Doctor Who: Infinite Requiem

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #36

by Daniel Blythe

'The whole structure of the cosmos could be at stake - and the focus of the danger is here on Earth.' Bernice sighed. 'Charity begins at home.'

Kelzen, a chaotic force in the mind of an unborn twentieth-century earthling. Jirenal, intent on conquering a future society of dreamers and telepaths. Shanstra, evil incarnate - the conflicts on Gadrell Major are her sport and the tragedies of humans are her entertainment.

They are Sensopaths, their minds attuned to the collective unconscious, their power unleashed like a wild animal into the physical world. One by one, the TARDIS has located them. While Bernice faces the life-and-death struggle of a colonial war, with only a hologram of the Doctor to help her, the Doctor himself must confront the all-powerful trinity.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Daniel Blythe was born in Maidstone and educated at Maidstone Grammar School and St John’s College, Oxford. He is the author of three Doctor Who novels including Autonomy, as well as the novels The Cut, Losing Faith and This Is The Day. He has also written the non-fiction books The Encyclopaedia Of Classic 80s Pop, I Hate Christmas: A Manifesto for the Modern-Day Scrooge, Dadlands: The Alternative Handbook For New Fathers, the irreverent politics primer X Marks The Box and the collectors' guide Collecting Gadgets and Games from the 1950s-90s. In 2012, Chicken House published his book for younger readers, Shadow Runners. His Emerald Greene books for younger readers are also out now. Daniel now lives in Yorkshire, on the edge of the Peak District, with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Danny Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Virgin New Adventures is a range of books I have a lot of nostalgia for but despite that, it's a very mixed series of books with some absolute classics and some absolute stinkers such as Parasite or Timewyrm Genesys to name a couple. I was a little worried about Infinite Requiem since to me it didn't sound very promising, but since I enjoyed The Dimension Riders I finally decided to give it a go.

Three Sensopaths by the names of Kelzen, Jirenal, and Shanstra are hoping to reunite once more in a singular form, but being separated throughout time and space their reunion is easier said than done. The Doctor and Bernice coming across an old friend or two must travel throughout the universe to Earth, a dream center, and the war-ridden wastelands of Godrell Major to prevent a reunion that could endanger the universe.

Daniel Blythe has written what could be described as a standard Doctor Who adventure, but on a more epic scale with some decent characterization, a solid sense of world-building, and some really fun and imaginative ideas. We see a character from The Dimension Riders return in this as well, which was really nice to see, I don't remember too much about that novel but I still enjoyed seeing Cheynor return for one last adventure.

I will say though this story does have themes of domestic violence that whilst handled relatively well with a sense of maturity surrounding the subject, it would be amiss of me not to warn readers of this prior.

Overall: A really fun and engaging novel that whilst not anything too unique is an enjoyable read nonetheless. 8/10

[Don Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first new Doctor Who: New Adventures novel I had read in a couple of years, but regrettably, it will not be one of the few I keep on my shelf. (The others are Timewyrm: Exodus, Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, and Blood Heat.)

It's interesting at times but extremely unpleasant, and is gratuitously sprinkled with the author's irrelevant personal philosophy. It's a tale of woe, like most of the middle-period and later New Adventures. The best substantive things I can say about it are: that it's superior to Daniel Blythe's previous New Adventures novel, The Dimension Riders; and that it chracterizes the Seventh Doctor well and in keeping with the other New Adventures novels. The Seventh Doctor has never been one of the most popular, and has almost certainly been the most controversial; but if only because he was the first Doctor to be featured in original novels that were deeper and more adult than the Doctor Who shown on television up to that point, the Seventh Doctor has actually received a deeper and more complex characterization than any other Doctor, including the ones shown in the contemporary program. Infinite Requiem, as miserable as it is, emphasizes not so much the ruthless Time's Champion as the angst-ridden, unhappy, and very old traveler; and to boot, the horrible events of the plot leave him very cranky at the end.

[Kaoru · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just below this entry there's another one in which someone is trying to review it from memory, but admitting that he can't remember one single thing from it. Hardly surprising, I only read it a couple of months ago and find myself having the very same problem. And looking back even further I see that the other NA I can't recall the plot from ("The Dimension Riders") happens to be from the very same author. So, an affect that appears to be quite consistent with Blythe, I'm afraid.

Really, skip this one. Apart from a short paragraph that deals with Ace having left the TARDIS one book earlier you're really missing nothing.

[Adam Highway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable! If forgotten quite how much I love Blythe's writing style, I would be very happy to see him drafted into the current TV series! This is a see less, stylish transition to a truly post-Ace series, and the relationship between Benny and the Doctor is mature and fully formed. The concept is wonderfully deep, the moral crises compelling and convincing, the threat plausible and the whole feel is perfect. Highly recommended.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A straightforward & satisfying SF adventure, though it's not quite as epic and ambitious as Daniel Blythe's previous NA novel, "The Dimension Riders". This more sedate novel tends to get lost between the emotional epics ("Set Piece" and "Sanctuary") that surround it, but it's worthy of attention in its own right.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally a good "trad" adventure, though I suspect it's not going to be particularly memorable.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to hate this book, having a dislike for Blythe's other novels and views on trans people, but there was some ok stuff in here. It was mostly (okay, pretty much all) the stuff set on 1997 Earth which drew me in, much like The Dimension Riders, and, again, much like TDR, the future outer space setting mostly left me cold. It was nice to see that returning character I suppose, as I am a big fan of continuity, especially within the series, however I can't help but feel like they were perhaps underused, considering their prominence in their previous novel. A lot of wasted potential - again, like pretty much all of Blythe's work. However, the stuff I liked I really enjoyed. Benny, again, if underused, was fun throughout, and I do think Blythe explores processing Ace's departure pretty well. I already know the next two books will deal with the ideas posed here much better though. In short, Infinite Requiem is a very forgettable, middle of the road book. Odd, considering its arguably important placement.

[Mikey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Infinite Requiem is interesting enough, if a little disjointed. This might be intentional because of the nature of the antagonists but I don't necessarily think that's the case, as the way it kind of jumps around doesn't really feel like it's purposeful.

Usually I find myself enjoying the more 'out there' settings in Who novels, but in this instance I found the Earth strand a lot more interesting and I was disappointed when it got ditched to move on to the next act. I feel that even having a bit of the last chapter revisiting Earth would have allowed for this to feel less kind of thrown away and kind of tied things up neater. That would have been preferable to the kind of random (imo) epilogue that seemed to exist just to go: "Look, a consequence!"

Besides that, it's still an enjoyable enough read, though considering it's following on from Set Piece it kind of feels like Benny actually gets sidelined for a lot of the runtime in favour of Characters of the Week.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW: Domestic abuse.

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I wasn't overly impressed with Daniel's Blythe's first book, the Dimension Riders, so I didn't have a lot of expectations for this. It was a bit of a dull plod the first half of the book, the only highlight being Benny and the TARDIS featuring it's secondary consoles, and Benny wearing a fabulous waistcoat.

An interesting concept with Kezlan and Sanjay, but I would have liked for Daniel to explore this more? The struggles of Sanjay being born in a day, turned into an adult etc. And at the same time, having his body and mind occupied with the Sensopath. But instead, it was kind of just there?

I did like the Doctor's message of hope through throughout.

Love the little nod of Theatre of War refernece. The Doctor recites Osterling's The Good Soldiers part of a signal to Bernice. Does he not realize he could send Benny to sleep with that? I'm-

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blythe's first New Adventure, The Dimension Riders, came to pieces a bit towards the end; this is his second New Adventure, and the wheels come off substantially before the conclusion here. The basic problem is that he's trying to divide the plot into three distinct sections, but he only really has the page count to do justice to two of them at most, which in practice means that all of them end up underdeveloped and underwhelming to various extents. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

More than any other book in the VNAs I find this one the most forgettable. Whilst there are some nice moments with the main cast (which stop it from being a one star) but the plot is dull, the villain just psychotic, filled up with continuity (a lot of which is wrong) and with paper thin characters. A real step backwards to the earliest days of the book series at a time when they have evolved into something rather special.

[Paul Gadsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is another instalment in the new adventure range that focuses on an all powerful being with a screw loose threatening the future of the cosmos (lot of this around apparently), it does rise above many of its cousins owing to a superior, twisting, clever plot. The dark, brooding Seventh Doctor is particularly well done, especially as he is given an excellent supporting cast, including well drawn new species, to play off. Well worth a read.

[David Layton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daniel Blythe's second New Adventures novel is just uninteresting. We get Doctor forcing his way into a problem rather than stumbling upon one. The problem itself is just another super-being that wants to cause chaos because it can. Super being as spoiled child has been done to death, and Blythe brings nothing original to the idea.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of stories that deal with new starts and redemptions, so that put this in my good books easily. Hopefully this is the start of a stronger Benny-and-the-Doctor-alone trilogy than the last one.

[City Mist · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like The Dimension Riders, this is a pseudo remake of Shada, though there's a smidge of Logopolis here as well. Every New Adventure tries to be bigger than the last, forgetting that much of Doctor Who's charm is its quaintness.

[David Sarkies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another of the many Doctor Who books
14 September 2013

This is another one of those New Adventure Doctor Who books that I am definitely sure that I read but cannot remember anything about it. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that while it was a Doctor Who story, there was nothing about it that stuck in my mind. In fact there are a lot of other books of lesser quality (such as the Dragonlance stories) that I remember more about. I am not sure of this, and maybe it has something to do with me never actually reading this book, but I am sure that I have.
Anyway, this book is set on Earth and a planet in the far future which has been invaded by an alien race that wants a special mineral (sound familiar?). The Doctor arrives on Earth (and Ace has left the series now, though it is funny considering these are books and not a TV show: in the TV show the companion would leave because the actor no longer wanted to play the role, however the series editors could have any number of reasons for getting rid of a character) and encounters an Indian lady who is having a funny pregnancy. Turns out that the baby is human (which is a surprise considering that this is Doctor Who, and a more adult version to boot), but has sbeen born with psychic powers.
That is all I really got out of the synopsis and I really did not want to waste too much time reading through it (these synopsis' can be quite long, and personally, I really do not want to waste too much time reading a synopsis of a book that I have already read, forgotten about, and have no desire to create the time to read it again). As such, I think I will finish the review here.

[Scurra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Structurally similar to his previous entry in the series, although a lot more straight-forward despite his efforts to obfuscate this. The characters were pretty good albeit cardboard thin, but the places, especially the Dream Centre, felt very real.

There are some excellent throw-away "fanwank" bits in here that earn it an extra star; I especially liked the one about some of the Doctor's earlier adventures being lost.
The ridiculously heavy-handed anti-religious tone (I hesitate to call it atheist, but it certainly employs what you might call Dawkins-esque arguments) costs it a star however. It wasn't necessary for the story, or, rather, it wasn't necessary to ladle it on with a trowel - if anything, leaving it to the reader would have perhaps made it more effective.

And I am extremely unsure about the ending. I can see why he did it that way, but it felt a little too depressing in a story that was already on the cynical side.

Oh, and why was Benny in the story at all? She had absolutely nothing to do. Given that Ace left in the previous book (and there are a couple of nice call-backs to that), Blythe decides to invent an Ace replacement so he can kill her off, and yet fails to give the main "companion" character a role of any significance at all. Very odd.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2016376.html[return][return][return]Apparently this has some continuity with The Dimension Riders by the same author, but I'm afraid I had forgotten the key details. I did enjoy the Doctor and Bernice skipping between time zones (1997 and 2387, and the far future), actually rather reminiscent of the previous novel in this series, Set Piece but perhaps slightly better executed, the 1997 scenes being particularly vivid. However the telepathic gestalt alien is not terribly exciting by Who standards.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good story. I always like the books that go much darker than the show would dare. It was a bit choppy at first, and slightly difficult to get into, but after a few chapters I got used to the writing style and the story started to click into place better. I enjoyed it enough that I read the second half in one sitting. However, the near-constant references by the Doctor to his own past adventures, and even outfits, got a little tiresome...

[Peter O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, this has lots of pretty good ideas and, while they are executed in a good way, they are not necessarily executed as well as they could have been. The events of the novel absolutely fly by and mainly because not much actually happens. There is not much for Bernice (the Doctor's companion) to do, but, meh, it's got the 7th Doctor doing what he does best - dark and moody.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

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