'Decalog' edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker

TEN STORIES - SEVEN DOCTORS - ONE ENIGMA

Los Angeles. The war's over, the GIs are home, Truman's in the White House and the mobsters are making a killing - as usual.

Into the office of a private investigator walks a mysterious little man with a story that's out of this world. He says he's lost his memory. He wants the PI to help him. When he turns out his pockets, he produces a pile of bizarre objects, each of which restores a memory and solves a part of the puzzle.

And the memories seem to belong to seven different people.

DECALOG IS A NEW CONCEPT IN DOCTOR WHO FICTION: A CYCLE OF TEN LINKED STORIES.

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'Playback' by Stephen James Walker

Bart Allison, a private investigator, is asked by a strange man with amnesia to help find out who he is, and where he has been Los Angeles. Intrigued, Allison takes the man to Silverman, a psychic with the ability to touch any object and know instantly where it has been. Each object from the strange man's pockets results in a story, and eventually [e.g. by the end of the book] it is revealed that the man is the Doctor. One of the objects is a newspaper with a report about a UFO; Allison takes the Doctor to the town in the report, And discovers that the Doctor is really Myklos, a Malaean bounty hunter in disguise. As a Malean spacecraft arrives, Myklos overpowers Allison and takes him to his hideout, where the PI meets the real Doctor. The Maleans are attempting to invade Earth, but Myklos has begun to unwillingly develop empathy; after the Doctor stole a genetic stabiliser that would have enabled Myklos to return to normal, Myklos impersonated him and hired Allison to trace his path through the city in order to ascertain where the stabiliser is hidden. Allison and the Doctor escape; the Doctor rigs the hideout to self-destruct, destroying the Malean saucer and ending the invasion.

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor

*The Doctor is wearing his brown coat and question mark pullover, therefore placing this story before 'White Darkness'. As the Doctor only cries out for Benny at the end, rather than Ace, this must occur after 'Love and War' and before 'Deceit'. I'm placing it before the latter, as his and Benny's friendship has obviously developed.

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'Fallen Angel' by Andy Lane

The TARDIS arrives in an alien prison disguised as an English country home. The android guards trap Jamie and Zoe, but the Doctor escapes, and is rescued by the pursuing androids by Lucas Seyton, a gentleman thief known as the 'Fallen Angel'. Seyton helps the Doctor to sneak into the prison, and they discover that the alien prisoners are all dead, having killed each other. Seyton and the Doctor destroy the androids, and the Doctor arranges to have the prison closed down by its absentee wardens.

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

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'The Duke of Dominoes' by Mark Platt

In 1930's Chicago, the Master's plan to assemble the Godhead, a powerful artefact from the distant future, has backfired, and he instead finds himself manipulated by the device, which has possessed his TARDIS. After discovering that his secretary is a servant of the Godhead, the Master, his hypnotic powers suppressed by the Core, hides in a homeless shelter with the mercury fluid link that will enable the Godhead to be completed. Eventually, realising that the Godhead requires a living mind to complete itself, the Master agrees to join with it, but the Godhead tries to take him by force. In the confusion, the Doctor and Sarah appear in their stricken TARDIS, take the fluid link in order to repair it, and then depart, completely unaware of the Master's predicament. When the priest who runs the shelter is accidentally exposed to some of the mercury spilled from the fluid link, he joins the Godhead, providing it with the spiritual purity it needs to achieve its apotheosis. The Godhead leaves, returning the Master's TARDIS to him.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

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'The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back' by Vanessa Bishop

Following his encounter with the Silurians, which, to his disgust, ended with the Brigadier blowing up the reptile creatures, the Doctor intercepts up a distress call from an alien trapped on Earth. He decides to take care of the problem himself, rather than involve the Brigadier, but his activities make Lethbridge-Stewart suspicious, and UNIT troops are sent to the crash site. The local parish priest is protecting the alien, but its attempts to communicate with the villagers have resulted in their deaths, due to its incompatible telepathic communication. When the Brigadier attempts to capture it, the alien flees into the woods, attempting to return to the safety of the church. But it is blocked by UNIT troops, and, panicking tries to telepathically communicate with them. Against his will, the Doctor is forced to shoot and kill the alien in order to prevent it from slaughtering everyone.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier and UNIT

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'Scarab of Death' by Mark Stammers

The Doctor and Sarah take a holiday in the ruins of Phaester Osiris, and find the murdered body of archaeologist Edwin Carver, together with a gemstone that they recognise as the Eye of Horus. While investigating the murder, they encounter the Cult of the Black Pyramid, led by, Anwar Nazir, the man responsible for killing Carver when he refused to surrender the stone. Nazir intends to use the Eye to awaken the sleeping 'god' Horus, and he forces the Doctor to hand it over. The Doctor attempts to warn Nazir that Horus was a vicious monster who played with civilisations as a child plays with toys, but Nazir ignores him and places the scarab into its resting place. But the Doctor has scratched the stone, which short-circuits, and kills Nazir. It is revealed that Horus has been dead for centuries, after a fault occurred in his life-support system.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

*Story follows on from 'Pyramids of Mars'

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'The Book of Shadows' by Jim Mortimore

Looking for gold to use to make a wedding ring for Susan, the Doctor lands the TARDIS in the mines of Alexandria. After a cave-in separates the travellers, Barbara is mistaken by the slaves and guards for their Queen, and she and the Doctor are taken to meet her husband Ptolemy. While Barbara meets the real Queen, and discovers that she is an older version of herself, the Doctor finds that the library has been fitted with temporal baffles, enabling patrons to collect books from the future. When Barbara accidentally travels backwards through time to nine years in the past, she is attacked by a mob frightened by an alien spaceship crash-landing in the bay, and loses her memory. After Barbara translates the alien's cries for help, the creature, Rhakotis, helps Alexander and his successor Ptolemy to build an empire. However, civil war breaks out between Ptolemy's followers and those opposing him, and Ptolemy forces Rhakotis to raise his ship from the sea, but lack of proper repairs causes it to explode, destroying Alexandria and changing history. Barbara, her memory regained, is distraught when both Ptolemy and Ian, who had been drafted into the rebel army, are killed. The Doctor, who has inexplicably found a book from his own planet in the library, oferrs Barbara and Rhakotis the option of using it to undo the damage they have caused. The alternate history never occurs, even though it means that Barbara lost her husband and family, and Rhakotis is killed in the crash.

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor, Ian and Barbara

*This follows on from 'Venusian Lullaby', as the Doctor mentions that he would like to find some gold to make a wedding ring for Susan at the end of that book.

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'Fascination' by David J. Howe

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Peri to Sair, a medieval village on Earth which is experiencing peace and prosperity despite being in the midst of a drought. The Doctor meets the town elders, who have collected books on witchcraft; meanwhile Peri meets Tablibik, a somewhat narcissistic villager. When she rebukes his advances, he casts a spell on her, making Peri his devoted slave. The Doctor realises that the elders are using psionic powers to ensure their village's survival, but Tablibik is abusing his powers. The Doctor and the elders break the spell, and he and Peri leave while Tablibik is made to pay for his crimes.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Peri

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'The Golden Door' by David Auger

Arriving at Customs on the planet Bukol, Steven and Dodo claim that the First Doctor is an impostor. He is taken into custody after officials find the real - Sixth - Doctor lying unconscious nearby. The Sixth Doctor is taken to hospital to recover, and Steven and Dodo attempt to avoid a mysterious stranger named Myklos. The First Doctor escapes, and meets an old friend, who proves his identity. Myklos is arrested after he attempts to kill the Sixth Doctor and the real Steven and Dodo, who have escaped from captivity in his spaceship. Myklos is a bounty hunter from a race of xenophobic shape-shifters, who has been assigned to track down two fugitive Maleans that have developed the ability to empathise with other species. The Sixth Doctor is helping the Maleans to escape to a pan-dimensional Sanctuary using a gateway on Bukol, but when he was attacked by Myklos, the fugitives fled and disguising themselves as Steven and Dodo, not realising that their Doctor was a past version of the one assisting them. When the Sixth Doctor helps the Maleans escape to Sanctuary, Myklos attempts to kill them by firing into the gateway, but it expels him to a random location in space and time.

Notes:
*Featuring the First and Sixth Doctors, Steven and Dodo

*This must occur in the First Doctor's timeline at the end of 'The Gunfighters', as stories from 'The Ark to 'The Savages' are connected; the Sixth Doctor is travelling alone, so this can be placed after 'Killing Ground'

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'Prisoners of the Sun' by Tim Robins

The Time Lords transport the Doctor to Earth's future, to collect a message capsule intended for Liz Shaw. This future Liz used the Doctor's alien knowledge to develop a power cadre of the scientific elite, reshaping the world; the Doctor protested and was placed in cryogenic suspension, with his mind connected to Liz's computers. The Doctor is kidnapped by UNIT rebels, and tortured by Mike Yates, but escapes when security forces attack the base. When the Doctor reaches the SunTrap, a gigantic solar reservoir set up by the Power Elite, he meets Liz, who suspects that the SunTrap is malfunctioning. Helios, the Director the SunTrap is revealed to be a Solarian, one of the last survivors of the race destroyed when the Time Lords detonated the supernova that gave them the power of time travel. Helios intends to turn the human race into an army to invade and destroy Gallifrey, but the Doctor destroys him and returns to the present-day. He gives Liz the message capsule, which turns out to be a recording of her own mind which she made in the future. Seeing the future, Liz agrees to put her knowledge to different uses.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Liz

*This occurs just after Liz has left UNIT

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'Lackaday Express' by Paul Cornell

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa to a research station abandoned after an attack by guerrilla terrorists, to find that its cyclotron is still operational. Tegan becomes a psychic conduit for Kate, the ghost of a young woman whose soul was trapped in the cyclotron during the attack. Kate is trapped in her lifeline, able to relive any moment but unable to alter it. The Doctor travels in the TARDIS back to Kate's death, and uses his Time Lord powers to stop the flow of time in order communicate with her. Instead, Kate attempts to alter the past so she never actually arrives at the base, but the Doctor, realises that this will disrupt time, and so deliberately places himself in danger, forcing her to leave the cyclotron with him in order to save his life. As the terrorists break in, the Doctor returns Kate safely to Earth to continue her life.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan


Publication Date:
March 1994

Notes:

*Working title: 'Deacalogue'