The Last Dodo

Doctor Who book
The Last Dodo
Series	New Series Adventures
Release number	14
Featuring	Tenth Doctor Martha Jones
Writer	Jacqueline Rayner
Publisher	BBC Books
ISBN	ISBN 1-84607-224-3
Set between	"Evolution of the Daleks" and "Utopia"
Release date	April 19, 2007
Preceded by	Sting of the Zygons
Followed by	Wooden Heart

Not to be confused with "The Last Dodo" character in the Warner Brothers cartoon Porky in Wackyland, or the musical play by Peter Dizozza

The Last Dodo is a BBC Books original novel written by Jacqueline Rayner and based on the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. It was published on 19 April 2007, after the television debut of companion Martha Jones, alongside Sting of the Zygons, and Wooden Heart.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Martha Jones go searching for the last dodo. They end up in a museum featuing the last examples of extinct species, all in suspended animation. Many of the exhibits are going missing. The Doctor himself is in danger because he is the last of his race.

Continuity

• The novel takes place in the year 2062.
• Martha's I-Spyder e-book mentions the Sea Devils.
• Exhibits at the Museum of the Last Ones include: Mondas (The Tenth Planet), Refusis II (The Ark), Varos (Vengeance on Varos), Raxacoricofallapatorius ("World War Three"), and Tara (The Androids of Tara).
• Martha mentions having previously seen dinosaurs on her travels. This occurred during the Tenth Doctor New Series Adventures novel Made of Steel.
• The museum is never updated with the last of the Daleks because they "wink out of existence in the far distant past, then suddenly emerge again as if from nowhere." This references their apparent extinction in the Time War (last of their kind seen in "Dalek"), followed by their sudden re-emergence in "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways" and subsequent extinction again, then their appearance from The Void in "Army of Ghosts", before an Emergency Temportal Shift to 1930 New York ("Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks") followed by the last Dalek in existence escaping.
• The Doctor names the dodo "Dorothea". Dorothea was the real name of former companion Dodo Chaplet.
• When "imprisoned" in stasis, the Doctor's feelings are described in a cryptic flashback to his time exiled on Earth during his third incarnation.
• Martha remarks on the Doctor continuously taking her out for chips though she is not that fond of them referencing Rose Tyler's liking for chips.

Outside references

• Martha's I-Spyder book bears many similarities to the I-Spy line of books.
• The Doctor and Martha reference the good things that come in fours, including: the Fab Four (The Beatles, who had been enjoyed by the First Doctor and friends in The Chase), four seasons pizza, the Four Yorkshiremen sketch (At Last the 1948 Show), The Four Just Men, The Four Tops, the Fantastic Four, Radio 4 and the Four Tenors (until Martha reminds him that there are only three of them – and he claims he had had to turn them down).

Publication notes

• The novel was originally announced for September 2006 as The Last Museum, before being replaced with The Price of Paradise. This happened because the writer had not finished writing the book.^{[citation needed]}
• The book was originally going to feature Rose.^{[citation needed]}

Audiobook

An abridged audio book was released in July 2007 by BBC Audiobooks and read by Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones in the television series).

See also

• New Series Adventures Canonicity
• Whoniverse

External links

• The Last Dodo publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Last Dodo at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Last Dodo at The TARDIS Library
• The Cloister Library - The Last Dodo

(The Last Dodo is also a musical script by Peter Dizozza. http://www.cinemavii.com/projects/thelastdodo.htm)