BASIC PLOT
The Beautiful Death is the ultimate theme-park ride. However, something goes wrong and tourists get turned into zombies. Fortunately the Doctor saved the day... only he did it by dying.

DOCTOR
Fourth.

COMPANIONS
Romana and K9.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 9 On board the G-lock, 3012.

Pg 70 On the G-lock, 12 hours earlier.

Pg 157 Elsewhere on the G-lock, but at the same time.

Pg 199 On the G-lock, 2815.

Pg 224 On the G-Lock, back in 3012, but earlier than all the others.

Pg 270 On the G-Lock, shortly afterwards.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 6 "You do realise your neurosis is the result of a deep-rooted inferiority complex, don't you?" Romana's psychological diagnoses were a feature of The Ribos Operation.

"His lack of academic achievements was a sore subject with him, and typically he was trying to bluster his way out of the argument." The Ribos Operation.

Pg 9 "I'm going outside. I may be some time." Also said by the Doctor in Planet of Evil.

Pg 10 "The beam settled on the bulkhead door, and the Doctor pulled a triumphant sonic screwdriver from the depths of his pockets." Fury From the Deep et al.

"'Where would I be without my sonic screwdriver?' 'Still locked in a basement in Paris, presumably'" City of Death.

Pg 12 "The Doctor took out his bag of jelly babies, selected one, and munched it." Robot et al.

Pg 63 "He thrust a microphone under K9's nose and Jeremy backed away to fit them both in shot." Reference to the way that episodes with K9 in them always had to be shot to include a small tin dog and an actor the height of Tom Baker. See Full Circle for a particularly obvious example.

Pg 70 "The whole "blossomiest blossom" vibe!" Riff on the daisiest daisy, from The Time Monster.

Pg 135 "Of course, Time Lords could stop their hearts beating for a short time, and enter a state of suspended animation." Pyramids of Mars.

Pg 203 "I'll never be cruel to a jelly baby again." Parody of a line from The Pirate Planet.

Pg 215 "Evil from beyond the dawn of time. The usual sort of thing, I should expect." The Curse of Fenric.

Pg 243 "It is a far, far better thing that I do now" The Ultimate Foe.

Pg 244 "'Out, out brief candle!' hammed the Doctor." Revenge of the Cybermen.

Pgs 253-254 "K9 extended his nose laser and swiped a beam of red light over the ceiling, across a conspicuous fault line where a recent crack had been replastered." Reference to poor special effects in the Williams era, specifically The Invisible Enemy.

Pg 269 "You can't rewrite a single line." The Aztecs.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Hoopy, Evadne, Harken Batt, Jeremy, Metcalfe, Paddox.

Investigators Rige and Dunkal.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

• Pg 163 "There's two of us. Myself,Romana, and my colleague, the Doctor." This may be the nittiest nitpick in the history of nitpicking, but there's no space between "Myself," and "Romana".

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

• Romana is very keen to distance herself from the Doctor.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pgs 19/69 The Gonzies are orange lizards, about the size of a child, with two bulbous eyes and a crenellated membrane on their heads.

Pgs 7-8, 21 The Arboretans are egg-laying vegetable creatures, with baggy, transparent green skin.

Pg 101 Zombies.

Pg 102 The Yetraxxi, who have long necks.

Pg 187 Arachnopods, giant spiders with detachable limbs. They're born hungry.

Pg 253 The Repulsion. It has no physical form, so it takes the shadow of others.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 1 A spaceport departure lounge, circa 2962.

Pgs 17/115 The G-Lock, a set of interlocking spaceships at the mouth of a hyperspace tunnel, 3012.

Pg 66 The Indigo Glow.

Pg 69 The Indigo Glow, one week earlier.

Pgs 115/136 The G-Lock and the ships that make it up, 2815.

Pg 250 The Realm of the Repulsion.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Simply stunning. The time-travel antics are brilliantly done, and a worthy precursor to Steven Moffat. The idea of the Beautiful Death is a neat one, while there are fun side things such as the perpetually hungry spiders. Having a single time jump would have worked nicely. Having a second makes you smile. By the time you're on the third, with overlapping Doctors, Romanas and K9s all just staying out of each other's way, you're grinning ear to ear. But it's more than just clever ideas: the characterisation is absolutely spot on for all three regulars, with funny dialogue, introspective observations and running gags. ERIC the depressed computer should have "Property of D. Adams" stamped on him somewhere. And the way the pieces interlock to form a beautiful and tragic plot is just sensational. One of the best Doctor Who books ever written.