BASIC PLOT
The old village well is just a curiosity - something to attract tourists intrigued by stories of lost treasure, or visitors just making a wish. Unless something alien and terrifying could be lurking inside the well. Something utterly monstrous that causes nothing but death and destruction. But who knows the real truth about the well? Who wishes to unleash the hideous force it contains? What terrible consequences will follow the search for a legendary treasure hidden at the bottom? No one wants to believe the Doctor's warnings about the deadly horror lying in wait - but soon they'll wish they had...

DOCTOR
Tenth.

COMPANIONS
Martha Jones.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pgs 13-14 The TARDIS has just recently dropped in on the Italian Renaissance, hopped from world to world across the Vega Opsis system and visited the Frozen Castles of the Ice Warriors.

Pg 14 About a mile from Creighton Mere, present day.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 14 Reference the Ice Warriors (The Ice Warriors et al).

Pg 64 Reference to Martha's parents, and Tish and Leo (Smith and Jones et al).

Pg 66 The psychic paper makes an appearance (The End of the World et al).

Pg 238 "There's a planet called Voga that's made from solid gold." Revenge of the Cybermen.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Angela, Gaskin, Sadie, Duncan, Lucy, Jess.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

• "'Will he be all right?' I mean really all right?'" Why is there an extra quote mark?

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

• Martha thought she was quoting someone and then changed her mind.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 157 The Vurosis, an intellgent proto-mollecular parasite that arrives as a seed, germinates underground and then reproduces by transmutagenic alteration of the indigenous dominant animal population.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 22 Creighton Mere and surroundings, present day.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Even for a New Series Adventure, this is slight. The central premise - something's infested the wishing well - is great and the first third revolves quite nicely around the well as the centrepiece of the town. However, the solution is so simple - send the Doctor down there to have a look - that the book has to pad itself out to avoid this. And then, once he gets down there, he basically has a look and solves the problem. There's a generic alien possession threat that's entirely forgettable save for the sheer cowardice of restoring uninteresting characters for no reason whatsoever. Lively pensioner Angela manages to be an interesting character, but there's not much else here that isn't pointlessly generic. Not bad, just desperately uninteresting.