Dr who BBC new series 03 winner takes all jaqueline rayner

Rose and the Doctor return to present-day Earth, and become intrigued by the latest craze – the video game Death to Mantodeans Is it as harmless as it seems? And why are so many local people going on holiday and never returning? Meanwhile, on another world, an alien war is raging The Quevvils need to find a new means of attacking the ruthless Mantodeans Searching the galaxy for cunning, warlike but gullible allies, they find the ideal soldiers – on Earth Will Rose be able to save her family and friends from the alien threat? And can the Doctor play the game to the end – and win? Featuring the Doctor and Rose as played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit series from BBC Television Winner Takes All BY JAQUELINE RAYNER Published by BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT First published 2005 Copyright c Jacqueline Rayner 2005 The moral right of the author has been asserted Doctor Who logo c BBC 2004 Original series broadcast on BBC television Format c BBC 1963 ‘Doctor Who’, ‘TARDIS’ and the Doctor Who logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review ISBN 563 48627 Commissioning Editors: Shirley Patton/Stuart Cooper Creative Director and Editor: Justin Richards Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production for BBC ONE Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young Producer: Phil Collinson This book is a work of fiction Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental Cover design by Henry Steadman c BBC 2005 Typeset in Albertina by Rocket Editorial Aylesbury, Bucks Printed and bound in Germany by GGP Media GmbH Pưßneck For more information about this and other BBC books, please visit our website at www.bbcshop.com Contents Prologue ONE TWO 11 THREE 17 FOUR 25 FIVE 33 SIX 43 SEVEN 51 EIGHT 61 NINE 71 TEN 79 ELEVEN 87 TWELVE 95 THIRTEEN 103 FOURTEEN 113 FIFTEEN 121 SIXTEEN 129 SEVENTEEN 139 EIGHTEEN 147 NINETEEN 155 TWENTY 165 TWENTY-ONE 171 Acknowledgements 181 About the author 183 ‘I thought I’d better call home,’ said Rose, wandering into the TARDIS’s huge, vaulted control room and waving her phone at the Doctor The Doctor had his arms crossed and was leaning with his back against a wall, staring across at the large, circular structure that sat in the centre of the room, on which a myriad of lights flickered and sparkled His face shone green in the glow from a tall, thin column in the centre of the structure which indicated that they were in flight Rose didn’t know where they were going, but perhaps the Doctor could tell from observing these things exactly where in the universe the time-and-space machine was taking them He nodded at her She felt slightly cheated, having geared herself up for – well, not an argument, just that flicker of displeasure that occasionally crossed his face when she mentioned family She pushed a bit further ‘It’s just that my mum’ll worry You know that my mum’ll worry And I did promise Sort of.’ He nodded again ‘And you think she’ll worry less if you tell her you’ve been out facing aliens but at the moment you’re just spinning through the space-time vortex.’ Rose frowned ‘She’ll worry less if she thinks I’m not dead!’ The Doctor – her best friend, the Doctor, who outwardly seemed to be a striking, forty-ish human with a soft northern accent, but was, she knew, actually a 900-year-old alien from some galaxy far, far away –could be a bit dismissive of her mum’s worries sometimes She wasn’t sure if it was something to with not being human, or just something to with being the Doctor She didn’t even know if he’d ever had a mum of his own If you didn’t understand mums in general, there was no way you’d get Jackie Tyler ‘I’ll just give her a quick call Well, I say quick, she’ll keep me on for hours, wanting to know everything – she can talk for England, my mum can Hope you weren’t planning to stop off at any planets this morning.’ He grinned ‘My planet-hopping can wait till this afternoon.’ She smiled back, and pressed the speed-dial button that called her mum She just had to accept that, through the Doctor’s genius, her ordinary mobile could now transcend space and time; if she thought about it too much her mind began to feel like it was overheating The phone rang six times before it was picked up, which surprised Rose Her mum loved nothing better than a good old natter, and the phone was usually snatched up when it had barely got out its first brring ‘Hiya, Mum.’ she said The voice at the other end was exuberant ‘Rose! What are you doing? Where are you?’ Then a slight pause ‘Are you still with him?’ Rose smiled ‘I’m just hanging around in the time machine And yeah, I’m still with him.’ The Doctor looked up at this and did a sarky wave that she knew was directed at Jackie Rose waved back happily ‘Mum says hi,’ she said, with her hand over the phone ‘And are you planning on coming home any time soon?’ Jackie was saying ‘Everyone misses you Mickey misses you I miss you You know, one of these days you’ll decide to come home and it’ll be too late, I won’t be here any more.’ Rose sighed ‘Don’t be silly, Mum I’ll pop back for a visit soon Make sure the family silver gets a good polish ready.’ ‘Family silver!’ Rose could hear Jackie’s voice go up a notch ‘It might please you to joke, my girl, but I’ll have you know that I’ve just won the lottery.’ ‘You what?’ Rose said ‘That’s incredible! I don’t believe it! How much?’ There was a sound, somewhere outside Jackie’s end of the phone call A shout, or a cry, or something ‘Listen love, I’ve got to go now Lovely to hear from you Gotta go.’ There was a click, and the phone was silent Rose looked down at it in surprise Then, shaking her head, she slipped the phone back in her pocket ‘Talk for England, you said,’ the Doctor commented, strolling over to the central controls ‘Can’t get her off the phone.’ ‘My mum’s won the lottery!’ Rose started pacing around the control room, her eyes shining ‘How brilliant is that? We’ll be able to get a great big house –’ The Doctor raised an eyebrow, gesturing at the enormous room in which they stood ‘– go on holiday – the Caribbean or somewhere – or Florida!’ The Doctor stared at her ‘I can take you anywhere in time and space!’ She wasn’t listening ‘I’ve always wanted to go to Disneyland.’ ‘Yeah, brilliant, grown men dressed up as mice and kids being sick on roller coasters I can take you to planets where there are real talking mice And ducks!’ She shrugged ‘But you haven’t, though, have you? And you wouldn’t take my mum, anyway.’ He grinned ‘Well, maybe not Don’t wanna scare the mice.’ He carried on before Rose could respond ‘She all happy then, is she? Too busy spending to talk to you?’ Rose grimaced ‘Yeah, that was weird.’ She paused for a second, and then gave him what she hoped was a winning smile ‘Don’t s’pose we could pop home for a bit, could we? Just to check on her.’ ‘D’you think something’s up?’ he asked ‘No, not really But she did say something about not being there when I get back,’ Rose said ‘Don’t want to turn up one day and find she’s gone off to some country mansion and chucked out all my stuff.’ ‘A couple of old posters and a teddy bear? Yeah, that’d be a tragedy.’ Rose gave him a mock glare ‘I’m nineteen years old, I think I have grown out of teddy bears, and I have a few more possessions than that Some of which have sentimental value, I’ll have you know So could we go home please? Just for a flying visit, I promise.’ ‘Yeah, all right.’ He nodded, and started setting a course ‘I don’t know, humans, always come with so much baggage ’ ‘Yeah, it’s a crime, isn’t it?’ she agreed And then, after a moment ‘You don’t really think she’d chuck out Mr Tedopoulos, you?’ The Doctor just grinned TheTARDISlandedinacourtyardonthePowellEstate Rosepopped her head out of the doorway, saw the Chinese takeaway in front of her, the library and youth club over to one side, and realised that the time machine had come back to its favourite spot; it’d landed here before She stepped out of the spaceship On the outside it looked like a tall blue box, an old-fashioned police box – big enough in its way, big enough to fit in five or six people, if they were prepared to be quite friendly, but not big enough to fit in an enormous control room and all the other bits that formed the inside of the TARDIS She’d come to accept it – funny how quickly you got used to even the most incredible things – but it was something else that her mind didn’t really like to dwell on, not the ins and outs and hows and whys of it all There to her right was Bucknall House, and there, if she squinted upwards, was number 48 Home Or was it? She turned back to the blue box Well, no one said you couldn’t have more than one home Rose had still got a key, but as the two of them climbed up the concrete steps towards the flat she wondered if she should really use it Key out of her pocket, look at it, put it back in, take it out again, look at it It wasn’t as if her mum was expecting her, and she didn’t want to catch her out If Jackie had won the lottery the champagne would have been flowing a bit, and goodness knows what state the flat – and Jackie – would be in by now She hesitated for a moment on the walkway outside the front door, key in her hand Then she knocked on the door After a moment it opened on the chain, which Rose thought a bit odd, but forgot it almost at once when she saw her mum, petite and blonde just like Rose herself, peering through the gap The chain came off immediately, and the door had barely swung open when Jackie had her arms round Rose ‘You’re here! You’re here!’ Rose grinned as she hugged her mum back ‘Yeah, looks like it.’ Jackie looked at her accusingly as she carne out of the embrace ‘But don’t tell me, you’re not stopping.’ ‘Oh, we’ll hang around for the party,’ Rose said ‘The party? I’m expected to throw a party every time you turn up on the doorstep?’ ‘No, Mum,’ said Rose, following her into the flat, ‘the party cos you’ve won the lottery.’ Jackie gave a snort of laughter, turning to look back at the doorway ‘That? I just won some games thing You know, on the scratchcards Gave it to Mickey.’ She peered over Rose’s shoulder ‘Come on, where’s his nibs then? Doesn’t he want a cup of tea?’ The Doctor appeared in the doorway, grinning ‘Just waiting to be asked in.’ ‘He needs to be asked in,’ Rose said to her mum ‘Like a vampire does.’ Jackie looked as if she believed it, as if she thought the Doctor might turn into a bat any minute ‘Not really,’ Rose added ‘Shall we have that cup of tea, then?’ ‘So, what’s this scratchcard thing?’ Rose asked after a bit, when they were settled comfortably on the white leather chairs in the lounge, and on to their second cup each Jackie leaned over to grab hold of her bag She put in a hand and pulled out a sheaf of bits of orange cardboard Rose took a couple They all had a picture of a cartoon animal on them, with a giant speech bubble coming out of its mouth The speech bubble had bits of silvery stuff on it, with ‘Sorry, you’ve not won this time! Please try again!’ showing through on the card underneath, where the silver had been scratched off ‘What’s that, a hedgehog?’ said Rose, indicating the cartoon animal ‘Percy the Porcupine,’ said Jackie ‘It’s this character they’re using Test promotion in this area Every time you buy something down the town, you get one of these cards Then you go to a little booth where there’s some poor out-of-work student dressed as a porcupine, and they give you your prize Daft thing is, they didn’t even think to limit the number of cards you can get! If you get all your shopping a bit at a time, you can get dozens of the things I got eight by breaking up a bag of carrots the other day.’ ... by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit series from BBC Television Winner Takes All BY JAQUELINE RAYNER Published by BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12... Jacqueline Rayner 2005 The moral right of the author has been asserted Doctor Who logo c BBC 2004 Original series broadcast on BBC television Format c BBC 1963 ‘Doctor Who? ??, ‘TARDIS’ and the Doctor Who. .. a costume after all So when the porcupine pointed a gun at him, he really wasn’t surprised at all 23 R obert had always suspected that his mum wasn’t his real mum And he knew, knew with a passionate