BASIC PLOT
In 1887 the Doctor teams up with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to investigate the theft of ancient occult books from the library of St John the Beheaded. Travelling to India, the Doctor and company discover a plot to open alien dimensions to British colonisation, whereupon they are transported to the alien dimension.

DOCTOR
Seventh.

Pg 1 The first Doctor makes an appearance

Pg 102 The third Doctor also has a brief cameo.

COMPANIONS
Ace and Bernice.

Pg 1 Susan also appears.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 297 The TARDIS remains at Professor Litefoot's house in Hampstead between 1887 and 1906.

Subsequently, it materialises in San Francisco, 1906.

Baker St, 1887.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pgs 2-3 "Didn't the business with the Monk and his pet chronovore illustrate precisely that point?" No Future.

Pg 3 "Oh, our paths crossed, longer ago that I care to remember. Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling." Evolution. But see Continuity Cock-Ups.

Pg 19 "Sleep is for tortoises." The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 26 "He held the book up so that I could see the title: Adventures among the Abominable Snowmen by Redvers Fenn-Cooper." The Abominable Snowmen, Ghost Light.

Pg 27 "'The study of fabulous beasts,' Ambrose answered. 'Dragons and deamons, griffins and chimerae. You may have heard rumours concerning a sea creature which inhabits Loch Ness, near Inverness in Scotland.'" The Daemons (but see Continuity Cock-Ups), Terror of the Zygons/Timelash.

Pg 40 "'Ah,' he said, 'a slurry of clay and dust from Menaxus. Now there's a place to go for a show.'" Theatre of War.

Pg 41 "Menaxus is close to the Rippearean cluster." Theatre of War.

"Take precautions if you ever manage to distil coronic acid" The Two Doctors.

Pg 42 "'But, if it makes you feel any better, I am currently lodging in Hampstead.' 'With whom?' 'Professor Litefoot. You may know of him.'" The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Note that The Bodysnatchers, set in 1894, claims that Litefoot hasn't encountered the Doctor since Talons, so perhaps the Doctor's using a different name.

Pg 43 "If it helps, I took a medical degree in Edinburgh in eighteen seventy." The Moonbase.

Pg 47 "Gallifrey... that sounds Irish." Reference to a running joke in the fourth Doctor's era (eg The Invisible Enemy).

Pg 87 "I myself saw a folio that appeared to be Shakespeare's reputedly lost play Love's Labour's Wonne." Also mentioned in Theatre of War, although it was spelled "Won" there. We'll be charitable and assume there are different spellings.

Pg 95 "Not five years ago the Prime Minister proposed to the Cabinet that a flotilla of the Royal Navy be sent to look for Atlantis!" The Underwater Menace, The Daemons, The Time Monster.

"Yes, some years ago Her Majesty decided to set up what, for want of a better word, might be called her own "intelligence organization". She, or rather, her advisors [...] knew that it could not be funded from public money, lest the public protest at a secret organization in their midst." The Diogenes club was set up by Queen Victoria to investigate extraterrestrial phenomena and bears a striking similarity to Torchwood.

Pg 119 "I've seen similar behaviour in Raston robots" The Five Doctors.

Pg 139 "If Baron Maupertuis or his mysterious hooded colleague wish to stop us, we're sitting here like horda in a pit." The Face of Evil.

Pg 141 "'I've had some nasty experiences around the pyramids" The Daleks' Master Plan. (Not Pyramids of Mars, as the Doctor wasn't in Egypt then.)

Pg 146 "One for everyday use and one for best" Destiny of the Daleks (although in this case the Doctor's claiming he has two brains).

Pg 155 "That was the true evil. Not Daleks, not Hoothi." Love and War.

Pg 159 "Just like IMC and Lucifer, I guess." Lucifer Rising.

Pg 163 "The Doctor muttered something about Z-bombs." The Tenth Planet.

Pg 215 "Stranger than Moloch, the hollow moon of Lucifer that's linked by a bridge to its sister Belial. Stranger than Eusapia and Zeta Minor, half in this universe and half in another. Stranger than Tersurus, with its clone banks and singing stones." Lucifer Rising, unknown, Planet of Evil, The Deadly Assassin. (Benny doesn't mention the farting, which might also be considered strange, because this predates The Curse of Fatal Death.)

Pg 221 "There was a Draconian who had this theory about various cults springing up across the universe, all worshipping the same gods." Frontier in Space.

"There's Cthulu, who we met in Haiti, if you'll recall, and the Gods of Ragnarok, who Ace will tell you about if you ask her nicely" White Darkness, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

"And Dagon, who was worshipped by the Sea Devils, and the entity known as Hastur the Unspeakable, who calls himself Fenric" The Sea Devils et al, The Curse of Fenric.

"And Yog-Sothoth, who I met in Tibet and again in London, and Lloigor, who settled quite happily on Vortis..." The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear, The Web Planet.

Pgs 221-222 "You should have been with me when I fought the Vervoids." Terror of the Vervoids.

"I have a bit of trouble with that period of my life: bits of it appear to be in the wrong order." The Trial of a Time Lord.

"My previous incarnation would have known: he was very good at obscure quotations." The sixth Doctor.

Pg 224 "Holmes is sat by the fire that the Doctor lit with his eternal matches" Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks.

Pg 235 "Don't touch me. Too many people have done that already, starting with a scumbag named Glitz." Dragonfire.

Pg 239 "You should try doing route marches on Ragnarok" The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

Pg 249 "Well, despite having two of the best brains this side of Arcadia on the team, we've been captured." Deceit.

"I'm writing by the light of the Doctor's everlasting matches" Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks.

Pgs 255-256 "The Doctor lit a couple of his wonder-matches and stuck them into his hatband" Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks.

Pg 262 "In which God wants to have a word, and an evil from the dawn of time is debunked" The Curse of Fenric.

Pg 265 "The Shlangii are the most feared mercenaries in the known universe." Mentioned in The Ribos Operation.

Pg 284 "Some I've used, the rest deserted back on Peladon." Legacy.

Pg 287 "'There is a crack in everything,' the Doctor whispered. 'That's how the light gets in.' 'Pardon?' I said. 'A line of poetry from my home planet. I think it loses something in the translation.'" This is very similar to the crack in The Eleventh Hour and The Time of the Doctor.

Pg 289 "It's important to remember that E equals MC cubed in the exo-space time continuum..." The Time Monster.

Pg 290 "What about Siberia, nineteen-oh-eight? The TARDIS explosion?" Birthright.

"'Krakatoa!' I exclaimed. 'Four years ago. If it's an explosion you're looking for, that's the biggest one I can remember.' 'Is that east or west of Java?' the Doctor said" Ghost Light.

"Ditto the Titanic in nineteen twelve, which I was also considering, with the added problem that we would be interfering in our own pasts." The Left-Handed Hummingbird.

"The Doctor delved in his pockets and pulled out a large, leather-bound book. 'My five-hundred-year diary,' he said, catching my inquiring glance." Power of the Daleks.

Pg 297 "Once there, he had located his miraculous time-travelling cabinet, which remained exactly where he had left it at the home of Professor Litefoot" The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Professor Litefoot is making a habit of keeping time-travelling cabinets in his house. This also means that the TARDIS remained in Litefoot's possession between 1887 and 1906, during which time it was singularly unnoticed during the events of The Bodysnatchers.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Moriarty, Siger Holmes, Mrs Hudson, Pope Leo XIII (though the Doctor and companions don't meet him), Jehosophat Ambrose, Jitter, Alf Froome, Yeovil, Frank.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 3 "Oh, our paths crossed, longer ago that I care to remember." Say what?
2. Pg 5 "I always managed to make myself available on those occasion when Holmes requested my presence" Huh?
3. Pg 27 "'The study of fabulous beasts,' Ambrose answered. 'Dragons and deamons, griffins and chimerae.'" Would those be related to daemons, by any chance?
4. Pg 35 The illustration shows Watson standing, but on page 42 he's sitting and drinking tea.
5. Pg 47 "I quickly realized that human suffering was largely due to humans, and the meagre amount of relief I could give was like trying to bale out the ocean with a teaspoon." Or bail out the ocean, perhaps?
6. Pg 99 "There was a fine beading of perspiration across his forehead. he took out a handkerchief and mopped it abstractly across his face." Why is there no capital letter at the start of this sentence?
7. Pg 121 "Instantly we were engulfed in peace and warmth. instead of the stench of the Rookery, the musty, dusty smell of old books filled our nostrils." Again with the no capital letter at the beginning of a sentence.
8. Pg 126 "'Perhaps so.' Sherringford glanced up at me. Suffice it to say that our father's journals were amongst those stolen soon after I arrived, along with other documents relating to the Indian subcontinent, with special reference to myths and legends.'" With the quote mark missing, it looks as though Watson is narrating this, which would make him Holmes' brother.
9. Pgs 194-195 The cover shows Holmes holding a gun, but he's currently a prisoner, so it would be highly unlikely that he'd have a weapon.
10. Pg 241 "The pain was agonizing, as if a ligament had snapped or a muscle had torn. I was familiar with the sensation - I used to play rugby for Blackheath - but it as no more welcome for that." This should be "was", surely?
11. Pg 259 "My mind could have conjured up a myriad possibilities" Except "myriad" means ten thousand, so this is like saying he could have conjured up a ten thousand possibilities.
12. Pg 260 "I guess I would to, if my brother turned up as the villain of the piece." Or perhaps he would too?

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]

1. It's so long ago that the Doctor's getting confused in his speech.
2. Watson is always available, but Holmes has only ever specifically requested his presence the once.
3. The deamons are an entirely different, yet still fabulous, beast.
4. Watson stands up when he's finished his tea.
5. The task is so monumental it's like trying to empty the ocean using bales of hay. And a teaspoon.
6. Watson is describing Mycroft and feels such contempt for him that he refuses to give him the dignity.
7. Watson was trying out an early form of text-messaging. It didn't take.
8. Watson is engaging in some wishful thinking.
9. Holmes managed to secrete a revolver about his person for emergencies. A bit like Captain Jack in Bad Wolf.
10. The memory of pain was so strong when he came to write up his journal that he used the wrong words. Presumably Conan Doyle remembered some great pain as well, when he came to publish the account.
11. The word "myriad" has been evolving into more informal usage. Despite appearances, Watson didn't have a classical education.
12. Watson is still recovering from the shock of the villain being Holmes' brother and it's affecting his choice of words.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 55 Creatures like helium balloons on skates that live on the interior ice sky of Ry'leh.

Pg 131 A creature with five spindly legs supporting a wrinkled and sagging body. On page 265 we learn that they're called Shanglii and are the most feared mercenaries in the known universe.

Pg 164-165 The Rakshassa are crimson, armoured like crustaceans and walk on the pointed tips of their wings. They have a tailed with a spiked club and no eyes or mouth, just a set of thorny growths.

Pg 224 The vegetation on Ry'leh snaps at you.

Pgs 266-267 Azathoth is vast and swollen, purple with black spots and has cobweb-like strands of skin that stick to the floor. It has no limbs or eyes, just an enormous toothless maw.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 1 Jabalhabad, India, 1843.

Pg 5 London, 1887.

Pg 6 The Orient Express, travelling out of Vienna.

Pgs 55/215 Ry'leh is an ice planet.

Pg 137 Aboard the S.S. Matilda Briggs, in the Mediterranean.

Pg 153 Bombay.

Pg 170 The Imperial Indian Mail train, travelling across India.

Pg 176 Jabalhabad.

Pgs 290/292 San Francisco, 1906.

Pg 296 Watson is writing his journal four years later.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
This is two thirds utterly wonderful and one third bollocks. So just like Lucifer Rising, then. But here's the thing: as disappointing as the portion set on Ry'leh is, it's the first two thirds, largely narrated by Watson, that are absolutely stupendous. Watson's voice is perfect and the decision to make Holmes and the Doctor antagonistic towards each other was brilliant. The descriptions of life in the nineteenth century are stupendous and the deductions superb. You can sort of see why the action flipped to a tedious alien planet at the end - it throws Holmes out of his depth and allows Watson to excel - but it's a shame we couldn't have had an entire novel along the lines of the first two thirds. If we had, it'd be remembered as the greatest NA ever. So just like Lucifer Rising, then.