The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series) [Paperback]

Lance Parkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1998 | Series: Doctor Who Series

For 20,000 centuries the inhabitants of Gallifrey, Doctor Who's home planet, have been the most powerful race in the cosmos: they are the Lords of Time, and have used their powers carefully. But now a new force has been unleashed that is capable of destroying them. And it is one of their own.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: BBC Pubns; illustrated edition edition (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0563405910
• ISBN-13: 978-0563405917
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest Doctor Who story of them all?, November 23, 2003

By 

Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It certainly has its virtues, March 27, 2000

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He's back, and it's about time - mkII, December 17, 1999

By 

Dominic Husband (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Infinity Doctors (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

Doesn't anybody get it? This book is NOT set in the "official" who-niverse. It's a complete re-boot of the programme's history set in a parallel universe. The Doctor is based on earlier concepts of the Paul McGann version, although here he is clearly a first Doctor who didn't go on the run.

The Doctor in this story is brilliantly characterised, along with quasi-Master, The Magistrate, a quasi-Valeyard and a girl called Larna, who may well be the same girl who works in Chronotis' (oops . . . not supposed to admit that!) office in Jon Blum's Unnatural History. Given the difficulties encountered creating a book version of the briefly-seen eighth Doctor, one wonders whether this re-vamped version wouldn't work better in an ongoing series of novels. The story tells of another of Omega's attempts to leave his prison. He failed in "our" who-niverse and sets out to conquer this new version.

What perhaps struck me the most with this book was how "clean" it felt from the white cover onwards. Released from the shackles of almost 40 years of often-contradictory continuity Lance Parkin has the chance to "play God" and go back to the basics of who The Doctor is. I, for one, would like to see this other Doctor return. Had the TV movie been anything like this book, I think we'd have an X-Files-style cult/mass audience on our hands.