The Ancestor Cell (novel)

The Ancestor Cell was the thirty-sixth novel in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, and featured the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion and Romana III.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor's not the man he was. But what has he become? An old enemy — Faction Paradox, a cult of time-travelling voodoo terrorists — is finally making him one of its own. These rebels have a mission for him, one that will deliver him into the hands of his own people, who have decreed that he must die. Except now, it seems, the Time Lords have a mission for him too...

A gargantuan structure, hewn from solid bone, has appeared in the skies over Gallifrey. Its origin and purpose are unknown, but its powers threaten to tear apart the web of time and the universe with it. Only the Doctor can get inside... but soon he will learn that nothing is safe and nothing sacred.

Shot by both sides, confronted by past sins and future crimes, the Doctor finds himself a prisoner of his own actions. With options finally running out, he must face his most crushing defeat or take one last, desperate chance for salvation...

Chapter Titles

 * 1: Travelling companions
 * 2: Ultimatum
 * 3: Not waving
 * 4: Abandon ship
 * First Interlude: In his footsteps
 * 5: Dusty reception
 * 6: Uninvited guest
 * 7: Turn on, tune in, drop out
 * 8: Question time
 * 9: Message in a bottle
 * 10: Taken for a ride
 * 11: House call
 * Second Interlude: Know your enemy
 * 12: Great minds
 * 13: Edifice
 * 14: Talk of the Devil
 * 15: Set in bone
 * 16: Possessed
 * 17: Shadowplay
 * Third Interlude: Infected
 * 18: Looks familiar
 * 19: Barbarian Culture
 * 20: Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey
 * 21: Face off
 * 22: Chaos ritual
 * 23: Familiarity breeds
 * 24: Ancestral manoeuvres in the dark
 * 25: Memories of a blue planet
 * 26: Discontinuity
 * Fourth Interlude: Under glass
 * 27: Source bottle
 * 28: Mother of invention
 * 29: Standing on ceremony
 * 30: House arrest
 * 31: The promise of impossibility
 * 32: Don't shoot the messenger
 * 33: Who to blame
 * 34: Future history
 * 35: Eternal kill
 * 36: Sage of paradox
 * 37: See how they run
 * 38: Burnt-down days
 * 39: Ruin
 * 40: Slaughterhouse
 * 41: Ever the mortal
 * 42: Fitz/Kreiner
 * 43: The choice
 * 44: Ended
 * Final Interlude: The time
 * 45: Aftermath
 * 46: Travelling companions

Characters

 * The Eighth Doctor
 * The Doctor was the 407th and 409th president of Gallifrey.
 * In the corrupted timeline created by his infection by the Paradox biodata virus, the Eighth Doctor becomes the representation of Grandfather Paradox; Fitz describes the Grandfather as resembling the Doctor 'if he spent twenty years in the navy before becoming a psycho'.
 * Destroys Gallifrey and erases the Second War in Heaven's timeline by restoring the original timeline.


 * Fitz Kreiner
 * Both versions of Fitz appear in this novel, the "current version" and the original who became Father Kreiner; Father Kreiner is killed during the novel.


 * Compassion
 * Picks Nivet as her travelling companion.


 * Lady President Romana
 * Romana is a Prydonian.
 * Romana is President, War Queen and Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys.


 * Mali


 * Technician Nivet
 * Survives the destruction of Gallifrey and travels with Compassion.


 * Greyjan the Sane
 * The original doesn't appear; this Greyjan is "remembered" into existence by the Faction Paradox.
 * He was president for three days (between 2 September 1752 and 14 September 1752).


 * Mother Tarra
 * Kellen
 * Kaufima
 * Eton
 * Kristeva
 * Ressadriand
 * Timon
 * Vozarti

Criticisms
The Ancestor Cell saw the culmination of the War arc, which had begun in Alien Bodies. The creator of the storyline, Lawrence Miles, grumbled about The Ancestor Cell, and went on to continue his War storyline in his own Faction Paradox series.

Among Miles' criticisms were the identities of the Enemy (primordial cells irradiated by temporal interference and then energised by a leaking bottle universe) and Grandfather Paradox (a future version of the Eighth Doctor). According to Miles, Stephen Cole claimed that both revelations were not definite answers.

Lance Parkin's novel The Gallifrey Chronicles reveals that Grandfather Paradox is in fact everyone's potential future.

Continuity

 * PROSE: Alien Bodies was the first novel to feature both the Faction Paradox and the first mention of the future War, the Enemy and sentient TARDISes similar to Compassion.
 * PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5 debuted the war-TARDISes.
 * PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon started the Time Lords chasing the Doctor, Compassion and Fitz.
 * Fitz knows who the Faction Paradox are from his encounter with them in either/both PROSE: Unnatural History and Interference.
 * Compassion drops the Doctor on Earth which leads into PROSE: The Burning.
 * Compassion also delivers Fitz on Earth a hundred years later in time to meet the Doctor, which he does in PROSE: Escape Velocity.
 * PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles sorts out and re-interprets many of the events seen in this novel.
 * Romana mentions the Dalek incident. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
 * Romana remembers challenging Flavia. (PROSE: Goth Opera)
 * Father Kreiner mentions the Thiili (PROSE: Dominion) and Vega Station. (PROSE: Demontage) Fitz retaliates with tales of Drebnar. (PROSE: Frontier Worlds)