The Pit ( novel ) The Pit was the twelfth novel in the Virgin New Adventures series . It was written by Neil Penswick , was released in 1993 and featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice . Publisher ' s summary . " For two weeks now it has been the same message again and again , and it ' s getting stronger ; death and destruction , the end of all things , Armageddon . " In an attempt to lift the Doctor out of his irritable and erratic mood , Bernice suggests he investigates the mystery of the Seven Planets — an entire planetary system that disappeared without trace several decades before Bernice was born . One of the Seven Planets is a nameless giant , quarantined against all intruders . But when the TARDIS materialises , it becomes clear that the planet has other visitors : a hit - squad of killer android s ; a trespassing scientist and his wife ; and two shape - changing criminals with their team of slaves . As riot and anarchy spread on the system ' s colonised worlds , the Doctor is flung into another universe while Bernice closes in on the horror that is about to be unleashed — a horror that comes from a terrible secret in the Time Lord s ' past . Plot . Bored and looking for adventure of her own choosing , Bernice asks the Doctor to take her to the Seven Planets of the Althosian System . A former system of colony worlds that gained its independence , the system vanished before Benny ' s birth , and no one knows why . Catching the Doctor ' s attention , there is no mention of the system in the TARDIS memory banks or his own prodigious memory . En route , the TARDIS experiences some interference , then stalls out , before making a rough landing on a large , unnamed planet in the system . Determined to find out what is affecting the TARDIS , the Doctor explores the jungle . Elsewhere , a scientist named Jarak is studying the water and life on the planet , which is ordinarily off limits . He witnesses the river turn red , then dies from exposure to it ; the redness spreads onto the land , and anything it touches seems to be frozen in time . His wife Ell is forced to hide in their interplanetary ship . Yet elsewhere , two shapeshifters , Butler and Swarf , have stolen " Pandora ' s Box " , the most powerful nuclear weapon in history ; if used , it will destroy the entire system . Using a team of telepathic Khthons , the system ' s natives , they are transporting the device through the jungle to an ancient and forbidding castle . In pursuit are a team of hunter - killer androids — Thomas , Chaney , Marilyn , and their leader , Spike — sent by the Archon of the Althosian system and his Justice Police from the capitol world , Nicaea , to recover the bomb . As they skydive onto the planet , their ship — with hidden orders of its own — begins a long but fatal countdown . On Nicaea , and other worlds in the system , the situation is degenerating . An unwarranted military buildup has left the people starving , which in turn has caused riots that are just beginning to get out of hand . While the Archon and his Justice Police administrator , General Kopyion , deal with the crisis , Major John Carlson has a problem of his own to investigate : a strange series of murders . The investigation leads him to one Bulbir Singh Mann , a dealer in Earth relics and antiques , who took a book of poetry from the scene of one of the murders . He arrests Mann , but is forced to release him upon the interference of a politician , an Academician named Brown , who leads the opposition faction in the governing Academy . Kopyion tells Brown that the most recent victim was an undercover Justice Police officer on an unrelated investigation , confusing the Major . Spike strikes the planet apart from his fellows , and is mortally injured ; he will die in sixty hours . The Doctor and Benny happen upon him , and he takes them for the shapeshifters and holds them at gunpoint . However , the Doctor suddenly vanishes , leaving Benny in Spike ’ s possession . They are intercepted by the other androids , who cannot risk that they may be the shapeshifters , and open fire . However , Spike escapes with Benny , still believing that she is a shapeshifter . He takes her with him by raft down the river , in search of the bomb . The Doctor falls through a hole in time , finding himself in a hellish underworld of sorts . He is captured by a race of creatures called the Cun , who force him to fight another creature while they bet on the outcome . He survives , but with injuries , and in the cells he meets the poet William Blake , who also fell through a hole in time . Blake believes they are in Hell , and who can argue ? They escape and head for the hole in time , but are intercepted by creatures on pterodactyls . The Doctor bargains for freedom , but is disturbed regardless ; the creatures spoke ancient Gallifreyan . On Nicaea , Brown confronts the Archon in the Academy and attempts to restore order , but fails . The Archon retreats to his palace , but is killed during the night , in the same ritualistic fashion as the previous murders . The chaos accelerates , drawing in military and religious elements ; the priests are insisting it is the end of time , the final battle against the demonlike Hunters that are native to the system . While Carlson tries to deal with the situation , his wife Melanie leaves him , volunteering as a nurse in the combat zones . The hole in time takes the Doctor and Blake to London during Jack the Ripper ' s murder spree , seventy years after Blake ’ s time . Blake is disillusioned that the progress he and his compatriots predicted has not swept the world . Their search for answers leads them first to a brothel , where the Doctor ' s plans do not work out , leaving him disillusioned ; his sonic screwdriver is then stolen , and in recovering it , they are captured by a cult whose members worship evil forces . They escape just in time to avoid being sacrificed , burning down the cult ' s lair in the process . They find another hole in time , this time landing on present - day Salisbury Plain , where they are immediately picked up by UNIT . Verifying the Doctor ' s credentials , the UNIT officers let him in on current events ; they are assisting an archaeological dig which has unearthed the bones of a massive , reptilian creature , much larger than any dinosaur . The Doctor suspects it is only dormant , not dead , and insists that it be destroyed , but the archaeologist , Roberts , refuses . The Doctor realises Roberts is a member of the cult he just destroyed in the past , and Roberts tries to kill him . A group of Hunters — the same as the ones in the Althosian system — interrupt , appearing through the hole in time and crashing a plane , which diverts UNIT to trying to save the passengers and kill the beasts . The Doctor , with Blake , steals the carrier holding the bones and drives it back to and through the hole in time . They find themselves back in the netherworld . Butler stalks the androids through the jungle , killing first Chaney , then Marilyn . However , before he can kill Thomas , he falls into the encroaching red weed that has spread from the river , and is frozen in time . Thomas finds the ship in which Ell hides ; she joins him outside , but destroys the ship , claiming there was a bomb aboard . Thomas knows this is suspicious , but has no time for that , and takes her with him . Benny falls into quicksand , but is rescued by an invisible figure . She and Spike then find a crashed , ancient space station near the castle , and explore it . Swarf discovers that Butler is dead , and goes to the space station to take revenge . He nearly kills Spike , but Benny escapes ; Swarf returns to the castle . Meanwhile , Thomas and Ell discover that many things on this planet , including much of the plant and animal life , are artificial ; they were manufactured by Mirage Enterprises , a company owned by Kopyion . They find Benny in the space station , and she tells them that Spike is dead , although she is not aware that the android survived . Mann , the antique dealer , meets Brown at Brown ' s apartment . Brown was the expected buyer for the book of poetry ; together , they remove its binding to find packets of a potent drug , Dream B , which they sample . As their drug - induced visions wear off , an intruder shoots them both , killing them . Later , Carlson wants to investigate the murders , but Kopyion stops him and closes the case , tying it to the dead officer ' s investigation . Carlson is not happy , but is interrupted by a notification that his wife was killed in a government - approved chemical attack on the rioters . In a rage , he tears apart the file room , but finds nothing useful there . He follows Kopyion to the spaceport , where Kopyion declares these " the final days " , and takes a ship to the unnamed planet . Carlson accuses Kopyion of the murders — correctly , as it turns out — but before he can stop Kopyion , Kopyion kills him . The Khthons sense the approach of Benny , Ell , and Thomas to the castle . Ell has them surrender so as to get inside quickly ; the red weed is closing in . En route to the castle ’ s cells , Benny notices that the walls are decorated with the Gallifreyan Seal of Rassilon . At Swarf ' s direction , the Khthons have used the bomb to power a dimensional drilling apparatus , which they now activate , trying to open a dimensional gateway to the netherworld . Swarf ' s interest is financial ; the netherworld is the source of Dream B , which he will sell . Outside , the Hunters gather , and one carries the dying Spike to the castle ; he kills the Hunter holding him , and makes his way slowly inside . The Doctor reveals to Blake that the netherworld is the home dimension of the Yssgaroth , the Great Vampires of archaic Gallifreyan history , which the Gallifreyans once allowed into the universe , thus kicking off their great war . Now the Cun and others are establishing a bridgehead for the Yssgaroth to invade again , and in the process they are mining Dream B , which the cult on the other side uses in its rituals . He tries to use the Dream B , which is explosive , to destroy the bridgehead , but before he can do so , he and Blake are spirited away . Their rescuer is Kopyion , who is more than he seems ; he is Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu , the nearly - mythical Gallifreyan general who led the war against the Yssgaroth , millions of years ago . He claims that Rassilon ' s early experiments with time travel opened the gates that allowed the Yssgaroth into the universe ; after the war , Rassilon hid the truth , against Kopyion ' s will . Therefore , Kopyion has waited all this time for the monsters to return — and now it is happening . He is willing to carry out his plan against them even if it costs Benny ' s life . Escaping the cells , Thomas , Benny , and Ell head to the courtyard where the drill is running . There , Ell reveals that she and her husband were Nicaean members of the Yssgaroth cult , as were the now - deceased Brown and Mann . It was they who hired Butler and Swarf , in order to gain access to the netherworld . Thomas tries , but fails , to kill Swarf , who instead kills him . Ell then kills Chopra , the final surviving khthon , in preparation for the arrival of the Yssgaroth . Kopyion prepares to deal with Ell , but Spike arrives , and destroys the drilling machinery . Some small part of the bomb ' s force radiates outward , bringing down the castle ; it crushes Ell , and Kopyion then beheads her for good measure . Most of the explosion has flowed through the gateway , causing incredible destruction in the netherworld and closing the gate for now . The Doctor argues with Kopyion over his methods ; Kopyion insists his resolve is strong , and he will stand against the Yssgaroth regardless of cost . To prove his point — and to close this gateway for good — he reveals that he is allowing the androids ' ship to self - destruct ; its explosion will destroy the entire system , including this world and its gateway . Benny objects , but the Doctor reminds her that they are already aware of the destruction of the system , and thus part of events — therefore they cannot avert the destruction . Kopyion erases this information from the Time Lord Matrix , deeming it too dangerous . He warns the Doctor to stay out of his way in the future , as he will kill the Doctor if he sees him again . Before the system goes up in flames , the Doctor and Benny take Blake back to the TARDIS , then take him home .