Asylum is a novel written by Peter Darvill-Evans. Released in 2001, it is the forty-first novel in BBC Books' Doctor Who Past Doctor Adventures series and tells of the Fourth Doctor and Nyssa investigating a Medieval mystery.
Characters[]
- Fourth Doctor
- Nyssa of Traken
- Brother Alfric - the proctor of a Franciscan friary
- Roger Bacon
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
"My view," said the Doctor, "is that you can run — in fact it's often by far the best option — but you can't hide. I'll see myself out."
Nyssa felt a pang of disappointment. He had gone. She would probably never see him again.
The town of Oxford in AD 1278 seems a haven of tranquillity. Under the summer sun, merchants, students and clerics go about their daily, unhurried tasks. Alfric, the proctor of the Franciscan friary, has only two minor problems: one of the friars has gone missing, and there's a travelling showman, calling himself the Doctor, with a pretty young noblewoman by his side, attracting crowds in the narrow streets.
When the missing friar is found dead, the Doctor is convinced he has been murdered. There is a ruthless killer at large, and Alfric reluctantly teams up with the Doctor to track him down.
Their investigation leads towards the most celebrated of the Franciscan brotherhood: Roger Bacon, famed throughout Christendom as a scholar — and, in the far future, the subject of a revolutionary thesis by technographer Nyssa of Traken.
In-universe continuity[]
- For the Doctor, this (most likely) takes place some time after The Deadly Assassin but before The Face of Evil - meaning that he has not met Nyssa yet. For Nyssa, this takes place several years after her departure from the TARDIS in Terminus.
Notes[]
- The actual story of this novel ends on page 226. The rest of the novel is taken up by a long essay about the book.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Name of the Rose | Umberto Eco | 1980 | A novel with similar plot beats that possibly inspired this novel |
| The Book of Kells | Barnaby Edwards | 2010 | An audio play showing the Doctor investigating murders at a monastery. Possibly inspired by Eco's The Name of the Rose. |
| Blood of the Time Lords | Timothy X. Atack | 2022 | An audio play possibly inspired by Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose |
| Doctor Mirabilis | James Blish | 1964 | A novel about Roger Bacon |
| Cobwebs | Jonathan Morris | 2010 | An audio play showing the Doctor being reunited with Nyssa |
| The Wrong Doctors | Matt Fitton | 2013 | An audio play showing the Doctor meeting one of his companions out of order |
Sources[]
- Goodreads