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LifeDeath
edited by Hereth Cowe Spigai and Oatrick Neighly
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Cover Blurb
LifeDeath

For over a thousand years, he's fought to hold back death.

But some problems can't be fought on the scale he's used to. Doctor Who: LifeDeath is a collection of short stories that presents new problems for the Doctor - the murkiness of cultural relativism, the ethics of voluntary oppression and the fundamental essence of his own inhumanity.

Inside these pages, the Doctor encounters the man who killed him, discovers the positive side of terrorism and learns the difference between fighting a tyrant and fighting a culture, while elsewhere, one of his incarnations is confronted with an unexpected question: Is the suicide of a Time Lord also a murder? Meanwhile, the avatar of the Time Lords gazes into the abyss and finds a mirror entity, a former companion faces cosmic ennui and two schoolteachers from Coal Hill suffer the terrifying ordeal of abduction by a psychopath.


Notes:
  • Doctor Who: LifeDeath is a fan-based charity project. All proceeds from the sale of this book benefit Amnesty International.
  • Released: 2001
 

Stories
My Brother and the Doctor by Ben Brown --

The narrator reminisces about his younger brother's love of Doctor Who, particularly as played by Tom Baker, and reveals his own growing affection for the series.

At the Beach by Simon Bucher-Jones 3rd Doctor
2nd Doctor, Joe and Jamie

On the prison transport ship, London, the pilot receives new orders - instead of taking his group of prisoners to the prison planet, Cygnus, they are instead to be taken to the prison known as the Block.

The 3rd Doctor has also been sent to the Block, in his case by the Time Lords, and is disguised as an Inspector General, with orders to arrnage the release of five prisoners who will, in the future, lead a failed rebellion aginst the ruling Federation. The Doctor discovers that the Time Lords had previously sent him in his second incarnation to complete the same task, but on that occasion the 2nd Docotr and his two companions had been captured and have been sentenced to death.

Arriving at the Block, the 3rd Docotr discovers that the Master has taken the place of the prison Governer. The Master offers to free the Doctor's second self, plus Zoe and Jamie, instead of the five rebels. The 3rd Doctor refuses, but the second has already engineered the escape of his companions and himself, plus the five rebels. In return for rescuing them one of the rebels, Kerr (a computer genius), re-jigs the TARDIS computers so that the 2nd Doctor and friends can be free of Time Lord control.

Time-Placement: The 3rd Doctor is travelling alone but has left Jo on Earth, so between The Mutants and The Time Monster. For the 2nd Doctor - Season 6B, presumably after the Two Doctors, since there is no mention of Victoria. N.B.: This is a Blake's Seven cross-over story.

Something Terribly Important by Evan Eaters 3rd Doctor

Having had his ability to use the TARDIS restored to him after defeating Omega, the Doctor's first action is to go the aid of Zoe, who is suffering persistent nightmares following her memory being wiped by the Time Lords.

Time-Placement: After The Three Doctors.

And Act of Terorrism by William Billingsley 7th Doctor and Ace

Ace and the Doctor are unable to stop alien-armed terrorists from blowing up the Statue of Liberty in an attempt to start World War III - so they take responsibility for commiting the crime instead.

Time-Placement: Ace is very trusting of the Doctor and he is wearing his brown jacket, but Ace comes to realise that she gets left out of things, so possibly soon after Survival` - and given that the Doctor is wearing his pale suit in Citadel of Dreams, prior to that story.

Hayat by Doris Speed-Keller 5th Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

An African Moslem girl, Hayat, is raped by her brother-in-law and falls pregnant, for which she is condemned to death. When she runs away and meets the Doctor, he refuses to intervene and take sher home, saying the best he can do is try to argue her case. The girl's tribe angrily reject the Doctor's attempted mediation and capture him, along with Hayat and Tegan. All seems lost until Hayat mentions her brother who lives in Croydon. The Doctor relaises that he knows Hayat's son - a successful doctor in London. Knowing now that he is not interfering in history, the Doctor helps Hayat secape once more and take sher to London.

Time-Placement: Tegan mentions Turlough without too much snarling so later rather than earlier (post-Five Doctors?)

Raisin Jack and the Dead Gang by Chris Heffernan 7th Doctor

In the old West, a stagecoach is held up by a gang of three men thought killed many years before. The Doctor appears in town, and tries to find the 'relic' which re-animated the dead outlaws before they kill again.

Time-Placement: The 7th Doctor is travelling alone. He seems very tired and cynical, so probably near the end of his life, round about the time of Excelis Decays.

The Unpublished Diaries of Ian Chesterton by Patrick Neighly 1st Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan and Vicki

Ian Chesterton fills in his diary as he moves through time and space with the Doctor, and in doing so reveals his growing trust and respect for the time traveller.

Time-Placement: From 100,000 BC to The Space Museum.

Act of Kindness by Alex Steer 5th Doctor and Turlough

In the Sudan, a young boy is taken prisoner by slavers during a civil war. The Doctor buys him from his captors because he realises that the boy's mind contains an inventory of Time Lord battle strategies.

Time-Placement: Between Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire.

Interlude by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole 8th Doctor, Fitz

The original opening to the BBC novel The Ancestor Cell.

Who Tortures the Torturers? by James Enright 2nd Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie

Landing at a deserted space port, the Doctor realises that they are on the planet Vandiel, the natives of which are brutal and sadistic killers on the verge of losing a war to humanity. Ben and Jamie discover that the human victors are torturing captured Vandielians to death in reprisal for the alien's earlier brutality. The Docotr consults one of the last surviving Vandielians who reveals that they have genetically modified their human captors in order that the Vandielians can expiate their earlier sins by paying painfully for their crimes.

Time-Placement: After The Highlanders and before The Faceless Ones. Jamie seems very relaxed with the Doctor and the TARDIS so later on in that sequence.

Meeting of Minds by Craig Hinton 2nd Doctor

The Emperor Dalek interogates the captured TARDIS, revelaing a great secret in doing so...

Time-Placement: During The Evil of the Daleks.

Liberation by Kereth Cowe-Spigai 8th Doctor

The TARDIS mysteriously drops the Doctor off in what seems to be a prison. Having been taken for one of the inmates, the Doctor discovers that the facility is in fact a breeding factory for vagrants. In return for food and shelter the imhabitants are supposed to breed children to take part in the Liberation, a long-running conflict. The Doctor escapes and goes into the nearest city where he tries to tell newspaper editors about the brutal rapes which take place in the facility. One editor says that she will publish his story if he can find one person int he entire city who cares about the breeding facility. He cannot and is beaten and shot at when he tries to convince people. Eventually he end sup back in the bredding facility and, stunned that he could do nothing to help, staggers back into the TARDIS and leaves.

Time-Placement: The Doctor is travelling alone. He has jelly babies in his pocket and wears a velvet coat. There are numerous references to amnesia and memory loss, so it's likely to be a post-Ancestor Cell story, but then again at one point the Doctor says calmly that he is from Gallifrey which suggests not. .

Key to the Future by Mark Phippen 7th Doctor

A white man, Newton, is held captive by the Dagomban tribe in Africa. The Doctor persuades the Dagombans to release the man, even though he knows he is evil.

Time-Placement: The Doctor is travelling alone. Again, he seems very cynical and weary so post-Lungbarrow.

Seasons of Fear by Paul Cornell 8th Doctor and Charley

A prose version of the opening of the Big Finish audio, Seasons of Fear.

Grandmother Clause by Phil Pascoe Faction Paradox

Vicente is employed to find spaces in time for fleeing members of the Faction Paradox after the events of the Ancestor Cell.

Going Nowhere by David Agnew Harry Sullivan

Harrry is accidentally scooped up by aliens who have raided Earth to steal a jukebox for their Captain. After a series of unlikely adventures, including attack by a timeship and heading backwards towards a sun, the aliens return him home, where nothing seems to have changed.

Time-Placement: Harry Sullivan story set after his time with the Doctor and, presumably, before Harry Sullivan's War.

Skullduggery by Keith Topping and Suzanne M. Campagna The Doctor and female companion

In October 1971, the TARDIS materialises in a suburban bathroom by accident, disturbing a woman taking a bath.

Time-Placement: The Doctor is described as hat-wearing with a vast smile, so presumably the 4th Doctor, with an unseen female travelling companion off-stage. It's implied on LifeDeath website that the woman taking a bath is Liz Shaw.

Source: Stuart Douglas

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