Faction Paradox [1] is a series of novels, audio stories, short story anthologies, and comics set in and around a "War in Heaven", a history-spanning conflict between godlike "Great Houses" and their mysterious enemy. The series is named after a group originally created by author Lawrence Miles for BBC Books' Doctor Who novels.
Originally a subplot in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, the War involves several characters and concepts evolved from the original Doctor Who set-up. In several cases, the Faction Paradox series still features these groups, albeit with names changed for reasons both literary (most of the groups or items mentioned are described from different perspectives) and legal (the Faction and the Enemy are Miles's creations, but other elements are not – thus the Great Houses are the Faction Paradox range's equivalent to Doctor Who's Time Lords). [2] Faction Paradox themselves are not the enemy in this War, and play a neutral part, willing to act against both sides in their own interests. Miles has described them as "a ritualistic time-travelling guerrilla organisation".
The semi-mythical founder of Faction Paradox is Grandfather Paradox, named after the grandfather paradox of time travel theory. Originally a member of the Great Houses himself, the Grandfather created a new group after he became frustrated with the ways of the Great Houses. Faction Paradox therefore takes a good deal of pleasure in irritating the Great Houses, and many of their traditions and rituals are aligned in direct opposition to the way the Great Houses do things. Their time machines are bigger on the inside, in much the same way as TARDISes are, and the familial titles its members use (e.g. "Father", "Cousin") reference family units which the Great Houses lost when they became sterile.
Faction Paradox also take a perverse pride in causing time paradoxes (something that is against the laws of the Great Houses) and achieving impossible or absurd effects for their own sake. For instance, they typically wear ritual skull masks which are in fact the skulls of vampirised members of the Great Houses who, in the Great Houses' version of history, never existed. Their stronghold on Earth exists in a version of London, within what they call "The Eleven-Day Empire", bought from the British government in 1752. In that year, the British Empire first adopted the Gregorian calendar, and in so doing had to correct their dating scheme by 11 days (2 September 1752 being followed by 14 September 1752). Faction Paradox claimed the missing 11 days as their base (building on the illogicity that only the numbering scheme changed and no days were actually "missing").
After a brief mention of Grandfather Paradox in the Virgin New Adventures novel Christmas on a Rational Planet , Faction Paradox and the War in Heaven made their debut in BBC Books' Eighth Doctor novels.
The most relevant books to the Faction Paradox universe are:
Several other Doctor Who novels featured or referenced Faction Paradox, most notably The Ancestor Cell (written by Stephen Cole and Peter Anghelides in 2000), The Quantum Archangel (written by Craig Hinton in 2001), and The Gallifrey Chronicles (written by Lance Parkin in 2005), but were contradicted or otherwise ignored in the Faction Paradox series.
A series of full-cast audio dramas dubbed The Faction Paradox Protocols was produced by BBV between 2001 and 2004. All were written by Lawrence Miles. These stories centred on two Cousins of the Faction, Justine and Eliza. (Justine had previously featured in the BBC novel Alien Bodies, and Eliza appeared in Dead Romance as "Christine Summerfield".) The first two stories were set in the Eleven-Day Empire; the second two in 18th century London; and the last two were split between Justine's pre-Faction past and the Great Houses' prison facility. Although there were six releases and an ongoing story, each pair (usually released close together) formed a two-part story. In order they were:
June 2021 saw the return to BBV of the series as audio downloads [1] Also, a 5-minute video crossover with BBV's P.R.O.B.E. series was released. [4] Lawrence Miles said of these productions, 'I no longer have full control over the copyright, but I strongly recommend that you don't buy any Faction Paradox material from BBV.' [5]
On August 28 2023, BBV Productions continued, as promised, the Hellscape series as a Faction Paradox spin off with the first half of the audio series's second season (titled The Lilium Saga) and a free episode (episode 5) of the video series Hellscape: MorningStar. [6] [7]
In 2002 Mad Norwegian Press published a multi-author faux-encyclopedia to the first 50 years of the War in Heaven, edited by Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles, as a companion to the BBV audios. After the success of The Book of the War, Mad Norwegian began publishing a Faction Paradox series of novels set in the same universe. These novels roam the ongoing War in Heaven; despite the series' name, the Faction and its members are not the focus, sometimes featuring only as minor characters, and sometimes not appearing at all. The books also featured characters from the Doctor Who novels, including Chris Cwej and Compassion.
Mad Norwegian also republished the Virgin New Adventures novel Dead Romance as part of their Faction Paradox line in 2003.
In 2003, the first two issues of a Faction Paradox comic were produced by Mad Norwegian and published by Image Comics. The series was subsequently cancelled. The comic was written by Lawrence Miles with art from Jim Calafiore and inks by Peter Palmiotti. [8] It was set after the events of the War in Heaven, though due to its short run it did not give much detail on the post-War universe. [9] It tied into events described in The Faction Paradox Protocols, The Book of the War , and The Adventuress of Henrietta Street .
In 2004, Magic Bullet Productions, known for their Kaldor City audio dramas, obtained the license to produce further Faction Paradox audios, dubbed The True History of Faction Paradox. The narrative of this series continued from The Faction Paradox Protocols, although the first CD was also written to be accessible to newcomers. Like the BBV audios, these stories focused on Cousin Justine and Cousin Eliza, but the characters were recast.
The dramas in the series, released between 2005 and 2009, have featured guest stars including Julian Glover, Peter Miles, Philip Madoc and Gabriel Woolf. Woolf plays the ancient Egyptian god Sutekh, whom he had previously played in the 1975 Doctor Who story Pyramids of Mars . The six titles are:
In 2007, New Zealand-based publisher Random Static announced they would be publishing further Faction Paradox novels. What turned out to be the sole title of the new range was published in January 2008. The cover art, by Emma Weakley, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Artwork in 2009. [16]
In June 2010, Obverse Books acquired a license to produce collections of Faction Paradox short stories and longer fiction.
In 2019, Obverse Books published a first story featuring Faction Hollywood, a group introduced by Jonathan Dennis in The Book of the War.
In 2012, Obverse Books launched a series of anthologies set in the City of the Saved, a setting first introduced and explored in the Faction Paradox series.
BBV Productions is a UK-based video and audio production company founded in 1991, specialising in science fiction drama. The company has expanded to include publishing of novels and scripts associated with its productions.
Philip Purser-Hallard is a fantasy, science fiction and crime author described by the British Fantasy Society as "the best kept secret in British genre writing".
Of the City of the Saved... is an original novel by Philip Purser-Hallard set in the Faction Paradox universe. Laura Tobin, who first appeared in the BBC Doctor Who books, is a major character in the novel.
The Book of the War is a hypertext multi-author novel presented in the form of an encyclopedia of the first 50 years of the War in the Faction Paradox universe based on the Doctor Who universe. The book was edited by Lawrence Miles, and written by Miles, Simon Bucher-Jones, Daniel O'Mahony, Ian McIntire, Mags L. Halliday, Helen Fayle, Philip Purser-Hallard, Kelly Hale, Jonathan Dennis, and Mark Clapham.
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox. He is also co-author of the About Time series of Doctor Who critiques.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Lance Parkin is a British author. He is best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular Doctor Who and as a storyliner on Emmerdale.
Iris Wildthyme is a fictional character created by writer Paul Magrs, who has appeared in short stories, novels and audio dramas from numerous publishers. She is best known from spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, where she is sometimes depicted as a renegade Time Lord.
Simon Bucher-Jones is an author, poet, and amateur actor. He is best known for his Doctor Who novels for Virgin and BBC and as a contributor to the Faction Paradox spin-off series. Between 1988 and Dec 2018, he worked for the Home Office, in a variety of casework, admin, IT support, and planning positions. From Jan 2019 he was a freelance writer
A number of officially licensed audio productions based upon the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who have been produced over the years.
Paul Dale Smith is a writer and playwright from Leicester, England but currently living and working in Greater Manchester. He writes under the name Dale Smith, and has had previous works published and performed under the names Paul Smith and Paul D. Smith.
Peter Miles was an English actor. He played many television roles including several different characters in Z-Cars and Doctor Who. His other television work also included Blake's 7, Survivors, The Sweeney, Dixon of Dock Green, Moonbase 3, Poldark and Bergerac. His film credits include roles in Made (1972), The Whistle Blower (1986) and Little Dorrit (1988).
Gabriel Woolf is a British film, radio and television actor.
Daniel O'Mahony is a half-British half-Irish author, born in Croydon. He is the oldest of five children, his siblings including Eoin O'Mahony of the band Hamfatter, and Madeleine O'Mahony, who has designed and made hats for Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Stephen Marley is a British author, voice director and video game designer. He was born in Derby of Irish parents and was educated in Bemrose School in Derby and at Nottingham. He graduated in Social Anthropology in 1971 in London, gained an M.Sc in the Sociology of Science in 1973 and worked on his Ph.D on ancient Chinese science while lecturing in Manchester. He gave up an academic career and took up writing full-time in 1985. From 1995 onwards he has also followed a parallel career in video games. In one game he designed on PlayStation, Martian Gothic, he voice directed, among others, Fenella Fielding and Julie Peasgood.
Magic Bullet Productions is an independent audio-production company formed in 2000 by Alan Stevens, focusing on Doctor Who and Blake's 7 spinoff audios. Originally set up to produce the Kaldor City audios, in 2004 they acquired the rights to produce Lawrence Miles' Faction Paradox audio CDs.
Peculiar Lives is the seventh in the series of Time Hunter novellas and features the characters Honoré Lechasseur and Emily Blandish from Daniel O'Mahony's Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light. It is written by Philip Purser-Hallard, author of the Mad Norwegian Press Faction Paradox novel Of the City of the Saved...
Mad Norwegian Press is an American publisher of science-fiction guides and novels. The company has worked with authors such as Harlan Ellison, Peter David, Diana Gabaldon, Tanya Huff, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Seanan McGuire, Barbara Hambly, Martha Wells, Juliet E. McKenna, Aliette de Bodard, Jody Lynn Nye, Catherynne M. Valente, Rachel Swirsky, Melissa Scott, Hal Duncan, Lee Mandelo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Nancy Holder, Sharon Shinn, Jeanne C. Stein, Colleen Doran, Jill Thompson, Jen Van Meter, Marjorie Liu, Sarah Monette, Mark Waid, Lyda Morehouse, Paul Magrs, Gary Russell, Robert Shearman, Lance Parkin, Andrew Cartmel, Steve Lyons, Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood.
The Black Archive is a series of critical monographs about selected individual Doctor Who stories, from the series' earliest history to the present day. Rather than focusing on behind-the-scenes production history as much Doctor Who fan scholarship has done, the series aims to analyse and explore the stories as broadcast. It has been described by Sci-Fi Bulletin as "a fascinating series of short books", and by Doctor Who Magazine as "a grandly ambitious thing to attempt with something as exhaustively detailed as Doctor Who. But they actually manage it."