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Past Doctor Adventures #17
Doctor Who: The Infinity Doctors
"Sing about the past again, and sing that same old song. Tell me what you know, so I can tell you that you're wrong."
Gallifrey. The Doctor's home planet. For twenty thousand centuries the Gallifreyans have been the most powerful race in the cosmos. They have circumnavigated infinity and eternity, harnessed science and conquered death. They are the Lords of Time, and have used their powers carefully.
But now a new force has been unleashed, one that is literally capable of anything. It is enough to give even the Time Lords nightmares. More than that: it is enough to destroy them.
It is one of their own. Waiting for them at the end of the universe.
Featuring the Doctor, this adventure celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who.
Gallifrey. The Doctor's home planet. For twenty thousand centuries the Gallifreyans have been the most powerful race in the cosmos. They have circumnavigated infinity and eternity, harnessed science and conquered death. They are the Lords of Time, and have used their powers carefully.
But now a new force has been unleashed, one that is literally capable of anything. It is enough to give even the Time Lords nightmares. More than that: it is enough to destroy them.
It is one of their own. Waiting for them at the end of the universe.
Featuring the Doctor, this adventure celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 16, 1998
23 people are currently reading
637 people want to read
About the author
Lance Parkin
84 books96 followersLance Parkin is an author who has written professional Doctor Who fiction since the 1990s. He is one of the few authors to write for both the 1963 and 2005 version of the programme — though much of his fiction has actually been based on the 1996 iteration. Indeed, he was notably the first author to write original prose for the Eighth Doctor in The Dying Days. He was also the author chosen to deliver the nominal 35th anniversary story, The Infinity Doctors, and the final volume in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, The Gallifrey Chronicles. More recently, he has written for the Tenth Doctor in The Eyeless.
He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros.
Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like Warlords of Utopia and (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.
He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros.
Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like Warlords of Utopia and (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 8, 2021
Published during Doctor Who’s 35th Anniversary, this novel has the great concept of leaving this Doctors identity ambiguous - with various nods to the past it’s probably easier to assume that it’s an alternative-history incarnation of the Time Lord!
January 15, 2011
Astonishing, powerful, wistful, nostalgic...a novel that manages to be a celebration of Doctor Who's mythic backstory while simultaneously being a piece of remarkable science fiction AND poetic human (nee, Time Lord) drama.
Lance Parkin's novel is on a scale that leaves pithy adjectives such as "epic" in the dust...this is the heart and soul of Doctor Who's various fandom branches, all tied up together in a gorgeous harmony of old genre favourites, continuity fanwank supreme, and breathtaking characters & their relationships. If there is only one work of Doctor Who fiction that could walk away with the title of "masterpiece", it is "The Infinity Doctors".
Lance Parkin's novel is on a scale that leaves pithy adjectives such as "epic" in the dust...this is the heart and soul of Doctor Who's various fandom branches, all tied up together in a gorgeous harmony of old genre favourites, continuity fanwank supreme, and breathtaking characters & their relationships. If there is only one work of Doctor Who fiction that could walk away with the title of "masterpiece", it is "The Infinity Doctors".
July 28, 2014
Travel back to The Doctor's distant past
28 January 2012
The comments on this book are extraordinary, particularly the one who says that this book is incredibly rare and only for die-hard Doctor Who fans. Okay, I am a big fan of Doctor Who, particularly the older series (the newer series seem to lack some of the zest that the older series had, and are a little less thrilling) but I would hardly call myself die hard. Anyway, I saw this book back in the time when it was first released, and decided that I would give it a go.
This is part of a series called 'The Past Adventures of Doctor Who'. It was published by the BBC, who hold the ultimate rights to the Doctor Who franchise. The publishers of the books changed in the late 90's, with BBC refusing to renew Virgin's license, and instead took over the publication of the books themselves. The idea was to release a series of books based on the 8th Doctor, though it was suggested at the time that he was no longer going to have travelling companions. The new series was also going to be somewhat more gothic and consist of 45 minute episodes rather than the traditional 4 episodes of 20 minutes each. However that never materialised, and it was going to be a lot longer before the TV series were finally resurrected.
This, I believe, takes place way back in the Doctor's past, maybe when the First Doctor was a lot younger. It turns out that the Doctor once sat on the High Council of the Time Lords (this was before he stole the Tardis), though another story arc suggests that his origin goes back even father than this, to a time when Galifrey was first established. The idea is that there were three founders of Gallifrey: Rassilon, Omega, and The Other, and the suggestion is that the Other is actually the Doctor. Where the Master fits into things is beyond me (though the Master does make an awesome villain).
As mentioned, this story is set back before the Doctor became a renegade, though was still quite rebellious. He has friends on the high council, and also a pupil (though it is before he becomes the Grandfather of Susan). In this story he is trying to broker a piece between the Sontaran's and the Rutans, though it also has a lot to do with the creation of Gallifrey and the black hole created by Omega to power the Time-Lord's technology. It is interesting that most of the time lords seem to end up being the Doctor's enemies. Okay, he did steal a Tardis, but this is more to do with Omega, who ends up being the bad guy in The Three Doctors, as well as a couple of other episodes. Then there are the Sontaran's and the Rutans. We are told about this war right from when we first meet the Sontarans (there are three, I believe, episodes in the original series where they appear) though we do not meet a Rutan until the Horror of Fang Rock. Both of them end up being enemies of the Doctor (though the Sontaran's are a warrior race who look down on anything weaker than them).
Apparently this book is an anniversary edition, I believe the 35th anniversary of the show. The book takes us back to a time before the Doctor was wondering around the universe and gives us a rare insight into his life on Gallifrey. He never really speaks too much about it in the episodes. All we know is that he is from Gallifrey, and that he stole a Tardis. Sometimes he will tell us a story, but mostly his past that existed before the series is mysterious. Note that he always seems to have female companions, and the male companions (with the exception of Jamie, and to an extent, Turlough and Adric) tend to only last for a few episodes, though there never seems to be any interest or desire in the women that he takes with him. They are, and always will be, his travelling companions. It is only when River Song appears in the new series that the idea of the Doctor having a girlfriend/wife begins to take effect. However, it is interesting that in the new series there are more questions raised about why he chooses only female companions (though in these later episodes the companion's boyfriends, if they have one, will occasionally also tag along). Also very few companions (with the exception of Adric) have been killed.
28 January 2012
The comments on this book are extraordinary, particularly the one who says that this book is incredibly rare and only for die-hard Doctor Who fans. Okay, I am a big fan of Doctor Who, particularly the older series (the newer series seem to lack some of the zest that the older series had, and are a little less thrilling) but I would hardly call myself die hard. Anyway, I saw this book back in the time when it was first released, and decided that I would give it a go.
This is part of a series called 'The Past Adventures of Doctor Who'. It was published by the BBC, who hold the ultimate rights to the Doctor Who franchise. The publishers of the books changed in the late 90's, with BBC refusing to renew Virgin's license, and instead took over the publication of the books themselves. The idea was to release a series of books based on the 8th Doctor, though it was suggested at the time that he was no longer going to have travelling companions. The new series was also going to be somewhat more gothic and consist of 45 minute episodes rather than the traditional 4 episodes of 20 minutes each. However that never materialised, and it was going to be a lot longer before the TV series were finally resurrected.
This, I believe, takes place way back in the Doctor's past, maybe when the First Doctor was a lot younger. It turns out that the Doctor once sat on the High Council of the Time Lords (this was before he stole the Tardis), though another story arc suggests that his origin goes back even father than this, to a time when Galifrey was first established. The idea is that there were three founders of Gallifrey: Rassilon, Omega, and The Other, and the suggestion is that the Other is actually the Doctor. Where the Master fits into things is beyond me (though the Master does make an awesome villain).
As mentioned, this story is set back before the Doctor became a renegade, though was still quite rebellious. He has friends on the high council, and also a pupil (though it is before he becomes the Grandfather of Susan). In this story he is trying to broker a piece between the Sontaran's and the Rutans, though it also has a lot to do with the creation of Gallifrey and the black hole created by Omega to power the Time-Lord's technology. It is interesting that most of the time lords seem to end up being the Doctor's enemies. Okay, he did steal a Tardis, but this is more to do with Omega, who ends up being the bad guy in The Three Doctors, as well as a couple of other episodes. Then there are the Sontaran's and the Rutans. We are told about this war right from when we first meet the Sontarans (there are three, I believe, episodes in the original series where they appear) though we do not meet a Rutan until the Horror of Fang Rock. Both of them end up being enemies of the Doctor (though the Sontaran's are a warrior race who look down on anything weaker than them).
Apparently this book is an anniversary edition, I believe the 35th anniversary of the show. The book takes us back to a time before the Doctor was wondering around the universe and gives us a rare insight into his life on Gallifrey. He never really speaks too much about it in the episodes. All we know is that he is from Gallifrey, and that he stole a Tardis. Sometimes he will tell us a story, but mostly his past that existed before the series is mysterious. Note that he always seems to have female companions, and the male companions (with the exception of Jamie, and to an extent, Turlough and Adric) tend to only last for a few episodes, though there never seems to be any interest or desire in the women that he takes with him. They are, and always will be, his travelling companions. It is only when River Song appears in the new series that the idea of the Doctor having a girlfriend/wife begins to take effect. However, it is interesting that in the new series there are more questions raised about why he chooses only female companions (though in these later episodes the companion's boyfriends, if they have one, will occasionally also tag along). Also very few companions (with the exception of Adric) have been killed.
September 12, 2022
A truly unbound story that revels in its uncertain relationship with the rest of Who continuity. No other story could get away with the twist at the end of Part 2 and it works beautifully here. Here we have a unique Doctor fighting the good fight at home, relaxing with his friend the Master, ahem, “Magistrate”, being intimate with a fellow Time Lord, and still being the protagonist we know and love at his hearts. Oh and whilst doing this Parkin also delves deep into Gallifrey to give the best insight into how the society works since The Deadly Assassin and also casually nails the Sontarans and Rutans. Highly recommended.
October 26, 2024
An unusual story to celebrate a Doctor Who anniversary (the 35th), The Infinity Doctors is not quite as overpopulated as the name suggests: it’s set on an alternate Gallifrey, with a version of the Doctor that never truly left.
There are interesting twists on characters we recognise and there’s the generally polished prose I’ve come to expect from Lance Parkin. He celebrates the general idea of Doctor Who in clever little bursts, particularly near the end. The plot however is surprisingly close to a well known already existing story, which (combined with setting most of it on a planet we traditionally can’t wait to get away from) makes it an oddly flat experience overall.
There are interesting twists on characters we recognise and there’s the generally polished prose I’ve come to expect from Lance Parkin. He celebrates the general idea of Doctor Who in clever little bursts, particularly near the end. The plot however is surprisingly close to a well known already existing story, which (combined with setting most of it on a planet we traditionally can’t wait to get away from) makes it an oddly flat experience overall.
January 8, 2020
It earns 5 stars because of how exciting and fabulous it is. It is also my first 8th doctor story outside of the movie, I have not read a novel about him and I think this likely trumps anything else I could acquire. Unfortunately it doesn't hit as close to home with me simply because my Doctor Who is from the new series and not classic who so some of the epicness is lost on me.
November 24, 2021
The Doctor and the master have never left Gallifrey . While Omega plots his return from a black hole , a Sontaran/ Rita’s peace conference boils over .
This is an affectionate look into the past, or alternative time line. It treads old ground with new freshness and is good overall.
This is an affectionate look into the past, or alternative time line. It treads old ground with new freshness and is good overall.
February 4, 2021
Good stuff! A deep dive into Gallifrey's history and culture through an interesting and different Doctor Who story. Good plot with surprising twists.
November 24, 2023
“The Doctor has other things on his mind. He had to see a man about God.”
Finally bringing this home in time for the 60th anniversary and finding it mostly just okay. Lotta technobabble and insane science here to just say “It’s Omega again” but I can’t deny just how big of a swing it is for an anniversary story.
I wish it did more really with the ambiguous Doctor incarnation but it’s like…it’s just okay. I wish it wasn’t so unwieldy.
Finally bringing this home in time for the 60th anniversary and finding it mostly just okay. Lotta technobabble and insane science here to just say “It’s Omega again” but I can’t deny just how big of a swing it is for an anniversary story.
I wish it did more really with the ambiguous Doctor incarnation but it’s like…it’s just okay. I wish it wasn’t so unwieldy.
Read
April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/1087211.html[return][return]This wasn't quite the book I expected. (I thought I had read somewhere that this was the one where various different versions of canonicity collide; obviously not.) This is an alternate timeline where the Doctor never left Gallifrey, and neither did the Master (here renamed the Magistrate); both ascended to high office among the Time Lords. The Doctor is brokering a peace deal between the Sontarans and the Rutans, but meanwhile Omega is trying to break out of his anti-matter universe using the Doctor's body; so it's a combination and re-orientation of The Three Doctors, The Invasion of Time and Arc of Infinity (Hedin is the only other TV canon character in the story) with some very small bits of The Deadly Assassin and The Five Doctors. There are also a number of nods to Stephen Baxter, which is mildly amusing.[return][return]While I liked the overall idea, and numerous details of the scenery, I wasn't so sure about some of the plot. I felt that the Gallifrey audios managed to balance the idea of competing factions in Gallifrey, powerful external forces and rogue Time Lords rather better, and without having to invent a whole new continuity. One crucial point is that the Gallifreyan security system really is unrealistically poor, even for the sclerotic Time Lord society: there is little sense of urgency from the President and High Council as the body count rises in the corridors of the citadel, or when important visitors start going astray, and the Watch's investigations are astonishingly incompetent.[return][return]However, the interactions between Time Lords and the rest of Gallifreyan society are well done, and so is the depiction of Omega's universe and its limitations. There are also some intriguing hints about the Doctor's own lost past, and his capacity for loving women of his own race. (And of course it's impossible to know which Doctor we are dealing with here - Paul McGann without the wig, perhaps?)[return][return]Fails the Bechdel test, I'm afraid. There are few women characters - Omega's unnamed wife, Larna who is the Doctor's quasi-companion, and Larna's maidservant; the first of these never meets the other two, and the only direct speech interchange between Larna and her maid is about a male visitor.[return][return]Otherwise, not bad, but not a classic either.
June 11, 2014
This was my first foray into Doctor Who novels. It was written for the show's 35th anniversary and seems to take place outside the normal continuity of the series (to the extent that Doctor Who has a normal continuity!).
The story takes place largely on Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords. The Doctor is living there, integrated (or reintegrated?) into Time Lord society. It's (intentionally, I think) unclear whether we're supposed to think this takes place in the distant past or the far future. The Doctor isn't portrayed as any of the specific incarnations we're familiar with. Some reviewers have suggested it's a younger version of the First Doctor, while others have argued that it's the Eighth Doctor (or some later incarnation) at some point in the future.
I don't think this matters much, because what Parkin is trying to do is tell a Doctor Who story that gets at the essence of who (pardon the expression) the Doctor is. He does a great job of creating a character who isn't any specific Doctor we know, but is still recognizably *The Doctor.*
Without giving too much away, the story has to do with the history of Gallifrey and how the Time Lords became the Time Lords, with a figure from the past returning to threaten the planet (and because this is Doctor Who, the space-time continuum itself). You could call this "hard"-ish SF, but unlike some books that fall into that genre, the technobabble is largely in service to the story and characterization rather than vice versa.
You'll probably enjoy this a lot more if you're a Doctor Who fan and have at least a passing familiarity with the classic series. There are references (many of which I'm sure I didn't get) to various parts of the show's mythos, and Parkin plays with the idea that the jumble of seemingly-contradictory events that have made up Doctor Who since its inception are part of one story and once character's existence.
The story takes place largely on Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords. The Doctor is living there, integrated (or reintegrated?) into Time Lord society. It's (intentionally, I think) unclear whether we're supposed to think this takes place in the distant past or the far future. The Doctor isn't portrayed as any of the specific incarnations we're familiar with. Some reviewers have suggested it's a younger version of the First Doctor, while others have argued that it's the Eighth Doctor (or some later incarnation) at some point in the future.
I don't think this matters much, because what Parkin is trying to do is tell a Doctor Who story that gets at the essence of who (pardon the expression) the Doctor is. He does a great job of creating a character who isn't any specific Doctor we know, but is still recognizably *The Doctor.*
Without giving too much away, the story has to do with the history of Gallifrey and how the Time Lords became the Time Lords, with a figure from the past returning to threaten the planet (and because this is Doctor Who, the space-time continuum itself). You could call this "hard"-ish SF, but unlike some books that fall into that genre, the technobabble is largely in service to the story and characterization rather than vice versa.
You'll probably enjoy this a lot more if you're a Doctor Who fan and have at least a passing familiarity with the classic series. There are references (many of which I'm sure I didn't get) to various parts of the show's mythos, and Parkin plays with the idea that the jumble of seemingly-contradictory events that have made up Doctor Who since its inception are part of one story and once character's existence.
August 21, 2013
The Doctor sitting in the Hight Council of Time Lords beside a black bearded "Magistrate" who's said to be his oldest friend (well, well, it does make me think of somebody ^^)
Alternative timeline or distant past ? No idea. It's part to the charm of the book.
A return to Gallifrey's origins; the expedition who allowed the Gallifreyans to become Time Lords by harnessing a black-hole. All thing alongside with the myths of Rassilon and Omega, the engineers of this progress.
An insight of the strength and high power held by Gallifrey and the responsibilities that come with.
And the Doctor. His life on Gallifrey as an eccentric tutor alongside with his status as an imminent TimeLord's society member.
A view of his past; the things he had once owned and then lost.
A poetic sort of science-fiction with some philosophical question on what make the life important.
It was damn powerful, freaking immersive and wonderfully written.
And please excuse the potential grammar mistakes from the non-native english speaker that I am.
November 9, 2013
Despite the praise this book has received over the years, I had some issues with it. Most significantly is the ambiguity regarding the identity of which incarnation of the Doctor the book features. Without a personality or mannerisms particular to a known incarnation of the Doctor, I had difficulty caring about the lead and, by extension, the rest of the characters.
The story itself promises a great deal, but ultimately fails to deliver, while the conclusion is a non-event. I'm a big fan of Parkin's Doctor Who novels and this one is still well-crafted, but I found it a rather detached and soulless affair.
The story itself promises a great deal, but ultimately fails to deliver, while the conclusion is a non-event. I'm a big fan of Parkin's Doctor Who novels and this one is still well-crafted, but I found it a rather detached and soulless affair.
July 30, 2020
I’ve really struggled trying to figure out how to rate this book. The style and writing is absolutely phenomenal- but I couldn’t get behind the storyline. I loved learning about Time Lord culture and the inner workings of Gallifrey I was previously unaware of, but I just did not enjoy the plot at all. And to me that’s what should draw me in when reading a novel.
April 21, 2012
Kind of a bummer. Really was looking forward to this, but it was a bit of a disaster! Characters that change their attributes at a whim, and a hugely in depth Time Lord history, that I just didn’t get. But I got the book for father’s day 2008 so I’ll keep it forever!
April 20, 2014
This book was very well written, and the story very interesting - but I had several grumbles about canon, character continuity, and various nerdy stuff.
I realise that the books are not actually canon, but this was a bit much.
I realise that the books are not actually canon, but this was a bit much.
January 26, 2025
“Time is relative” The Doctor emphasises this notion multiple times in Lance Parkin’s 1998 novel, ‘The Infinity Doctors’, which commemorates the 35th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’. As I read this, I found myself smiling, recalling the well-known line delivered by Patrick Troughton’s portrayal of the Doctor during his farewell to Zoe in the 1969 serial, ‘The War Games’. ‘The Infinity Doctors’ has remained on my reading list for 25 years, hindered by the demands of my own life; I now wonder why I delayed it for so long, as it proves to be quite an enjoyable read.
Setting aside my personal reflections on time, I seem to remember an interview with the distinguished 'Doctor Who' writer Terrance Dicks, in which he expressed frustration that the show's writers often shied away from placing stories on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey, deeming it boring. After all, this was the very reason the Doctor stole a TARDIS and chose to leave the planet! Throughout the 27-year classic era of the television series, Gallifrey was visited only on a few rare occasions, while the Doctor's fellow Time Lords who inhabit the planet were frequently referenced yet seldom appeared.
Lance Parkin undertook a significant endeavour in revisiting The Doctor's home planet and exploring the history surrounding the inception of time travel through Omega and Rassilon, while also reintroducing several well-known figures from the Time Lords' lore.
It quickly becomes apparent that ‘The Infinity Doctors’ is set in an alternate universe, and the portrayal of The Doctor is intentionally vague. Some critics have suggested that this incarnation represents a blend of the first eight Doctors; however, I personally perceived it as a younger version of the first Doctor as depicted by William Hartnell, although there are instances in Parkin's writing where I could discern traits reminiscent of the second and fourth Doctors, portrayed by Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker, respectively. I set aside my reservations regarding this incarnation early in the narrative, particularly as Parkin enriches the depiction of Gallifrey and a planet that The Doctor and his peers never departed.
The author provides a more intricate portrayal of the world than has been seen in the television series, and the intrigue intensifies when one of the central characters, Lady Larna—formerly one of The Doctor's students—finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation. The narrative truly gains momentum at this point. Numerous references to characters and settings from the ‘Doctor Who' extensive mythology are present, and while some sections may be criticised for an overabundance of technical jargon, this is ultimately rewarded as Parkin cleverly incorporates lighter moments (including references to page numbers) into the unfolding dialogue.
Furthermore, the book contains aspects that will appeal to enthusiasts of the contemporary series, despite 'The Infinity Doctors' being released several years before Christopher Eccleston yelled “Run for your life!”. Themes such as Time Wars and Galifreyan history are significantly featured, and I found it to be quite compatible with the ‘Doctor Who’ canon. This compatibility is enhanced by the advantage of placing the narrative in an alternate universe. I regret the delay in my reading of ‘The Infinity Doctors’, but I am delighted to have completed it at last.
Setting aside my personal reflections on time, I seem to remember an interview with the distinguished 'Doctor Who' writer Terrance Dicks, in which he expressed frustration that the show's writers often shied away from placing stories on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey, deeming it boring. After all, this was the very reason the Doctor stole a TARDIS and chose to leave the planet! Throughout the 27-year classic era of the television series, Gallifrey was visited only on a few rare occasions, while the Doctor's fellow Time Lords who inhabit the planet were frequently referenced yet seldom appeared.
Lance Parkin undertook a significant endeavour in revisiting The Doctor's home planet and exploring the history surrounding the inception of time travel through Omega and Rassilon, while also reintroducing several well-known figures from the Time Lords' lore.
It quickly becomes apparent that ‘The Infinity Doctors’ is set in an alternate universe, and the portrayal of The Doctor is intentionally vague. Some critics have suggested that this incarnation represents a blend of the first eight Doctors; however, I personally perceived it as a younger version of the first Doctor as depicted by William Hartnell, although there are instances in Parkin's writing where I could discern traits reminiscent of the second and fourth Doctors, portrayed by Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker, respectively. I set aside my reservations regarding this incarnation early in the narrative, particularly as Parkin enriches the depiction of Gallifrey and a planet that The Doctor and his peers never departed.
The author provides a more intricate portrayal of the world than has been seen in the television series, and the intrigue intensifies when one of the central characters, Lady Larna—formerly one of The Doctor's students—finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation. The narrative truly gains momentum at this point. Numerous references to characters and settings from the ‘Doctor Who' extensive mythology are present, and while some sections may be criticised for an overabundance of technical jargon, this is ultimately rewarded as Parkin cleverly incorporates lighter moments (including references to page numbers) into the unfolding dialogue.
Furthermore, the book contains aspects that will appeal to enthusiasts of the contemporary series, despite 'The Infinity Doctors' being released several years before Christopher Eccleston yelled “Run for your life!”. Themes such as Time Wars and Galifreyan history are significantly featured, and I found it to be quite compatible with the ‘Doctor Who’ canon. This compatibility is enhanced by the advantage of placing the narrative in an alternate universe. I regret the delay in my reading of ‘The Infinity Doctors’, but I am delighted to have completed it at last.
February 14, 2017
Eighteen years can be a long time. It's the space of time that separates William Hartnell in An Unearthly Child from Tom Baker in Logopolis. It's the space of time that separates Sylvester McCoy in Remembrance Of The Daleks from David Tennant in Doomsday. It's also the period of time, give or take a month or two, from when I'm writing the review of Lance Parkin's The Infinity Doctors. It was half that time ago that separates when I first read it and loved it from the time I read it a second time. As Doctor Who fans, we're warned that the memory cheats but is that always the case?
Part of what sets The Infinity Doctors apart both then and now is what Parkin chose to do with it. To quote from the blurb on the back of the novel: "Featuring the Doctor, this adventure ." Within pages of starting the novel, it's clear this isn't quite the Doctor Who you might have been expecting going in. The novel is not unlike the later Big Finish series Doctor Who Unbound, set outside the usual confines of the series. It's something that has driven some fans crazy in the past two decades, trying to figure out where and when it fits into the show's canon. Without a specified Doctor, is it a pre-Unearthly Child First Doctor, the Eighth Doctor of the BBC novels, an Eighth Doctor before the Time War (which would be created by Russell T Davies in a few more years), or none of the above even?
Here's another, perhaps more important question: Does it really even matter?
What Parkin does in the space of 280 is exactly what the blurb suggests "celebrate[s] the thirty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who." Parkin draws on three and a half decades of Doctor Who lore across different media ranging from TV to comics to novels to create a sweeping vision of the Doctor's homeworld of Gallifrey rarely seen elsewhere (except maybe in Marc Platt's Lungbarrow which gets references here as well). Expect appearances by some familiar names and faces, new visions of familiar places, and much more. Yet the novel rarely feels like it's just covering old ground but is instead reinventing it around you as you read, making it readable by fans both new and old.
Nowhere are things both familiar and different than with the Doctor himself. The aforementioned questions of identity linger over the novel throughout from the first time we meet this Doctor with close-cropped hair and a long face. There's strong echoes of Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor to him, especially in the characterization and dialogue. There's a more human aspect to this Doctor, a sense of genuine wonder and excitement to him that feels in keeping with McGann's Doctor and there's even a brief reference to the TV Movie thrown in at one point. Yet in other ways he completely new to us, a different man from the Doctor's we had encountered before (or even since). He's does things that are very Doctorish but aren't quite in keeping with any of the ones we've met before, particularly a set of actions going into the last act of the novel. The Doctor at once familiar but with layers that perhaps only a literary work could explore.
Nowhere is all that more clear than in the novel's last act. In it, Parkin brings together elements from not just different media but across the show's history together into an incredible but actually quite eventful series of events that brings back one of the show's villains, explores the Doctor's background, puts Gallifrey along with the rest universe under threat, and pulls off a great meta-ficitonal moment on page 229 along the way. It also gives us the scene that gives this novel its title, and raises a good point about the nature of canon and the history of the series: that as it important as it might seem to ask how we got here, there's times when we need to just enjoy where we are and find ways of going forward. For a series that had been off the air for nearly a decade, that was still years away from regenerating for a new audience in a new century, it was an important message and the sense of false nostalgia stopping progress is one that is as important now as it was then for the series and the reader alike.
Whatever Doctor it might feature and at whatever point in his life it might take place aside, what's clear after nine years and two separate readings is that there isn't anything else quite like The Infinity Doctors anywhere else in the series. Within its 280 pages, Parkin doesn't just celebrate Doctor Who at thirty-five but turns it and everything we think we know on its head. It's not a case of out with the old, in with the new but finding new ways to explore old ground and tell a story that uses the past as a springboard for the future.
It's no wonder then that in the first I, Who book that Lars Pearson described this as the perfect novel to make into a Doctor Who feature film. "What's old is new," as the saying goes. The Infinity Doctors, after nearly two decades, proves that point rather admirably and remains a must-read for fans of Doctor Who.
Part of what sets The Infinity Doctors apart both then and now is what Parkin chose to do with it. To quote from the blurb on the back of the novel: "Featuring the Doctor, this adventure ." Within pages of starting the novel, it's clear this isn't quite the Doctor Who you might have been expecting going in. The novel is not unlike the later Big Finish series Doctor Who Unbound, set outside the usual confines of the series. It's something that has driven some fans crazy in the past two decades, trying to figure out where and when it fits into the show's canon. Without a specified Doctor, is it a pre-Unearthly Child First Doctor, the Eighth Doctor of the BBC novels, an Eighth Doctor before the Time War (which would be created by Russell T Davies in a few more years), or none of the above even?
Here's another, perhaps more important question: Does it really even matter?
What Parkin does in the space of 280 is exactly what the blurb suggests "celebrate[s] the thirty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who." Parkin draws on three and a half decades of Doctor Who lore across different media ranging from TV to comics to novels to create a sweeping vision of the Doctor's homeworld of Gallifrey rarely seen elsewhere (except maybe in Marc Platt's Lungbarrow which gets references here as well). Expect appearances by some familiar names and faces, new visions of familiar places, and much more. Yet the novel rarely feels like it's just covering old ground but is instead reinventing it around you as you read, making it readable by fans both new and old.
Nowhere are things both familiar and different than with the Doctor himself. The aforementioned questions of identity linger over the novel throughout from the first time we meet this Doctor with close-cropped hair and a long face. There's strong echoes of Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor to him, especially in the characterization and dialogue. There's a more human aspect to this Doctor, a sense of genuine wonder and excitement to him that feels in keeping with McGann's Doctor and there's even a brief reference to the TV Movie thrown in at one point. Yet in other ways he completely new to us, a different man from the Doctor's we had encountered before (or even since). He's does things that are very Doctorish but aren't quite in keeping with any of the ones we've met before, particularly a set of actions going into the last act of the novel. The Doctor at once familiar but with layers that perhaps only a literary work could explore.
Nowhere is all that more clear than in the novel's last act. In it, Parkin brings together elements from not just different media but across the show's history together into an incredible but actually quite eventful series of events that brings back one of the show's villains, explores the Doctor's background, puts Gallifrey along with the rest universe under threat, and pulls off a great meta-ficitonal moment on page 229 along the way. It also gives us the scene that gives this novel its title, and raises a good point about the nature of canon and the history of the series: that as it important as it might seem to ask how we got here, there's times when we need to just enjoy where we are and find ways of going forward. For a series that had been off the air for nearly a decade, that was still years away from regenerating for a new audience in a new century, it was an important message and the sense of false nostalgia stopping progress is one that is as important now as it was then for the series and the reader alike.
Whatever Doctor it might feature and at whatever point in his life it might take place aside, what's clear after nine years and two separate readings is that there isn't anything else quite like The Infinity Doctors anywhere else in the series. Within its 280 pages, Parkin doesn't just celebrate Doctor Who at thirty-five but turns it and everything we think we know on its head. It's not a case of out with the old, in with the new but finding new ways to explore old ground and tell a story that uses the past as a springboard for the future.
It's no wonder then that in the first I, Who book that Lars Pearson described this as the perfect novel to make into a Doctor Who feature film. "What's old is new," as the saying goes. The Infinity Doctors, after nearly two decades, proves that point rather admirably and remains a must-read for fans of Doctor Who.
October 5, 2025
Book 352 - Lance Parkin - The Infinity Doctors
What if…an interesting phrase that goes back and back through the depths of time. In 1998 Doctor Who, the TV series, had been off air for several years and even the Paul McGann brilliant one off movie was in the past…we were still a year away from Big Finish producing audio full cast drama stories and the first return on TV was another 7 years away…so how to celebrate the 35th anniversary…it wasn’t a huge anniversary…but with Doctor Who every year seems to be worth celebrating. There had already been a reunion of Doctors in the previous year’s wonderful Terrance Dicks novel ‘The Eight Doctors’… so was it time for something different.
‘The Infinity Doctors’ was that different story…featuring a nondescript alternative…dare I say…’Timeless child’ of a Doctor? The story opens on Gallifrey and everything is just a little different…the Doctor seems to have travelled but doesn’t anymore…there is the Magistrate with his pointed beard and a future that threatens all of time and space and even the very destruction of Gallifrey.
The Doctor is acting as peacemaker between those age old adversaries the Rutans and the Sontarans because…he can. Playing politics was never his style but this is a more reserved…world weary Doctor … one who is still trying to help but this time isn’t aware of the universe changing events going on around him. ‘The West Wing’ in space ? Or even a precursor to Big Finish’s very own ‘Gallifrey’ series…it is fantastic…a little heavy going in places as we are literally world building a familiar but alternative planet we thought we knew.
Who is the hand that is behind the grand schemes and how will Doctor save all those he cares about ? Or does he even want to ? A change from the norm…fantastic.
What if…an interesting phrase that goes back and back through the depths of time. In 1998 Doctor Who, the TV series, had been off air for several years and even the Paul McGann brilliant one off movie was in the past…we were still a year away from Big Finish producing audio full cast drama stories and the first return on TV was another 7 years away…so how to celebrate the 35th anniversary…it wasn’t a huge anniversary…but with Doctor Who every year seems to be worth celebrating. There had already been a reunion of Doctors in the previous year’s wonderful Terrance Dicks novel ‘The Eight Doctors’… so was it time for something different.
‘The Infinity Doctors’ was that different story…featuring a nondescript alternative…dare I say…’Timeless child’ of a Doctor? The story opens on Gallifrey and everything is just a little different…the Doctor seems to have travelled but doesn’t anymore…there is the Magistrate with his pointed beard and a future that threatens all of time and space and even the very destruction of Gallifrey.
The Doctor is acting as peacemaker between those age old adversaries the Rutans and the Sontarans because…he can. Playing politics was never his style but this is a more reserved…world weary Doctor … one who is still trying to help but this time isn’t aware of the universe changing events going on around him. ‘The West Wing’ in space ? Or even a precursor to Big Finish’s very own ‘Gallifrey’ series…it is fantastic…a little heavy going in places as we are literally world building a familiar but alternative planet we thought we knew.
Who is the hand that is behind the grand schemes and how will Doctor save all those he cares about ? Or does he even want to ? A change from the norm…fantastic.
July 29, 2020
So I’m totally kicking myself for putting off reading this book for so long... I’ve never really heard much about it beyond some minor details that had lead me to believe I would be facing some indecipherable heavy lore bombs and whatnot. And okay, yeah, there’s plenty of lore to be found in here - but there’s plenty of brilliant Who adventure going along hand in hand with it.
As an anniversary story - written to celebrate the 35th anniversary - it’s brilliant! Possibly my favourite anniversary story actually - even considering it’s not the usual multi-Doc affair... (well, sort of...)
But, yeah - we get some great stuff here, exploring Gallifrey in a way that I feel we haven’t ever really before, as well as an interesting angle on the Doctor himself and the other inhabitants of this Gallifrey. As events unfolded and I got towards the end of the book, I realised that I really wanted more - more of this specific Doctor and more of this specific Gallifrey. But at the same time, it feels all the more special for being kind of left alone and existing as it’s own little ‘what if’.
Basically, Lance Parkin knocks it out of the park again - what a book!
As an anniversary story - written to celebrate the 35th anniversary - it’s brilliant! Possibly my favourite anniversary story actually - even considering it’s not the usual multi-Doc affair... (well, sort of...)
But, yeah - we get some great stuff here, exploring Gallifrey in a way that I feel we haven’t ever really before, as well as an interesting angle on the Doctor himself and the other inhabitants of this Gallifrey. As events unfolded and I got towards the end of the book, I realised that I really wanted more - more of this specific Doctor and more of this specific Gallifrey. But at the same time, it feels all the more special for being kind of left alone and existing as it’s own little ‘what if’.
Basically, Lance Parkin knocks it out of the park again - what a book!
November 26, 2023
It’s interesting reading more about Omega’s background, having seen him pop up in the newer Box of Terrors audio novel. There is plenty of Gallifrey in this book, which stars an unidentified incarnation of The Doctor. When it comes to Parkin’s Doctor Who works, this book is listed cheekily under both the First Doctor and the Eighth Doctor. I firmly had Paul McGann in my head while reading this, and after all the infinity symbol on its side would be an 8. But toward the end, there were a couple of things said that made me think they would’ve suited the First Doctor (perhaps even a younger version) pretty well. In any case, this might be set in an alternate timeline and whatnot. I do like some of the lore provided for Omega and Gallifrey. Apparently Earth and Gallifrey have the same timespan in terms of planet rotation within a day.
June 30, 2024
Brilliant concept of exploring a mystery Doctor in an alternate timeline - this is the sort of thing you expect from fanzines, not official BBC anniversary releases. Parkin pulls this off excellently with a brilliant Gallifreyan drama that at times hits the notes of complex science textbook, sometimes deep lore-dives, and sometime high fantasy romance.
It's a great book, but the lingering question I have is 'why?' Why go to the effort of creating a new, mystery Doctor to tell this story? It seems like a story that would perfectly fit either Seven or Eight, what is so special about this story that it can only be told like this? Other than the Doctor's brief romance with Larna, I can't think of anything. I suspect then that the gimmick was chosen first and story concocted to fit it - which is a shame but it's still a brilliant piece of sci-fi. 4 stars.
It's a great book, but the lingering question I have is 'why?' Why go to the effort of creating a new, mystery Doctor to tell this story? It seems like a story that would perfectly fit either Seven or Eight, what is so special about this story that it can only be told like this? Other than the Doctor's brief romance with Larna, I can't think of anything. I suspect then that the gimmick was chosen first and story concocted to fit it - which is a shame but it's still a brilliant piece of sci-fi. 4 stars.
March 31, 2025
Started a little slow, but it picked up and I cruised through the last half pretty quickly. It has one of the best "breaking the fourth wall" moments I've ever seen in a book. This is not any one Doctor specifically, it's kind a generic Time Lord called The Doctor, but he has many traits you would associate with The Doctor. The book was written for the 35th anniversary of the show, so there's something for everyone in the book, possibly even someone who has never read any Doctor Who. There were , but it was still good story overall.
February 2, 2018
I have no idea how to sum up this book. It's wonderful, Parkin outdid himself yet again and wrote interesting characters (I absolutely love Larna), a griping story that uses the mythos of gallifrey really well, and manages to make the planet quite alien. There's just many things to unpack here, and I love how it's ambiguous which doctor we are following (for me, definitely eight at some point).
This books is just soooo good!
This books is just soooo good!
December 8, 2022
Re-reading this 35th anniversary novel to celebrate the 59th anniversary. I would have rated it 5 stars then and went back and forth on whether to give it 4 or 5 stars this time. I still enjoyed it but it’s hard to tell whether the one star off is because the book was a product of a particular time or because what made it 5 last time was how it relates to the other books in the series (which I have not re-read recently).
January 21, 2024
Gets a bit bizarre at the end, but in a good way.
June 4, 2024
Long and purposely obtuse in identifying the incarnation of the Doctor.
December 9, 2015
This one hurt the ol' noggin a bit. It also, up until the last couple of pages, felt very thrown together.
You've got 3 major plots going on (or I guess a B plot that's introduced first, and then two contesting major plots that appear later), and there's a lot of hard cuts between them. If you don't keep your head on straight, it's pretty easy to get lost amongst the sea of characters and locations. It's not Game of Thrones hard, but for a Who novel, it's easily one of the harder ones to follow. There were certain sections that felt like they could have been cut (I'm looking at you, people and lionfolk of the Needle), but the pacing didn't suffer tremendously.
All that said, I really enjoyed the story. You don't often get to see into the life of Gallifrey, let alone learn about those that live outside the transduction barriers. Even less do you get to hear about their transcendence to Time Lord-ship. The science floating throughout the book is suspect at best, but it at least feels like Mr. Parkin tried to do his research before hand.
The weirdest thing to observe was The Doctor clearly being in honest-to-goodness love. That is a topic most authors and even show writers won't touch with a ten-foot pole. I applaud Parkin for the attempt, even if certain scenes felt a little ham-fisted, and not overly respectful of the equal rights that male and female Gallifreyans are supposed to share. A product of it's time, I'm sure.
Overall, a good read.
You've got 3 major plots going on (or I guess a B plot that's introduced first, and then two contesting major plots that appear later), and there's a lot of hard cuts between them. If you don't keep your head on straight, it's pretty easy to get lost amongst the sea of characters and locations. It's not Game of Thrones hard, but for a Who novel, it's easily one of the harder ones to follow. There were certain sections that felt like they could have been cut (I'm looking at you, people and lionfolk of the Needle), but the pacing didn't suffer tremendously.
All that said, I really enjoyed the story. You don't often get to see into the life of Gallifrey, let alone learn about those that live outside the transduction barriers. Even less do you get to hear about their transcendence to Time Lord-ship. The science floating throughout the book is suspect at best, but it at least feels like Mr. Parkin tried to do his research before hand.
The weirdest thing to observe was The Doctor clearly being in honest-to-goodness love. That is a topic most authors and even show writers won't touch with a ten-foot pole. I applaud Parkin for the attempt, even if certain scenes felt a little ham-fisted, and not overly respectful of the equal rights that male and female Gallifreyans are supposed to share. A product of it's time, I'm sure.
Overall, a good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2011
I can do no better job than the review done by a certain Dan Kukwa. My only additions would be that this book is not for the occasional fan. If you're an occasional fan who happens to walk into the Infinity Doctors, I have two pieces of advice. 1) *well its less advice and more berating* how were you so lucky to run into a copy of the Infinity Doctors - its rare! 2) You are not ready for this... this is a truly mythical and captivating story that ties together many pieces of the Doctor's character that you never thought you would get a chance to delve into. This story is for those, in Doctor Who fandom, who've lived their whole lives in the Doctor Who universe and have been waiting for something to come along and take them to the NEXT LEVEL of fandom.
Those who have been given the privilege of reading The Infinity Doctors truly have joined a new level of consciousness through an inexplicable transcendence into this new realm. This ascension lives inside of those of us who have read it... and if you haven't.... you need to join us. First, read/ watch as much Doctor Who as possible and then call us a) there is an interview process b) we need to set you up an exclusive account and copy a key for the special lounge. ;)
All I can say about the book - epic. I know I say that about many things - but, this level of epic tops most all other epics I've handed out.
Those who have been given the privilege of reading The Infinity Doctors truly have joined a new level of consciousness through an inexplicable transcendence into this new realm. This ascension lives inside of those of us who have read it... and if you haven't.... you need to join us. First, read/ watch as much Doctor Who as possible and then call us a) there is an interview process b) we need to set you up an exclusive account and copy a key for the special lounge. ;)
All I can say about the book - epic. I know I say that about many things - but, this level of epic tops most all other epics I've handed out.
July 15, 2012
Not a book for the casual reader, this was published to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the show, at a time when it was off the air. Fans have tried desperately to squeeze this into continuity, but it's perhaps best thought of as an alternate 'what if?' story. The Doctor's incarnation is deliberately undefined, and to be honest is a poor match for any of the eight candidates that existed at the time it was written, yet he remains the essence of the Doctor, the character distilled, free of the quirks imposed by various actors. Despite being loaded with nods and nudges acknowledging the long history of the series, this makes the book a credible standalone novel, a mystery set on a distant world in chaos. It's a very strong novel, in that regard.
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