The Ancestor Cell (novel)

The Ancestor Cell
Doctor:	[[doctor::Eighth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Fitz Kreiner, Compassion
Main enemy:	Faction Paradox, Grandfather Paradox
Main setting:	Gallifrey, Rassilon Era
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::BBC Books]]
Writers:	Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole
Release details
Release number:	36
Release date:	July 2000
Format:	Paperback Book, 288 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-53809-0

Publisher's Blurb

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...

Characters

• The Doctor

• The Doctor was the 407th and 409th president of Gallifrey.

• Fitz Kreiner

• Both 'versions' of Fitz appear in this novel, the 'current version' and the original who became Father Kreiner.

• Compassion

• Lady President Romana

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

• Mali

• Technician Nivet

• Greyjan the Sane

• The original doesn't appear, this Greyjan is 'remembered' into existance by the Faction Paradox.
• He was president for three days (between the 2nd September 1752 and 14th September 1752).

• Mother Tara

References

• The Faction Virus which infected the Doctor during his paradoxical regeneration on Dust, continues to affect him.

• Fitz knows of the Faction Paradox either from his encounter on Earth in San Francisco 2002 or on Earth in 1996, or when he was part of The Remote prior to his re-remembering by the TARDIS.

• The Edifice which hangs over Gallifrey is revealed to be the Doctor's TARDIS which he thought was destroyed.

• The Panopticon should have six sides, but due to the Faction Paradox's interference it keeps losing sides until it's a circle.

• Romana is about to celebrate her time as Lady President of Gallifrey.

• Gallifrey is destroyed here by the Doctor, then is destroyed again as a result of Last Great Time War.

Notes

• This is the first time Gallifrey is destroyed (but not the last).

Criticisms

The Ancestor Cell saw the culmination of the War arc, which had begun in Alien Bodies. The creator of the storyline, Lawrence Miles, was extremely displeased with 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 incarnation of the 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

• EDA: 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.

• EDA: The Taking of Planet 5 debuted the war-TARDISes.

• EDA: 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 EDA: Unnatural History and Interference.

• Compassion drops the Doctor on Earth which leads into EDA: The Burning.

• Compassion also delivers Fitz on Earth 100 years later in time to meet the Doctor, which he does in EDA: Escape Velocity.

• EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles sorts out and re-interprets many of the events seen in this novel.

External Links

• Detailed synopsis of The Ancestor Cell at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Whoniverse Discontinuity Guide entry for The Ancestor Cell
• Unused Chapter 10 of The Ancestor Cell (PDF) from Peter Anghelides website
• My Review of THE ANCESTOR CELL, by Lawrence Miles.