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Cold Fusion was the twenty-ninth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Lance Parkin. It was the only multi-Doctor story involving televised Doctors ever told by Virgin Books. It involved the unusual pairing of the season 19 Fifth Doctor with the Seventh Doctor near the end of the Virgin New Adventures line.
Originally intended to be published alongside PROSE: So Vile a Sin to emotionally leverage Roz Forrester's death in that book, delays on Sin meant that people who read the book on publication didn't see this intended aspect of the book.
As a multi-Doctor story, its perspective was unusual. The Seventh Doctor was portrayed as largely disdainful of his earlier self's presence because of the dangers it presented. Though temporal paradoxes and other consequences of two Doctors meeting were touched upon in televised multi-Doctor stories, here they were more central. Moreover, the structure broke with the format of televised multi-Doctor stories, which held that the latest incarnation was the "current" Doctor and therefore the effective headlining "star" of the show. On balance, Fusion was a Fifth Doctor novel that happened to feature the Seventh, rather than a Seventh Doctor novel that used the Fifth.
Publisher's summary
- "The entire universe is at stake and I'm locked in here with another incarnation of myself, and not even one of the good ones!"
More than one TARDIS lands on a barren ice world. The Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan find a once ordered society on the verge of collapse, as rebels wage a dirty war with Scientifica, the ruling elite. All that stands between order and anarchy is the massed presence of an Adjudicator peacekeeping force.
But is peace the only reason for the Adjudicator garrison? What exactly has been discovered deep below the planet's surface? Who are the mysterious Ferutu? And why is telling a ghost story a criminal offence?
The Fifth Doctor sides with the cause of justice and fairness as always. But, as a threat to the universe unfolds, he finds himself in conflict with his past... and his future.
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Fifth Doctor
- Seventh Doctor
- Adric
- Nyssa
- Tegan Jovanka
- Chris Cwej
- Roz Forrester
- Patience
- Adjudicator Provost-General Tertullian Medford
- Ziyou Wanle
- SAM drone
- Chief Scientist Whitfield
- Quint
- Adjudicator Dareau
- Adam
References
Cultural references from the real world
- Tegan has seen Blake's 7 and can cope with the idea of transmats.
- The statement from the Train Computer, "The lever you have pulled – 'Brakes' – is not in service. Please make a note of it", is a reference to an episode of The Simpsons called "Marge Vs. The Monorail", where Homer's attempts to brake an out-of-control monorail are met with the same response.
- On page 142, the line "The birds sing a pretty song and there is always music in the air..." is likely a direct reference to episode 2 of the American TV show Twin Peaks.
The Doctor
- The Fifth Doctor is only just getting over his recent regeneration.
- The Seventh Doctor has to hide his emotions upon seeing Adric again.
Foods and beverages
- The Seventh Doctor's favourite biscuits are chocolate HobNobs.
Individuals
- Chris Cwej uses the alias Bruce Jovanka.
- Roz Forrester is beginning to feel her age.
- Adjudicator Provost-General Tertullian Medford is a secret member of Unitatus.
Individual Time Lords
- Patience was in the house of Blyledge on "Glorious Gallifrey". She has/had thirteen children (pg 143).
- Patience's husband was one of the first to explore the vortex.
- The Other's/Doctor's children were culled, but Susan Foreman was saved.
Languages
- The Fifth Doctor never uses expletives.
- Tegan studied several foreign languages.
Organisations
Spacecraft
- The colony has a Skybase in orbit.
- Alien technology from the Martian invasion onwards boosted human technology, helping their space program.
Species
- The Ferutu are beings from an alternate universe in which Gallifrey was destroyed shortly after Omega's experiments; they have assumed the role of the Time Lords, and actively engage in protecting and shaping the universe. Their "technology" (if it can be called that) is more akin to magic runes.
- The Embodiment of Gris is mentioned by the Fifth Doctor.
TARDIS
- The TARDIS has a lightspeed overdrive.
- The Machine belongs to Patience.
Weapons
- The Fifth and Seventh Doctors both use a technique which they describe as being "beyond the science of the Humanian Era", namely reversing the polarity of the neutron flow to disarm several fusion bombs.
- A SAM drone is a mass-produced drone.
Notes
- This is the only instalment of the Virgin Missing Adventures in which the Seventh Doctor appears.
- The reasons that the Doctor seems to not remember meeting his future selves in other multi-Doctor stories are discussed. In most of the televised adventures, it is credited to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
Continuity
- "Lightspeed overdrive" is first mentioned in TV: Logopolis.
- PROSE: The Infinity Doctors reveals who Patience is in one universe.
- PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible and PROSE: Lungbarrow both gave some idea of the time from which Patience is from.
- This story begins a series of story arcs known as the "Psi Powers" arc for the Seventh Doctor, continuing in PROSE: The Death of Art and ending in PROSE: So Vile a Sin
- The Fifth Doctor is still recovering from the effects of his regeneration three days earlier. (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva)
- Nyssa refers to her father Tremas. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
- The Fifth Doctor tells Nyssa that nothing important was lost when they forced to jettison a quarter of the TARDIS during Event One. (TV: Castrovalva)
- Tegan reminds the Fifth Doctor that she never got the chance to be an air hostess. (TV: Logopolis)
- Adric mentions that the Keeper of Traken was able to divert the TARDIS' course. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
- The Doctor reminds Adric that the Master supposedly died on Castrovalva. (TV: Castrovalva)
- Adric has only known the Doctor for several weeks. They first met on Adric's homeworld Alzarius during the 32nd century towards the end of the Doctor's fourth incarnation. (TV: Full Circle)
- Chris refers to Serenity, the last surviving planet of the Traken Union. The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown visited it on one occasion. (AUDIO: The Guardians of Prophecy)
- The Seventh Doctor refers to his fifth incarnation's numerous failed attempts to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport in 1981. (TV: Four to Doomsday, The Visitation)
- Whitfield refers to the Ice Warrior invasion of Earth in May 1997. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
- The Fifth Doctor mentions that he was once a scientific advisor. (TV: Spearhead from Space, et. al)
- The Fifth Doctor refers to his encounter with Omega. (TV: The Three Doctors)
- The Seventh Doctor remembers the events of the novel from the perspective of the Fifth Doctor and uses this knowledge against his younger self. This also occurs in AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox, AUDIO: The Four Doctors and TV: Time Crash in which the Sixth, Eighth and Tenth Doctors respectively likewise remember the events portrayed from the point of view of their fifth incarnation.
- The Seventh Doctor describes his fifth incarnation as being "bland" and "not even one of the good ones." This reflects the Sixth Doctor's low opinion of his immediate predecessor immediately after his regeneration as he told his companion Peri Brown that "he had a feckless charm that was never really [him]." (TV: The Twin Dilemma) The Eighth Doctor was more fond of his fifth incarnation than his two immediate predecessors. He once described him as "terribly polite." (AUDIO: The Four Doctors) By the time of his tenth incarnation, the Doctor expressed a fondness for his time as the Fifth Doctor. He looked upon his fifth incarnation as a turning point in his life. According to the Tenth Doctor, it was during his fifth incarnation that he truly began to enjoy himself. (TV: Time Crash)
- The Fifth and Seventh Doctors would later meet each other again in AUDIO: The Sirens of Time, prior to the events of AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard and briefly in their eighth incarnation's TARDIS in AUDIO: The Four Doctors, though neither retained any memory of that experience.
- Bernice Summerfield would later encounter the Ferutu on Dellah in 2596. (PROSE: Twilight of the Gods)