BASIC PLOT
The Doctor takes Sarah Jane to meet one of her heroes, Rudyard Kipling. But when the TARDIS materializes, they discover a series of deadly experiments are being carried out to interfere with human evolution.

DOCTOR
Fourth.

COMPANIONS
Sarah Jane Smith.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 28 Dartmoor, 1880.

Pg 255 Inside Fulbright Hall.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 16 "Sarah Jane Smith lay on her back in what the Doctor had dismissingly referred to as 'the bath' and lazily stirred her hands and feet." The 'bath' appears in Invasion of Time.

"She couldn't remember the last time she wore a swimsuit." We can: it was in Death to the Daleks. So see Continuity Cock-Ups.

Pg 16 "He claimed at various time to be anything from four hundred to a shade over a thousand years old." Tomb of the Cybermen and The Mind of Evil.

Pg 17 "He'd once claimed to be 'immortal, give or take a few years'" The War Games.

"Something was clearly bothering him, and it was a something that their recent encounter with the renegade Time Lord Morbius on that nightmarish world of Karn had exacerbated." The Brain of Morbius.

Pg 18 "One set had been pastel-shaded Victorian outfits; the other had been all silver and leather. Presumably at least two of the Doctor's previous companions had stayed in here." Victoria and Zoe. Sarah also wore Victoria's outfit in Pyramids of Mars (and on the front cover of this book).

Pg 19 "She considered returning to her book again, but she was getting a trifle hungry. That meant a trip to the food machine." The Daleks.

Pg 21 "So where in all of time and space would you like to go? Metebelis? Tarbethon Beta? Argolis?" Planet of the Spiders, The Leisure Hive. Although it seems a bit odd for the Doctor to take Sarah back to Metebelis, given what happened last time they went there.

Pg 23 "She remembered one of those Victorian dresses in her closet that she'd worn before. It had been the time they'd had the run-in with Sutekh. The Doctor had mentioned that it had belonged to a former companion of his, called Victoria." Pyramids of Mars.

Pg 73 "He'd put aside his normal attire for once, and actually looked rather dashing. He wore a chequered cape coat and a deerstalker hat." This is the same outfit the Doctor wears in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (also seen on the cover of the book).

Pg 124 "'I'm jolly well coming if she is. I can handle a gun.' 'Probably not as well as Sarah,' the Doctor informed him." Pyramids of Mars.

Pg 126 "While she'd faced greater troubles beside the Doctor - not least of which being the all-too-recent hunt for Morbius on the devastated surface of Karn - there was always something indescribably eerie about the unknown on Earth." The Brain of Morbius.

Pg 130 "She and the Doctor had encountered examples of temporal interference before" The Time Warrior, Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Pg 144 "On her very first trip in the TARDIS, for example, she'd gone back to the Middle Ages." The Time Warrior.

"They'd tried to destroy the Daleks at their birth, for example." Genesis of the Daleks.

Pg 146 "'Do you have any idea what that is?' 'Morbius's reject heap?' she guessed." The Brain of Morbius.

Pg 183 "Doctor John Smith of UNIT? I thought you said..." Spearhead from Space.

Pg 209 "You remind me a little of a Brigadier chappie I know." The Web of Fear et al.

Pg 210 "As I say, you have the same manner as the Brigadier about you." Well technically he was first the Brigadier in The Invasion.

Pg 232 "'The Rutans are a species of amorphous nature that live - ' he gestured vaguely in the air ' - in a galaxy far, far away.'" The Horror of Fang Rock.

Pg 233 "Part of their almost eternal war with the Sontarans, Sarah" The Time Warrior et al.

Pg 256 "I've a friend called the Brigadier who's a bit like that. He means well, but sometimes jumps the wrong way." Doctor Who and the Silurians.

Pgs 258-259 Sarah changes into her swimsuit and grabs a beachball, just as she did at the end of The Seeds of Doom.

Pg 260 "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ... became the scribe of choice for a private consulting detective who preferred to be referred to as Sherlock Holmes." This semi-historical note explains how Sherlock Holmes was also able to meet the Doctor in All-Consuming Fire (published three months' previously).

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
The alien substance is Rutan healing salve, although we don't actually meet any Rutans and we haven't seen their salve before.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Colonel Ross, Abercrombie, Sir Edward Fulbright, Roger Bridewell, Sir Alexander Cromwell, Constable Faversham, Doctor Martinson, Brackley, Captain Gray.

Lucy and the merfolk also survive.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 13 "Despite the strains of music from inside the Great Hall, there was un unmistakeable sound of a howl in the air." Say what?
2. Pg 16 "Sarah Jane Smith lay on her back in what the Doctor had dismissingly referred to as 'the bath' and lazily stirred her hands and feet. She couldn't remember the last time she wore a swimsuit." Except that the last time she wore a swimsuit, in Death to the Daleks, she pointed out that she couldn't swim and, in fact, could sink anywhere.
3. Pg 119 "'I'm sure you're a blithering idiot,' Sir Edmund grunted." Why does Sir Edward become Sir Edmund briefly? Especially given that he's talking to Colonel Edmund Ross.
4. Pg 124 "What is this world coming to? Women shooting and hunting and now me own daughter talking about getting into a fight." There is no way that Sir Edward, a man of noble birth, would substitute "me" for "my".
5. Pg 132 "The doctor whipped around, holding up his lantern." Funny, I thought the Doctor was holding the lantern.
6. Pg 134 "He's going to have some questions to answer when I catch up with him. And I'll take great delight in beating the replies out of him." Okay, it's not technically a cock-up, but the Doctor is going to beat replies out of Ross? And enjoy it? The Doctor?!?
7. Pg 224 "Put on a big lock and think the door's imprega-blooming-ble." Except that if you remove "blooming", that leaves "impregable", which isn't a word.

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

1. The sound is so unmistakeable it causes everyone to stutter.
2. She's lying on her back on some sort of inflatable mattress.
3. Sir Edward has a split personality. I'm sure it's not because he's a blithering idiot.
4. Sir Edward wouldn't, but his alter ego Sir Edmund had working class roots.
5. In that moment, the Doctor remembered his medical training and so reverted to being simply a doctor.
6. He's never cruel or cowardly. Unless he really dislikes someone, of course.
7. Plus, any attempt to insert a swear word with just one syllable to go is ridicul-blooming-ous.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 29 The hound.

Pg 204 A mermaid.

Pg 232 These creatures are a consequence of the Rutan healing salve, which is the only real alien substance around.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 3/6 Dartmoor and its surroundings, 1880.

Pg 3 A boat.

Pg 36 The Hope.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Well, it's better than Genesys... It's the second-ever Missing Adventure, but you wouldn't know it, because it runs along like so many: lots of pointless continuity, a bland standalone adventure and regulars with a mix of recycled dialogue and vastly out of character moments. Oh, and Sarah's put into a swimsuit multiple times for reasons that can only seem smutty if you're familiar with Peel's other works. At times this is a fun read, but at other times it makes you want to tear your own fingernails out. Strangely, at the end of the day, those things roughly cancel each other out, leaving something rather forgettable. Much like most of the Missing Adventures then.