fan fiction, but alas, her Fifth Doctor and Nyssa tale, Past Reckoning , has only the bare bones of a plot and is instantly forgettable. Gareth Roberts' Chelonians make a welcome return appearance in Fegovy , which like most of Roberts' stories has a routine plot serving as a backdrop for the wonderful personalities of his characters. If this story is anything to go by, Gareth Roberts must be persuaded to write a Sixth Doctor and Mel novel, as his treatment of these two regulars in this story is spot-on. I also enjoyed Craig Hinton's Zietgeist , perhaps proving that there is after all something to be said for populating a short story collection with established Doctor Who novelists! Hinton raises some thought-provoking ideas about the nature of parallel universes - including one in which the Doctor never left Gallifrey - but the cramped a hurried nature of the tale left me with the feeling that he'd have been more comfortable writing this as a novel. Standing head and shoulders above all other entries in the collection is Steven Moffat's story Continuity Errors , in which the Seventh Doctor is viewed from the perspective of a character on whose life he has a profound effect through his manipulation of time. Moffat deserves commendation for his faultless characterisation of both the Doctor and Bernice, but the story's true brilliance lies in that the plot is entirely secondary to the observations that the writer is sharing with the reader about the nature of the McCoy Doctor's darker side. The 'consequences' theme of this collection is not particularly well- handled. The idea is that something from one story has an effect on the next and so on, though given the necessity of the authors writing their stories more or less simultaneously, this idea was perhaps a little overly ambitious. It is puzzling to me that the editors even bothered with a theme - most television seasons of Doctor Who got by without one so why shouldn't Decalog reflect the same diversity? Decalog 3: Consequences by Andy Lane. Decalog 3: Consequences is the latest in the series of Doctor Who short story collections from Virgin Books. With a fresh new editing team for this series comes a fresh new attitude as well. I enjoyed the original Decalog with its grab bag-quality of short stories and its interconnecting plotline for the search for the Doctor. Decalog 2: Lost Property was an unfortunately apt title as the quality of the stories and interconnecting theme of a place to call home was distressingly poor. Lane & Richards dispensed with the attempt at an interlocking story and instead allow one element from each story to travel into the next: a suggestion, a headdress, an explosion, a life saved, a joke tossed off. Hence the theme of consequences. Some of these links are more intricate than others, some more ironic and most are effective. To me, the risk that the editors took with their story selection that I appreciated most was in choosing stories that had unusual structures. The stories that stood out to me were first, Moving On by Peter Anghelides, a modern-day Sarah Jane/K9 & Company story told in leaps and bounds of time. This story was odd, not because the Doctor didn't appear (David McIntee wrote a lovely K9 & Co story for Decalog 2 that was the book's saving grace). But Moving On is dark and actually quite as depressing as its title, a passage from the innocence of the time Sarah Jane shared with the Doctor(s) to life after him. I also enjoyed Tarnished Image by Guy Clapperton, lightheartedly told from a post-adventure perspective as the 1st Doctor and Dodo read over newsclippings about their recent appearance on a planet. Another standout, though I refused to agree with its rather dangerous implications of what the Doctor is capable of doing, was Continuity Errors by Steven Moffat. This is the first 7th Doctor and Benny Missing Adventure and is simultaneously incredibly funny and incredibly bleak. The Doctor arrives at a library he set up in the previous story to check out a book. The librarian's personality won't allow her to give him this book, so he keeps going back in time to tweak her life so her disposition changes. The lengths he goes to to accomplish his goal are hysterical, yet frightening. Of any of the Doctor's incarnations, the Seventh always seemed to me the most capable of causing great great damage. He is Time's Champion and woe to any who get in his way. Timevault by Ben Jeapes deserves recognition for wonderful 4th Doctor characterization and Zeitgeist by Craig Hinton is a strong Turlough story, if a confusing read. This last, above all, was a short story begging to be a novel. Actually, that's been my reaction to many of the stories in the Decalog series: gosh, I wish that had been longer. And that's about the nicest thing you can say for a story, except: I look forward to visiting again. With the Virgin Who license now history, I hope that Lane & Richards take their editing abilities over to BBC as they've made a terrific start with Decalog 3 . Here's the review of perhaps the best Decalog yet - with, as always, a few exceptions. I knew as I picked it up that anything co-edited by my man Justin would be wonderful. Still, he didn't actually write any of the stories, so there was always a chance. :-) Anyway, 1-10, quickfire: ..AND ETERNITY IN AN HOUR - Off to a. morose start. Good Jo Grant, but I had my usual 3rd Doctor troubles. And the plot is the first of several to be unrelentingly downbeat. Cheer up, it may never happen. Oh, right. 6/10 . MOVING ON - Great Sarah, and the plot flows much better. I loved the villain, and the bibliography is, of course, wonderful. This one's really downbeat as well, though. Two stories in and it's a Morrissey album. 8/10 . TARNISHED IMAGE - Brilliant characterization, and for this one I'll forgive the "unhappy" ending, since the style is so excellent. I particularly liked the reporter's reaction to the end of all he believes in. One point off for a bad tie-in to Moving On. 9/10. PAST RECKONING - well. I know that she's famous in fandom, but this story was more dull than anything else. The 5th Doctor and Nyssa were entirely unnecessary to everything, and I'm skeptical of the Doctor just standing there and letting her kill herself. Maybe the others, but not Peter. 5/10 . UNITed WE FALL - A nice romp, with the Brig coming across the best. Some of it seems to be an excuse for showing off New York, but it's written well, so hey, NY, NY! 8/10 . ALIENS AND PREDATORS - There's always one. In the first Decalog, it was David Howe's story. The second one. I don't have on me, but I'm sure there was one. And now here's. the story Sean really hated, Part 3. Colin Brake becomes another author caught beneath the treads of Troughton characterization, but I expected that. The problem is that everyone in this story reacts as if they've got about 3 brain cells. I really got annoyed by this story. 2/10 . FEGOVY - grumble. grumble. Sean? What? You promised. Yeah, I know. OK, Fegovy is great. Yes, it suffers from the Gareth Roberts style of over-the-top everything, but this fits the 6th Doctor and Mel *much* better than the 4th and Romana. The characterization is dead-on. OK, Gareth, you win this round. But I'm still dreading The Well-Mannered War. 8/10 . CONTINUITY ERRORS - The definitive Seventh Doctor story. So utterly brilliant in so many ways that I won't ruin it. Read it and kvell. 10/10 . TIMEVAULT - Pretty good. The 4th Doc is well done, and I like the general idea. The villains seem pretty vague, though, and the heavy moralising that the Doctor goes through doesn't really fit the Williams era. 7/10 . ZEITGEIST - Ummm. what happened? I get the feeling I'd lilke this story if there was even one more line explaining it. Yes, I did read the explanation, but still. oh, Craig makes up for GodEngine, this prose is excellent. Turlough in particualr is wonderful. It's just. HUH? 8/10 . Overall: Excellent, perhaps the best Decalog so far. Buy it, if only for Steven Moffat's story. 8/10 . This, right here, is what it's all about. A complex chain of events, twisting and turning from Doctor to Doctor, event to event, winding their way throughout all of time and space and history. Events so gargantuan even the Doctor can only glimpse their importance and it takes the combined skill of the finest authors the range has to offer to put this labyrinthine structure together. Are we in for a treat or what? There are some books that seem initially disheartening that go on to flower into amazing gems. There are others where you can see the brilliance from the outset and the unfolding text within is like a virtuoso violinist playing out the gorgeous score laid before her, taking a good idea and making it magnificent. Then there are those books which have the fantastic idea, but give it to a bunch of has-been musicians with toneless instruments. Never before or since has a book made such a hash of such a brilliant concept as Decalog 3 . And I say this, having read the entire published output of David A. McIntee. Things look promising initially. The creature that links the first two stories is intriguing enough and seeing it from two different perspectives in two different time zones works just fine. In fact, I think that this could have been the sole villain in each of the stories and I think we would have something pretty impressive on our hands. Sadly it goes downhill after this. An object from one story pops up in the next? Oh, yes, what a tangled web of consequence we weave. Not. Of the remaining stories, I quite liked the newspaper article approach to Tarnished Image . An otherwise goofy story is just saved by this approach. It's a risky approach, but it works. Gareth Roberts' Fegovy is also a treat; writing the sixth Doctor's dialogue Pip 'n' Jane style is a mark of brilliance, in an otherwise forgettable story. Timevault is pretty lame and Zeitgeist has some promise, but goes on far too long for its own good. It's a disappointing end to the collection, as you just start wishing that Craig Hinton would wrap things up already. There is, however, one story that stands head and shoulders above this disappointing collection. Continuity Errors is utterly, utterly brilliant. It's hilarious, it's touching, it's moving. It's exactly the sort of thing a short story should be and consequently precisely the sort of thing that so many Doctor Who short stories fail to achieve. It knows exactly how long it's supposed to be and stops when it should. It's the definitive work on the seventh Doctor, in many ways and it's the only story to even vaguely realise the potential in this collection. I intend to kidnap Steve Moffat's dog and hold it to ransom until he agrees to write a full length novel (Moffat, that is -- I hold less hope of the dog agreeing to pen an 80,000 word masterpiece, although doubtless the result would still be more intellectual and complex than any of the other stories contained within this collection). Using Professor Candy for the epilogue is a good touch, but not enough to dispel the gross level of underachievement that the rest of this book aspires to. In summary, Decalog 3 is probably the most disappointing Decalog yet, which is quite a feat. True, the stories aren't quite as bad as some of the other short stories that have been perpetrated under the Doctor Who banner, but this collection promised more and failed so spectacularly in its aim. There is one story of sheer brilliance and nine of numbing mediocrity, held together by a tangled web that wouldn't confuse Jo Grant. It only reinforces what a shame it is that we didn't get a whole novel from Steve Moffat instead of this sorry collection. Published in 1996 near the end of Virgin's run of DW books, this was the another bold attempt to make a series of short stories work. Andy Lane and Justin Richards take the job of editing the range, and that filled me with hope. A linking theme was decided upon, and the collection follows on from each story more than any other as a result. I'm never convinced that linking themes is a good thing though - Star Trek books being the obvious bad example in recent years. Nonetheless all existing Doctors are to be used, and a special effort made to use different TARDIS teams as well. . And Eternity in an Hour by Stephen Bowkett I suppose not every 3rd Dr and Jo story should be set on Earth, but this far reaches of space story seems out of place. It's a decent enough story though, and it sets up Cerunnos for the next. 6/10. Moving On by Peter Anghelides The shutting off of K9 and Sarah-Jane adventures altogether strikes me as a bit of shame. The events here seem so final, and K9 and Company wasn't that bad. Ironically though this forms a nice bridge between that show and Sarah-Jane's Big Finish series of dramas. Nothing special. 6/10. Tarnished Image by Guy Clapperton Another story, like the first, that seems out of place for its Doctor. In this instance it's the 1st Dr and Dodo, on the planet Tarron. The news reports are an innovative way to tell the story though. Shame about the story though - A strange mismash of large corporations and artefacts. 6/10. Past Reckoning by Jackie Marshall The best story so far in this collection, reminded me of a recent Jonathan Creek episode. The 5th Dr and Nyssa arrive at a Castle, where the Doctor's old acquaintance David, is unearthing treasures. 7/10. UNITed We Fall by Keith R.A. DeCandido The 4th Dr here prevents a bomb at UNIT. It's a sort of Doctor on trial setup too - UNIT has been buying expensive equipment for him over the years, and justification is now called for. The Brigadier helps, but this doesn't quite convince in its execution. Not bad, just not that great. 6/10. Aliens and Predators by Colin Brake This is a good one, the first published work of an author who went onto write novels in the future. The 2nd Dr, Jamie and Zoe arrive aboard a ship carrying the DNA necessary to repopulate the Earth. This far future setting is intriguing, and I thoroughly enjoyed this segment of the drama. 8/10. Fegovy by Gareth Roberts With links to Earth History, even though it is set in the future, this is a pretty okay story by Gareth Roberts - who is undoubtedly better at the novel format. It's all about an auction, and the 6th Dr and Mel form a likeable team. The ongoing story arc continues to be shoehorned on, and that alone distinguishes it from other collections. 6/10. Continuity Errors by Steven Moffat The NA team of 7th Dr and Benny (you really need only 1 companion in a short story) meet a dodgy librarian and try to borrow a book. What starts well in the Library of New Alexandria peters out thanks to some dodgy sci-fi technobabble. Too New Adventurish for my tastes. 5/10. Timevault by Ben Jeapes The quaint combination of 4th Dr and K9 arrive on a human storage ship where a plague is killing people. It's a great premise, with a great Doctor, and a fine story. Very good. 8/10. Zeitgeist by Craig Hinton A Technologically advanced culture once again in a book that focuses on the future travels, rather than the past and present. It's not one of my favourites. 5th Dr and Turlough work well together, but that's it. 6/10. A book that has connections from one story to the next should be better than this in all fairness - it should keep the interest going longer. I was disappointed with the stories overall - I just expect more from DW , especially with the talent on offer here. It's not the worst Decalog - that's the first, but it comes close second 6/10 . Decalog 3: Consequences by Andy Lane. TEN STORIES - SEVEN DOCTORS - ONE CHAIN OF EVENTS. 'The consequences of having the Doctor crashing around our universe can be colossal. The Doctor is a time traveller. Never forget that, because it is central to an understanding of what makes him so terribly dangerous. Most of us, in our tiny, individual ways are involved in the writing of history. Only the Doctor is out there rewriting it.' But even the Doctor may not see the threads that bind the universe together. Perhaps, instead, he cuts right through them. Who knows what events he sets in motion without even realising? Who knows what consequences may come back - or forward - to haunt him? Ten completely new tales from the universe of Doctor Who. Seven Doctors' lives, inexorably linked in a breathtaking chain of consequences. As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from award-winning TV script writers to acclaimed New Adventures authors. And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers. '. And Eternity in an Hour' by Stephen Bowkett. The Doctor and Jo investigate a time rift near the Alkaris, a planet whose dangerous time storms sweep across the planet causing havoc. During a time storm, the time travellers are separated, and rebels who believe that the Time Lords are responsible for the disaster capture Jo. The Doctor meets Yed-Prior Zaniah, who plans to use the time distortions to cause her people to live out their natural life spans in just one hour, while extending her own so that she will rule them for eternity. However, her experiments have summoned the Cerunnos, a metamorphic creature from the darkest corners of time. Jo helps the rebels to storm the palace, where they detonate an atomic bomb that destroys Zaniah. The Doctor and Jo escape before the explosion, but so does the Cerunnos. Notes: *Featuring the Third Doctor and Jo. *Jo knows all about Time Lord trances, which she saw the Doctor use in 'Planet of the Daleks' 'Moving On' by Peter Anghelides. After an interview with Scott Wojzek, Sarah emerges from his company's Virtual Reality equipment only to suffer from strange hallucinations, and Wojzek later commits suicide. When K-9 starts to deteriorate, Sarah realises she cannot repair him, as the technology will not be invented for centuries. Attempting to ignore the hallucinations and continue her work, Sarah see Wojzek, who reveals that he is the Cerunnos, and has been passing through bodies in an attempt to lure the Doctor to Earth so that he can have his revenge. While under Cerunnos' influence, Sarah sabotaged K-9 and ordered him to send the Doctor a holographic distress. She resists the creature's influence and banishes it from her mind, in the process proving to herself that she is no longer reliant on the Doctor. Notes: *Featuring Sarah and K-9. 'Tarnished Image' by Guy Clapperton. The TARDIS arrives on the planet Tarron, during the test of a new holoprobe that enhances old holographic recordings to provide a near-Virtual Reality experience. The leader of Tarron is about to transfer control of the colony to the Azmec Corporation, the creators of the machine, and also the object of the Doctor's suspicions, as he does not think the machine would work as they claim. The Doctor and Dodo are told by a journalist, Crakar Lund, of a number of recent murders that are reminiscent of old cult killings from the colony's earliest days.. The Doctor discovers that the Azmec Corporation is responsible for the murders. It used prototype time-travel technology to transport the original murderer from the past and kill two student scientists that were developing a rival version of the holoprobe; the students would have discovered that the holograph of the leader of Tarron was a fake created from an ancient holographic distress signal. While the enraged population forces the Azmecs from their planet, the Doctor and Dodo leave with the holoprobe head-dress. Notes: *Featuring the First Doctor and Dodo. 'Past Reckoning' by Jackie Marshall. Visiting his old friend David Gosthorpe, the Doctor takes Nyssa to Trentillys Castle, only to find it open to tourists, and in a state of disrepair. They meet David's sister, Ellen, who angrily tells the Time Lord that after her brother's encounter with him, he squandered the family fortune attempting to search for lost historical treasures. David only ever found one item, the Jewels of Helen, which Ellen hopes to sell to regain their fortune, but the head-dress is actually an alien artefact that psychically enhances the wearer's appearance, and Ellen is killed in a feedback loop. Notes: *Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. 'UNITed We Fall' by Keith R.A. DeCandido. Until the Brigadier can justify expenses from previous incursions, the government temporarily suspends UNIT's funding. Summoned by a recall signal, the Doctor arrives, only to discover that the signal was not sent by the Brigadier, but in fact by a terrorist that the Doctor once accidentally exposed, and who now wants revenge. The terrorist has built a bomb using leftover TARDIS equipment stored in UNIT archives, planning to destroy the UN building where the hearing into UNIT is to be held. When police shoot the terrorist, the Doctor finds the bomb and realises that it is capable of destroying the entire Solar System one thousand years ago. He sends the detonator into the future, along with the TARDIS distress circuits that originally summoned him, saving the solar system, and proving to the government bureaucrats that funding for UNIT is indeed necessary. Notes: *Featuring the Fourth Doctor and the Brigadier. 'Aliens and Predators' by Colin Brake. The alien race known only as the Other attack the starship Hope, which contains all the treasures of the lost human race. The Doctor receives a distress call that appears to come from his own TARDIS, but when he and his companions arrive, the ship's Guardians misinterpret their arrival and attack them. Forced to defend themselves, Jamie and Zoe destroy all but one of the Guardians. After the Doctor discovers that the Other are the mutated descendants of the human race, the remaining Guardian sets the ship to self-destruct in order to prevent the Other from obtaining the human race's genetic code and abusing it. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe leave with some of the ship's treasures, including the 'Face of Humanity', so that they can take them to safety. Notes: *Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. 'Fegovy' by Gareth Roberts. The TARDIS detects an energy field emanating from an old space station, to which several spaceships belonging to criminals and warlike species are docked. The Doctor investigates, and discovers that an energy-based creature named Fegovy is auctioning off the priceless 'Face of Humanity', a prize that some of the bidders are willing to kill for. The auction is really a sham and Fegovy, actually an artificial life form programmed to acquire wealth for a group called the Syndicate, has lured the criminals to the station, in order to put them in suspended animation so they can be sold for the bounty. The Doctor realises that Fegovy is carrying out defunct programme, as the Syndicate collapsed centuries ago. He offers to exchange the co-ordinates of Gallifrey in return for the release of Fergovy's prisoners, and they escape before the intelligence discovers the bluff. The natives of New Alexandria decide to abandon their criminal activities, in order to create a library. Notes: *Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Mel. 'Continuity Errors' by Steven Moffat. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Library of New Alexandria, in order to take out a restricted text detailing the massacre of the Deltheron race during the Drakoid invasion. The Librarian, Andrea, recognises him and angrily refuses, and, after the Time Lord leaves, asks Benny what it is like to travel with the most complex space-time event in the universe. Andrea came to New Alexandria to forget her life, as her daughter Gwen was killed by hostile plants, after which her husband left her. As Andrea's temperament gradually alters, Benny meets the Librarian's husband, who nearly left her, but then reconsidered after he hitched a lift with a cheerful man in a blue lorry with a flashing light on top. The Doctor finally returns and greets his old friend Andrea and her beautiful daughter Gwen, whom the Doctor once saved from hostile plants some years ago. He returns to the Library the book that he took out - a restricted text about the Deltherons' successful defeat of the Drakoid invasion. Notes: *Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Benny. *The Doctor is only travelling with Benny, and wearing his question-marked pull-over, so this must occur before 'Deceit' 'Timevault' by Ben Jeapes. The TARDIS arrives inside a vaultship, whose owners, the Lorq, are a neutral species that keep items in storage for their customers. Some of the ship's passengers have contracted a contagious Anlerrian rash, caused by a faulty batch of the nanotech drug Aesculac, which normally manufactures cures to whatever disease the recipient is suffering from, but which has actually started manufacturing Anlerrian bacteria. After the Doctor cures the plague, Xo'ril, the ship's purser, holds his own son, Ts'ril, hostage and orders the Doctor to use Aesculac to make another type of bacteria. The Doctor surmises that Xo'ril has been possessed by a Crialan, a bacterial life form that was supposedly wiped out by the Time Lords long ago - the surviving bacteria sealed themselves in temporal stasis aboard the vaultship. When the bacteria reproduce using Aesculac and take control the ship, the Doctor escapes and uses the TARDIS to reprogram the ship's stasis generators, accelerating time backwards and forwards, and confusing the Crialans. Their hosts' immune systems recover from shutdown and wipe out the invaders, and the Doctor leaves with Ts'ril in the TARDIS. Notes: *Featuring the Fourth Doctor and K-9, and introducing Ts'ril. 'Zeitgeist' by Craig Hinton. The TARDIS is drawn to Heracletus, a planet that the Time Lords have placed in a time loop. The Doctor assumes that they want him to investigate, but when he and Turlough leave the ship, they find themselves in different, alternate, timelines. In a technologically advanced world, the Doctor meets scientist Enryk Ullius, who, aided by an alien ambassador named Ts'ril, has created a chronon stream called the Spline, which he will use to plunder all of time's resources. Turlough meets Ullius, a high priest overseeing the distribution of offerings from the magical Spline, and the Savant, an arrogant alternate version of the Doctor. After both timelines overlap due to an accident, the Doctor realises that the Time Lords set up the time loop to stop the Spline from destroying the fabric of time; a flaw is causing an alternate history to be created after the loop repeats itself, and the Spline is in fact a twisted refraction of the TARDIS. The Doctor locates the real TARDIS and, as he transports himself and Turlough to it before the loop collapses. A rift occurs, which reveals the real planet to be a lifeless wasteland, destroyed by the scientists' failed time-travel experiments. Decalog 3: Consequences by Andy Lane. .. AND ETERNITY IN AN HOUR by Steve Bowkett "Eternity" is a rather dull Third Doctor/Jo Grant story. Like all too many short stories, it starts off with a nice idea (the time storms which ravage the planet Alrakis) and just can't pull off the execution. Ultimately, "Eternity" is another variation on the old overthrow-the-evil-overseers plot which has pretty much been done to death in Doctor Who. The Cerunnos is particularly dull -- yet another ancient evil from the dawn of time -- and the evil leader, Zaniah, is horribly over the top. MOVING ON by Peter Anghelides "Moving On" is not an intrisically bad story, but it suffers from a rather fanfic-ish desire to have a companion "come to terms" with her time with the Doctor and (as the title indicates) "move on to her own life". Which is all very well, but "Moving On" really does nothing new with the concept, so the whole thing has a very familiar, been-there-done-that quality. The plot itself isn't half bad but ends up ruined by an all too easy climax, perhaps indicating that Peter isn't quite comfortable with the short story length. And, as a K-9 fan, I was rather disappointed by how shabbily the poor thing is treated. :-) Peter's mucking about with continuity is also a minor aggravation (he seems to have moved forward the events of "The Hand Of Fear" and "K-9 & Company" by a decade or so), but this is really a minor nitpick. TARNISHED IMAGE by Guy Clapperton "Tarnished Image" is a rather more interesting tale, particularly as it plays with the genre a bit by having the bulk of the story related via news clippings. It presents a great set-up, but does fall apart a bit at the end, with a series of explanations I found rather convoluted (but maybe I'm just being thick). Perhaps the story's biggest detraction is its own self-dismissiveness, which has made it rather more forgettable than perhaps it deserves to be. PAST RECKONING by Jackie Marshall If you ever needed a definition for the term "non-event", look no further than "Past Reckoning". The story meanders about for fifteen minutes before suddenly pulling an alien device virtually out of nowhere to provide an excuse for a plot. Dull and pointless, "Past Reckoning" has little to recommend it. UNITED WE FALL by Keith R A DeCandido A real upturn from the book's first four stories, "UNITed We Fall" is an amusing little story which is the first to realize it is a short story and make use of the form, rather than trying to be a two hundred and fifty page novel squeezed into thirty pages. The Fourth Doctor is captured expertly -- the first instance of good characterisation in "Decalog 3" -- and the whole thing is just a lot of fun, even provoking a few proper belly laughs. Plotwise, there's not a lot to it, but that's really beside the point. It's enjoyable to read, and that's good enough for me. ALIENS AND PREDATORS by Colin Brake Overtly dark and tediously pointless, "Aliens and Predators" does at least boast a better portrayal of the Second Doctor than we've seen in the Missing Adventures to date. It suffers badly from frankly amateurish writing, however, and the surprisingly high number of grammatical and typographical errors doesn't do it any favors. FEGOVY by Gareth Roberts A somewhat above average story which, perhaps, underachieves, "Fegovy" is blessed with another excellent portrayal of the Sixth Doctor in a Virgin book, and a similarly impressive depiction of Mel. The same praise cannot be reserved for the plot, however, which starts off well but is let down by one of the worst climaxes I've seen in many a day. Gareth does at least get another coupel of dozen pages to play with his prize creations, the Chelonians, and our look at non-military examples of the race is one of the story's more interesting points. CONTINUITY ERRORS by Steve Moffatt Far and away the best short of "Decalog 3", "Continuity Errors" makes me wish Virgin could extend its license for just one more month to give Steve Moffatt a crack at a full-fledged New Adventure. As it is, "Continuity Errors" is just a tantalizing morsel which leaves the reader pining for more. Moffatt has the Doctor and Benny nailed down perfectly, exhibiting in all too few pages the full range of their characterisations, from comedy and good naturedness to mystery and darkness. The plot is perfect for the medium, and is a rare inspection of exactly how the Doctor affects the course of history. The questions "Continuity Errors" raises are highly intriguing and notably sobering, leaving similar efforts in stories like "Tarnished Image" in the dust. "Continuity Errors" is simply excellent, and rivals even Jim Mortimore's "Book Of Shadows" as the best short story in all the "Decalog"s released to date. TIMEVAULT by Ben Jeapes While not quite as successful as the volume's other Fourth Doctor story, "Timevault" is a nice little adventure which doesn't seem squeezed into its allotted length. Jeapes' portrayal of the Doctor is capable, if not as spot-on as Keith DeCandido's, and the story's villains are very nicely written. ZEITGEIST by Craig Hinton "Zeitgeist" is another one of those stories which feels mercilessly crammed into just thrity pages. The basic plot idea - - that a time loop is causing multiple variations of a planet's history to come into being, and along with it multiple Fifth Doctors and Turloughs -- is one worthy of considerable investigation, and consequently "Zeitgeist" feels like a missed opportunity. In particularly, the Savant -- a version of the Doctor who never left Gallifrey -- is never taken advantage of, which is a shame. As interesting as it is, "Zeitgeist" is hopelessly unsuitable as a thirty-three page story. DECALOG 3 edited by Andy Lane and Justin Richards As a whole, "Decalog 3" is probably the least successful of the " Decalog "s to date. Let down by some rather dreadful stories in its first half, it just can't pick up enough steam through the latter stories to really garner any accolades. As good as "Continuity Errors", "UNITed We Fall" and "Fegovy" are, three stories just can't support a book which ought to have ten good stories. The running theme itself -- that the Doctor's actions cause repurcusions which affect his own past and future -- is intriguing, but generally used in a gimmicky sense here. Only a couple of the stories take this theme and run with it; the best, no doubt, is "Continuity Errors", which is all about the Doctor's actions having massive consequences. In the end, the linking theme is hardly different from the original "Decalog"'s, where an object from another story (in that case a linking story running through the whole volume) shows up in the current one. Altogether, "Decalog 3" is something of a disappointment to herald Lane and Richards' first attempt at editing such a collection. I can only hope that their second effort next year shows a great deal of improvement.