The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series)

Rating:
Summary: The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who series)
Review: It stinks. Long winded, boring, and a total waste of time. Parkin decided he didn't want to do a real Doctor Who story so he wrote this instead. Call it Doctor Who so I can sell it.

Rating:
Summary: Respectfully Disagree
Review: 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:
Summary: The greatest Doctor Who story of them all?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: It certainly has its virtues
Review: The question I keep reading is, which Doctor is this? Who cares? Part of the point is that you can insert the first, eighth, or a future doctor into it and read it with equal aplomb. Parkin has created a view of the Doctor that's different for each person reading it. What I see and what you see will never be the same thing in this book.

That said, the book provides only a sliver of hope that it's the first Doctor, since it says he travelled and stopped travelling; nor does the eighth doctor seem likely, since he's described as short-haired and young -- and when young people grow their hair, they generally only cut it when they get older.

Now that I've said my piece in that matter, I have to insist that it doesn't matter. The story is interesting and worthwhile, and it provides as varied a view of the Doctor as there are varied readers. Maybe not for readers who like to see new views of an established Doctor, for more experimental and open-minded readers, it certainly has its virtues.

Rating:
Summary: It certainly has its virtues
Review: The question I keep reading is, which Doctor is this? Who cares? Part of the point is that you can insert the first, eighth, or a future doctor into it and read it with equal aplomb. Parkin has created a view of the Doctor that's different for each person reading it. What I see and what you see will never be the same thing in this book.

That said, the book provides only a sliver of hope that it's the first Doctor, since it says he travelled and stopped travelling; nor does the eighth doctor seem likely, since he's described as short-haired and young -- and when young people grow their hair, they generally only cut it when they get older.

Now that I've said my piece in that matter, I have to insist that it doesn't matter. The story is interesting and worthwhile, and it provides as varied a view of the Doctor as there are varied readers. Maybe not for readers who like to see new views of an established Doctor, for more experimental and open-minded readers, it certainly has its virtues.

Rating:
Summary: read it today!
Review: This book is very well-written, mostly, and the Doctor is a very good one. I think you might someday be sad if you don't read this book pretty soon.

Rating:
Summary: read it today!
Review: This book is very well-written, mostly, and the Doctor is a very good one. I think you might someday be sad if you don't read this book pretty soon.

Rating:
Summary: Why doesn't anyone else understand this story?
Review: This is NOT a story about "our" Doctor. Rather, it is a parallel universe story. Otherwise, the (Third) Doctor's meeting of Omega in The Three Doctors makes no sense. However, the big deal of this story (which no one else but me seems to realize) is this is the origin of "our" Master. He is the Magistrate scooped out of the parallel universe and brought to "our" Doctor's universe. The shift changed him to evil just as it did Soran in the parallel universe. (It also explains why "our" First Doctor did not quite recognize the Master in The Five Doctors.) Open your eyes, people!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Why doesn't anyone else understand this story?
Review: This is NOT a story about "our" Doctor. Rather, it is a parallel universe story. Otherwise, the (Third) Doctor's meeting of Omega in The Three Doctors makes no sense. However, the big deal of this story (which no one else but me seems to realize) is this is the origin of "our" Master. He is the Magistrate scooped out of the parallel universe and brought to "our" Doctor's universe. The shift changed him to evil just as it did Soran in the parallel universe. (It also explains why "our" First Doctor did not quite recognize the Master in The Five Doctors.) Open your eyes, people!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning work; an audacious look at a familiar character
Review: This is one of the few books that meets its hype, but it requires some effort. If you're after a retread of the TV series, don't bother. If you're after something that breathes new life into a familiar character, that stretches your imagination and dares you to think outside the box, pick up this book. Lance Parkin is a superb writer, whose affection for the Doctor and the conventions of the series is obvious, though he doesn't allow them to tie him into a rigid continuity. By bending the "rules" of the show's history, Parkin brings us a breathtaking epic of truly cosmic scale, where everything that ever was, will be or could be, hangs in the balance. Great stuff.