The Shadows of Avalon (novel)

The Shadows of Avalon
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Fitz Kreiner, Compassion
Main enemy:	Romana III Gandar Cavis
Main setting:	Wiltshire, England, July 2012 England, October 1967 Gallifrey
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Release details
Release number:	31
Release date:	7 February 2000
Format:	Paperback Book; 23 Chapters, 288 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-55588-2
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Parallel 59
Next →	The Fall of Yquatine

The Shadows of Avalon was the thirty-first novel in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Paul Cornell. It featured the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion, the Brigadier, and introduced Romana III, a regeneration following her previous incarnation depicted by Lalla Ward.

Publisher’s summary

The Brigadier's wife is dead. A terrible accident. Grieving, he searches for death, and finds his way to Avalon, the other-dimensional kingdom of the Catuvelauni.

The Doctor is also in Avalon, marooned. He’s lost his companions, his TARDIS... and his hope for the future.

Now it seems they’ll have to make a new life for themselves with the Celts who live in the Dreamlands. Perhaps even help in the Celts’ negotiations with the Unseelie, the sinister original inhabitants of Avalon, who live far to the North.

But then a gateway opens between Earth and Avalon. The British Army arrives in force. And the Brigadier negotiates a treaty that will lead to war in the Land of Dreams.

With fearsome dragons duelling jet fighters, vicious Gallifreyan agents causing havoc, and Compassion fighting against her ultimate fate, can the Doctor save the world, his best friend, and himself?

Chapter Titles

• Prologue One
• Prologue Two

Part One: The Road to Avalon

• 1: Compassion Fatigue
• 2: Get Through It
• 3: Into the Fire
• 4: Woad Rage

Part Two: War in Avalon

• 5: And You May Find Yourself
• 6: Potence Postponed
• 7: Nothing Can Stop Us Now

Part Three: The Taking of Avalon

• 8: Call it an Exorcism if you Want
• 9: If you Live a Lie, You Die a Liar
• 10: War Fever
• 11: The Return of the Hero
• 12: And This Gives Life to Thee
• 13: Reason
• 14: The Proper Use for Chandeliers
• 15: Victory is Empty
• 16: What Matters is Who You Are
• 17: The Return of the Villain
• 18: Interference Denied
• 19: Dust to Dust
• Epilogue One
• Epilogue Two

Characters

• Eighth Doctor
  • Tries to build/grow a new TARDIS using the magics of Avalon. It's destroyed when the Tower is destroyed by Cavis and Gandar.
  • Rides a dragon.
  • Again sees the future of some of the people he's just met. He is proven wrong when Cavis and Gandar kill one of the UNIT officers for entertainment.
• Fitz Kreiner
• Compassion
  • Spends time on Earth.
  • Is at first terrified by her transformation into a TARDIS and then liberated by it.
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
  • Has become suicidally depressed over Doris' death.
  • Has the body of a man in his late thirties
  • Cares for his troops, to the point of marching into a no-man's land to rescue one wounded soldier (see above for the other motivation for it).
  • Stays behind in the Dream Realms of Avalon.
• Doris Lethbridge-Stewart
• Queen Regent Ma bab Mab Pendragon
  • Queen Mab is also known as Queen Regent of the Catuvelauni, Protector of Avalon.
• King Constantine
  • Sleeps to maintain the dream that is Avalon.
• Fair Folk (aka Faerie Folk)
  • Ruled by Brona and Arwen.
  • Compassion realises that they're descendants of Silurians who were also caught up in the creation of Avalon.
• Romana III
  • Has regenerated to prepare for the war.
  • Romana’s titles mentioned are: Lady President, War Queen, Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys.
  • Looks a little like the Doctor's mother in her third body. The Doctor finds that unsettling.
• Cavis (Cavisadoratrelundar)
  • Cavis has one heart (and therefore has not regenerated.) She has messy blonde hair.
• Gandar (Gandarotethetledrax)
  • Dresses like the Master and impersonates him with the known phrase, "You - will - obey - me."
• Boyce
• Caldera
• Cronin
• Joe Bryce
• Margwyn
• Matthew Bedser
• Rex

References

• Romana uses a Space-Time Visualiser to look into near future events.
• Sentient TARDISs are integral to the Future War with the Enemy.
• Krakens, Chronovores and Swimmers are all predators that you are vulnerable to in the time vortex.
• The People are mentioned in relation to Gallifrey and its narrowly averted war.
• Fitz and Compassion take a brief "swim" through the Time Vortex.
• England has a king by 2012.
• A Time Lord can regenerate even after decapitation, growing a new head in the process.
• A Time Lord can be killed (without regeneration taking place) by being stabbed through both hearts.
• The Doctor can remember his father and the Looms, but he is unsure which of them is real.

Notes

to be added

Continuity

• The Brigadier gained a younger body in PROSE: Happy Endings.
• There is a mention of the People. (PROSE: The Also People)
• The Doctor mentions he is known as Merlin. (TV: Battlefield, PROSE: One Fateful Knight)
• Here Compassion evolves into a fully fledged sentient TARDIS (first seen in Alien Bodies, a process which began in The Blue Angel, and for which they (the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion) are pursued by the Time Lords through The Fall of Yquatine, Coldheart, The Space Age and The Banquo Legacy.
• The Ancestor Cell reveals just what happened to the TARDIS after its collision between the dimensional barriers.
• The Doctor contemplates growing a TARDIS with magic. In TV: The Impossible Planet, he affirms that TARDISes are grown.
• The statement that a Time Lord can be killed (without regeneration taking place) by being stabbed through both hearts is later confirmed by River Song in TV: Forest of the Dead.
• The Eighth Doctor also encounters the Brigadier in AUDIO: Minuet in Hell

External links

• The Shadows of Avalon at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Shadows of Avalon at The Whoniverse