BASIC PLOT
On Haiti in 1915, the Doctor impersonates a British secret agent and the time travellers uncover a plot to turn German soldiers into zombies in order to bring about the return of the Old Ones, powerful entities from far-flung dimensions.

DOCTOR
Seventh.

COMPANIONS
Ace and Bernice.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 14 In some bushes, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 1915.

Pgs 121-122 In a mortuary at the university.

Pg 174 Under an arched portico, in Mait's villa.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 1 "Those parts of the mind which could follow the magnetic fields of the world, soar along the solar winds, and even travel the Time Winds themselves, did so." Warriors' Gate.

Pg 14 "Bernice Summerfield - Benny - was a tall and striking woman with cropped hair, newly released from its dreadlocks" Benny had dreadlocks in Lucifer Rising.

"'Too garish, he muttered of a large multicoloured brolly, before twirling a small lace version. 'Victoria's, eh? I think I'll stick with the old one'" The multicoloured brolly was the sixth Doctor's, while Victoria was the second Doctor's companion (Evil of the Daleks through Fury from the Deep).

Pg 15 "Puzzled, he pulled out the weight, which turned out to be a small jade brooch. Finely carved from a single piece, it took the form of a serpentcoiling around a beautifully furnished eagle." This is the brooch Cameca gave to the Doctor in The Aztecs.

"He had kept it in his pocket for a while, until after that business with the Dalek time machine, when Ian and Barbara had decided it was time to leave him and return to their own lives." The Chase.

Pg 16 "Usually, even in the darkest of areas, the image translator should be able to enhance the available light enough to let us see." Full Circle.

Pg 19 "Even on the frontier worlds after the Dalek wars, there was nothing like -" You all know who the Daleks are. The Dalek wars were referred to throughout the series.

"Oh, I wish I still had my five-hundred year diary" The Power of the Daleks.

Pg 35 "Well, I was just thinking that if I were your president - and I have experience of such office, you know" The Invasion of Time.

Pg 72 "Captain!" snapped the Doctor in a tone he had heard the Brigadier use frequently" The Web of Fear et al.

Pg 73 "More haste more speed, or we'll be lucky if we're worth two birds in a bush." Ah, a return to the mixed metaphors, that we'd all enjoyed so much in Time and the Rani. Or not.

"Grey eyes, he thought. I could have sworn they were blue..." The Doctor's changing eye colour harks back to the novelisations, where the second Doctor's eyes were different colours from book to book. Here, it's used to excellent effect to add gravitas to the mystery of the seventh Doctor.

Pg 80 "He had taken a medical degree under Lister" The Moonbase.

Pg 82 "'I've seen such wounds done before, by... big cats.' She shifted uncomfortably." Survival.

Pgs 89-90 "'What language is it?' 'Eocene.'" Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils.

Pg 90 "The carvings, though, are identical to ones I've seen on both Veltroch and Exo Three." Aliens from Veltroch will feature in a number of McIntee novels to come (The Dark Path, Mission: Impractical).

Pg 91 "The legends also say that someday they may return, but that's a facet of legends about everything from Davros to King Arthur." Davros appears in Genesis of the Daleks et al. An alternate King Arthur's body was seen in Battlefield.

Pg 104 "Hostile Action Displacement System - Emergency Manual Override" The Krotons.

Pg 110 "She stopped and gazed at the sketch she had made six-hundred years hence on the planet Veltroch" The Dark Path, Mission: Impractical.

Pg 113 "And don't call me Doc." The Five Doctors.

Pg 119 "She still had so much to do, so many worlds to explore, discoveries to make, fathers to find..." Love and War.

Pg 125 "Due to the modifications the Doctor had made to his own vintage car, Bessie, he found that he had forgotten just how slow the genuine article's top speed was without intervention from superior technology." Bessie was the third Doctor's car, seen in Doctor Who and the Silurians through Battlefield.

Pg 131 "Father, she first thought as the figure of a grey-haired man resolved itself. So she was dead after all..." Love and War.

Pg 162 "She briefly wondered if it was perhaps the work of Earth Reptiles, but swiftly dismissed the idea" Doctor Who and the Silurians et al.

Pg 167 "'Pleased to meet you, Brigadier,' the Doctor said. 'Colonel actually, but thank you anyway.' 'Sorry, force of habit.'" The Brigadier first appeared in The Web of Fear and was seen most recently in Battlefield.

"The Doctor fixed Mortimore with a level gaze, catching him with those blue eyes. Or were they grey?" The novelisations.

Pg 168 [About hypnosis] "'It's just a knack and a not entirely reliable one,' the Doctor replied, 'but of course I had a very good teacher.' His face took on a faint expression of sad remembrance. 'Or he was, before he took a wrong turn on one of the roads of life that we walked...'" The Master (Terror of ther Autons et al). But see Continuity Cock-Ups.

Pg 171 "I've seen similar situations on company planets run by the Usurians, but I never thought I'd see it on Earth." The Sun Makers.

Pg 172 "Benny awoke from a dream of Daleks and childhood memories" Love and War.

Pg 173 "Benny glared and wondered maliciously what this narrow-minded type would make of a Draconian, or a Centauran." Frontier in Space, The Curse of Peladon/The Monster of Peladon.

Pg 175 "None of the items he checked affected the probe - though he gave the chess set a suspicious glance" The Curse of Fenric.

Pg 186 "The Time Winds that the Great Ones could travel were briefly remembered" Warriors' Gate.

Pg 191 "He was beginning to wish he'd built another K9 to get him out of these spots." The Invasion of Time.

Pg 244 "Have you ever been to the Eye of Orion?" The Five Doctors.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Eugene Petion, Howard Phillips.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 21 "His chamberlain had announced that a message had come from one LeMaitre" Except later the villain's name is described as "his officially registered name was Gilles Lemaitre" (pg 154). So is it "LeMaitre" or "Lemaitre"?
2. Pg 76 "Tiny gold and silver rods and cogwheels" doesn't square with "all that was there was a complex mass of brass mechanism" (pg 175). So is it brass or is it gold and silver?
3. Pg 168 [About hypnosis] "'It's just a knack and a not entirely reliable one,' the Doctor replied, 'but of course I had a very good teacher.' His face took on a faint expression of sad remembrance. 'Or he was, before he took a wrong turn on one of the roads of life that we walked...'" This is clearly meant to be the Master, only he doesn't really learn how to hypnotise people until The Dark Path, which is where he took that wrong turn. So how can he have taught the Doctor in advance?

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

1. The president's chamberlain isn't the world's most careful speller. Much like the book's author, one suspects.
2. It's a combination. Mait is so taken by the shininess of the gold and silver that he doesn't comment on the brass, whereas the Doctor isn't interested in the gold and silver at all.
3. The Master taught the Doctor such rudimentary skills as he possessed at the time. They've both come a long way since then.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pgs 61-62 Zombies, the animated dead, who continue regardless of being shot. Hacked-off arms still have movement.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 3 A ship, just off Haiti, 1750.

Pg 4 Hispaniola, 1750.

Pg 10 The SMS Raubvogel, 1915.

Pg 22 Haiti, August 1915,

Pg 25 The U-29, a submarine.

Pg 118 Washington DC.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
This is an inoffensive little story, with some cute moments here and there. Haiti is an excellent location, one we've never visited before or since, and the zombie stuff is harmless enough B-grade fodder. There's some decent stuff for the Doctor and some careful examination into what makes New Ace tick; it's one of the few books to actually humanise her, as she feels real angst for killing the villain at the end, showing that her shopping trolley full of weapons schtick is far more bravado than we've been led to expect. The resolution is a bit arbitrary, with evil German scientists suddenly switching sides for no reason and Benny being saved because of a crisis of conscience in an otherwise murderous poisoner. Oh, and the plot's one big cliche. But there's also some nice writing here and there, as well as sensitively handled race issues. In short, this is probably McIntee's best book and certainly his most accessible.