BASIC PLOT
Deep in the heart of a hollowed-out planetoid ten alien
corpses are discovered, frozen in time at the moment of violent, bloody
death. The bodies are those of the empire's most wanted terrorists, and
their discovery could end a war of attrition devastating the galaxy.
When the Doctor arrives on the planetoid with Ben and Polly, he soon
scents a net tightening about them. And as soldiers begin to disappear
one by one, paranoia spreads; is the real enemy out there in the darkness,
or somewhere among them?
DOCTOR
First.
COMPANIONS
Ben and Polly.
MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 37 The Vertigan Majoris asteroid, the far future.
PREPARATORY READING
None.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 32 "The temperature is very cold..." This explains the 'gap' in which
this
story is set, because the end of The Smugglers had the TARDIS landing in a
cold
place.
Pg 37 "It was more like a wetsuit than a spacesuit, and made from a
dull green quilted material which felt a little too snug for comfort in
all the wrong areas. The worst of it was the headgear, like looking out
from a crystal ball." These are the TARDIS spacesuits later worn in The
Moonbase.
Pg 45 "Able Seaman Ben Jackson, HMS Teazer." The War Machines.
Pg 97 "He'd sorted the War Machine's big brother, and earned his place
in
the
barracks." The War Machines.
Pg 116 "Since Toronto, Pent-Cent computers are guarded like spectrox."
The
Caves
of Androzani.
Pg 160 Reference to the Teazer.
Pg 194 "Then, inexplicably, a picture - an old, strange-looking
bicycle, a penny farthing or something - resolved itself from the chaos in
her mind." This is the same image the Doctor uses to confuse the mind
probe in The Space Museum.
Pg 203 "So many guys have looked at us that way over the bar in the
Inferno at the end of the night." The Inferno was the nightclub seen in
The War Machines.
Pg 276 "'Oh yes, quite well, my boy,' said the Doctor as he turned and
pottered away. 'Soon I shall feel a new person...'" Reference to the
Doctor's impending regeneration.
OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.
NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Tovel, Creben, Shel, Frog.
CONTINUITY COCK-UPS
- Pg 21 "The Doctor began flicking switches on the pentagonal console." The
console is six-sided, not five-sided.
- Pg 39 Section X is missing from this chapter.
PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]
- The Doctor is experimenting with the internal configuration.
- The chapter was accidentally erased from the ship's log.
FEATURED ALIEN RACES
The Schirr, short aliens with broad, round heads, milky white eyes and
full, rubbery lips (see page 21, or the cover illustration)
Kill Droids, robots with a glass cylinder for a head, a body the size
of a chest freezer and countless spidery limbs (page 96).
Shel is a lifelike robot.
Morphieans, bodiless aliens who inhabit a variety of stone statues and
luminescent fleas.
FEATURED LOCATIONS
Training facility, location unknown. It's not clear when this takes place,
but on page 15 the date is given as 23.5.90. It's definitely far in the
future, though.
A ship (page 21).
The Vertigan Majoris asteroid.
IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Ten Little Aliens is very good indeed. The surprise highlight is the
characterisation, which starts off awful, but the limited cast leads us to
really identify with these people, even if they were found in Eric
Saward's dustbin. The choose-your-own-adventure chapter is wonderful,
especially since there's a very good plot reason for it and it adds to the
characterisation wonderfully. Unfortunately, things fall apart at the end,
as the book struggles and struggles to convince you that a particular
character has turned traitor, but can't. It's not believable for a second
and really does the book damage.
