BASIC PLOT
A spaceship that crashed millennia ago leads to a deadly predator stalking the tunnels of London and the death of the future - not to mention Ryan - unless the Doctor can solve the riddle of the maze.

DOCTOR
Thirteenth.

COMPANIONS
Graham, Ryan and Yaz.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pgs 26-27 On the corner of a junction road in the West End, London, 2028.

Pg 137 In a valley in the Alps, Switzerland, 2028.

Pg 192 On the roof of a tall building, London, 2128.

Pg 209 On the deck of the Argo, 2028.

Pg 266 On top of the water in the Aegean sea, 2028.

PREPARATORY READING
The Horns of Nimon.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 11 "There was rarely time to reflect on her remarkable circumstances, what with running along endless corridors, fending off crazed Stenza warriors and helping to save the universe on a weekly basis." The Woman Who Fell to Earth and The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.

Pg 14 "Apparently there was even a swimming pool somewhere." The Invasion of Time.

Pg 18 "I had a canine companion once." K9 (The Invisible Enemy et al).

"Yaz had learned that such longevity wasn't unusual for someone like the Doctor, who came from the planet Gallifrey." You probably know what Gallifrey is.

Pg 21 "'Very funny, Graham,' said the Doctor, taking a Jelly Baby and banging it against the TARDIS console." Robot et al.

"The coat where you found this - was it by any chance hanging next to a five-metre-long stripey scarf?" The fourth Doctor's.

Pg 22 "The TARDIS uses artron energy." The Deadly Assassin.

Pg 27 "He suspected it happened during a bumpy journey across the frozen wastes of Calufrax Minor on a sledge pulled by giant snow bunnies." The Pirate Planet.

Pg 28 "The wallet contained psychic paper, a Time Lord invention that showed whatever the holder wanted the viewer to see." The End of the World et al.

Pg 29 "As well as the swimming pool, ballrooms and all the rest, the ship contained a voluminous walk-in wardrobe." First mentioned in The Edge of Destruction.

Pg 31 "It's by one of my favourite Zygon designers." Terror of the Zygons et al.

"There was a long silence as they stayed like that for several seconds." The Doctor and Yaz flirt, as they do throughout their time together, a connection made explicit in Eve of the Daleks.

Pg 32 "The order is pleasing to the human mind, but it'll drive a Yeti nuts." The Abominable Snowmen et al.

Pg 33 "She called it her sonic screwdriver. Graham had been present when she constructed the device, a potent combination of Sheffield steel and Gallifreyan tech." The Woman Who Fell to Earth.

Pg 34 "An alien race, possibly the origin of your Minotaur myth. Romana and I came across them once." The Horns of Nimon.

Pg 35 "My canine companion was with us back then." K9.

Pg 39 "Cashier's cheque from the Bank of Karabraxos?" Time Heist.

Pgs 53-54 "The TARDIS had this weird influence field, which meant that, so long as it was in range, you could understand everything that was said to you by any alien race, and vice versa." The Masque of Mandragora et al.

Pg 56 "'There's an old Sontaran saying,' said the Doctor. 'For every probic vent there is a thumb just the right size.'" The Time Warrior et al.

Pg 79 "I tried something similar on Earth in 1938. Had a friend broadcast a radio play about a Martian invasion, called War of the Worlds. I was using it as a cover for a real Martian invasion by Ice Warriors." Invaders From Mars.

Pg 88 "I don't like it but, Yaz, you are speedier than a Dalek on a skateboard." You probably know who the Daleks are.

Pg 126 "It was insane the amount of danger he'd been exposed to in the short time he'd travelled with the Doctor: giant spiders, flesh-eating moths, a Dalek." Arachnids in the UK, It Takes You Away, Resolution.

Pg 145 "I spent an entire regeneration without a sonic screwdriver." The sixth Doctor. (Well, and technically the first.)

Pg 150 "It looked like a Routemaster that had arrived from the future, after falling through a wormhole in time." Very possibly the bus from Planet of the Dead.

"After years and years on the buses, he'd pictured a quiet retirement living alongside the love of his life, Ryan's grandma, Grace. He heaved a sigh at her memory." The Woman Who Fell to Earth.

"What he could never have envisaged was spending his latter years aboard the TARDIS with the Doctor, helping her to secure the secret in Vault 13, outwit a Minotaur or sneak around inside a Swiss mountain searching for his abducted grandson." The Secret in Vault 13.

Pg 159 "From Kerblam to the planet Desolation, Pendle Hill to Alabama, why did it always come to this?" Kerblam!, Ghost Monument, The Witchfinders, Rose.

Pg 164 "I've had to endure years of Cybermansplaining." Sentences you never thought you'd read. The Cybermen first appeared in The Tenth Planet.

Pg 183 "But this bus is packed with more technology than the average Judoon battle-cruiser." Smith and Jones et al.

Pg 187 "A canary-yellow vintager roadster with the numberplate WHO 1, a white manta-ray-shaped vehicle that appeared to be half hovercraft, half road car" Bessie (Doctor Who and the Silurians et al) and the Whomobile (Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders). After more than thirty years of original Doctor Who novels, this is the first-ever mention of the Whomobile in one.

Pg 194 "The Aenaos Engine is what we in the business call a paradox machine." Last of the Time Lords.

Pg 198 "Is that one of those Venusian martial arts you're always going on about?" Venusian Aikido, first seen in Inferno, but Graham is likely referencing Ghost Monument.

Pg 212 "Last time I was aboard a ship this quiet, it was the Marie Celeste." The Chase.

Pg 217 "They destroyed it and, having wrecked their own planet, went on to colonise another. Crinoth, it was called." The Horns of Nimon.

Pg 226 "Here they slaughtered an insect race, there they butchered a legion of robot knights." Both are fairly generic references, but the latter could be the knights from Royal Blood.

Pg 227 The walls inside the Nimon spaceship shift in exactly the same way that the walls did in the Power Complex in The Horns of Nimon.

Pg 229 "Two were humanoid - a woman and a man with a floppy hat and what looked like a long scarf. The third was a small rectangular dog. Something about its geometric body suggested that it wasn't flesh and blood. A robot, then. Amazingly, the robot dog seemed to be keeping the much larger Nimon opponent at bay." The fourth Doctor, Romana and K9, in The Horns of Nimon.

Pg 238 "Last time I encountered them, the Nimons had access to transmat technology for instantaneous travel" The Horns of Nimon.

Pg 239 "From memory, I sent them into a black hole. Still feel bad about that." The Horns of Nimon. But see Continuity Cock-Ups.

Pg 258 "It's called artron energy - the secret not only to our time travel, but also to our longevity." The Deadly Assassin.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
The Nimon.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
None surviving.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

• Pg 239 "From memory, I sent them into a black hole. Still feel bad about that." Except that at the end of The Horns of Nimon, the fourth Doctor doesn't feel bad at all, saying "Good riddance!"

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

• The Thirteenth Doctor has had some time to reflect.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 5 The Nimon.

Pg 204 Talos becomes a super soldier, bonded to a metal shell and glowing hot.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 1 Crete, 2000 BC.

Pg 26 London, 2028.

Pg 135 Switzerland, near the Austrian border, 2028.

Pg 192 London, 2128.

Pg 208 On board the ship the Argo, 2028.

Pg 220 In a submersible in the Aegean sea.

Pg 226 Inside the Nimon ship, at the bottom of the Aegean sea.

IN SUMMARY - Stacey Smith?
This is excellent from beginning to end. It moves like greased lightning and things that don't seem like they're going to hang together actually do, making it much more maure (though no less fun) than The Secret in Vault 13. The regulars are fabulous, and doing a sequel to The Horns of Nimon is a bonkers idea, but it works. My major complaint is that this is spoiled by a chapter title on Page 26, which is also included in the table of contents. Both appear long before the narrative reveals that the Nimon are involved. But in all other respects this is a super fun read. Highly recommended.