4.01. Home Truths
Featuring Robin Moon and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published August 13th 2016 4.02. Bad Blood Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by Janine Rivers First published August 20th 2016 4.03. To Kill a Memorite Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Clara Laurinda First published August 27th 2016 4.04. Breath of Life Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published September 3rd 2016 4.05. Pillars of Fire Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published September 10th 2016 4.06. The Zygon Missile Crisis Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by Peter Darwin First published September 17th 2016 4.07. One Minute to Midnight Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by Peter Darwin First published September 24th 2016 4.08. Hello Earth Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by Janine Rivers First published October 1st 2016 4.09. Darksong Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by James Blanchard First published October 8th 2016 4.10. Dancers on a String Featuring the Doctor and Jasmine Sparks Written by James Blanchard First published October 15th 2016 4.11. Machiavelli and the Empty World Featuring the Doctor Written by Zoe Lance and Janine Rivers First published October 22nd 2016 4.12. Silver Shadows Featuring the Doctor Written by Zoe Lance and Janine Rivers First published October 29th 2016 4.13. The Next Life Featuring Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published November 7th 2016 4.14. Paradise Found Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published November 8th 2016 4.15. Departures Featuring Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published November 9th 2016 4.16. The Night We Died Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published November 10th 2016 4.17. The Day We Lived Featuring the Doctor, Jasmine Sparks and Tommy Lindsay Written by Janine Rivers First published November 11th 2016 |
“You really know nothing of your planet, do you? You think the only secrets kept from you are the ones your leaders choose to hide. But tell me, Tommy, what secrets are hidden from them?”
It’s an ordinary Monday morning. Children drag their miserable carcasses to school, while their grown-up teachers secretly fight off hangovers. The country sighs in despair, and quietly, everything resets just as it always does. But as we march on robotically, too jaded to turn off our own autopilot, the monsters in the sky take advantage of just that. A dark shadow is about to fall over the Earth. The Harvest has begun… “Keep your distance. He’s quite mad.” The Doctor and Jasmine find themselves trapped inside a dangerous virtual landscape, and not even the locals are friendly. Meanwhile, across the universe, a conspiracy is being hatched. Someone had a plan to lure the Doctor here – but leaving was never a part of it. “You don’t believe in God. Is that why this Bible’s pages are blank?” One by one, Earth’s greatest works of literature, human rights, history, law, politics, philosophy and science are disappearing from the Universe’s collective consciousness, devoured by an alien species with an appetite for ideas that, if left unchecked, would destroy the quality of life in the Universe, past, present and future. When the Doctor, Tommy and Jasmine join forces with Tommy’s favourite 20th century Earth author, Nelle Harper Lee, they not only find their personal beliefs rigorously challenged but also witness her emergence as a formidable champion of individual rights and universal justice, with abilities even Tommy never suspected. “Do what you will with this world, but there is one rule you must follow at all costs. Up the hill, just over the stream, you will find a little blue box with a light on top. On no account are you to go near that box. It is forbidden. Do you understand?” Caught up in an explosive chase, the Doctor finds himself accidentally creating an entire universe, and unwittingly takes on the role of artist and sculptor, painting the sky and shaping the land of this new reality before his friends’ eyes. Millions of years later, life has developed on the surface of its only world. The Doctor pays a visit to try and clear up his mess, but already cracks are showing in its primitive society. Every Eden has a serpent – can Planet Doctor ever be saved from itself? “Tommy, Jasmine, I’m so sorry. Everything I’ve told you is wrong. I think I’ve just made the worst mistake of my life.” On a quiet backwater planet, a good-natured society is withholding a terrible secret. As the Doctor, Jasmine and Tommy delve further and further into its dark past, they discover a trail of blood leading back to the very last person they imagined. Sometimes, as they begin to learn, the universe can be an evil place: and now Tommy has finally made up his mind. This will be the last time he ever steps foot in the TARDIS… “This world is a lie, built on foundations of deceit and destruction. Bricks and mortar of hellfire and fear. And when the lie is discovered? It will topple.” 1962, and the Cold War rages on. Soviet Premier Khrushchev and Cuban Leader, Fidel Castro, have agreed to the placing of nuclear missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy is reaffirming a great future for the American people, promising that they will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Soon, the world will stray closer to nuclear war than it ever has before. In London, the Doctor and Jasmine are enjoying a drizzly September day, watching musicals, sampling tearooms and browsing second-hand bookshops, but soon find themselves embroiled in the covert Operation Mosquito, a test program that shouldn’t even exist. The Cold War is starting to get a little less cold… “You’re… what? An hour or two from destroying yourselves, give or take. It stops now. This will end tonight.” As the two sides edge closer and closer to setting the world alight, Jasmine finds herself darting between the Whitehouse and the Operation Mosquito hatchery in an attempt to stop nuclear war, while the Doctor uncovers the truth of the invasion. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Doctor and Jasmine must attempt to keep the peace. But the doomsday clock is ticking. “Jasmine’s a smart girl, and she applies herself. I’ve got no complaints, really, and I’m positive she’ll grow up to become something very, very impressive.” Travelling in the TARDIS, Jasmine has seen wonders she had only ever dreamt of seeing – but that’s not the only remarkable thing about her life. Before she joined the Doctor, she undertook many other adventures – may it be that the one woman with a life stranger and darker than that of Autumn Rivers is her own reincarnation? “I’m loving this. This story has everything -- ghosts and ghouls, secrets and suspense, a twist in the second act. It’s a shame we’re so close to the end, but then, that’s what we’re all here for, isn’t it? So what do you say, Autumn? I think it’s time you learnt the truth.” The Doctor and Jasmine are thrown into Darksong, a city plunged into eternal night for crime of rebellion. Trapped and separated, they are hounded by the insane residents and creatures from a world beyond, aided by no one but a little girl in a mask. But the lines of reality are blurring, with past and present colliding in ways unforeseen, and when an old enemy reveals a dark secret, nothing will be the same again. “Hush little baby, don’t say a word, mamma’s gonna kill for you the whole damn world...” Whilst the Doctor contends with war across the planet, Jasmine faces war in her own mind. The enemy’s disciples are ready to march with an army of ghosts, and No’s life hangs in the balance. A song of death and darkness is ready to sweep across the universe, and everyone will be tested -- what the enemy has to teach them, the Doctor and Jasmine will never forget. “The one thing that scares me more than a dark planet full of evil monsters is a dark planet full of nothing. Come on… come out to play.” Joining the crew of the Machiavelli and their impossible prisoner, the Doctor investigates what appears to be a completely abandoned planet. What caused the inhabitants to run away so quickly? Why did they need such high security? And where is that smell coming from? “Do you even know what destiny is? What it means? Because I do. I’ve seen it written.” For once, the alien invasion is not simple. The Doctor has to make yet another tough call – only this time, he’s being observed, and by a woman who shouldn’t even exist. The clock is ticking, and a few other machines are chuntering away too. There’s one last mystery to solve – one last secret to be imparted. But will the Doctor ever be ready for it? “Do you ever have dreams? I have nightmares. I wake up in a cold sweat, and when I look out of the window I expect something to come crashing down from out of the sky.” Monsters and spaceship corridors are one thing, but self-service checkouts and school corridors are another. Life after the Doctor is not easy, and as Jasmine and Tommy are about to discover, not predictable either. Planet Earth does not function according to the same rules as the wondrous universe surrounding it. It’s darker, it’s colder, and it’s dirtier. But sometimes, it lets flowers blossom in places they never had before. The next life is beginning, and the sound of wheezing and groaning is starting to fade away. What is it really like on the other side? “I gave you the universe and you threw it back at me, scrunched up, torn, and splattered with atrocities. I gave you Heaven, and you turned it into Hell…” The Doctor decides to do something for his friends – something he’s never done before and never will again, and something which on any other day would be the wrong call. Sometimes, we must put our principles aside in the names of the people we love. Or should we? “I’m not a terrorist, I swear, I’m just dying for the loo.” In another world, we all live different lives, in different places, with different people. Occasionally, when everything is working just a little bit too well, when nature is beginning to show an unnerving benevolence, our paths cross, and we hear echoes of the people we could have been. In a Spanish airport in the dead of night, Jasmine Sparks is about to meet Tommy Lindsay for the first time. “Is it worth going to war when you know you’re already on the losing side?” A deadly virus is spreading throughout London, and the Doctor believes he knows who is behind it. Travelling back to the Renaissance to get advice from an unlikely friend, he finds himself faced with the ultimate dilemma. Just how far will one man go for his beliefs? “And then… at the end of it all, when you all know the truth and how to fight it, and only then, you must find the Time Lords and tell them everything you have learnt.” The Doctor faces the greatest battle of all his many lives. In a place which should only exist to scare the troublemakers in society, a looking-glass is about to be broken, and a good woman killed in the name of an unwinnable cause. It is the end, and the moment has been prepared for – but who by? |
Janine Rivers' fourth and final series of The Eighth Doctor Adventures sees the old team reunited one final time, in a long and drawn-out conflict which will eventually lead them to their final destination - the worst place in all the universe. The fourth series is written by a selection of different guest writers, including Clara Laurinda (The Infestation), James Blanchard (Who Watches the Watchmen?, From Hell), Peter Darwin (A Village Called Nothing) and first-time contributor Zoe Lance. It is also fully-scored by an original soundtrack from Janine Rivers. |