BASIC PLOT
The Doctor finds himself stranded on board a starship near the frontline with a group of ruthless bounty hunters, who achieve the ultimate prize: a Dalek prisoner.

DOCTOR
Tenth.

COMPANIONS
None.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 8 In a deserted building on the planet Hurula (page 28), c 2500.

Pg 241 In a the control room of the Lodestar Station.

Pg 243 London, Earth.

Pg 247 Deep beneath the surface of Hurula.

PREPARATORY READING
A passing familiarity with the Time War would be helpful.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 8 "How can I be expected to run a classic TARDIS if it keeps jumping time tracks every time it lands?" The TARDIS first jumped a time track in The Space Museum.

Pg 9 The sonic screwdriver makes an appearance.

Pg 10 "You'd have the Health and Safety department of the Shadow Proclamation down on you like a ton of bricks." The Shadow Proclamation was first mentioned in Rose and seen in The Stolen Earth.

Pg 11 "He tried the sonic screwdriver again, but it was locked. 'Deadlock sealed and rusted,' he muttered ruefully." Deadlock seals were said to be impervious to the sonic screwdriver starting in Partners in Crime.

Pg 26 The psychic paper makes an appearance (The End of the World et al).

Pg 43 "But it's cryogenically frozen - they are sometimes susceptible to a sudden reduction in temperature, particularly if caught off guard." Planet of the Daleks.

Pg 44 "Bastic-headed bullet to penetrate the force field." Bastic bullets featured in Revelation of the Daleks.

Pg 46 "I've gone back to a point before the Time War even started, and that's impossible." The Time War was the backstory to the 2005 season. But see Continuity Cock-Ups.

Pg 47 "A veteran of the Draconian Conflicts too. They say he was on the front line at Tartarus." Frontier in Space, Terror of the Vervoids.

Pg 66 "'I've seen this before,' he growled. 'It's the Osterhagen Principle.'" The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords.

Pg 81 "Bowman kept an old bottle of Draconian branka in his cabin." Frontier in Space.

Pg "Here we go! Molto bene!" Midnight.

Pg 91 "He longed for someone like Martha or Donna, someone who would understand, someone who could help." You probably know who Martha and Donna are.

Pg 96 "'It's me,' said the Doctor. 'The Oncoming Storm.'" This was the Draconians' name for him in the New Adventures (starting in Love and War, page 36), later retconned to the Daleks' name for him in The Parting of the Ways.

Pg 98 "THE DALEKS WILL CONQUER AND DESTROY" This is almost exactly what they say in Power of the Daleks.

Pgs 105-106 "Well, not actually a time rift. Not in your honest-to-goodness Cardiff kind of way..." The Unquiet Dead et al.

Pg 119 "These were Space Navy standard issue when the Wayfarer used to patrol the Iceworlds." Dragonfire.

Pg 127 "There's a lot of background radiation, muons, huons, tachyonic decay..." Huons featured in The Runaway Bride, while tachyons were important in The Leisure Hive.

Pg 129 "Wibbly wobbly timey wimey. You really don't want to know." Blink.

Pg 136 "Perfectly natural. It's quite a view, isn't it? Brilliant! Molto bene!" Midnight.

Pg 143 "Let me guess. You're gonna replace the molten core with a drive system, start flying the planet around the galaxy?" The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Pg 188 "The Command Dalek touched a control and a succession of images flicked rapidly across the screen - different men: old, young, tall, short." Previous Doctors.

Pg 206 Another reference to Huons (The Runaway Bride).

Pg 228 "SEEK! LOCATE! EXTERMINATE!" Destiny of the Daleks.

Pg 235 "MOBILITY IMPAIRED! [...] I CANNOT MOVE!" This is very similar to "MY VISION IS IMPAIRED! I CANNOT SEE!" (said in lots of Dalek stories, starting with Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD).

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Jon Bowman, Koral, Jenifa, Kuli, Dalek X.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 46 "I've gone back to a point before the Time War even started, and that's impossible." Yes, it is. The New Series told us over and over again that nothing could penetrate the Time War and when Dalek Caan does he goes mad. But the Doctor merely jumps a time track and suddenly he's in the universe where his people are alive. Worse, at the end of the story he's left in this universe! So does he pop off to Gallifrey to see the family, thus making a mockery of the New Series in general and The End of Time in particular?
2. Pg 89 "Hey. Dalek. I know you can hear me. [...] We're all humanoids here and we can be reasonable." In what possible way are Daleks humanoids?
3. Pg 162 "Bowman tried sitting down but he couldn't keep skill." I wonder if he couldn't keep still either?

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

1. The Doctor knows how important the web of time is so, upon finishing this adventure, he dutifully skips seeing his long-lost people and instead time tracks back into the post-Time War universe, for the good of creation. What a guy.
2. Despite being a grizzled Dalek bounty hunter, Bowman sincerely believes that, deep down, Daleks are just these guys, you know. No wonder they hate him so much.
3. Bowman's skills are deserting him under pressure.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 31 Daleks.

Pgs 56-58 Koral is some sort of animal, with fangs, luminous eyes and a leonine face.

Pg 132 The devolved remains of the native Arkheonites. They have luminous skin, with deepset eyes, wrinkles and iridescent pustules on their skin.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 28 Lodestar Station 479, the planet Hurula. It's c 2500, since the Osterhagen Principle is said to be 500 years earlier (page 66).

Pg 17 The Wayfarer.

Pg 119 Arkheon.

Pg 215 A Dalek cruiser.

Pg 243 London, Earth.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
This is absolutely awesome from beginning to end! It's tight, it's gripping and it's not at all what the back cover seems to suggest. From the moment Stella dies, you realise this is a book that isn't playing by the usual rules and is instead going for something much harder-hitting. The only odd part is that it seems too easy to reach the pre-Time War universe simply by jumping a time track. But that's a minor complaint, because it's the only way to make the setup that's given here work. Everything else is firing on all cylinders, from the sheer menace of the Daleks to the heavy price that gets paid for victory. This is first-rate stuff and one of the best NSAs. And from Trevor Baxendale too. Who'd have thought?