Original Sin is a novel written by Andy Lane. Released in 1995, it is the thirty-ninth novel in Virgin's Doctor Who New Adventures series and features the Doctor investigating a conspiracy within the Earth Empire.
Characters[]
- Seventh Doctor
- Bernice Summerfield
- Roz Forrester - a grizzled Adjudicator
- Chris Cwej - Roz's naive partner
- Tobias Vaughn
- Beltempest - a Provost-Major of the Imperial Landsknechte
- Powerless Friendless And Scattered Through Space - a crewmember of the Skel'Ske who lives in the Undercities
- Doc Dantalion - a Birastrop doctor working in the Undercities
- Evan Claple - a reporter for The Empire Today
- Rashid - an Adjudicator Secular
- Annie Thelma Falvoriss - a human occupant of the Undercities framed for Waiting For Justice's murder
- Olias - a Sunhillowan crime boss in the Undercities
- Waiting For Justice And Dreaming Of Home - a Hith living in the Undercities killed by mistake
- Homeless Forsaken Betrayed and Alone (or Vap Oppat Pol) - a Hith and the former captain of the Skel'Ske
- Dweller In Sorrow Abandoned And Lost - a Hith ambassador
- Avenging Injustice And Burning With Ire - Dweller In Sorrow's assistant
rest to be added
Publisher's Summary[]
I'm playing with a fire so dangerous I could scorch eternity.
The last words of a dying alien send the Doctor and Bernice to thirtieth-century Earth in an attempt to avert an unspecified disaster. Before they can even unpack they’ve been arrested by the Adjudicators and sentenced to death by the Imperial army. Their attempts to prove their innocence take them from the mosaic planet Purgatory to a prison inside a star.
Meanwhile, Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej have their own problems. Investigating a series of apparently motiveless murders, they have stumbled upon a conspiracy with sinister overtones. On the run and out of luck, the only people they can turn to are their chief suspects: the Doctor and Bernice.
And as they run, someone is watching them. Someone who knows the Doctor of old...
Plot[]
Prologue[]
Having arrived on the planet Oolis, the Doctor is seemingly lost in a warehouse explosion while Bernice Summerfield befriends a Hith named Homeless Forsaken Betrayed and Alone who gets gunned down by an Oolian militia and dies in her arms. Bernice is dragged away by the militia and placed into their tank - which, much to her surprise, is being driven by the Doctor. While talking to Benny, the Doctor takes his eyes away from controlling the vehicle and crashes it - right into the TARDIS. Once they are sure that the tank won't explode, the Doctor and Benny get out of it and into the TARDIS - which dematerializes.
Chapter 1[]
Throughout the Undercities, a rash of random violence strikes - an inspector is killed by an executive at a food company while a drunken wandering Hith named Waiting For Justice And Dreaming Of Home is stabbed to death. During this rash, Adjudicator Roz Forrester is awoken from dreams of the death of her partner Martle by a summons from Adjudicator Secular Rashid. Once on the raft that the Adjudicators in the Undercities use, Roz meets a young body beppled Adjudicator named Chris Cwej. Much to her shock and loathing, Roz finds out that Chris is to be her squire once she meets with Rashid. Immediately after this, Rashid tells her that she and Chris will be investigating the stabbing of the Hith.
Meanwhile, Benny wanders into the TARDIS' shoe closet and finds the Doctor inside of it. Though briefly amazed by the closet, she is more focused on the recent death of Homeless Forsaken. While talking about it, Benny reveals that Homeless Forsaken told her to stay away from Earth - something that intrigues the Doctor. After accidentally drinking shoe polish, the Doctor departs for Earth - and lands the TARDIS in Spaceport 5 Overcity. While the Doctor and Benny are practically dragged away by the conveyor belts throughout the Overcity, someone moves the TARDIS - someone who is old enough to remember what police boxes are.
Chapter 2[]
Having previously met the Doctor and feeling that he would go against his stratagems, the mysterious man who took the TARDIS decides to frame the Doctor and his companion for a crime - not realizing that the Doctor has put his mind on finding a Hith. Around the same time, Roz and Chris travel to the site of Waiting For Justice's murder - where an INITEC security bot has already apprehended a woman named Annie holding a knife over the body of the Hith. Unbeknownst to Roz and Chris, this is watched over by a Hith named Powerless Friendless And Scattered Throughout Space. After arresting Annie, Roz and Chris bring her in to be interrogated by mind probe - which seemingly confirms that Annie killed Waiting For Justice. While the mind probe is being turned off, Annie suffers a seizure and dies - much to Roz and Chris' shock.
Chapter 3[]
After climbing up a ladder leading into the INITEC building (and, by extension, the Overcities), Powerless Friendless uses a small creature called "Krohg" to open a door leading into the building's bathrooms. While there, Powerless notices his reflection and briefly experiences vague glimpses of traumatic memories while examining old scars. While wandering on the walkways outside, Powerless is found by Bernice and the Doctor - who notices Powerless' scars and asks him about them. This leads to Powerless running away screaming as his repressed memories of torture at the hand of a thousand-year-old being begin to surface. From the scars, the Doctor realizes that Powerless was tortured by the Imperial Landsknechte and intends to study their records on the planet Purgatory - before realizing that someone has taken the TARDIS. Meanwhile, Chris and Roz discuss Anne's death. While doing so, Chris reveals that he thinks that Annie's memories of the stabbing were faked due to a scratch on the murder weapon not found in the recording. Roz, meanwhile, is dismissive of this - seeing the murder as nothing more than an open-and-shut stabbing.
Chapter 4[]
To get to the records on Purgatory, the Doctor and Benny hitch a ride on a ship travelling to Purgatory by hyperspace. While the ship is approaching Purgatory, Benny strikes up a conversation with a robot with a strangely plummy voice who seems to be aware of who she is. Once the robot finishes talking to her, it returns to its normal personality and voice - something Benny notices but largely ignores. Once on Purgatory, the Doctor is able to alter his genetic information long enough to fool the gene scanners on Purgatory. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, his passage to Purgatory was noticed by the mysterious man - who calls a Provost-Major of the Landsknechte named Beltempest to deal with the Doctor and Benny. Before Beltempest can do this, he is ambushed by two of his own men. Though Beltempest is able to kill them with his body beppled form, his body then shoots itself seemingly all on its own.
Meanwhile, Roz and Chris meet with Rashid - and learn that they have been taken off the case. After noticing that Rashid's simcord is on, Chris gets Roz out of her office before she can reveal anything to her - or whoever is leaning on her. While discussing this, Chris postulates that Annie is actually innocent. Along with this, they learn that the Hith victim had a biochip - something the robot that arrested Annie said he didn't. From this, Chris and Roz begin to suspect that the robot killed Waiting For Justice - and that it killed the wrong Hith. While at Waiting For Justice's funeral, Powerless Friendless notices that he is being stalked by a robot.
Chapter 5[]
While looking through the records on Purgatory, the Doctor and Bernice find that the records on Homeless Forsaken Betrayed and Alone have been classified. While looking through the records, they find that only two prisoner identification records have been classified - and that both of them are from the subjugation of the Hith. Unfortunately, they are arrested by Beltempest (or someone who is a perfect clone of Beltempest). While the Doctor is thrown into a cell with a robot that he is able to stump with a logical paradox, Beltempest meets with Bernice directly and tells her that she is to be executed for impersonating a Landsknechte investigator. Benny is taken away by a robot - that Beltempest immediately recognizes as the Doctor wearing the skin of the robot from his cell.
Back on Earth, Powerless Friendless notices that he is being stalked by the robot from the funeral when he sees rain reflecting around the robot. Once the robot notices Powerless Friendless, it reveals that it was the one who tortured Powerless Friendless years ago and then sets off to kill Powerless - just as he killed Waiting for Justice. Meanwhile, Roz and Cwej travel to the Overcities to look through Annie's memories stored on the mindprobe. While doing so, they find memories of the Doctor and Benny drugging Annie so that she can kill Waiting For Justice.
Chapter 6[]
While meeting with a Baron at Spaceport Ten, a group of Hith diplomats are nearly killed when their human pilot crashes their shuttle into the assembled crowd - killing the Baron while he is still giving a lengthy speech. Back on Earth, the robot hunting Powerless is able to corner him and is nearly able to kill him before Powerless lashes out with his body. Once the bot notices that it is about to fall off of a ledge into the waters below, whatever is inhabiting it leaves it behind. Several miles away, Roz hires a Falardi ship to take her and Chris to Purgatory to find the Doctor and Benny. While talking about this, Chris notices that Roz is quite uptight about the whole scenario and learns that a Falardi killed Roz's partner Fenn Martle.
Beltempest brings Benny and the Doctor to one of the small terraformed hexagons that dot Purgatory's surface to have them effectively hunted like animals by Landsknechte marines. Before being dropped off in the hexagon, the Doctor is able to get Beltempest to hint that he was told about them by someone else but Beltempest refuses to name this person before leaving them behind in the jungle-covered hexagon. While Benny believes that she and the Doctor will die in the hexagon, the Doctor is able to convince her to help him at least buy them more time. As such, the two of them build what are effectively cages with predatory insects that they then throw at the marines - killing several of them. The two travelers then trudge to the edge of the hexagon, where the Doctor plans to disable the field between their hexagon and a bordering one to cause mass chaos - during which they can escape the planet. Before they can do so, they are found by a group of surviving marines.
Chapter 7[]
Though the Doctor is nearly able to convince the leader of this group of marines that he and Benny are undercover Provost-Majors, one of the marines (by the name of Fazakerli) is affected by a sudden extreme bloodlust which overpowers him and makes him kill his fellow officers. Around the same time, Roz and Chris arrive on Purgatory to arrest their suspects. Once Beltempest arrives, they learn that the Doctor and Benny have been sentenced to death but that they might not be dead just yet. As such, they travel to the jungle hexagon just in time for Chris to shoot Fazakerli dead. While Roz books Benny for the murder, the Doctor opens up Fazakerli's skull to find out what caused him to be afflicted by his state of murderous bloodlust and finds that his brain was affected by an icaron field (something that can cause manic states in combination with body bepples) and is able to link this with the rising murders on Earth once it is revealed that Fazakerli had recently returned to Earth. While Beltempest wants the Doctor and Benny to investigate the icaron field (largely because of the deaths of the marines), Roz wants to take the Doctor and Benny away to be mind-probed. As such, the two of them take one each - with Beltempest taking the Doctor to speak with an expert on icaron particles. Meanwhile, Powerless Friendless begins to feel his memories returning and decides to speak to the one who removed them - Doc Dantalion.
Chapter 8[]
Once Roz and Chris leave with Benny, Beltempest has the Doctor wear a Landsknechte outfit to keep him from being shot by a marine before taking him to the laboratory block of Purgatory. Here, the Doctor uses the computer systems of the Landsknechte to analyze where those affected by bloodlust were a week before it started and finds that they were all in Spaceport Five Overcity. After finding this out, the Doctor questions how Beltempest knows about icarons and learns that he met an expert on icarons, Zebulon Pryce. Unfortunately, exposure to icarons drove Zebulon mad and led to him murdering countless Landsknechte through slow and deliberate torture. Though Zebulon was kept alive on the prison planet of Dis, Beltempest was mentally scarred by Zebulon's "experiments" on the human body.
Meanwhile, as rioting begins to spread across Earth, Roz and Chris return with Benny to Spaceport Five Overcity. As they are off Waiting for Justice's murder case, Roz and Chris cannot use Adjudicator buildings to interrogate Benny. As such, Chris brings Roz and Benny to his parents' apartment. Here, Roz learns that Chris' father was squired to Fenn Martle. In the Undercities, Powerless Friendless visits the mobster Olias' restaurant and finds Doc Dantalion drinking at the bar. He tells Dantalion about his missing memories and asks the Birastrop to return them. While Dantalion says that he simply shifts memories around to where they won't be found and that some might be lost forever, he says that he might try to return them. While all this is happening, the mysterious figure at the center of the conspiracy prepares to disassemble the TARDIS.
Chapter 9[]
To get the Doctor to Zebulon Pryce, Beltempest brings a scout vessel into the photosphere of the red giant star that the prison planet Dis floats within. Once they are inside the prison vessel, the Doctor learns that Pryce is possibly continuing to kill people from within the prison before entering into Pryce's cell. Once face to face with Beltempest (or at least, "Beltempest"), Pryce says that he does believe Beltempest is the same Beltempest from before - even below the body bepple - but just ignores it. He also hints at knowing the Doctor and Beltempest would arrive before the Doctor asks him about icarons.
On Earth, after reporter Evan Claple is killed and replaced by Shythe Shahid, Powerless Friendless begins to recover his memories of his previous identity - under the name Daph Yilli Gar - with one of the first that floats to the surface being the navigator of the first and last voyage of the experimental ship Skel'Ske, which ends with the ship being surrounded by human ships - possibly having been piloted into it by its captain, Vap Oppat Pol. Meanwhile, Roz shows Benny the mind probe recording of herself and the Doctor. Though this seems like foolproof evidence of their guilt, both Benny and Chris realize that the Doctor's voice is completely different in the recording. This is also noticed by the figure at the center of the conspiracy, who lures the three of them into a parking garage and sends a robot to kill them.
Chapter 10[]
As Pryce refuses to tell more about icarons without access to his old laboratory on Purgatory, the Doctor is able to pull strings to get him temporarily removed from the prison on Dis. Pryce joins the Doctor and Beltempest (who locks Pryce in the cabin with the Doctor) in the scout vessel Moorglade. Once they leave Dis, the Doctor offends Pryce by saying that his murders were wrong. As such, Pryce makes a knife out of a beaker and threatens to cut out the Doctor's eyes if he doesn't come up with a reason that murder is bad. While doing so, the Doctor realizes that he is truly afraid of dying but finds that he is unable to come up with a reason and simply says that it is "wrong except when it's right, and [he] know[s] the difference". This seemingly placates Pryce. Meanwhile, Beltempest briefly slips into memories of his previous identity discovering Pryce's bodies and finds that the Moorglade has left hyperspace and ended up in the path of a massive alien warship.
On Earth, more of Powerless Friendless' memories return - with these memories showing his torture within the INITEC building and his exit from the building alongside the control nexus of the Skel'Ske, helped by Vap Oppat Pol (or Homeless Forsaken, as he renamed himself) after he learned that his human "allies" had no intention to honour his treacherous deal. After these memories return, Powerless Friendless decides to end some unfinished business. Back in the parking garage, Roz and Chris find that their weapons are ineffective against the robot - which summons two more to help itself get rid of the Doctor's friends. As such, Chris crashes a hot-wired flitter into the robots but fails to eject before it crashes. While Roz assumes that Chris died in the crash, he is simply extremely burnt and injured by the crash. To save his life, Roz and Benny bring Chris down to the Undercity to seek treatment from Doc Dantalion, who Roz has tried to have jailed several times before.
Chapter 11[]
Once in front of St. James Garlickhythe (the church in which Dantalion has set up his operations), Roz tries to kick down the door but finds that Dantalion has had it and the rest of the frame reinforced with adamantium. Fortunately, Dantalion opens up the door when Roz begrudgingly asks him too. Once they are inside the church, Dantalion have Benny and Roz put Cwej into a time tank that will keep Cwej from going into shock as his burns heal. Dantalion then asks for payment from Roz - with this payment being two-fold. First, Dantalion asks why two Adjudicators are in the Undertown - and reveals that he already knows about the deaths of Annie and Waiting for Justice when Roz reveals that she and Chris were investigating the deaths. He also discusses how his friend Powerless Friendless escaped a similar death before revealing the next part of his payment - restoring some of Roz's memories that he took several years previously. While Roz is in denial of this, Dantalion confirms that this happened. Once Dantalion restores these memories, they reveal that Roz found Fenn Martle working with a mysterious humanoid robot in hiding the presence of the Skel'Ske on Earth. Unfortunately for Martle, the robot had no further use for him and had Roz kill Martle with a vibroknife. Once Roz's memories of this are restored, she finds that Chris has been fully healed by the tank - and that his bepple has been undone. Across the galaxy, Beltempest tries to use evasive maneuvers to escape the mysterious ship - which uses gravity beams. While Beltempest is initially able to avoid these beams, the Moorglade is caught in them during a risky evasive maneuver.
Chapter 12[]
While the Moorglade is being drawn into the depths of the alien ship, Pryce tells the Doctor his suspicions about Beltempest again before all three of them are met by their captors - who are revealed to be Hith. The Hith, led by an androgynous Hith known as Hater of Humans and accompanied by a "scapegoat" Hith, bring their human captives to a mysterious planet. Though Beltempest and the Doctor assume that the Hith captured the Moorglade to get their hands on them, Hater of Humans reveals that they have come for Dr. Pryce. It is revealed that the experiments that drove Pryce mad were done on the Skel'Ske and that humanity has continued to experiment on the Skel'Ske - on Earth. Hater of Humans worries that the icaron madness caused by this would scuttle any chance of Hith ambassadors using diplomacy to regain the Hith homeworld of Hithis from the Empire. This makes the Doctor realize that the planet outside resembles Hithis - which makes Hater of Humans reveal that they are on a replica of Hithis' environment on Purgatory.
Back on Earth, as the riots progress to the point that the Empire Today studio is destroyed, Powerless Friendless sneaks into the INITEC building and steals a mop from a robot janitor - destroying it in the process - to disguise himself as a janitor. Once in this disguise, he is found by a guard who makes Powerless clean up a spill. While doing so, Powerless notices a strange robot entering a nearby room and decides to investigate. While following this robot, Powerless is found by Benny, Chris, and Roz. After each of them learns their side of the story, Chris and Roz are able to knock out the guard and enter into the door - which should lead outside the building - after Krohg unlocks the door. Once on the other side, they find the Skel'Ske sitting in hyperspace.
Chapter 13[]
As riots rage across Earth, the Divine Empress' aide-in-chief informs her from the Imperial Throne Room - from which the Empress is connected to countless computers which allow her to be the Empire's centcomp - about the possible cause of the riots and the arrival of the Hith ambassadors. On Earth, Powerless Friendless recognizes the Skel'Ske while Chris begins to feel the effect of the icaron engines. Though the Doctor's companions realize that they might be driven mad by the engines, they are forced to run towards the Hith ship by the arrival of several drones.
Meanwhile, on Purgatory, the Doctor is able to convince Beltempest to reveal that the Skel'Ske might be in the hands of INITEC - whose headquarters are in Spaceport Five Overcity. The Doctor realizes that it is being held in hyperspace - something that is helped by the Skel'Ske's icaronic engines - and that the icarons are only released when the door to hyperspace is opened. Hater of Humans reveals that the Hith plan to shut off the Skel'Ske using a spare control nexus. Unfortunately, Pryce realizes that the Skel'Ske is causing death and destruction on a massive scale and kills the nexus to make sure that this death will last forever. He is then killed by the Hith - which is followed by Hater of Human's scapegoat killing itself.
Chapter 14[]
to be added
In-universe continuity[]
- The ending of the previous novel ties directly into the opening of this one.
- Kate Orman and Ben Aaronovitch's novel So Vile a Sin is a direct sequel to this novel.
- Vaughn somehow survived his supposed death in The Invasion and scavenged the remains of various Cybermen invasions. He also funded various technological innovations encountered by the Doctor.
- The Doctor mentions the Armageddon Convention - which he visited during Andy Lane's novel The Empire of Glass.
- Doc Dantalion also appears in Lane's short story Where the Heart Is.
- The Hith are mentioned in Ben Aaronovitch's novel The Also People.
- Dis is said to be the former homeworld of the Greld - who appeared in Lane's novel The Empire of Glass.
See Also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Re:Generations | Andy Lane and Justin Richards (editor) | 1997 | An anthology based around the Forrester family |
| Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon | Malcolm Hulke | 1974 | Sets up the Earth Empire setting that is featured in Original Sin |
| So Vile a Sin | Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman | 1997 | The sequel to Original Sin |
| Lucifer Rising | Andy Lane and Jim Mortimore | 1993 | Effectively, the prequel to Original Sin |
| Space Marine | Ian Watson | 1993 | One of the first Warhammer novels, a series somewhat similar in tone to the Earth Empire |
| Horus Rising | Dan Abnett | 2006 | The first novel in the Horus Heresy series |