Various intergalactic superpowers gather on late 21st century Earth to bid on the universe's greatest and most dangerous weapon: the body of the Doctor.
Tropes featured in Alien Bodies include:
- Attending Your Own Funeral: At the end the Doctor buries his future body. He is the only person there (literally).
- Auction of Evil: The premise behind the book. Various powers are represented in the auction, including Gallifrey and the Time Lords, Faction Paradox, the Celestis, the enemy, and the Krotons.
- Captain Ersatz: Qixotl was originally meant to be Drax from The Armageddon Factor. However editor Stephen Cole made Lawrence Miles eliminate any direct reference (probably so they wouldn't have to pay the serial's author).
- Cool Helmet: Faction Paradox wears helmets that defy causality just by existing. They are the skulls of Time Lords from a timeline where they lost a war against the Vampires and so are half-bat.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: When the Celestis try to mark him, the Doctor causes them to miss and mark the Shift he has trapped in his mind. The Celestis are amazed a corporeal being has tricked them.
- The Dreaded:The future Doctor seems to be this to the Celestis.
- Fate Worse than Death: See Temporal Suicide.
- God's Hands Are Tied: The Celestis have rules restricting them from looking at certain parts of space-time, meaning they don't know who will win the war.
- High Times Future: Sam Jones, in the near future and surrounded by aliens, focuses on a cigarette packet as a "normal" thing. Then she notices it says "CLOUD NINE — The original cannabis cigarette". As smoked by UNISYC troopers. When she mentions the one time she got stoned, the future soldier the cigarettes belong to replies "One time? Are you sure you're human?"
- Hollywood Voodoo: Some of Faction Paradox's rituals seem based on this.
- I Gave My Word: The Celestis never go back on a deal.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: How all the other bidders view Earth and humans, and how Bregman comes to see them after being attacked by vault security.
- Loophole Abuse: The future Doctor agreed the Celestis could have his body if they didn't interfere on Dronid, freed their slaves, and another stipulation. Even though he hasn't made the deal yet, the Celestis try to take the Eighth Doctor's body, saying he wasn't specific on when they could take his body.
- Made of Indestructium: The Faction's shrine, being their version of a TARDIS, is pretty much immune to mundane attacks. When the Doctor materialises it around the Krotons' fleet and they try to blast their way out, it isn't even scratched.
- Make Way for the New Villains: The Kroton commander makes his entrance in a Dalek ship, having killed and eaten the original owners.
- The Men in Black: There are a number of men at Area 51 who wear dark suits despite the heat, and dark glasses despite the fashion in the 2060s being for light-reactive contacts.
- Mind Rape: The security protocols guarding the Relic scan Lieutenant Bregman's mind and biodata and use her insecurities and self-hatred to torture her.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Alien Bodies makes the Krotons a lot more intimidating than in their one TV appearance. Just for starters, their leader arrives in a Dalek ship he's hijacked — along with the digested corpses of the original owners.
- Shout-Out: To Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. General Tchike compares the Doctor to the Green Knight — a supernatural being who can walk away from a beheading.
- Temporal Suicide: A Faction Paradox agent, Cousin Sanjira, is punished for letting the Relic slip through his fingers by being forced to murder himself as an eight year old, causing his whole timeline to unravel into a state of perfect paradox.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Krotons. Far from the Villains they were in "The Krotons", here they are a vast intelligence out for multiple-worlds' domination.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: Trask's identity wasn't really meant to be a mystery. Most of the readers didn't recognize him as the main villain from The Highlanders because they'd never seen the serial. And how could they? It’s a
Missing Episode, the tapes of which were junked just two weeks after it aired. - Wave of Babies: The security system attacks Sam with a wave of baby versions of herself.
- You Have Failed Me: A Faction Paradox agent, Cousin Sanjira, is punished with non-existence for letting the Relic slip through his fingers.
