December 02, 2020
Out next week is the second novel of the multi-platform story Time Lord Victorious All Flesh is Grass by Una McCormack, published by BBC Books.
With three Doctors, three armies and a brand new sonic screwdriver, the Dark Times won’t be ready for what happens next…
You can pre-order All Flesh is Grass now ahead of its release next week.
Even a Time Lord can’t change the past.
A wasteland. A dead world… No, there is a biodome rising from the ashes. Here, life teems and flourishes, with strange, lush plants and many-winged insects with bright carapaces – and one solitary sentient creature, who spends its days talking to the insects and tending this lonely garden. This is Inyit, the Last of the Kotturuh.
You can read an extract of the novel, featuring the Tenth Doctor and Brian the Ood, below:
The Tenth Doctor lay groaning on what had once been a wall of his ship. A few minutes ago, he’d had a battlefleet he hadn’t wanted and the moral high ground. Now he had one broken ship and one Brian.
‘Where’s the crew?’ he asked. ‘They’re all right? They’ve not deserted too?’
‘Oh no,’ Brian seemed mildly surprised. ‘They’re putting out fires.’
‘Well,’ the Doctor leaned against a console and tried to make it casual rather than a vital support while he eased the pressure on his cracked ribs. ‘Good.’
‘Ye-es,’ Brian paused. ‘Mr Ball points out that they’ve worked out that, with the rest of the fleet destroyed or deserted, the fee split will make each of them fabulously wealthy.’
‘Oh,’ the Doctor said. ‘That kind of loyalty.’ Something was jabbing in his ribs. The Doctor fished around in his robes and pulled it out. It was the ruins of his sonic screwdriver. Even that had left him.
‘Of course, it is a moot point as, without an engine, you will soon have to surrender.’
‘Surrender, prudent surrender.’ The Doctor considered, then slipped the heavy collar from his shoulders and dropped it to the floor. ‘At least I can breathe again. Wearing that thing is like carrying history on your shoulders.’
Brian looked down at the collar.
‘So ...’ The Tenth Doctor stood on his tiptoes and stretched out his jaw. ‘That’s the end of the Time Lord Victorious. He took on death and lost.’
‘Everyone does,’ Brian smiled. ‘It’s why assassins see themselves as being on the winning side. By the way, Mr Ball ventures you have one weapon remaining.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘The Kotturuh Death Generator...’ He slumped for a moment longer, then sprung forward, a new man, throwing off the last of his cloak. ‘I may as well get some use out of it, eh...’
‘Correct.’
The Doctor threw himself to the floor, and started tearing strips from the embroidered Time Lordcollar, pulling the filigree wire tracing out of it, and jabbing it into the ruins of his sonic screwdriver. ‘First I’m going to patch this up,’ he said, rewiring the circuits. Then he wrapped a couple of the metallic strips around the body of the screwdriver and held it aloft, looking at the overlapping bronze patterns of cogs. ‘Bit of a botched job, but it has a certain hipster charm.’
‘Mr Ball is curious... What is your plan, Doctor?’ Brian asked.
‘No engines, but a generator.’ The Tenth Doctor smiled for the first time in hours. ‘We’re going to live to fight another day.’
You can pre-order All Flesh is Grass now ahead of its release next week.
