The Bodysnatchers

Book Details

57.1% complete

Author(s):

Mark Morris

First Pub:

1997

Genre(s):

Science Fiction; Television Tie-In

First Read:

1997

Times Read:

1 time

Rating:

Internal ID:

383

Series:

<- Vampire Science - Genocide ->

Doctor Who - 8th Doctor*

#3 of 73

Doctor Who - 8th Doctor*

A series of books featuring the 8th Doctor from the once popular British television show Doctor Who.

View this series in the book list

1) The Eight Doctors
2) Vampire Science
3) The Bodysnatchers
4) Genocide
5) War of the Daleks
6) Alien Bodies
7) Kursaal
8) Option Lock
9) Longest Day
10) Legacy of the Daleks
11) Dreamstone Moon
12) Seeing I
13) Placebo Effect
14) Vanderdeken's Children
15) The Scarlet Empress
16) The Janus Conjunction
17) Beltempest
18) The Face-Eater
19) The Taint
20) Demontage
21) Revolution Man
22) Dominion
23) Unnatural History
24) Autumn Mist
25) Interference Book One: Shock Tactic
26) Interference Book Two: The Hour of the Geek
27) The Blue Angel
28) Taking of Planet 5
29) Frontier Worlds
30) Parallel 59
31) Shadows of Avalon
32) The Fall of Yquatine
33) Coldheart
34) The Space Age
35) The Banquo Legacy
36) The Ancestor Cell
37) The Burning
38) Casualties of War
39) The Turing Test
40) Endgame
41) Father Time
42) Escape Velocity
43) Earthworld
44) Vanishing Point
45) Eater of Wasps
46) The Year of Intelligent Tigers
47) The Slow Empire
48) Dark Progeny
49) City of the Dead
50) Grimm Reality
51) The Adventuress of Henrietta Street
52) Mad Dogs and Englishmen
53) Hope
54) Anachrophobia
55) Trading Futures
56) The Book of the Still
57) The Crooked World
58) History 101
59) Camera Obscura
60) Time Zero
61) The Infinity Race
62) The Domino Effect
63) Reckless Engineering
64) The Last Resort
65) Timeless
66) Emotional Chemistry
67) Sometime Never...
68) Halflife
69) The Tomorrow Windows
70) The Sleep of Reason
71) The Deadstone Memorial
72) To the Slaughter
73) The Gallifrey Chronicles

Copyright:

First Sentence:

By rights the man in the corner of the room should not have been there at all.

Last Sentence:

None on file

Comments:

Comments may contain spoilers

This story features the alien race the Zygons and a fitting title since they can replicate human appearances. Since the Doctor Who television serial entitled Terror of the Zygons was the first Doctor episode I ever saw, I was eager to read this book. I was looking forward to seeing how the history of this book was worked into the episode (since this book takes place much earlier than the television episode did). I was disappointed. Nothing was explained and the Doctor was very much out of character. I know many will say that "he is alien" and that we cannot truly say what his character is, but this was not the Doctor.

I read this book in my living room over four nights in 1998. I was staying up with my wife until 11:00 PM waiting for the home health care nurse to arrive. Jolynne would go to sleep between 8:30 or 9:00 PM so I had little to do other than make sure that she was comfortable. I would read while I watched her. This book disappointed me extremely due to the apparent remorselessness of the Doctor at having killed so many beings.

Synopsis (may contain spoilers)

This is the 3rd novel published by the BBC to feature the 8th Doctor. His companion is Samantha "Sam" Jones.

The Zygons and a fitting title. Since Terror of the Zygons was the first Doctor episode I ever saw, I was eager to read this book. I was looking forward to seeing how the history of this book was worked into the episode (since this book takes place much earlier than the television episode did). I was disappointed. Nothing was explained and the Doctor was very much out of character. I know many will say that "he is alien" and that we cannot truly say what his character is, but this was not the Doctor. I choose to ignore this book in any Doctor Who continuity.

Extract (may contain spoilers)

Hands grabbed he Doctor and dragged him up through the water. Breaking the surface was like another explosion, light and sound assaulting his senses. The Doctor gulped air, then began to choke, water streaming from his nose and mouth. He could survive without air for longer than any human being, but it really did feel like he had been down there for hours.
He was hauled on to a stone banking and lowered gently to the ground. He lay for a moment, gasping, letting the water run off him. Already he could feel strength seeping back into his limbs. He pushed himself up on trembling arms and looked around. The first thing he saw was Sam's smiling face, her wet hair standing up in spikes. There were tears, or water, in her eyes. 'What kept you?' she asked.

Dramatis Personae

Character

Affiliation

Doctor 8

Doctor

Samantha Jones

Companion

Added: 02-Feb-2003

Last Updated: 27-Apr-2020

Publications

18-Aug-1997

BBC Books

Date Issued:

18-Aug-1997

Pages*:

280

Read:

Once

Cover Link(s):

World Cat

amazon.com

Internal ID:

249

Publisher:

BBC Books

ISBN:

0-563-40568-6

ISBN-13:

978-0-563-40568-9

Printing:

Country:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

It is London, 1894. Amid the fog, cold and degradation, a gruesome business is being conducted. The bodies of the dead are being stolen from their graves - men, women and children alike - for the sinister purpose of a very mysterious gentleman.

When the Doctor and Sam arrive, they are witness to a horrifying scene in the evil-smelling fog: something rises up from the filthy waters of the Thames and devours a man - a man terrified for his life and on the run from the devil himself...

Teaming up with an old friend, pathologist Professor George Litefoot, the Doctor is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Together with Sam, they discover there is a far graver threat facing London than just earthly grave robbers. Deadly alien beings the Doctor has encountered before are at work, and they bring a whole new twist to the word 'bodysnatchers'…

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