The Infinity Doctors

The Infinity Doctors
Author Lance Parkin
Series Doctor Who book:
Past Doctor Adventures
Release number
 17
Subject Featuring:
The Doctor
First Doctor
Second Doctor
Third Doctor
Fourth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
Seventh Doctor
Eighth Doctor
Set in Period between
Indeterminate
Publisher BBC Books
Publication date
 22 November 1998
Pages 280
ISBN 0-563-40591-0
Preceded by Matrix
Followed by Salvation

The Infinity Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The book was released to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the series, and features several references to the series' past.

Synopsis

During the Dark Time, the Gallifreyan scientist Omega leaves his wife to travel to the star that will give his people the power to become Lords of Time when he causes it to go supernova. But things do not go as planned and Omega is lost inside a black hole. Millions of years later, an unknown version of the Doctor, his friend the Magistrate and star pupil Larna, together with the rest of the Time Lords are preparing to host a peace conference between the Sontarans and the Rutans to end their thousand-year war. But behind the scenes a masked figure arranges a kidnapping and robbery in the Doctor's rooms and a strange anomaly appears across the universe, which seemingly has the power to alter the past and future. The epicentre of the effect is a black hole at the end of the universe to which the Doctor and his friends must travel to prevent disaster.

Continuity

The book does not fit directly into the ongoing Doctor Who storyline that runs through the TV series and books. It is left to the reader to develop their own ideas how it relates to the series. The story appears to be written to a "what if" premise.

As part of this vein of ambiguity, it is not specified which incarnation of the Doctor, the main character of the series, is featured. Among the possible explanations for which incarnation of the Doctor is featured include a young First Doctor who has yet to leave Gallifrey, a future Doctor past the last known incarnation (at the time the book was written, the Eighth Doctor was the current incarnation) or the Other, who may or may not be the Doctor.[1] A scene in which this Doctor sees himself with long hair, that mirrors a scene in Lance Parkin's latter novel Father Time where the normal Eighth Doctor sees himself with short hair in another reality, implies that this incarnation is certainly 'played' by Paul McGann. Parkin's own guide to Doctor Who chronology, AHistory contains a footnote stating that "fan consensus" places the novel on the reconstructed Gallifrey implied by the end of Parkin's The Gallifrey Chronicles (that is, between The Gallifrey Chronicles and "Rose").[2]

The book's storyline features Omega, and includes many events and themes reflecting the two television stories featuring the renegade Time Lord, The Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity. It also features a character called Hedin, as in Arc of Infinity and the character of Savar is mentioned in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Seeing I. The story also provides more information about the character of Patience, who may be the Doctor's wife, who Parkin introduced in the Virgin Missing Adventures novel Cold Fusion.

Other continuity references include the character of the Magistrate, who may be the Master, and the subplot featuring the leaders of the Sontaran and Rutan armies ending their centuries long-conflict after being locked in a TARDIS. There are also references to the fall of Time Lord civilisation which prefigures the novel The Ancestor Cell and the Time War of the new series. The Doctor's reaction to a prediction of this event also implies his role in destroying Gallifrey.

Regarding the novel's incarnation of the Doctor, Parkin stated: "He's clearly not the eighth Doctor of mainstream continuity. He does look like Paul McGann."[3]

References

  1. ↑ The Infinity Doctors
  2. ↑ Parkin, Lance (2007). AHistory: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe (2nd Edition). Mad Norwegian Press. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-9759446-6-0.
  3. ↑ "A word with Lance Parkin". reprintthedoctor.weebly.com. Retrieved 29 May 2013.

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