The Slow Empire is a novel written by Dave Stone. Released in 2001, it is the forty-seventh novel in BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures series and tells of the Doctor navigating the titular Empire.
Characters[]
- Eighth Doctor
- Fitz Kreiner
- Anji Kapoor
- Jamon de la Rocas - an Ambassador who meets the Doctor and his companions on Shakrath and narrates some portions of this tale
- The Collector - a scout for the Collectors who crashed on Thakrash and who helps the Doctor and his companions
- Axon Mirabilis - a circus-owner on Thakrash
- Morel - a member of the Ambassadorial Corps who serves as Chief Functionary to the Emperor of Shakrath
- Anok Dha - the last survivor of a village on Thakrash
- Gamak - the leader of a cult on Thakrash
- Jarel - an Ambassador on Goronos
- The Emperor of Shakrath - an extremely sadistic and hedonistic ruler
Publisher's summary[]
Enter, with the Doctor, Anji and Fitz, an Empire where the laws of physics are quite preposterous — nothing can travel faster than the speed of light and time travel is impossible.
A thousand worlds, each believing they are the Centre, each under a malign control of which they themselves are completely unaware.
As the only beings able to travel between the worlds instantaneously, the Doctor and his friends must piece together the Imperial puzzle and decide what should be done. The soldiers of the Ambassadorial Corps are always, somehow, hard on their heels. Their own minds are busily fragmenting under metatemporal stresses. And their only allies are a man who might not be quite what he seems (and says so at great length) and a creature we shall merely call... the Collector.
Full summary[]
After the fall of the Slow Empire, a traveller named Jamon de la Roces begins a tale of that intrepid voyager through space and time known as the Doctor.
Part 1: On Shakrath[]
Several years previously, while the Empire still reigned, an Ambassador on Shakrath was chosen to be sent to the distant mining colony of Tibrus. Before the Ambassador could go through the process of Transfer, the Shakrathian Emperor's Chief Functionary Morel took the Ambassador aside and revealed something a little shocking - that all of the information about other worlds was at least several years out of date and that the Ambassador will arrive on Tibrus nearly a century after he has left Shakrath. The Ambassador was then brought to the Transference Pylon and (in an extremely painful process) broken down into his constituent atomies. Though the body of the Ambassador died, his Soul lived on (at least according to Jamon).
As the TARDIS drifted through a section of unusual spacetime, Anji retired to a room within the TARDIS called the Stellarium which shows a representation of the Time Vortex through various "windows". While inside, she found Fitz is also in the room. While Fitz played an electric guitar, he got a massive shock and noticed a group of beings called "Vortex Wraiths" beginning to pool around the Stellarium. Though this should have been impossible, the Vortex Wraiths broke into the TARDIS through the Stellarium. When the Doctor discovered this, he suggested doing the heroic deed of fleeing immediately. As such, the TARDIS materialized on the planet Shakrath and its occupants were immediately found by an army of fiercely-armed musicians within the Emperor's personal "guard".
Meanwhile, Jamon arrived on Shakrath after seven hundred years of Transfer. Almost as soon as he arrived, he was knocked out by one of the musician-soldiers and thrown into a jail cell. He was soon joined by Fitz and Anji - whom he introduced himself to in his rather flamboyant manner. While Fitz initially assumed that Jamon was a new incarnation of the Doctor, he realized this was wrong and realized that the Doctor was presumably still alive and still on Shakrath. After stopping the overzealous musicians from killing civilians, the Doctor allowed himself to be captured by them. He (alongside the TARDIS) were brought to Morel - who demanded that the Doctor allow him to enter the TARDIS. The Doctor flat-out refused this request. As such, Morel consigned the Doctor and his companions to an audience with the Emperor.
While the Doctor and his companions were brought to their audience with the Emperor, they were joined by Jamon. Before meeting the Emperor, they were brought before a false Emperor and Court puppetmastered by Morel. According to Morel, this was to give the appearance of courteousness if anyone asked what happened to visitors to Shakrath. They were then brought to the extremely disturbing "court" of the Emperor - which emboldened the Doctor to bring about the downfall of Imperial rule on Shakrath. After the Emperor had Anji and Fitz taken away to become part of his "harem", the Doctor had Jamon de la Rocas set up a distraction. While Jamon distracted the room, the Doctor set up an elaborate Rube Goldberg scenario that allowed him and his companions (including Jamon) to escape.
While running through corridors, the four discovered that the Vortex Wraiths were seemingly being experimented on (or healed) before they found the TARDIS. Before they could reach it, Morel (accompanied by a platoon of bandsmen) revealed himself and demanded that the Doctor open the TARDIS' doors. Once the Doctor did this, a horrible creature (presumably another Vortex Wraith) emerged and attacked the bandsmen. This gave the Doctor and company the opportunity to enter the TARDIS.
Once inside the TARDIS, the Doctor and company discovered that the Vortex Wraiths still inside the TARDIS had been aged to death. While they examined their surroundings, the Doctor discovered that the entire "Slow Empire" ran counter the standard laws of physics - travelling through time and faster than the speed of light was completely impossible. Therefore, using the TARDIS to travel anywhere within the Empire was somewhat dangerous. As such, the Doctor decided to make a short hop to a nearby location. While doing this, Anji got into a discussion about Transference with Jamon (with Anji believing it was suicide) which ended with Jamon slapping Anji.
Part 2: No Shakrath[]
Shortly after the TARDIS materialized on a nearby planet, the Doctor and company emerged from the TARDIS into dense forest. After some time trudging through the forest, the Doctor discovered a camp sitting in a clearing. This was soon revealed to be a circus belonging to one Axon Miribilis (a man with a somewhat similar character to the boisterous Jamon), who told the assembled travelers that they are on Thakrash - a world that has been isolated from the Slow Empire for some time. As this happened, a lone survivor named Anok Dha fled with a mysterious fragment and an Ambassador named Gamak smothered the previous High Ambassador with a pillow before preparing to repair a destroyed Chamber of Transference.
Axon invited the travelers into his circus but said that they will have to tell stories as payment. Anji and Fitz told the stories of the goddess Devi and King Arthur while Jamon told a story about a mythical "Healer of Worlds". Before the Doctor could tell his story, he heard Anji yelling in the distance. The Doctor and company find that Anji discovered a mysterious creature that the Doctor identified as a "Collector". While talking with the Collector, they learn that it accidentally destroyed Thakrash's Chamber of Transference (cutting it off from the Empire and causing mass riots) and joined Axon's circus not long after. Before the Doctor can speak with the Collector further, Anok Dha crashes into the Circus and presented the Doctor with the mysterious fragment. The fugitive was closely followed by agents of the High Ambassador - who knocked the Doctor unconscious and spirited him away along with the fragment.
While the Doctor was being dragged away, Jamon tried to rally Axon's circus to rescue him but gained little support. The only member of the circus who join Jamon, Anji, and Fitz is the Collector - largely because of the Collector's kleptomaniac tendencies. While the four approached the "Citadel of Souls", the Doctor was brought before the High Ambassador and put onto a sacrificial altar in front of the broken "Transubstantiation Engine". Right as the Doctor's companions broke into the chamber holding the Engine, the High Ambassador plunged the last piece of the Engine into the Doctor's chest and placed the blood-coated piece into the Engine. Unfortunately for the High Ambassador, the Engine released bolts of energy that rapidly mutated and killed the Ambassador before violently exploding. By this point, the Doctor and company escaped the Citadel. Once the dust settled, the Doctor began to suffer from his chest wound.
After leaving the Citadel, the Doctor's companions discovered that they had lost the TARDIS in the woods of Shakrath. Fortunately for them, the Doctor was able to stay lucid for long enough to guide his companions to the TARDIS. Once inside, the Doctor used machines within the (now fully-restored) TARDIS to heal himself before he used the TARDIS to make a map of the Empire. This map showed that a planet called "Goronos" was a center of information within the Empire. To find out more about the Empire's true nature, the Doctor decided to travel to Goronos.
Part 3: In the Machine[]
While returning from her job to her apartment, Anji discovered that it had been ransacked and that a mysterious man with a knife was standing within it. While Anji was able to escape her apartment and get into the street, she was saved by a monstrous creature under the thrall of a mysterious and suave stranger that gave Anji a business card. Despite the stranger being killed, Anji was still worried by what the knife-wielding stranger represented and decided to visit the stranger. Upon visiting his apartment, Anji found herself in a mysterious nether realm and was found by the stranger - who said that he had something very important to tell her.
According to extracts from a book known as "Nice Pair of Plums: Fitz Kreiner and the Early Days of the Groke", Fitz formed a band known as "the Groke" which quickly became a massive influence on counterculture. Though the book says that it should have been noticed as a Thoughtcrime beforehand (and indeed, gained the ire of the "high society"), the Groke was noticed by a member of the Security Service who begins protecting them. As such, the band went to new and strange places. Throughout this time, Fitz's demeanor became more and more surly and antagonistic towards everything before - after an extreme outburst - something within him "broke completely" and he simply stood around doing nothing before vanishing.
Some time before, the Doctor and his companions landed on the planet Goronos and were immediately ambushed by an ambassador named Jarel and his company of recently-dead creatures animated through technology. They were placed inside the Cyberdyne (a massive "computer" made up of Goronos' population that is, according to the Doctor, way less powerful than the average computer in the twenty-first century) and had false lives beamed into their brains. Fortunately for Fitz and Anji, the Cyberdyne's systems were incompatible with their brains and the Doctor (who was able to get the Cyberdyne to pump information into his brain before disconnecting from it) was able to disconnect them from the Cyberdyne simply through suggestion. Unfortunately, Jamon was more susceptible to the Cyberdyne and the Doctor was forced to rip the Cyberdyne's electrodes from his scalp.
Once Jamon stopped screaming, the Doctor and his companions began looking for the Cyberdyne's information stores. Once at the top of the Cyberdyne's pyramid, they found various printers spitting out the information. Once Anji and Jamon were able to figure out what information was important, the Doctor and company departed. As the TARDIS left, it was closely watched by Jarel - or rather, the thing inhabiting his body.
After feeding the information from Goronos into the TARDIS' databases (from which Jamon was able to gleam that the various planets within the Empire have had rapid downward turns), the Doctor revealed that the Empire was founded several million years ago by an unknown civilization who sent out lobotomized convicts to various planets to set up the Transference Chambers. He then used the information from Goronos to create a more comprehensive map of the Empire. From this, the Doctor was able to find a secret place within the Empire that various Ambassadors were being sent to without their knowledge. Believing this to be the origin point and center of the Empire, the Doctor decided to visit this planet.
Part 4: Go Ghost and Epilogomena[]
Shortly after the TARDIS arrived on the dead world, Fitz seemingly rushed out into the unknown. The other members of the TARDIS stayed inside - giving Anji the opportunity to have a revelation. She cornered the Doctor and told him about her suspicions that he was purposefully playing a character and knew more about what was going on then he said he did. The Doctor partially confirmed this, but said that he only had vague feelings about the events going on. The Doctor then walked outside and demanded that the driving force of the Empire reveal itself. This caused a group of Vortex Wraiths holding the corpses of various Ambassadors like puppets to reveal themselves.
A Vortex Wraith using a puppet of Morel explained their plans - the Vortex Wraiths found the center of the Empire several centuries ago and supposedly laid it to waste (though the Doctor doubts this) before using black magicks to make puppets of the Ambassadors that they could control. Shortly before they found the TARDIS, something big entered into the Vortex and threatened the Wraiths. Now, they intend to stream into the Empire and make it into their homeworld, killing every other creature in their wake just to get a new home. To do this, they plan on using the TARDIS as a gateway. When the Doctor refuses to do this, the Wraiths tried to use a puppet of Jamon to kill Anji. The Doctor was able to convince Jamon to break out of their spell (killing his puppet) but the Wraiths were able to convince him to help using their position as Ambassadors as leverage.
Fitz was actually deeper inside the TARDIS while the Doctor and company were inside. He found the Collector inside one of the TARDIS' secondary console rooms augmenting its console with pieces of the destroyed Engine of Transference on Thakrash. Shortly after this, the Doctor and the Vortex Wraiths entered back into the TARDIS and into the secondary console room. The Doctor convinced the Wraiths to connect to the secondary console. This caused their bodies to violently explode as a corrupted pulse was sent into every single Engine of Transference - causing them (over a timespan as long as a thousand years) to explode as well. Right before the Engine on the desolate planet exploded, the Doctor dematerialized the TARDIS.
While the TARDIS was still in the Vortex, the Doctor briefly brooded over the downfall of the Empire before meeting with his companions in the repaired Stellarium. After Jamon mentioned the various travelers still stuck in Transference, the Doctor realized that he could do something with this. It is revealed that the Doctor gave Jamon (accompanied by the Collector) a belt which allows him to travel through the various worlds of the System and rescue stranded travelers from the ether. With his tale complete, Jamon does just this and begins his tale once again to the confused refugee.
Notes[]
- A throwaway line from the end of Part 3 possibly references Bertolt Brecht's play Round Heads and Pointed Heads.
In-universe continuity[]
- The Vortex Wraiths and the Collectors were previously mentioned in Dave Stone's novel Heart of TARDIS. It is possible that the Collectors are meant to be (or at least, derived from) Sloathes - a similar race that first appeared in Stone's novel Sky Pirates! or the Eyes of the Schirron.
- While discussing the Vortex Wraiths, Fitz mentions the Vortisaurs. These beings were introduced in Alan Barnes' audio drama Storm Warning.
- The name "Goronos" is repeated in Stone's Bernice Summerfield audio drama Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Green-Eyed Monsters. A planet called "Goron IV" is also mentioned in Stone's Bernice Summerfield short story The Door into Bedlam.
- Anji somewhat frequently ruminates on the events of the previous novel.
- Jamon de la Rocas mentions visiting Eros. Though this is likely just a reference to the god of love, the Eighth Doctor visited a planet with that name in Trevor Baxendale's short story The Queen of Eros.
- The suave and mysterious stranger who saves Anji within the Cyberdyne might be Sabbath or could be the man with the rosette - two characters who debuted in Lawrence Miles' novel The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.
- The threat to the Vortex is mentioned again in Jonathan Morris' novel Anachrophobia and its identity is revealed in Justin Richards' novel Sometime Never...
- Vortex Wraiths are mentioned in James Goss' audio drama R&J.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Resurrection Casket | Justin Richards | 2006 | A Doctor Who novel showing a world in which the laws of reality work slightly differently. |
| The Book of the Still | Paul Ebbs | 2002 | A novel showing the Eighth Doctor travelling to various planets |
| Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus | Philip Hinchcliffe | 1980 | A Doctor Who novelization showing a voyage through various fantastical locations linked together by being within the same society |
| Sky Pirates! or the Eyes of the Schirron | Dave Stone | 1995 | A novel by the same author detailing a voyage to a somewhat fantastical System |
| Down | Lawrence Miles | 1997 | Explores similar ideas about teleporters |
| Zeta Major | Simon Messingham | 1998 | A Doctor Who novel detailing a voyage to a somewhat dystopian and extremely advanced society |
| Mason & Dixon | Thomas Pynchon | 1997 | A novel with vaguely framing device, in which a somewhat unreliable narrator with a gift for grandiose prose tells a story |
Sources[]
- TARDIS Wiki
- Goodreads