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Eighth Doctor Adventures #54
Doctor Who: Anachrophobia
Imagine a war. A war that has lasted centuries, a war which has transformed an entire planet into a desolate No Man’s Land. A war where time itself is being used as a weapon.
You can create zones of decelerated time and bring the enemy troops to a standstill. You can create storms of accelerated time and reduce the opposition to dust in a matter of seconds.
But now the war has reached a stalemate. Neither the Plutocrats nor the Defaulters have made any gains for over a hundred years.
The Doctor, Fitz and Anji arrive at Isolation Station Forty, a military research establishment on the verge of a breakthrough. A breakthrough which will change the entire course of the war.
They have found a way to send soldiers back in time. But time travel is a primitive, unpredictable and dangerous business. And not without its own sinister side effects...
You can create zones of decelerated time and bring the enemy troops to a standstill. You can create storms of accelerated time and reduce the opposition to dust in a matter of seconds.
But now the war has reached a stalemate. Neither the Plutocrats nor the Defaulters have made any gains for over a hundred years.
The Doctor, Fitz and Anji arrive at Isolation Station Forty, a military research establishment on the verge of a breakthrough. A breakthrough which will change the entire course of the war.
They have found a way to send soldiers back in time. But time travel is a primitive, unpredictable and dangerous business. And not without its own sinister side effects...
289 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 4, 2002
3 people are currently reading
393 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Morris
215 books70 followersJonathan Morris is one of the most prolific and popular writers of Doctor Who books, including the highly-regarded novels 'Festival of Death' and 'Touched by an Angel' and the recent guide to monsters, 'The Monster Vault'. He has also written numerous comic strips, most of which were collected in 'The Child of Time', and audios for BBC Audio and Big Finish, including the highly-regarded comedies 'Max Warp' and 'The Auntie Matter', as well as the adaptation of Russell T Davies’ 'Damaged Goods'.
Recently he has started his own audio production company, Average Romp. Releases include a full-cast adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Chimes', an original play, 'When Michael Met Benny', and three episodes of a SF sitcom, 'Dick Dixon in the 21st Century'.
For details visit www.averageromp.com
He also originated his own series, Vienna and script-edited the Nigel Planer series 'Jeremiah Bourne in Time'. He’s also written documentaries and for TV sketch shows.
Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Recently he has started his own audio production company, Average Romp. Releases include a full-cast adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Chimes', an original play, 'When Michael Met Benny', and three episodes of a SF sitcom, 'Dick Dixon in the 21st Century'.
For details visit www.averageromp.com
He also originated his own series, Vienna and script-edited the Nigel Planer series 'Jeremiah Bourne in Time'. He’s also written documentaries and for TV sketch shows.
Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 4, 2020
Astonishingly clever, eerie, horrifyingly good. Excellent. 10/10.
March 16, 2017
I'm not a great fan of the story arc this novel accelerates for the 8th Doctor. However, taken as a stand-alone futuristic thriller, full of solid characters and a beautifully realized combo of the McGann Doctor & his companions, this is a winner.
May 21, 2013
The best thing about this book is how it goes back to scenes from Doctor Who: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and does them properly. We finally get to the fact that HOLY CRAP THE DOCTOR LOST A HEART. It's about time someone noticed.
The plot was interesting enough, and even mildly believable (as far as Doctor Who is ever believable). There was an awful lot of running down corridors though. Kept accidentally holding my breath during the mustard gas scenes. The whole adventure was 'textbook' Doctor Who, cliché but fun anyway.
The inconsistencies in the Time weapons really bothered me. I'm not usually a stickler for scientific accuracy, but there was so much about the Relative Time zones that didn't make sense. Still, the ultimate solution the Doctor found was really creative and fun to discover.
Anji can still be a little bit annoying, but I really love Fitz. That guy is probably never going to get the credit he deserves for being such an awesome companion.
If you love the Doctor, read it.
The plot was interesting enough, and even mildly believable (as far as Doctor Who is ever believable). There was an awful lot of running down corridors though. Kept accidentally holding my breath during the mustard gas scenes. The whole adventure was 'textbook' Doctor Who, cliché but fun anyway.
The inconsistencies in the Time weapons really bothered me. I'm not usually a stickler for scientific accuracy, but there was so much about the Relative Time zones that didn't make sense. Still, the ultimate solution the Doctor found was really creative and fun to discover.
Anji can still be a little bit annoying, but I really love Fitz. That guy is probably never going to get the credit he deserves for being such an awesome companion.
If you love the Doctor, read it.
April 28, 2014
It’s all too easy to underestimate clever, solid writers like Jonathan Morris. Take this one for instance – it’ll never be remembered as one of the stand out Doctor Who stories or even as one of the stand out BBC Books novels. So, unless you make the random decision to re-read the thing, you won’t be able to remind yourself of just how well-told this great idea is. There’s far more to it than the striking front cover!
Morris likes to use time as a plot device, and he’s very good at it. This is probably the zenith of this approach – a base-under-siege tale with a limited cast, where time itself is the enemy. Formulaic? Perhaps. But when you tell a story as well as Morris, that really doesn’t matter at all.
So I’m glad I re-read this one. With hindsight it’s nice to read an Eighth Doctor novel from a time before the Sabbath / alternate reality stuff took over and spoiled everything. Yes, we’re not completely free from it here, but at least it’s all handled well, and it makes a pretty good twist…
Thumbs-up for this one.
Morris likes to use time as a plot device, and he’s very good at it. This is probably the zenith of this approach – a base-under-siege tale with a limited cast, where time itself is the enemy. Formulaic? Perhaps. But when you tell a story as well as Morris, that really doesn’t matter at all.
So I’m glad I re-read this one. With hindsight it’s nice to read an Eighth Doctor novel from a time before the Sabbath / alternate reality stuff took over and spoiled everything. Yes, we’re not completely free from it here, but at least it’s all handled well, and it makes a pretty good twist…
Thumbs-up for this one.
March 25, 2024
Let’s talk about the Time War. While its aftermath is the motivator for the Doctor in the revived series of Doctor Who, it was far from just an idea in the mind of Russell T. Davies. The Eighth Doctor Adventures and their use of Faction Paradox with the War in Heaven has as much influence on the revival’s depiction of the Time War as the Virgin New Adventures had on the portrayal of the Doctor and the tone (and the rise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). This series of reviews on the Eighth Doctor Adventures have been going on and off for several years now, Anachrophobia being the most like a story from the revived series. It is the first of two novels for the range by Jonathan Morris, his second novel overall after Festival of Death which was a wonderful debut. Anachrophobia is interesting because of how many layers Morris puts in this one. On the surface, it’s a fairly standard base under siege tale with the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji being separated from the TARDIS at a military base in the middle of a temporal conflict. The temporal conflict is the first layer to really peel back as much of the novel is dealing with how this conflict functions and the advancements in the war between the Plutocrats and Defaulters. Morris naming his factions after terms dealing with wealth and money adds its own layer to the novel. Rhetorically it’s a conflict of the scrappy underdog resistance going up against a large, colonizing force. Time in this instance is in the place of material wealth, and the inciting incident sees the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji mistaken for Plutocrats. While not made explicit, Morris is examining the universe post-destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords in a way that hasn’t quite been done since The Ancestor Cell destroyed the planet.
The Doctor is the centerpiece of Anachrophobia. While Morris refrains from giving the reader much from his point of view, the way Fitz and Anji see him is particularly important. The Doctor is no longer the Doctor and is tempted throughout the novel with moments where he can gain power. The power would allow him to reset the universe to his own making. While Morris doesn’t mention the Time Lords by name, instead reflecting on the events of The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and the loss of his second heart. There is an argument to be made that Fitz and Anji are going through their own journey losing faith in the Doctor as was the case with the companions of the late 1980s and 1990s, the ending of the novel having the Doctor make the right choice in the end but Morris is particular in how great the temptation was. Outside of that piece of temptation Anachrophobia is also one of those novels steeped in surrealism, the cover being one that calls to mind City of Death and the Clock People as featured in the novel are a terrifying threat. The Clock People are unknowable, there is a possibility of them being part of Faction Paradox, but the Faction doesn’t actually get a mention in and where Morris leaves things vague enough that the novel becomes almost Lovecraftian because of what the Clock People represent. While the named characters are incredibly well characterized and Morris is using his naming techniques to make them stick in memory, the trick being pulled is that you don’t actually know much about them.
Anachrophobia is a novel almost designed to leave a brief impression in the reader, and that’s what makes it work so incredibly well. It’s one of those novels that I can easily see myself returning to and reassessing depending on my own personal headspace and the context in which I am reading it. It’s a novel of far too many layers to be fully dissected on a single read. Morris writes a novel that wishes to reflect on the basics of Doctor Who (and the back to basics approach) while deciding to throw them out and push the range forward into new territory as practically the last five or six novels in the range have attempted (and often succeeded in doing so). 8/10.
The Doctor is the centerpiece of Anachrophobia. While Morris refrains from giving the reader much from his point of view, the way Fitz and Anji see him is particularly important. The Doctor is no longer the Doctor and is tempted throughout the novel with moments where he can gain power. The power would allow him to reset the universe to his own making. While Morris doesn’t mention the Time Lords by name, instead reflecting on the events of The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and the loss of his second heart. There is an argument to be made that Fitz and Anji are going through their own journey losing faith in the Doctor as was the case with the companions of the late 1980s and 1990s, the ending of the novel having the Doctor make the right choice in the end but Morris is particular in how great the temptation was. Outside of that piece of temptation Anachrophobia is also one of those novels steeped in surrealism, the cover being one that calls to mind City of Death and the Clock People as featured in the novel are a terrifying threat. The Clock People are unknowable, there is a possibility of them being part of Faction Paradox, but the Faction doesn’t actually get a mention in and where Morris leaves things vague enough that the novel becomes almost Lovecraftian because of what the Clock People represent. While the named characters are incredibly well characterized and Morris is using his naming techniques to make them stick in memory, the trick being pulled is that you don’t actually know much about them.
Anachrophobia is a novel almost designed to leave a brief impression in the reader, and that’s what makes it work so incredibly well. It’s one of those novels that I can easily see myself returning to and reassessing depending on my own personal headspace and the context in which I am reading it. It’s a novel of far too many layers to be fully dissected on a single read. Morris writes a novel that wishes to reflect on the basics of Doctor Who (and the back to basics approach) while deciding to throw them out and push the range forward into new territory as practically the last five or six novels in the range have attempted (and often succeeded in doing so). 8/10.
December 31, 2024
it is easy to say that i am fairly obsessed with this book. it is the first book after adventuress to truly address wtf happened in it, and how it affected fitz and anji. the plot is excellent, the body horror is excellent, i love this book
March 5, 2018
The middle of this one was a bit of a slog and then all of a sudden a mad dash to the end. Feel like I’d struggle to explain the plot but it was alright overall
September 15, 2024
Scary and clever, Morris understands how to get under your skin with brooding horror and a claustrophobic atmosphere.
June 24, 2014
Just finished this on the train. Ah what a lovely read. One thing about Doctor Who books of this type, I find them quite easy to read in short spaces of time. Considering how slow I am at reading, that's saying something about the quality of the book. It means the storyline is interesting and keeping me involved with what is happening.
I am reading this out of sync with other novels written around the time so there are some references that I don't get, but then Doctor Who is such a big fandom that there will always be stuff you don't understand but don't need to that to enjoy the story.
This is a lovely sanctuary under siege story which highlights time, death and war all in 278 pages! The Doctor is very well written and I really enjoyed the characters Shaw and Lane. I adore the premise of regret and how time can change that and I would recommend this to anyone/
I would definitely like to go back and read this again one day. Although remember guys, going back in time is harder because it's uphill.
I am reading this out of sync with other novels written around the time so there are some references that I don't get, but then Doctor Who is such a big fandom that there will always be stuff you don't understand but don't need to that to enjoy the story.
This is a lovely sanctuary under siege story which highlights time, death and war all in 278 pages! The Doctor is very well written and I really enjoyed the characters Shaw and Lane. I adore the premise of regret and how time can change that and I would recommend this to anyone/
I would definitely like to go back and read this again one day. Although remember guys, going back in time is harder because it's uphill.
November 5, 2008
There were *some* things I liked about this, the allusions to the first world war and the imagery around that, the ideas about the immutability of Time, the inadvisability of messing with your own time-line, the use of time as a weapon - the time-storms, especially, were terrifyingly executed and excitingly done - The story had tremendous promise but none of it actually went anywhere. Full of loose ends, red herrings and good but not fully thought-through ideas.
As for the clock-face people; I thought there'd be an interesting explanation, an illusion caused by X, leading to Y and a really great conclusion but, no - it was just clock-faced people which is... a bit daft and disappointing.
The quality of the writing and the imagery is the only thing keeping this from a one-star rating. Worth a read, but don't expect too much.
As for the clock-face people; I thought there'd be an interesting explanation, an illusion caused by X, leading to Y and a really great conclusion but, no - it was just clock-faced people which is... a bit daft and disappointing.
The quality of the writing and the imagery is the only thing keeping this from a one-star rating. Worth a read, but don't expect too much.
April 8, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2302497.html[return][return] I thought this Eighth Doctor story by Jonathan Morris was excellent, and would make the basis of a good TV episode of New Who: the Doctor and companions turn up to help soldiers of a doomed army fighting against the time winds, which age people to death, trap them in perpetual stasis, or indeed transform their faces into clocks. The focus is very much on the Doctor trying to solve the problem with minimal damage to all concerned. I see that fan opinion is actually rather divided on this one, but I think it's a hidden classic.
March 3, 2010
One of my favourite Who novels, with a great setting and good characters, and a great sense of imminent danger. And an excellent villain.
May 11, 2013
Started out pretty slow but then got better. Were the last two pages really necessary? That felt like a last minute idea that didn't really fit. It loses half a star just for that!
February 13, 2016
Extremely timey wimey and easily one of the best horrors in Doctor Who history. Best read late at night, next to a grandfather clock......
October 22, 2016
Best book in the series: https://peterswhoreviews.wordpress.co...
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews