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Title: The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series) by Lance Parkin ISBN: 0-563-40591-0 Publisher: BBC Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I still don't get it.
Comment: I loved this book. Perhaps, it's one of the best pieces of original Doctor Who fiction ever put out. I still after, (how long was my previous review?) don't see why so many WHO fans cop out & start screaming "parallel universe" when something original like this comes along.
Maybe it's because I never got the biography of the first Doctor in those years before he left Gallifrey (does anyone seriously want to own up to knowing that? Marc Platt sit down) Maybe because I read too many Doctor Who stories as individual stories amongst a very flexible cannon (an attitude that is thankfully the one that exists now at Big Finish and BBC Books). Maybe I thought this story was too damn good to leave out of the "all-sacred cannon".
This isn't Star Trek, people. This is Doctor Who, let's be above this whole parallel universe loop-hole (Inferno, withstanding) BUT, if you want to feel that way fine. I just can't be convinced otherwise. This is cannon, official first Doctor, ages before he left for Totter's Lane.
The most important point I can make though is this is Lance Parkin at his finest. Eloquent, exciting and just that damn GOOD. Any WHO fans, casual or those who want to jump shoulder deep into this parallel vs. Cannon debate should buy this book immediatley. One of the greatest ever.
Rating: 5
Summary: Respectfully Disagree
Comment: Not to sound argumentative with my fellow Whovians, but there really is not anything to suggest that this story does NOT take place within the Doctor Who universe. Every cannon-guide I've looked at places this story as years & years before An Unearthly Child. I read the book from that perspective & found it to be a great fleshing out of the Doctor's still enigmatic origins, adding texture & substance, yet still retaining the mystery.
The Doctor Who universe is just too big, & let's face the continuity is harder than physics to figure out, so I don't see the point in squabbling over this "parallel universe" stuff. The pre-TV Doctor stuff is WIDE OPEN & this story, (which like everything else Lance Parkin has written, is AWESOME!!) should be considered part of that frontier.
Rating: 5
Summary: The greatest Doctor Who story of them all?
Comment: Since this is the month that Doctor Who turns forty years old (who's bringing the whoopee cushion to the Doctor's birthday party?), I decided to look back to the last anniversary year that was evenly divisible by five. The thirty-fifth anniversary was celebrated by the release of THE INFINITY DOCTORS by Lance Parkin (his first effort for BBC books). I can't remember the last time that the thirty-fifth anniversary of anything was celebrated, but if we indeed must celebrate every fifth anniversary of the series by a special release, we could do a lot worse than to have releases of the quality on display here.
THE INFINITY DOCTORS starts with a passage that's more than a little reminiscent of the beginning of Paul Cornell's TIMEWYRM: REVELATION. But, tellingly, it's not just a rehash of that earlier piece of prose; it takes that reference and directs it in a new and equally good direction. And throughout much of this story, there are elements that are, if not borrowed, at least seem a little bit familiar. But that isn't a criticism. In fact, it's a bonus. It's got enough references to the past to fulfill its role as an anniversary romp, while managing to tell an original enough story to prevent a complete wallowing in nostalgia. It's a fine line to walk, one that gets more difficult with every passing divisible-by-five year anniversary. I'm frankly surprised that it's still possible to get away with it.
THE INFINITY DOCTORS is painted on a huge canvas. The background to the story involves a High Councilor of Gallifrey known as the Doctor who is organizing a peace treaty between the Sontarans and the Rutans, two races who have been locked in combat for countless millennia. The power of the Time Lords has plucked two representatives of those races from an appropriate period in history and the Doctor is working as an arbiter. But, naturally, things are not going as planned. A slight blip on the Time Lord equivalent of a radar screen spells consequences and disaster, not only for their world, but for all worlds everywhere.
There's a line one can draw from Terrance Dicks, to Robert Holmes, to the Cartmel Masterplan, to here. Each took what fictional facts were known about the Doctor's people, threw away the bad, and expanded the rest. Terrance Dicks turned the creators of the TARDIS into Gods. Robert Holmes kept their great powers and jettisoned their God-like status, making them into squabbling academics. The Cartmel Masterplan built upon the legends and the fragments of the Old Time of Gallifrey, based almost entirely on Omega's speeches in THE THREE DOCTORS and the recording of the history of Gallifrey that Engin plays in THE DEADLY ASSASSIN. It ignored all the boring and awful stories that had been built up in the current day Gallifrey (it's interesting to note that in the three years of Andrew Cartmel's script editorship, modern Gallifrey appeared on screen exactly zero times).
THE INFINITY DOCTORS plays a similar game. Virtually the whole foundation of Parkin's Gallifrey is based on those hints and stories that displayed the best that Gallifrey had to offer, and it conveniently ignores those bits that make a discriminating fanboy shudder. So, we delve heavily into the stories of the Old Times, but we have not a mention of the Time Tots. The result is a "set on Gallifrey" story as they should be told, with mystery, excitement and power, not as they were told during the Graham Williams and John Nathan-Turner eras, which featured less than satisfying adventures.
Now before I get completely overwhelmed by talk of Gallifrey, Time Lords and all that jazz, I should talk about how the book works as a standalone story. THE INFINITY DOCTORS feels epic. Not just because it features The Return Of You-Know-Who (Again), but because of its subject matter. We have a book with effective and powerful prose. It starts slow and steady, which makes the later conflicts appear that much more menacing.
I have fond memories of my first reading of THE INFINITY DOCTORS. It was the book that got me back into the world of Doctor Who novels after a double-whammy of the book license switchover and a horrendous lack of free time conspired to pull me away. THE INFINITY DOCTORS may not be the greatest Doctor Who story of all time (though it's damn close, the only minor problems are slight authorial indulgences that the editor should have curtailed), but it might be the most representative. It's got everything: time travel, old enemies, world building, an intriguing plot, devious and enjoyable characters, and the fate of the universe at stake. It even throws in some rarer elements, but makes them feel perfectly at home (by this, I mean the romance; who would have guessed that it could turn out so well in a Doctor Who story?). This is the single anniversary story that you could give to a non-fan and have he/she both understand it and enjoy it. If I were to be trapped on the proverbial deserted island with my pick of only one Doctor Who story to take with me, then I can only say that THE INFINITY DOCTORS would make a very strong case for being that selection.
This month, the fortieth anniversary month, the Doctor Who release is either THE DEADLY REUNION by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks, or THE SCREAM OF THE SHALKA by Paul Cornell, depending on what your medium of choice is. Call it a hunch, but I seriously doubt that the fortieth anniversary will be celebrated in as progressive or as satisfying a manner as the thirty-fifth was.
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Title: Doctor Who: Fallen Gods by Jonathan Blum, Kate Orman ISBN: 1903889200 Publisher: Telos Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Doctor Who: Loving the Alien (Doctor Who) by Mike Tucker, Robert Perry ISBN: 056348604X Publisher: BBC Worldwide Publishing Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Sometime Never... (Doctor Who) by Justin Richards ISBN: 0563486112 Publisher: BBC Worldwide Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Doctor Who Emotional Chemistry (Doctor Who (BBC Paperback)) by Simon A. Forward ISBN: 0563486082 Publisher: BBC Worldwide Publishing Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Blood Heat (The New Doctor Who Adventures) by Jim Mortimore ISBN: 0426203992 Publisher: London Bridge Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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