The Scream of the Shalka

Paul Cornell

2004

Back in a brand new incarnation, the Doctor arrives in the Lancashire town of Lannett only to find it gripped by a strange terror. Only a single pub is open and that virtually deserted, with those who had dared brave the streets refusing to answer the Doctor's queries as to what ailed the town.

Only Alison, one of the barmaids, was brave enough to be able to sort of explain what is going on. While at her home, the Doctor gets a first hand demonstration of what has been terrifying the inhabitants of Lannett. As the Doctor lead Alison and her boyfriend on a wild chase through Lannett's streets, they find themselves pursued by a green coloured silicon based creature that resembled nothing more than a snake.

With the trio cornered in a local garden centre, the Doctor uncovers a sudden interest in the fertilizer department. Just before the creature unleashed a devastating sonic barrage, the Doctor got to demonstrate his knowledge of explosives! The resulting explosion appears to free Lannett from the underground terror but the Doctor finds his victory is short-lived when he returns to the pub to find the TARDIS gone, all that marked the spot where it had once stood a circular plug of fused earth.

Forced to co-operate with the army squad sent in to help evacuate the town, the Doctor has to find a way of recovering the TARDIS and of overcoming the threat of the Shalka as they attempt to remake Earth's ecosystem to their own requirements!

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The Scream of the Shalka is the novellisation of the first adventure of the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Unusually for such a story, we don't actually see the regeneration itself; this Doctor has been places, done things and is at ease with what he has become. At some point in his travels he has lost a Companion in such a fashion that he fears getting close to another and this becomes clear in his attitude towards Alison. As a sort of check to his tendency to get involved, the Doctor does have a companion of sorts, but this is the late Master uploaded in to an android body and present to act as a check on such involvements.

This story was originally broadcast as a web animation on the BBCi Doctor Who web site.

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