On the Back Cover:

 Ostend, 1913. War is coming. A war in which millions will die. And the guest in suite 139 of the Hotel Palace Thermae knows it. Which is odd, considering he has trotters,
a snout and a lovely curly tail.


 Toby the Sapient Pig is a swine on the run. Two peculiar strangers have been hunting him across Europe. The first, Miss Alice Bultitude, is an Englishwoman and collector of obscure theatrical ephemera. The second, Inspector Alphonse Chardalot, is a celebrated member of the detective police - the man who brought the trunk murderess of St Germain to justice.

 This was supposed to be a reading week for The Doctor and Peri. Now they must do battle with a villain who wants to wipe every last human from the face of the earth - once he's had just another dish of truffles. And maybe a valedictory glass of fizzy lemonade.

 Year of the Pig - which fantasises itself to be a lost fragment of old Doctor Who - first became a certainty at the launch of the new Doctor Who. But the new Doctor Who almost did for it. It was the pig you see. Would a pig in a toupee on the balcony of a Belgian hotel be considered too similar to a pig in a spacesuit trotting around the corridors of a twenty-first century hospital? I was pondering this question at the press launch for Rose, nursing a gin and tonic and basking in the warmth of a lucent Billie Piper, when Russell T Davies bounded in, grinning that big Russell T Davies grin. And a moment later, it was all on.


 I suppose that if I’d been a smarter operator, the play might have entered production more briskly I sent the script unsolicited to Big Finish, and as the title begins with the antepenultimate letter of the alphabet, it slushed in the slush pile for a year. Clearly I should have called it Aardvarks of Fear. No chance of the Stitheen adding metal prostheses to one of those...

A quick note on the historical background. There was a performer called Toby the Sapient Pig, though he was long dead by 1913. There was a movie called Zeb, Zack and the Zulus. There was an incontinent monkey in Madame Ensor’s souvenir shop in Ostend. As for the rest, I just tried to think what Donald Cotton would have done, and kept typing.

Who's Who?

The Sixth Doctor

First television appearance: "The Twin Dilemma"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Davros"

 He has been exploring the universe for hundreds of years. He fights injustice. He defeats evil. He helps people. The Doctor sacrificed his previous life on the planet Androzani Minor to save his companion Peri from a toxic virus. After his regeneration, he and Peri remained good, if somewhat argumentative, friends and they are still travelling the cosmos together. The Doctor’s forthright, often abrasive, nature frequently alarms Peri, especially as he can be blunt to the point of rudeness in the face of great danger. However, he retains his loyalty, integrity and ultimate belief that evil must be fought, and vanquished...


Peri Brown

First television appearance: "Planet of Fire"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Red Dawn"

 Perpugilliam Brown has travelled with two incarnations of The Doctor. Their relationship used to be somewhat... fractious - but these days, it is generally lighthearted and friendly. A keen botanist, resourceful and compassionate, Peri also has a edgy side - combining a wry sense of humour that can infuriate her travelling companion. She also possesses the useful ability to charm even the most dangerous of opponents with her honesty and apparent naivete that actually hides a quick-wit, a resource learned from The Doctor which both she and The Doctor exploit whenever necessary.