The Eighth Doctor, accompanied by Fitz Kreiner and Trix MacMillan, overthrows the tyrant Mondova on an alien world, prevents a time-travelling alien from interfering in Ancient Roman history, and stops a Dalek (never named as such, but heavily implied) invasion of Mars. Against this backdrop, Fitz and Trix have begun a relationship and decide to leave the TARDIS.
The Doctor returns to Earth in 2005, materialising at the grave of Sam Jones. When the Doctor claims not to remember his former companion, Fitz becomes angry and leaves with Trix. As the pair attempt to readjust to normal life, it is revealed that Trix has been secretly passing information gained on their travels to another former companion, Anji Kapoor, who has used the information to manipulate the stock market and thus built up a considerable fortune. The Doctor discovers that another Time Lord, Marnal, had also survived the destruction of Gallifrey, and has been living for the past hundred years as a human science-fiction writer (whose books are actually the history of the Time Lords and their homeworld). Marnal, who also claims to be the original owner of the Doctor's TARDIS, blames the Doctor for the cataclysm, and takes him and the TARDIS captive while the insectoid alien Vore invade the Earth. The Vore attack leaves millions dead or missing, including Fitz, who apparently dies trying to save Trix. After a cold 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 President Romana of Gallifrey to kill him. However, K-9 pauses once it scans the Doctor's mind and discovers the reason why the Doctor has 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 reveals that the Vore have not actually killed their victims, but sprayed them with a chemical that makes them invisible to humans; Fitz is still alive and the Doctor brings him back for Trix, claiming he brought the dead back to life on his first day on the job.
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.
Writing and development
This is the last novel of its series (which began with The Eight Doctors). Fear Itself (by Nick Wallace), a novel published subsequently featuring the Eighth Doctor but set before The Gallifrey Chronicles, came out as part of the Past Doctor Adventures line.
The use of the seal of Rassilon 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 the Timewyrm (from the Virgin New Adventures), former companion Samantha Jones, and various events that have occurred during the course of the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
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 gives a list of some of the Eighth Doctor's companions, including some not mentioned before: Delilah, Frank, Deborah, Jemima-Katy, Nina, and Beatrice (possibly Trix[citation needed]).
The TARDIS interior from the 1996 telemovie is destroyed by a cold fusion device, leaving the way clear for the redesigned interior seen from "The Day of the Doctor" onwards.
When Marnal is looking through the various timestreams for the Eighth Doctor, he observes that the Doctor has "three ninth incarnations" (page 62: 'As for his future. . . he has three ninth incarnations. I’ve never seen anything like it.').[1]
At one point in the novel, Marnal mentions that he was visited by his son in the 1970s.[2]
↑ In the author's AHistory: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe, the visit of Marnal's son, during which the unnamed son was "on the run", is set during UNIT's hunt for the Master (Doctor Who) in the television story Colony in Space, implying that Marnal's son is the Doctor's archenemy, the Master.
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, she is a companion to the Fourth Doctor.
The Master, or "Missy" in their female incarnation, is a recurring character and one of the main antagonists of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its associated spin-off works. They are a renegade alien Time Lord and the childhood friend turned archenemy of the title character, the Doctor.
The Virgin New Adventures are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989.
Scream of the Shalka is a Flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The series is the 40th anniversary special and was originally released in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who website.
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter of the Doctor and original companion of their first incarnation, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season. Ford reprised the role for the feature-length 20th anniversary episode "The Five Doctors" (1983) and the 30th anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time (1993).
The Doctor is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, often with companions. Since the show's inception in 1963, the character has been portrayed by fourteen lead actors. The transition to each succeeding actor is explained within the show's narrative through the plot device of regeneration, a biological function of Time Lords that allows a change of cellular structure and appearance with recovery following a mortal injury.
The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy.
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall.
The Fifth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison.
The Past Doctor Adventures were a series of spin-off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. For most of their existence, they were published side-by-side with the Eighth Doctor Adventures. The novels regularly featured the First through Seventh Doctors. The Infinity Doctors had an ambiguous place in continuity and featured an unidentified incarnation of the Doctor. The Eighth Doctor co-starred with the Fourth Doctor in one novel (Wolfsbane) and, after the Eighth Doctor Adventures had ceased publication, a novel featuring the Eighth Doctor and set between two earlier Eighth Doctor Adventures was published within the Past Doctor series.
Zagreus is a 2003 Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was presented on three compact discs, and was made by Big Finish as their primary release to celebrate forty years of Doctor Who. As of February 2015, it is being sold as a download.
The Eight Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures range and features the Eighth Doctor and introduces his new companion, Sam Jones. The novel takes place immediately after the 1996 television movie.
The Ancestor Cell is a novel by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, based on the science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion, and Romana III, as well as a brief appearance of the Third Doctor in a ghost-like state due to the Faction's manipulation of the Doctor's timeline, and features the last appearance of Faction Paradox in the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
The Infinity Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The book was released to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the series, and features several references to the series' past. This book, along with a few others in the series, was reprinted in 2011.
Sometime Never... is a BBC Books original novel written by Justin Richards and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz, Trix, and Miranda.
Emotional Chemistry is a BBC Books original novel written by Simon A. Forward and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Trix.
Cold Fusion is an original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Fifth Doctor, with Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan, immediately after Castrovalva. Also appearing is the Seventh Doctor, with Chris and Roz, from between the Virgin New Adventures novels Return of the Living Dad and The Death of Art. It was the only one of the Virgin Doctor Who novels to feature more than one Doctor.
The Eighth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Paul McGann.
The Ninth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Christopher Eccleston during the first series of the show's revival in 2005.
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