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You may wish to consult Byzantium for other, similarly-named pages.

Byzantium! was the forty-third novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Keith Topping, released 2 July 2001 and featured the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki Pallister.

Set at the beginning of The Romans as the TARDIS falls off the cliff, this is the earliest full length story chronologically to feature Vicki as a companion.

Publisher's summary[]

"Life is cheap in Byzantium. Life is cheap everywhere that the Romans are."

Byzantium. The imperial city — rising dramatically, as if by a trick of the light, from the peninsula of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Its domes and towers and minarets overlook a place of intrigue, lust, power, oppression, resistance and murder.

Romans, Greeks, Zealots, Pharisees ... all meet in the market squares of the great city, but mutual loathing and suspicion are rife.

Into this cauldron, the Doctor and his companions arrive, expecting to view the splendour and civilisation of the Roman Empire. But events cast them into a deadly maelstrom of social and political upheaval. In the eye of the hurricane they must each face the possibility of being stranded, alone and far from their own times, in an alien culture bunker.

Plot[]

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Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

The Doctor[]

Individuals[]

Locations[]

Planets and stars[]

Television series[]

Notes[]

  • This book is also available as an ebook and from the Amazon Kindle store.
  • The novel reveals that Vicki's last name is Pallister. It was never mentioned in any televised episode.
  • Vicki states that her mother wanted to call her Tanni, but her father preferred Vicki. This is a sly reference to the fact that the new companion's name in TV: The Rescue was originally going to be Tanni.
  • There is a flash-forward scene which reveals Ian and Barbara will have a son, John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton, by 1973. TV: Death of the Doctor and COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone would later confirm that Ian and Barbara will someday marry.
  • The details of the story conflict with the earlier short story Romans Cutaway from More Short Trips, which also takes place immediately after the TARDIS falls of the cliff. Byzantium! references Romans Cutaway through Ian's dream about crashing a Ford Anglia and hurting his head, and meeting a lion tamer. In Romans Cutaway, Ian dreams about the death of a girl he used to love at the hands of a Ford Anglia, having been out cold following the TARDIS' crash, and he meets a a lion. The implication is that the events of Romans Cutaway were just a dream had by Ian on his way to Rome.
  • This story is a "pure historical" featuring no science fiction elements apart from the presence of the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Vicki and the TARDIS.

Continuity[]

External links[]

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