Heritage

The original idea for Heritage was that it would be part of the next part of my internet fan-fiction Back From the Dead, with a solo seventh Doctor mourning the loss of Ace under mysterious circumstances that later episodes would then clear up. But as I started writing a synopsis to help me get the plotting right, I realised that the story was going to end up being around the same size as one of the Doctor Who books that the BBC were publishing. Just in case, I took out any reference to BFD and sent it in to the BBC.

A year later, Justin Richards got in touch and told me that he liked it but could I add Ace. I decided against saying no.

The book was published as a Past Doctor Adventure starring the Seventh Doctor, and took advantage of a running story that Mike Tucker had set going in his book Prime Time. At the end of that book, the Doctor discovers that his companion Ace is apparently destined to die very soon, and digs up her body to take back to the TARDIS for an autopsy.

The next thing that he does is visit the planet of Heritage.

Although the book never specifically mentions what happened in Prime Time, all the way through Heritage Ace's body is still hidden in the TARDIS and weighing on the Doctor's mind. The book is all about him trying to come to terms with what he has discovered, and deciding just what he can do about it.

By the end of the novel, the Doctor has made up his mind, and the next book he appears in - Loving the Alien by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker - shows him back to his old form, finding the villains and saving the day.