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"Find the Locus" 
     It is twenty years since The Great Intelligence last attempted an invasion of Earth, today its evil web is again reaching out towards us!  Using The New World University as its cover and the zombie-like Chilly students as its pawns, the Intelligence now seeks to control the minds of every human being.
    Tangled in this new struggle are its old enemies Victoria Waterfield and Professor Travers - but whose side are they on?  Fighting alone this time, without their famous scientific advisor, The Brigadier and Sarah Jane Smith of UNIT are hard pressed to decide who is friend or foe as they search for the missing Locus which still binds the Intelligence's power. Battle is joined as the Brigadier's own family is threatened and UNIT faces a monstrous new breed of Yeti!

    Victoria Waterfield searches for clues that her father might still be alive, while the Brigadier has family problems of his own. But the Great Intelligence is preparing to invade Earth again and this time the Doctor's not there to stop it.

This is a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, but also follows up Evil of the Daleks and Fury from the Deep.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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About the author

Marc Platt

109 books48 followers
Marc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC. He wrote the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light based on two proposals, one of which later became the novel Lungbarrow. That novel was greatly anticipated by fans as it was the culmination of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", revealing details of the Doctor's background and family.

After the original series' cancellation Platt wrote the script for the audio Doctor Who drama Spare Parts. The script was the inspiration for the 2006 Doctor Who television story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", for which Platt received a screen credit and a fee.

He lives in London.

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Daniel Kukwa.
4,894 reviews132 followers
August 18, 2020
I'm afraid I never drank the kool-aid regarding "Downtime". It was an ambitious attempt at making a "Doctor Who" sequel/spin-off during the wilderness years of the 1990s, and they managed to wrangle quite a few luminaries from the series to participate in this project. But it's just not a story that clicks with me in any way, and I can't say making Victoria Waterfield (one of the Whoniverse's most famous screaming peril monkey companions) the centre of the tale endeared it to me in any way. It's written with all the skill Marc Platt possesses, but in the end the only good thing that comes out of this for me is the Brigadier's daughter Kate...a character the 21st century version of "Doctor Who" grabs and runs with brilliantly.
Profile Image for Matthew Kresal.
Author 36 books51 followers
June 30, 2026
Revised June 30, 2026

Downtime is a curious beast, born in a curious time. A moment when Doctor Who was no longer an ongoing TV series, when the series only outlets seemed to be on the printed page (either in prose or comic form), and maverick groups of young fans turned filmmakers carried the torch of the series legacy in (sometimes) licensed but Doctor-less works. Downtime was an example of the latter but also the second when Virgin released an expanded novelization of it as part of their Missing Adventures range. Something which makes it all the more of a curious read more than thirty years later.

Marc Platt wrote the script for the original video (which ran a little over an hour) and was afforded the chance to expand that script into a wider novel. In some ways, it was something that should have worked in the book’s favor given the limitations on the original video in terms of characters and licensing. The video version, after all, couldn’t mention the Doctor or feature K-9 alongside Sarah Jane Smith. Platt, thanks to the license that Virgin held, had no such limitations.

Something which worked in Downtime the book’s favor. Platt was able to essentially create an expanded novelization that could feature the Doctor (even including an epilogue of sorts to the then missing Web of Fear) and K-9 in limited capacities. There’s appearances from a wider cast of UNIT characters from the latter part of Classic Who that fits this a bit more firmly into the series timeline. Indeed, looking at how the novel plays out, it’s fun with hindsight to tie these events into those from the much later Bells of St. John given the overlap in plot elements.

It also has the benefit of freeing Platt’s narrative from budget concerns. The final third or so of the novel, set around a battle between UNIT troops and Yeti at New World University, is more than a handful of troops and three Yeti that it was on-screen. There’s helicopters and modern weapons, literal armies fighting it out. There’s also something of a wider scope to the technology breakdown hinted at in the video, from traffic disruption and malfunctioning weapons to the CIA’s secrets broadcast on the Kremlin’s TVs. Though exactly when that breakdown starts happening still isn’t clear. Even so, alongside those tie ins to wider elements of Classic Who, it’s something that makes this worth a read and something of an improvement on the video.

An improvement but still suffering from many of the same flaws. The pacing is all over the place, with a prologue and forty plus page opening chapter getting this off to a slow start. Enough so, in fact, that the start of the video doesn’t appear until around page 42 or so. That’s a wider problem with the first half of the novel which, while having some fun scenes (including one involving Sarah at a press event involving a baby Yeti born in captivity and Margaret Thatcher), doesn’t add much to either the character or plot. The plot is unfocused with three main characters all returning from Classic Who, one of whom isn’t fleshed out terribly well (Victoria), and another (Sarah) whose role fills like it could have been done by any former companion left on late 20th century Earth but just happened to be her because of rights and Elisabeth Sladen being available for the original video. The Brigadier comes across the best of the major returning characters, though the connection to get involved with New World through both his daughter and a former student feels convoluted. That’s without getting into various characters selective amnesia, plot holes you could run a Yeti through, or the astral plane shenanigans that are a little too convenient to the plot.

Reading the novelization sixteen years ago, I described Downtime as “a good book but one that perhaps could have been better.” Re-reading it, that stance still stands. Aspects of Platt’s expansion work well but, unfortunately, the usual intricate plotting and rich characters are lacking here. How much of that is down to the limits of the original source video script or perhaps Platt having to meet a deadline isn’t clear. What is clear is that, even with the tie-ins to wider Classic Who and free from budget restrictions, Downtime never quite lived up to its promise.
Profile Image for Sean Homrig.
88 reviews2 followers
September 24, 2013
"Downtime" is not only a novelization of the independent fan film of the same name, but Marc Platt's love letter to the Second and Third Doctors' era of the show. It's his best writing I've read (yes, even better than "Lungbarrow"), but the story languishes about halfway through. Try not to synchronize the book with its two televised prequels and you may overlook some of the plot holes. Standing alone, it's doesn't pass muster, and should be read only as a companion piece to the television show, so it's recommended for fans of the show's era only.
Profile Image for Saoki.
361 reviews1 follower
November 9, 2019
This is a very uneven book, possibly because it's a novelization. There is a distinct difference in tone between the classic UNIT-era story and the fragmented, too-intimate way it is told. Do I really need to know about a secondary character's childhood trauma in order to appreciate her actions in a fighting scene? I don't think so, but the author seemed to believe it was necessary.
There is nothing specially wrong with the story, but it also doesn't gets high marks for originality. It probably flowed better as a film.
Profile Image for Luke Bannon.
9 reviews
March 16, 2020
Novelisation of the fan film that does a good job of fleshing out the characters and filling in details. Not sure how much people who haven't seen the film would get out of it.
Profile Image for Joe Ford.
57 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2024
A readable adaptation, but why is Victoria such an old sourpuss.
Profile Image for Jacqueline.
504 reviews20 followers
August 12, 2014
Downtime is a bit unusual even for the Doctor Who Missing Adventure series. The Doctor isn't actually in the book as a character, and he's not even really mentioned directly. The story is a sequel to two Patrick Troughton stories, The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear and features Victoria, The Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith, and the Brigadier's estranged daughter - Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. It begins in the 1960s, with Victoria trying to adjust to a new century, and the Brigadier being approached with a new idea, a UN-led force to counter alien activity and invasion (UNIT). Victoria's landlady suggests she take a vacation, and she does - to Tibet. Victoria had been having dreams about her father. In Tibet she visits a old Buddhist monastery but instead of finding her father, she's taken over by one of the Great Intelligence control units.

Next we know it's the 1990s and Victoria is the headmistresses of a new university, called New World University. New World teaches it's students by computer, and the students come to be known as Chilly's in the popular press. Sarah becomes involved because she's hired to find out information about a number of people who were directly involved or witnessed The London Event (see The Web of Fear). Sarah, however, doubts the PR man who's second only to Victoria in the hierarchy of the school. She also gets suspicious when the Brigadier's name shows up on the list of people she's to investigate.

The Brigadier, meanwhile, is still teaching at Brendon Boys Prep School, though he's due to retire at the end of the next term. He's also having strange symptoms and dreams as Victoria did.

Kate is living on a houseboat and being watched and harrassed by the Chilly's. She later meets Sarah Jane and is also reunited with her father, The Brigadier.

The book, Downtime is actually a novelization of an "independent drama presentation" - a play or video (there's a coupon to order the video in the back of the book). There's also a series of black and white still photographs glued in the center of the book. They are quite nice. The forward briefly describes the "dramatic" presentation and cast: Deborah Watling (Victoria), Jack Watling (Prof. Travers), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart), John Leeson (K-9, & also the New World DJ), Geoffrey Beevers (Harrods), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith). The forward actually bemoans, "With, at this time, no certainty Doctor Who will reappear on our television screens..." which is ironic, as here I sit in 2014, and Doctor Who is more popular than ever - and globally so. But that was written in 1995 before the 8th Doctor FOX/BBC TV movie, before the BBC Past Doctor Adventures and Eighth Doctor Adventures original novel series, and even before Big Finish started their regular monthly Doctor Who audio productions.

I enjoyed reading this, some of the in-jokes were marvelous (at one point the Brigadier tries tells Sarah to give a message to UNIT - "Codes NN and QQ" -- the story codes for The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. There were other moments that make a knowing fan smile. Overall, the story moved very fast, though parts of it was a bit confusing (I think having not seen the lost story The Abominable Snowmen caused some comprehension problems; though having recently seen The Web of Fear definitely helped. Recommended, especially for Doctor Who fans.
Profile Image for Glenn.
129 reviews1 follower
May 13, 2014
This story started as a low budget fan made film by the U.K. based independent production company Reeltime Pictures. It featured several characters from the Doctor Who series, used with permission from the BBC with the exception of the Doctor himself. The story serves as an unofficial sequel to the Second Doctor stories The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear.

The direct-to-video film is an interesting effort. The story is clever, but feels really disjointed, and much of the plot has some very loose threads.

Marc Platt's novelization, which he adapted from his own screenplay, does a much better job of telling the overall story.

It centers around the Doctor's companion Victoria Waterfield and her involvement with the Doctor's nemesis, known as The Great Intelligence. Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart also returns to play a significant role as the hero of the story.

Other classic characters include former companion Sarah Jane Smith, Professor Edward Travers, and a new character that would later to appear in two future Doctor Who stories, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

The book continues the story set up in both TAS and TWoF, with The Intelligence once again trying to pass from the astral plane and take over the Earth.

I love a lot of the callbacks to the story's predecessors, including the use of the Yeti and the menacing webbing The Intelligence uses to subdue and overtake its victims. The Tibetan monastery, Det-sen, is also used as a brief backdrop.

Much of the novel is set at the New World University, where the Intelligence is using Victoria to set up a computer network to aid in its plan for global domination.

Platt proves to be a great storyteller and and is steeped in the knowledge of Doctor Who and its characters. He brings the best and worst out of each and every one.

Overall, it is a good story, that hints at the origins of some of the already established staples of DW, including the set-up of the well known military organization, UNIT.

I liked this book very much and my fascination for the film made it much more enjoyable because it expands the story and gives it some depth that could not be captured 70 minutes on the small screen.
Profile Image for Laura.
697 reviews1 follower
September 13, 2025
January 2022
4.5/5

I like Downtime the film version but I really loved the added stuff in this novelisation! Victoria's one of my favourite companions so that undoubtedly coloured my reception of the story, it was really nice that we got a bit more closure than she does in the original, and it's obvious that Platt cares about her character a lot (and all the characters, for that matter - Sarah and the Brig were both welcome presences, and I was happy to see Bambera pop up too). A small quibble - what exactly did Charles die young and suddenly from? I got enough of an undercurrent from his relationship with the Tibetan guide to wonder if he was maybe gay and died of AIDS (it is the right era for it, after all) but if that's the case, why be so circumspect about it? Hell, why be so circumspect about what he died from in any circumstances? This is probably bothering me way more than it should - for the most part I really enjoyed this and what it added to the version I'd already watched.

July 2025
While not without its faults (the Charles thing does still bother me because it's so vague as to be distracting) I really love so much of what's on the page here, especially in its character studies Victoria (the woman out of time grieving her father) and the Brigadier (the man so aware of the ways he failed his daughter). And Margaret Thatcher gets bitten by a baby yeti, which really adds to the whole thing.
Profile Image for Nicholas Whyte.
5,543 reviews213 followers
Read
December 23, 2009
"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1265647.html[return][return]Some time ago I watched the Doctor Who spinoff video Downtime, written by Marc Platt and directed by Christopher Barry, which unites the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith, Victoria Waterfield and the Yeti. Platt's extended novelisation, published as one of the Virgin Missing Adventures, is much better, with lots more background of Victoria's life after leaving the Tardis and of the Brigadier's later experiences; it also includes K9 and a young Captain Bambera. It even has some photos taken from the video, so you can pretend it was better than it was. And of course, being on paper rather than on screen, the effects can be as good as Marc Platt's words make them, and Peter Silverleaf's dismally poor acting is no longer a problem.[return][return]It's still a somewhat confusing story, but it is well enough told, and apart from the many moments of continuity joy it also has interesting seeds of the later Sarah Jane audio and TV stories. So I think I can generally recommend it to Who fans. I was able to get it for
Profile Image for John Parungao.
405 reviews1 follower
November 30, 2012
A very good story which would have made a decent episode in the world of modern Doctor Who. It makes a good effort of telling an adventure which could have occurred while The Doctor was away fron Earth. There are similarities to some of the more recent TV episodes. Students slaved to computers for learning purposes(it reminded me of a scene from the TV episode "School Reunion". The students are also controled through headphones(not quite the same as the earpods from "Rise of the Cybermen", but close enough. The novel also takes advantage of a longer narative to show events developing over a long period of time. Would love to have seen the original video of this story, but enjoyed the novel for including some scenes featuring other versions of the Doctor. A must read for Doctor Who fans!
Profile Image for Christian Petrie.
253 reviews3 followers
February 9, 2019
So can it be called a Doctor Who book if the Doctor is not in it? This could be one of the odd entries in reading the Doctor Who books. I opted to read this after Victoria's departure in Fury from the Deep, but before UNIT is introduced and Sarah Jane makes an appearance. If you are reading the Doctor Who books, it is a judgement call on the order to read this.

This starts of as a Victoria story, but then adds in a Brigadier story. When you start reading you sort of figure out what is going on, but it becomes a how to resolve it more.

The story was not bad, but not good. It gives some interesting concepts withe the companions and how things went for them after their last visit with the Doctor.

It is an okay read, but not the strongest, again more for Doctor Who fans.
Profile Image for Pers.
1,766 reviews
June 25, 2022
Downtime was every bit as good as I remember - hooray for the old gang of The Brig and Sarah Jane, and for his daughter, and Captain Bamberra (who ended up a Brigadier herself in 'Battlefield').
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews