A History of the Universe

If you skim through "A History of the Universe", you might think that Lance Parkin made most of it up. Setting up particular dates, or bizzare little one-line references from almost every televised Doctor Who story, and every New and Missing adventure to date...but then you realized he's footnoted, referenced, and justified almost every line. He is honest when it comes to the bugbears of continuity; such as UNIT and Gallifrey, and attempts to give each solution [and why they don't work very well]

Unlike many works of this type, Lance separates his speculation from items lifted from televised stories, and also separates it from New and Missing adventure sources. There are quotes, quotes, and more quotes -- some, directly from the series, others, from secondary sources, and some he has made up to give the book some life.

Of course, it's also interesting because of the second appendix -- the "Cartmel Masterplan". I was actually surprised that there wasn't anything new in what was printed -- it just put together threads from the various televised stories that dealt with Gallifrey, and included the elements from "Time's Cruicible". Of course, the most interesting section, detailing the Doctor's relationship with Susan and Gallifrey's past, is quite interesting. Since any future Doctor Who series [especially once the NA/MA line wraps up] is unlikely to keep these changes, I hope that the last section also sees the light of day.

One of the few things I didn't notice was the chapter on Gallifreyan history was that he listed the events of "Goth Opera" and "Blood Harvest" as taking place after the Trial of a Time Lord -- when I got the impression that the writers intended it to be the other way around [basically because it irritated me at the time.]

But that's my only nit right now, and I had to really think about it. Otherwise, it strikes me as a fitting companion to "The Discontinuity Guide", and is highly recommended to anyone who likes to think of Doctor Who as more than just a collection of stories.