BASIC PLOT
Seeking to get away from Leela's constant questions, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to a seemingly quiet planet for a break. However, there he discovers vicious predators on the loose, a crack police squad, and a deadly secret...

DOCTOR
Fourth.

COMPANIONS
Leela.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 3 In a jungle on the unnamed planet, time unknown.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 7 "But then, he occasionally had to remind himself that fighting small tribal wars were exactly what Leela had grown up to do and that he himself had some responsibility for the circumstances on her world that gave rise to them." The Face of Evil.

Pg 8 "Time and Relative Dimension in Space." This is the way the acronym was originally and later pronounced, although in this period of the show, it was always "dimensions".

Pg 79 "He could affect a kind of physical shutdown himself" The respiratory bypass system, as seen in Pyramids of Mars (and Terror of the Zygons, most likely).

Pg 161 "'Time and Relative Dimension in Space,' Leela parrotted." The original acronym is again used.

Pg 177 "Another creature came up, eight legs this time and a smooth silvery carapace. 'Its mouth parts are underneath,' the Doctor said quietly, 'and very nasty too, as far as I remember.'" Planet of the Spiders.

Pg 200 "I've never really been interested in contract duellists" There's a brief cutaway to contract duelling that will feature heavily in Match of the Day.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Kley, Fermindor, Rinandor, Pertanor, Lead One captain, Frith, Dikero Drew, Sozerdor (although he's about to die at the novel's conclusion).

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

• Pg 221 "It seemed that the entire patrol lead by Chief Investigator Serian Kley had survived and were waiting to be picked up." Surely they were "led" by Kley?

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

• Kley is carrying figurines of the entire patrol made from lead in her pocket.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 15 A giant louse.

Pg 19 Winged predators.

Pgs 23/31 Five-foot-long grey-green snakes with flattened-out faces.

Pg 49 Giant lizards.

Pg 67 A night predator, with black-and-white mottled fur, clawed front legs, a small head, large eyes, long ears and rows of backward-angled teeth.

Pg 95 A giant blue-green amphibian with multiple tongues.

Pg 110 Raider warriors, heavyset, hairless and with green skin and bald heads with a crest of spines.

Pg 177 A biped with flaky scales, fangs and patchy fur.

A giant spider.

Pg 218 The Lentic machine, a sentient training facility.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
An unnamed planet, time not specified, though it's likely the far future, based on the fact that Match of the Day specifies that the contract duellists are human.

Pg 167 An ore freighter.

Trokaybel City, Second Planet.

Pg 179 The spaceship Lead One.

Pg 200 Safedown, First Planet.

Pg 230 The spaceship Drop Two.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
This is a very odd novel. The Doctor is uncharacteristically grumpy and no fun to be around whatsoever. There's hardly any dialogue. The structure is vastly uneven, with lengthy running about in the jungle followed by a flurry of empire-toppling activity at the very end. But Leela is utterly fantastic, from beginning to end. And some of the action sequences, such as the snakes in a V-shape formation, are astonishingly gripping. It's been suggested that this is basically The Face of Evil rewritten, which would be true if The Face of Evil were merely set in a jungle and lacked wit, sophistication or cleverness. But it's entirely worth all these drawbacks for what Boucher does with Leela.