All-Consuming Fire (novel)

All-Consuming Fire
Doctor:	[[doctor::Seventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Ace, Benny
Main enemy:	Azathoth
Main setting:	Earth, India, Jabalhabad, 1843 Earth, London, 1887 Earth, SS Matilda Briggs, 1887 Earth, India, Bombay, 1887 Ry'leh, The Plain of Leng, 1887 America, San Francisco, 1906
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Virgin Books]]
Writer:	Andy Lane
Release details
Release number:	27
Release date:	June, 1994
Format:	Paperback Book, ? Pages
ISBN:	0426204158

Publisher's Summary

'I’ve been all over the universe with you, Doctor, and Earth in the nineteenth century is the most alien place I’ve ever seen.'

England, 1887. The secret library of St John the Beheaded has been robbed. The thief has taken forbidden books which tell of mythical beasts and gateways to other worlds. Only one team can be trusted to solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

As their investigation leads them to the dark underside of Victorian London, Holmes and Watson soon realize that someone else is following the same trail. Someone who has the power to kill with a glance. And they sense a strange, inhuman shape observing them from the shadows. Then they meet the mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor -- the last person alive to read the stolen books.

While Bernice waits in nineteenth-century India, Ace is trapped on a bizarre alien world. And the Doctor finds himself unwillingly united with England’s greatest consulting detective.

Characters

The Doctor

• At the Academy on Gallifrey the Doctor failed practical theology but was highly commended for landscape gardening.

Bernice Summerfield

• Says 19th ecntury Earth is the most alien place she's been.

Ace

• This is the first instance where it's suggested Ace lost her virginity to Sabalom Glitz.

Sherlock Holmes

• Blundgens Sherrigford to save Watson.

Doctor John Watson

• Fancies Benny.

Mycroft Holmes

Sherringford Holmes

• The eldest Holmes brother.
• Is an agent of Azathoth.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Azathoth

• A god of anarchy and chaos.
• The Silurians venerated him/them.
• A cult of Shabogans also worshipped him.
• Is the weakest of the Great Old Ones.

References

• The First Doctor and Susan make a cameo at the beginning and end of the story, there he meets Sherlock's father Siger Holmes in Jaballhabad, India.

• The Third Doctor frequents the Diogenes Club.

• The Great Old Ones include: Lloigor (ended up on Vortis), Yog-Sothoth (encountered as The Great Intelligence), the Gods of Ragnarok, Hastur the Unspeakable (aka Fenric), Cthulhu (encountered by the Doctor and co in Haiti), Dagon (worshipped by the Sea Devils) and Nyarlathotep (who the Doctor hopes never to encounter).

• The TARDIS library has among its books Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions with four dimensional pop-ups.

• The Doctor dropped Ace early to Ry’leh to investigate.

• The Library of St John the Beheaded has been around for over 1000 years. It is located in London, St Giles Rookery.

• The Rakshassi are named after Hindu demons.

• Shlangii are the most feared mercenaries in the universe.

Notes

• This novel is written from the point of view from Watson and Benny's diaries.

Continuity

• The Empire of Glass reveals who founded the Library of St John the Beheaded.

• Lloigor appeared in The Web Planet, Yog-Sothoth appeared in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, The Gods of Ragnarok appeared in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Hastur the Uspeakable appeared in The Curse of Fenric, Cthulhu appeared in White Darkness.

• Holmes and Watson attend Benny's wedding in Happy Endings.

External Links

• The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of All-Consuming Fire
• The Whoniverse Discontinuity Guide - All-Consuming Fire
• Prelude to All-Consuming Fire as published in DWM