the gallifrey chronicles

So, based on publication date, I believe this was the last Eighth Doctor book ever published. It’s supposed to lead into, at least I think, “Rose” and the new season, but if you try to figure out how, your brain will explode. I think the sum of its parts are a bit more interesting and uniform than the whole, but it was an enjoyable read and made me recall, once again, how much I love the Eighth Doctor and how I lament his being short-changed by the system.

So, in this version of events, the Doctor destroys Gallifrey, rather than it being blown up by the Daleks in the Time War (though a Time War, frustratingly, is mentioned). This happened way back in The Ancestor Cell, which I read last summer. The idea was after that happened, the Doctor got put on Earth for one hundred years, without self-knowledge or really knowing anything (The Burning was the first book of this section). So it’s all a bit complicated, and you’re supposed to be a real fan and know what’s-what. So in that sense I think the book’s a bit difficult for the casual reader to pick up.

You’ve also got to know at least a bit about the Eighth Doctor’s companions to really understand much of the emotional impact. Samantha Jones was Terrance Dicks’ version of Rose, introduced some seven years too early—I’ve only read her in The Eight Doctors so I don’t know what she’s really like. While I’m not 100% sure, I think she was followed directly by Fitz, then Anji, then Trix? Anji makes a cameo here, but it’s the end of the world as we know it, sort of, for Fitz and Trix. I’ve only read one book with Trix in it before, so her falling in love with Fitz here is a bit of a so-what? moment for me. I’ve never been super gung-ho on Fitz, simply because I don’t understand why a character has to be from the 1960s of all eras to be interesting. However, he has on occasion made me laugh, and sometimes he seems to foretell how Captain Jack might act: ‘Two hearts and no balls, is that it?’ he asks the Doctor at one point. From this book I also learn that apparently the Doctor has a daughter, too, named Miranda. (Well, we knew he had offspring of some sort to produce Susan . . . or at least logically that should follow . . .) Who he doesn’t remember.

There are quite a few stories going on at once before we get to the main one, which has to do with giant insects eating humans and people being resurrected, albeit a bit more plausibly than seen in the TV movie. I actually like that part, it seems very true to the spirit of the show. Everything before seems less traditionally Doctor Who. Then there’s the case of Marnal. Whenever writers invent Time Lords that for some reason or another ended up away from Gallifrey, even if they’re not evil like the Master or the Rani, I get a bit irritated. I don’t know why. Though the Time Lord Marnal plays a huge and decisive role in the book—and is at times quite funny—I still felt irritated by his very presence. He says—and this should be taken with a grain of salt—that it was his Type 40 TARDIS the Doctor stole. He is quite useful, however, in explaining stuff, which I guess is why he needs a “companion” in his nurse, Rachel.

As we get the Marnal-Rachel storyline, something has to fill up the Doctor-Fitz-Trix storyline to keep the thing going, and what results are some rather amusing episodes—Fitz and Trix trying to unmask an old woman in ancient Rome as an alien when it’s her mule that’s the alien—that ultimately remind me of the frivolousness of “Love & Monsters.” There’s a strange incident in Rachel’s past where Parkin tries to be ultra-modern (‘N1 cn stop us not evn U Dr :-)’) and I just go “ugh.” I’m not sure why Trix and Fitz end up in New York other than to take a (very deserved) swipe at Fox News. Not to mention some criticism of modern British culture: EastEnders had lost more than Coronation Street. Dec was fine, but there was no sign of Ant.

There’s some very clever writing here, as one would expect, almost from the first page. On his “death bed,” Marnal has forgotten his Gallifreyan memory. ‘Now I don’t have the time. Lord, I wish I could remember the name.’ There’s another Doctor who? moment; they seem to crop up more than ever these days. Very sly comment from Marnal on the Doctor’s messed-up timeline, ‘As for his future . . . he has three ninth incarnations. I’ve never seen anything like it.’ (Richard E. Grant, Rowan Atkinson, and Christopher Eccleston, I presume.) There’s a really hilarious section in which the Doctor writes a novel (it takes him two hours). I can’t excerpt the whole plot, but suffice it to say it involves Mr Darcy and a variety of menacing Collinses, Willoughbys, and Elliots. Very very strange. I also think I need a t shirt with this chapter title on it: WWDWD?

I think Lance Parkin agrees with me in having affection for the Eighth Doctor; here’s a great description of our favorite hero: As with his ship, there was more to the Doctor than met the eye. He was an adventurer, a bookworm, a champion, a detective, an explorer, a father and grandfather, a historian, an iconoclast, a jackanapes, a know-it-all, a lord, a meddler, a nuisance; he was old, a physician, and a quack, a renegade, a scientist, a traveller, a utopian, a violinist[1], a widower, a xoanon[2]; he was youthful and he was a zealot. Shades of the Tenth Doctor to come, sometimes: ‘I talked them out of that, and now one of their PCs is letting me borrow their PC. Very PC of him, I thought.’ And yet, at the same time, we haven’t gotten to David Tennant-dreamy-creaminess yet: Rachel trod on a discarded bra. She guessed this wasn’t the Doctor’s room. And not to put to fine a point on what you already know, but I’d love to have this exchange with the Doctor: ‘Are you reading my mind?’ ‘No. Would you like me to?’ ;-)

There seemed to be a lot of ideas and styles crammed into this book, and its task was heavy indeed: trying to resolve all the issues of the Eighth Doctor books and lead into the new series when I suspect Parkin didn’t know that much about it. So in that way it’s an ambitious book and entertaining enough. I guess a part of me was really hoping I’d get some clue into how the Eight-to-Nine regeneration was enacted, but I’m guessing RTD is keeping that under wraps for seasons to come.






[1] Really?
[2] I have to confess I don’t know what that is. [Having rewatched “The Face of Evil,” I remember.]