Talk:The Infinity Doctors (novel)

When this takes place and form whom?
Placing this novel is complicated at best (if one were to try an place it in amongst the rest of continuity). However assumptions can be made based on the information given throughout the novel. (Unfortunately most of it is contradictory).


 * The Timewyrm is dealt with by the 7th Doctor, and its final parts are put to rest within Ishtar Hutchings in the early 21st century.
 * Which means, based on this information that The Infinity Doctor should take place prior to this event (as it's spoken of in the future tense).
 * However


 * The Klade are a group/species from the latter parts of the universe (long in the future after the destruction of the Time Lords the first time at least).
 * Morbius and Marnal are both spoken of in the past tense.
 * In Unnatural History Professor Joyce has an assistant called Larna helping him (whether or not she's the same person or not is a whole other kettle of tafelshrews), but if she is it could shed some light on when to place it.
 * Gallifrey is ruled by a male president (who's never named), but he's short. Which leaves two possibilities either before The Deadly Assasin or after The Five Doctors (however this is also a problem as it's established that Flavia took charge) then it goes Flavia, Romana, Romana rules until Gallifrey's demise in The Ancestor Cell.


 * Which leaves the other possibility, this could be set after The Gallifrey Chronicles (however while Marnal does appear in that novel, he's mentioned a few times not in a positive light).
 * Also setting The Infinity Doctors here does throw a few problems; the Timewyrm and the Faction Paradox are both future threats to the Time Lords. --Tangerineduel 11:28, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
 * It's also possible that these future threats are exist only within Gallifrey's relative timeline, that the Doctor has dealt with these threats in his own personal timeline making these past threats relative to his own past. But then we get into the whole relative personal timelines thing and well... it gets really confusing after that.

The fact that Hedin is still alive, and has not yet made contact with Omega seems to point that it should be before Arc of Infinity. I'm certain it is a younger First Doctor, though the fact that the TARDIS is already a police box is a bit perplexing. - DarkTraveller 12/13/2008

previous to the latest edition of AHistory I would say that it deliberately confuses everybody and gives contradictory clues and that we should simply say so. however, AHistory third edition gives a chronological placement. normally that wouldn't matter, but seeing as Lance Parkin did write both books and all, I would call that definitive. (though ISTR he only gives the placement in terms of Gallifrey's history, not the Doctor's life.) --Stardizzy2 03:27, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

It is possible that it is a young First Doctor who has already favoured the Police Box as an outer appearance or the circuit is already jamming after visits to 1960's Earth.

Is this book really in the main continuity?
In-universe, we never saw the timeline aborted, and heard nothing about how it was created (except a very brief reference to Centro), because Parkin decided not to write those parts after the following Orman & Blum book was canceled.

But that doesn't mean that it can't be an alternate timeline—and since it's clearly written as if it were, that seems like the best way to take it. (Parkin himself refered to it as a 'What If' story.)

And once you accept that, the situation isn't too much different from, for example, Turn Left, or the 3rd Doctor's early regeneration in Interference. If you want to ask when Sarah Jane's death on the Moon fits into the Doctor's timeline (or Sarah Jane's), there just is no answer, and the exact same thing works for when the Magister's visit to the Needle fits in to the Doctor's timeline (or the Master's). It's probably not impossible with enough fanwanking, but then it's also probably not impossible to explain how Turn Left actually happened on the Doctor's normal timeline and wasn't really aborted; that doesn't mean it's worth doing.

And I don't see the motivation in the first place. Being outside of continuity doesn't mean the book isn't canonical, any more than Turn Left isn't canonical; it just means it's a canonical book about events outside the Doctor's main timeline. --70.36.140.136talk to me 07:02, February 29, 2012 (UTC)

Removing "Past Doctor Adventures"
Nowhere in The Infinity Doctors does the book identify itself as a BBC Past Doctor Adventures, and in the little reading list included in The Taint, The Infinity Doctors is listed as not an Eighth Doctor Adventure or a Past Doctor Adventure but in an "Other Fiction" section alongside The Novel of the Film and the Short Trips anthologies. Like Scream of the Shalka, listing this book as one of the Past Doctor Adventures is just straight-up misleading. Fixing the numbering across the wiki will be a pain in the ass, but I've taken the first step by correcting this page and providing an explanation in the "Notes" section. – N8 ☎ 15:14, May 28, 2019 (UTC)


 * I've sorted out the numbering, at least in the story leads and infoboxes. It should match the numbering on BBC Past Doctor Adventures now. Danochy ☎  05:03, 24 September 2021 (UTC)