6th October 1997

Doctor Who travels to Jersey

The Doctor Who novel, Illegal Alien, published on 6 October 1997, is set in London and Jersey at the height of the Second World War. Written by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, it features the Seventh Doctor, as portrayed on television by Sylvester McCoy, and his assistant, Ace. It had originally been written as a script for broadcast as part of the TV series, but it was never made after the BBC pulled the plug on the series in 1989.

Doctor Who in the war

The story opens during the blitz, when an American private investigator in London spots a sphere crashing to Earth. Something emerges from the sphere, but he can’t make it out. We later learn that the figures that emerge are Cybermen, one of the Doctor’s many frequently returning foes.

But the Doctor learns that the Cybermen in London are far from the most serious problem, and that his focus should instead be on Jersey where a whole army of the robots is being readied for activation on behalf of the German army.

 

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Other events that occured in October

  • BBC broadcasts the first episode of Bergerac
  • The BBC’s Jersey-set police drama, Bergerac, produced in association with Australia’s Seven Network, followed Jim Bergerac of the fictional Bureau des Etrangers. With 87 episodes across nine series, including six Christmas specials, it ran until boxing day 1991.
  • Read more…