''Reckless Engineering'' is a

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasti ...

original novel written by

Nick Walters Nick Walters is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', as well as cowriting one featuring Bernice Summerfield. Work Virgin New Adventures *''Dry Pilgrimage'' (With ...

and based on the long-running British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

''. It features the

Eighth Doctor The Eighth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Paul McGann. The character was introduced in the 1996 TV film ''Doctor Who'', a back-door pilo ...

Fitz Fitz (pronounced "fits") was a patronymic indicator used in Anglo-Norman England to help distinguish individuals by identifying their immediate predecessors. Meaning "son of", it would precede the father's forename, or less commonly a title held b ...

, Anji and Trix.

Plot

The story is set in an alternate universe and features

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

; the cover is based on a famous photo of Brunel standing in front of the launching chains for the

SS Great Eastern SS ''Great Eastern'' was an iron sail-powered, paddle wheel and screw-propelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London. She was the largest ship ev ...

. Set during the 1840s, the Doctor and his companions arrive during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in England, and learn that an inventor has been ordered by an alien force to construct a machine known as the ''Utopia Engine'', a machine that will cause the entire planet to rapidly age. Anybody below the age of puberty will survive, but those above it will age to death. Brunel, who has unknowingly been supplying parts for this engine, unites with the Doctor to destroy the engine after learning of the

post-apocalyptic future Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

the Doctor has foreseen.

External links

* {{Eighth Doctor stories, selected=Books 2003 British novels 2003 science fiction novels Eighth Doctor Adventures British science fiction novels Steampunk novels Novels by Nick Walters Novels set in the 1840s