Doctor Who: A Device of Death

Doctor Who: Missing Adventures #31

by Christopher Bulis

'As a member of an inferior race, you either work to serve the cause of Averon, or die.'

Sarah is marooned on a slave world where the only escape is death. Harry is caught in the middle of an interplanetary invasion, and has to combine medicine with a desperate mission. And the Fourth Doctor lands on a world so secret it does not even have a name.

Why have the TARDIS crew been scattered across the stars? What terrible accident could have wiped the Doctor's memory? And what could interest the Time Lords in this war-torn sector of space?

At the heart of a star-spanning conspiracy lies an ancient quest: people have been making weapons since the dawn of time — but perhaps someone has finally discovered the ultimate device of death.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Doctors, Ebooks, Time Travel

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 1997

About the author

Christopher Bulis is a writer best known for his work on various Doctor Who spin-offs. He is one of the most prolific authors to write for the various ranges of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who, with twelve novels to his name, and between 1993 and 2000 he had at least one Doctor Who novel published every year.

Bulis' first published work was the New Adventure Shadowmind, published in 1993 by Virgin Publishing. This was the only novel Bulis wrote featuring the Seventh Doctor, and his next five books were all published under Virgin's Missing Adventures range: State of Change (1994), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1995), The Eye of the Giant (1996), Twilight of the Gods (1996), and A Device of Death (1997).

When Virgin lost their licence to publish novels based on Doctor Who, Bulis repeated this pattern writing novels for the BBC - with one novel written for the current incumbent Doctor as part of BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures range, and then all of his other novels published as part of the Past Doctor Adventures range. Bulis' novels for the BBC were The Ultimate Treasure (1997), Vanderdeken's Children (1998), City at World's End (1999), Imperial Moon (2000) and Palace of the Red Sun (2002).

Bulis also wrote the novel Tempest as part of Virgin's Bernice Summerfield range of novels, and also a short story for Big Finish Productions' Short Trips series.

Reviews

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Device of Death" is probably the best Christopher Bulis novel I have read. It works well conceptually, with the three lead characters separated and then brought back together consistently with the central idea. The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry get blasted off course while traveling back to Nerva Station via the time ring. They each find themselves in a different section of a long interplanetary war. However, the war is not quite the war that it is publicized as. Bulis does a good job with the companion characters, making both Sarah and Harry believable and clever. Harry gets some especially good characterization, with something to do that makes a real change. The trick at the beginning of the novel that gets our heroes thrown into their separate situations seems too contrived. There is also some timey-wimey stuff at the end that also comes off as contrived and a bit convenient. However, these are minor flaws that do not detract from the overall entertainment of the novel.

[John Barclay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I love Doctor Who, and of course this is my favourite Doctor, but more than that, this was a good read. I didn't expect all the things that happened, it was (as the best Doctor Who stories are) full of interesting ideas and a moral crisis as well as the Doctor's unique perspective and vision. What more could you ask of a book?

[Miss Zero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of my favorite Doctor Who stories. I could easily see it translating to an episode on the screen. It had a lot of 1970s vibes from that era, it was easily one of my favorite stories from the EU.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reasonable telling, let down by a story we have seen before, far too much continuity and a lot of padding.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Device of Death is a volume in Virgin Publishing's Missing Adventures series of Doctor Who original novels. This story features the Fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker, Sarah Jane Smith, and medical doctor and naval officer, Dr. Harry Sullivan. The novel opens with the Time Lords in an emergency monitoring station, monitoring a Time Quake as a result of the aired story, Genesis of the Daleks. They attempt to rescue the Doctor and his companions from the quake, but it doesn't quite go perfectly and Harry, the Doctor, and Sarah end-up in three different locations in a solar system at war. So, right from the beginning our characters are split up. This means the novel moves very fast as the reader wants to know what's happening to all three characters. The conflict also can only be resolved with information from all three locations. And in grand Doctor Who fashion both the Doctor and his companions get involved in local affairs, and become instrumental in figuring things out - especially, once they are re-united and can compare notes. The resulting secret they discover/figure out I found to be slightly predictable, and thus a tad disappointing. However, I still found "A Device of Death" to be quite the fun romp (despite the grim circumstances of the secondary/original characters) and the book was an enjoyable and quick read.

[Christian Petrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrance Dicks once said the best way to write a Doctor Who story is to get the Doctor and the companions separated at the beginning. Christopher Bulis starts the story off with this concept in a major way.

The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry start off the story in three different locations. They also have no idea on how they arrived in those locations. This helps the plot by keeping the reader in the dark on what the main issue is.

This type of plot structure not only creates the question of why the Doctor and his companions are here, it also helps the companions to be fleshed out. Sarah Jane and Harry are now separated from the Doctor, and having to figure things out without knowing if he is going to show up or not. By combining these, it makes the story more interesting.

There are some flaws with the story. I'm not sure if I'm being to nit picky or not. A couple of times I felt there were some gaps in the action and not sure if I had missed something. The other possibility is this was my second time reading it, so a first time read might not notice some issues.

The last item is this book does fit in between Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen. Even though there is tight continuity with both, this story does fit in well between them.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2308150.html[return][return]The Fourth Doctor ends up separated from Harry and Sarah as they are leaving Skaro by Time Ring, and the three are caught up on different sides of a protracted war which turns out not to be all it seems. It's a story which has been done both before and since, but it's done well enough here and Sarah gets to befriend and humanise an android without pushing my I-hate-cute-robots buttons.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

October 2023
3.5/5

My feelings on this are slightly tempered by my not being overly keen on this TARDIS team/era but I do think this is a pretty solid DW story. Interesting premise, I found the working-out of it well-paced, so even if I didn't adore it I still think it's an enjoyable read.

October 2025
It feels, in some ways, like it reminds me of other Who I like more - The Armageddon Factor, Toy Soldiers, Genesis of the Daleks with its Sarah forced into hard labour plot. But it carries it through competently, and I have always had a soft spot for Max and the way contact with Sarah teaches him rebellion.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot is forgettable, and it's an attempt to take advantage of a moment of pure fanwank & retroactive-continuity. But it's more than salvaged by a solid command of the regulars, and an atmosphere that would allow this story to easily fit in with the other stories of Tom Baker's first season as the Doctor. Better than its reputation would suggest.

[Simon Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this, as I've read many Doctor Who books, while reclining in the sun in Provence!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set between Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen, the Fourth Doctor, Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane Smith wind up in the middle of a war. Or is it?

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly predictable and a little bland. Not a bad story as it goes though.

[RC · Rating 2 out of 5]

A conspiracy theory storyline which Doctor Who is better off without.

[Luiz Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

3