Christmas on a Rational Planet (novel)

 is the fifty-second Virgin New Adventures novel. It features the Seventh Doctor, Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester.  is author Lawrence Miles' first novel for the Doctor Who range. He later wrote two novels for Virgin's Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures. He also contributed significant elements to the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novels in his novels Alien Bodies, Interference - Book One and Interference - Book Two. The beginnings of ideas and elements in those novels can be seen in this novel.

Publisher's summary
"An end to history. An end to certainty. Is that too much to ask?"

December, 1799. Europe is recovering from the, the Vatican is learning to live with Napoleon, and America is celebrating a new era of independence. But in New York State, something is spreading its own brand of madness through the streets. Secret societies are crawling from the woodwork, and there’s a Satanic conspiracy around every corner.

Roz Forrester is stranded in a town where festive cheer and random violence go hand-in-hand. Chris Cwej is trapped on board the TARDIS with someone who’s been trained to kill him. And when Reason itself breaks down, even the Doctor can’t be sure who or what he’s fighting for.

Christmas is coming to town, and the end of civilisation is following close behind...

Chapter Titles
Part One - State of Independence Part Two - Madness, Madness, They Call It Madness Part Three - Damaged Gods
 * A Prologue
 * 1 - Waifs and Strays
 * 2 - A Fistful of Timelines
 * 3 - Thought About Saving the World, Couldn't Be Bothered
 * 4 - Moment of Catastrophe
 * 5 - Directory Enquiries
 * 6 - Non-Interventionist Policy (Yeah, Sure)
 * 7 - The Edge of Distraction
 * 8 - Various Gods Out of Assorted Machines
 * 9 - Bogeywomen
 * 10 - Obligatory Chapter Named After Pop Song
 * 11 - Great Executions
 * 12 - Infinity, Shut Up
 * An Epilogue: - One Way of Another, the World Will Be Saved

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * Roz Forrester
 * Chris Cwej
 * The Carnival Queen
 * Daniel Tremayne
 * Erskine Morris
 * Isaac Penley
 * Marielle Duquesne
 * Matheson Catcher
 * Raphael
 * Samuel Lincoln
 * Tourette
 * Jake McCrimmon
 * Cardinal Catilin
 * Cardinal Pontormo
 * Cardinal Roche
 * Cardinal Tuscanini

Books

 * Genetic Politics Beyond the Third Zone is a book by Gustous R Thripsted.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor possesses an amaranth.

Drugs and medicines

 * Vraxoin is known to Roz. It was discovered on the Cygnus Rim.
 * Cocaine, caffeine and marijuana are all legal in 1799.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor refers to the Eighth Man Bound.

Individuals

 * Stattenheim (of the Stattenheim Remote Control) lived in 16th century Berlin.
 * Chris Cwej spends most of the novel in the TARDIS being terrorised by the Interface.

Locations

 * The United States fell sometime in the 21st century.
 * The Catholic Church kept items deemed too dangerous for the public to know of in three places: The Library of St John the Beheaded in London for texts, the Collection of Necessary Secrets in Vatican City for other non-living things, and the Crow Gallery in South Africa for living specimens.

Planets

 * On Minyos they cast out the heliomancers from their society.
 * Astra is a terrible place, like many of Earth's colonies in the 25th century.

Theories and concepts

 * Grandfather Paradox is mentioned for the first time.
 * Roz tries to kill who she thinks is Abraham Lincoln's grandfather, thus creating a paradox and making the Doctor find her.

Continuity

 * PROSE: Alien Bodies, Interference - Book One, Interference - Book Two further expand upon the idea of paradoxes and Grandfather Paradox.
 * The planet Astra was Vicki and Bennett's destination in TV: The Rescue.
 * It's established that the mysterious tattoo seen on the Third Doctor's arm in TV: Spearhead from Space immediately after his regeneration was in fact a Time Lord mark signifying an exile.