- The Gallifrey Chronicles
Doctorwhobook
title=The Gallifrey Chronicles
series=
number=
featuring=
writer=John Peel
publisher=Virgin Publishing
isbn=ISBN 1-85227-329-1
set_between=
pages=138
date=1991
preceding=
following=|"The Gallifrey Chronicles" is the title of two distinct books related to the long-running British science fiction television series "
Doctor Who ". The first, by John Peel, is an exploration of the fictional history of the planetGallifrey as revealed in the television series. It was published byVirgin Publishing in 1991.The second book is a
BBC Books original novel written byLance Parkin . It was the last of theEighth Doctor Adventures range and features theEighth Doctor ,Fitz Kreiner , andTrix MacMillan .John Peel book
The 1991 book "The Gallifrey Chronicles" is a guide to the history, culture and technology of the planet Gallifrey, original home of the Doctor. It contains accounts of Gallifrey and the
Time Lord s as revealed in the television programme, speculative essays on subjects such as the mechanism of regeneration and the intelligence of theTARDIS , and "The Black Scrolls ofRassilon ", a fictional account of Rassilon's rise to power and the earliest days of the Time Lords.Eighth Doctor novel
Doctorwhobook
title=The Gallifrey Chronicles
series=Eighth Doctor Adventures
number=73
featuring=Eighth Doctor Fitz, Trix, Anji, K-9
writer=Lance Parkin
publisher=BBC Books
isbn=ISBN 0-563-48624-4
set_between=To the Slaughter and Rose
pages=283
date=June 2005
preceding=To the Slaughter
following=|Plot
The
Eighth Doctor returns to Earth in 2005 and discovers that anotherTime Lord , Marnal, had also survived the destruction ofGallifrey . Marnal, who also claims to be the original owner of the Doctor'sTARDIS , blames the Doctor for the cataclysm, and takes him and the TARDIS captive while theinsect oid alien Vore invade the Earth. After acold fusion explosion guts the interior of the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that K-9 Mark II has been aboard ever since Gallifrey's destruction, hidden behind a false wall, with orders from Lady PresidentRomana of Gallifrey to kill him. However, K-9 pauses once it scans the Doctor's mind and discovers the reason why the Doctor had lost his memory.It transpires that, just prior to destroying Gallifrey, the Doctor (with the help of his former companion Compassion) had downloaded the entire contents of the Gallifreyan Matrix — the massive computer network containing the mental traces of every Time Lord living and dead, more than 140,000 Time Lords — into his brain, with his own memories suppressed to make room for the data. Gallifrey had not actually been erased from history, but an event horizon in relative time prevented anyone from Gallifrey's past from travelling beyond Gallifrey's destruction, and vice versa. Both the planet and the Time Lords could be restored, along with the Doctor's memory, if a sufficiently sophisticated computer could be found to reconstruct them. Before that could be done, however, the problem of the Vore must be dealt with. Marnal is wounded while fighting the Vore, and being on his last regeneration, he dies. The Doctor tells him that he is his hero, and Marnal dies in peace, confident that the Time Lords will be reborn.
The Doctor, Fitz, Trix and his allies travel to Africa with a Royal Navy Battle Group to confront the threat of the Vore. The novel and the
Eighth Doctor Adventures end uncertainly, as the Doctor leaps into the very heart of the Vore hive.Continuity
*This is the last novel of its series (which began with "
The Eight Doctors "). "Fear Itself" (byNick Wallace ), a novel published subsequently featuring the Eighth Doctor but set before "The Gallifrey Chronicles", came out as part of thePast Doctor Adventures line.
*The use of the seal ofRassilon on the cover mirrors its use on the cover of the first Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, "The Eight Doctors ".
*References are made in this novel to theTimewyrm (from theVirgin New Adventures ), former companion Samantha Jones and various events that have occurred during the course of the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
*Marnal was mentioned in "The Infinity Doctors " and "The Taking of Planet 5 ".
*One of Marnal's written works is titled "The Giants", which was also the title of the potential, rejected, first ever "Doctor Who" television serial, written byC. E. Webber .cite book | last = Howe | first = David J. | authorlink = David J. Howe | coauthors =Mark Stammers andStephen James Walker | year = 1994 | title = The Handbook: The First Doctor – The William Hartnell Years 1963-1966 | publisher =Virgin Books | location = London | id = ISBN 0-426-20430-1] The opening passage of "The Giants" in "The Gallifrey Chronicles" is identical to the prologue of "Death Comes to Time ". The plot of another book resembles that of "The Infinity Doctors ", also written by Parkin. Other unused "Doctor Who" story titles referenced in the book include "The Witch Lords" (a working title for "State of Decay ") and "The Red Fort" (a proposedFirst Doctor historical story commissioned fromTerry Nation ).
*Possible threats to Gallifrey mentioned by Marnal include the Klade ("Father Time"), the Tractites ("Genocide"), Tannis ("Death Comes to Time "), Centro ("The Infinity Doctors") and the Ongoing.
*Marnal also recites a list of some of the Eighth Doctor’s companions, which include some previously unknown names. These are: Delilah, Frank, Deborah (possibly Debbie Castle from "Father Time"), Jemima-Katy (the name of a companion being "auditioned" byJon Pertwee in a 1990s BBCradio comedy sketch), Nina (possibly from the Telos novella "Rip Tide "), and Beatrice (possibly Trix).
*Larna speaks of a prophecy that before its fall, Gallifrey will be attacked by several enemies. These include Omega ("The Three Doctors "), theSontaran s ("The Invasion of Time "), Tannis ("Death Comes to Time"), Varnax (from an unproduced film project), Catavolcus (the "Doctor Who Magazine " comic strip story "The Neutron Knights", DWM #60), and theTimewyrm ("").
*When Marnal is looking through the various timestreams for the Eighth Doctor, he observes that the Doctor has "three ninth incarnations". This seemingly refers to the officialNinth Doctor played byChristopher Eccleston ; the unofficial Ninth Doctor of the animated webcast "Scream of the Shalka " voiced byRichard E. Grant ; and the incarnation played byRowan Atkinson in the 1999 charity spoof, "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death ".
*At the novel's end, the Doctor,Trix MacMillan andFitz Kreiner are set to confront the Vore invasion force. The restoration of Gallifrey, in time for its second destruction in the Time War prior to the events of the 2005 series has yet to be chronicled.
*Before he regenerates, Marnal resemblesIan Richardson . The regenerated Marnal's appearance and verbal and physical mannerisms are deliberately reminiscent of Parkin's friend and collaboratorMark Clapham .Fact|date=February 2007Notes
External links
*Doctor Who RG | id=whobbc73 | title=The Gallifrey Chronicles
* [http://members.lycos.co.uk/cloisterlibrary/chronicles.htm The Cloister Library - "The Gallifrey Chronicles"]Reviews
*OG review | id=bbc8-73 | title=The Gallifrey Chronicles
*DWRG | id=chronicles | title=The Gallifrey Chronicles
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/ED73.php The Whoniverse's review on "The Gallifrey Chronicles"]
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