From A to Z - Gary Gillatt
The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin
Summary: 10/10 Happy Birthday Doctor. With these two works, we celebrate the 35th Anniversary in style, with two books that are amongs the best fiction and non-fiction books to have the Doctor Who logo.
In the past a Doctor Who anniversary would be celebrated with works that reference as many past episodes as possible, a year by year time line or a collection of aging actors and actresses getting together for a nostalgia trip. If that is what you expect out of these two celebrations, you won't get it. What you will get are two books that should both be required reading for anyone with an interest in Doctor Who because they take a step back from the details to reveal what Doctor Who is all about.
From A to Z has a series of commentarites that investigates where Doctor Who succeeded, and where it failed. Gary Gillatt's book is more opinionated than many past celebrations -- it is highly critical of fandom (especially in the 1980s), and the shift (in the UK) of Doctor Who from a popular success to a cult success. "Waiting for God", for example, should be read by every fan who has ever thought of campaigning their local TV station -- be it their local PBS station, FOX, Universal, or the BBC about their favorite television show.
I read From A to Z in one sitting -- but this book works even better, I think, when you dive into one chapter, read it, and come back to it later. You can read each chapter in isolation, the essays providing a series of snapshots throughout the thirty five years of the series -- this isn't a history of the series.
It should serve as book to start good discussions on the series -- the embarassing racial track record of the series is discussed in "Ethnic Ethics", romance is discussed in "Josephine Jones (Mrs)", religion in "Karma Chameleon". From discussions about the impact of C.E. Webber, Robert Holmes, and Tom Baker on the series, to the joys of the Yearbooks or comic series, you will learn new facts, gain new insight on a series.
As befits a nice, expensive hardback, From A to Z also has loads of nice photographs. It is increasingly difficult to find photos from the series that I have not seen before, but this book manages to do pull a number of new photos that will make the book enjoyable to page through as well.
Where From A to Z serves as a non-fiction summary of the series, The Infinity Doctors celebrates the series in a unique style as well. It is difficult to discuss Lance Parkin's latest novel in a way that will not reveal the surprises of the book, and I will get to those in good time. While this novel shares the history of The Three Doctors, and The Five Doctors, and the book has more than its share of references to the past, this is a book that breaks new ground, and revists the series very fundementals. This book -- unlike past celebrations, celebrates Doctor Who the TV series, the book series, and the comic series.
The Gallifrey of this novel is the most successful version of Gallifrey to appear in print to date -- it takes the political intrigue of Deadly Assassin, the wonderful skyline of Marvel's Gallifrey, and significant bits and pieces of the Gallifrey of Lungbarrow and the unproduced scripts in The Nth Doctor. The Time Lords are the dull race we expect; frequently discussing the situation with academic and removed language. And this is pulled off in a way that is not boring at all -- but instead one of the best insights into why the Doctor left Gallifrey.
While I can discuss Gallifrey without giving the game a way, the characters really need to be discussed after this word from our spoiler break...
"Featuring The Doctor" -- this back cover blurb is obviously the greatest hint that this isn't your childhood's anniversary story. This is unlikely to be "our" Doctor, but he certainly could have been. His behavior is very much what we would expect from a Paul McGann like Doctor, much like Tom Baker, but younger. This is one time where being a "generic" Doctor is especially appropriate; we can never quite be sure if -- and how -- this story relates to the Doctor Who universe we normally watch and read about. An alternate universe of some sort? Probably, but the ties to the "normal" Whoniverse make it not so simple.
The other characters are all familiar images; who could Lady Larna be, with her blond hair when dressed in the Doctor's clothes, but Romana as played by Lalla Ward? The Magistrate, the old friend of the Doctor's with a taste for black outfits and similar interventionist ambitions, a Master before his fall from grace.
What makes all of these characters work is that they are classic Doctor Who archetypes; a Time Lord hiding his voice-print password in plain sight, a character that is possessed by a Jeckyl-and-Hyde type of demon. Omega -- who is placed where he belongs, at the end of Time -- is the tragic character not nearly a villain but a trapped prisoner, with ties closer to the Doctor than we previously imagined. A story that takes elements and ideas from The Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity, two stories that never quite lived up to their full potential, and makes something fresh with them.
The themes are interesting; from the song that is quoted on the back cover to the ending climax, which states why the books should "count" -- and create a future for Doctor Who, not just live in the past of the series. It's ironic -- a book that freely recycles lots of bits of old Who to make an anniversary adventure becomes a statement about how going forward with new Who is more important than just living in the past of the series.
So what makes both From A to Z and The Infinity Doctors similar is that they both lead a way into a possible future for Doctor Who while celebrating the past, and really, isn't that about the best anniversary present you could get?