Divided Loyalties was the twenty-sixth novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Gary Russell, released 4 October 1999 and featured the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka.
This was the first Past Doctor Adventures novel to feature this line up of Doctor and companions and the first full length novel to do so since 1996's Cold Fusion. This was the first, and as of 2020[update], only full length novel to feature the Celestial Toymaker.
Publisher's summary
There are some evils in the universe that need to be fought. And others that need redeeming...
Many years ago the Doctor, a student at the Academy on Gallifrey, lost a friend to the mysterious and malevolent force known as the Celestial Toymaker. Now, in his fifth incarnation, the Doctor receives a telepathic call from his long-lost classmate, begging for help.
As he sets out to rescue his friend and exact revenge, the Doctor's companions become increasingly involved. Adric, determined to justify his place aboard the TARDIS, opts to face the Toymaker's game challenges while Nyssa, angered by the Doctor's actions, finds herself excluded by the people she thought were her friends. And what is the connection between the Toymaker and the planet Dymok, whose comatose inhabitants find a new saviour in the shape of Tegan Jovanka?
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Fifth Doctor
- Adric
- Tegan Jovanka
- Nyssa
- Henry Rugglesthorpe
- Mrs Rugglesthorpe
- Charles Rugglesthorpe
- Elisabeth Jane Rugglesthorpe
- Stefan
- Gaylord Lefevre
Little Boy II crew
Nightmare
References
Foods and beverages
Individuals
- While attempting to turn Adric against the Doctor, the Toymaker creates a hallucination of Jiana, a childhood friend of Adric, who reminds him about some of the things he's run into with the Doctor, including Great Vampires, Tharils, the Tremas Master, the Ferutu and Terileptils.
- Runcible threatens to report Magnus and Mortimus to Lord Cardinal Zass.
- Tegan is Jewish.
Planets
- In stellar cartography, Sendok asks his pupils for the co-ordinates of Brus, Mollassis and Ava. He also mentions the Alys system
Species
- Rassilon gave the Great Old Ones names. These included Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, Cthulhu, Melefescent, Tor-Gasukk, Lloigor, Gog and Magog, Nyarlathotep, Dagon and Raag, Nah and Rok.
Technology
- The Doctor, Rallon and Millennia steal a Type 18 TARDIS. Rallon notes that a Type 35, or a Type 30 Mark III would have been more comfortable.
Dates
- Tegan left Earth (the first time) on 28 February 1981.
Time Lords
- In the Doctor's nightmare set in the Academy, he was a part of the Deca, an elite group that included Koschei, Ushas, Drax, the Monk and Magnus.
- In the nightmare, Vansell, Azmael and Borusa are also seen.
- Two members of the Celestial Intervention Agency travel from the future, who know that Mortimus will cause trouble once he leaves Gallifrey, and that another member of the Deca has a very important destiny. After studying the individuals in the Deca, they find that this individual is the Doctor.
Notes
Several aspects of this novel seem designed to spoof Virgin Books Doctor Who ranges.
- The title of the novel is taken from an episode of the TV show Babylon 5, which was very popular in the mid 1990s. In homage to the New Adventures trend of naming chapters after songs from indie bands, each chapter in the book is the title of a song by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
- The book is set between the TV episodes The Visitation and Black Orchid, despite the fact that there is no gap between those two stories. For the Toymaker, it apparently leads into The Nightmare Fair, though it is incompatible with various elements of that story.
- Each character receives a lengthy "flashback" dream sequence full of unnecessary background information and references to previous episodes. Many of these contradict the very episodes they reference: for instance, the Rassilon Imprimatur is presented as a real thing that a person needs in order to travel through time, despite The Two Doctors only including it as a lie and despite the on-screen evidence of the Doctor's many companions. Similarly, the Master is called by the name "Koschei", despite that the Second Doctor didn't recognise him by that name in The Dark Path.
- Later, the dream sequences are revealed to have been created by the Celestial Toymaker to frustrate the Doctor and his companions. The Toymaker's statement that he was tormenting the Doctor "because I have the power to, and I can!" acts as commentary on the Virgin Books authors' attitudes toward adding backstory to characters from the Doctor Who television series.
Continuity
- The First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet previously encountered the Celestial Toymaker during their travels. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker)
- The First Doctor is shown to be one of the best students of his class, despite being previously identified as not having excelled academically in TV: The Ribos Operation.
- Jelpax was part of the team who foresaw Dalek dominion over all life. (TV:Genesis of the Daleks) This is contradicted by AUDIO: Ascension, in which Narvin orders Valyes to complete this task.
- In Adric's fantasy, Jiana mentions his fights against the vampires, (TV: State of Decay) Tharils, (TV: Warriors' Gate) the Master, (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis) the Ferutu, (PROSE: Cold Fusion) and the Terileptils. (TV: The Visitation)
- In PROSE: The Dark Path, the Second Doctor failed to recognise the Master by the name "Koschei".
- Drax's work for the Black Guardian on Zeos is mentioned, (TV: The Armageddon Factor) as is Koschei and the DarkHeart imbuing him with his hatred for the Doctor. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
- In No Future it was stated that the Doctor and Mortimus didn't know each other on Gallifrey. Yet in Divided Loyalties they are good friends, and members of the same Deca gang. In addition, it is stated that Mortimus "gave atomic bazookas to the Normans". However, in The Time Meddler the Time Meddler's entire plot was to prevent the Norman Conquest of England. The Time Meddler had planned to use an atomic warhead to aid the Anglo-Saxons.
- It is stated that a Rassilon Imprimatur is essential for Time Lords, as without it no Time Lord will be able to regenerate, and that only graduates of the Academy are given the Rassilon Imprimatur. It is also stated in the last chapter of Divided Loyalties that Jelpax was the only member of the Deca to graduate from the Academy.
- This book is highly significant, as, during the dream sequence, it depicts two separate characters named Magnus and Koschei together on Gallifrey at the same time. Koschei was the name The Master used in The Dark Path. whereas Magnus fantasises about working with the War Lords, hinting that he is the same person as the War Chief. As such, many people take this as "proof" that 'The War Chief is not the same character as the Master'. However, this occurs during what is explicitly said to be a "strange dream", brought on by the Celestial Toymaker. In addition, time is mixed-up within the dream, as Type 30 TARDISes are still being invented one night, yet the next morning Type 35 TARDISes have already been used for some time. And characters who the Doctor only met long after his time at the Academy interact with him while he is at the Academy.