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Big Bang Generation (novel)

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Big Bang Generation was the sixtieth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Gary Russell and featured the Twelfth Doctor and Bernice Summerfield.

It was the second entry in The Glamour Chronicles series, published in September 2015.

Notably, it marked the first official time that Benny met an incarnation of the Doctor from the revived series.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

"I'm an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting."

Christmas 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Imagine everyone's surprise when a time portal opens up in Sydney Cove. Imagine their shock as a massive pyramid now sits beside the Harbour Bridge, inconveniently blocking Port Jackson and glowing with energy. Imagine their fear as Cyrrus "the mobster" Globb, Professor Horace Jaanson and an alien assassin called Kik arrive to claim the glowing pyramid. Finally imagine everyone's dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.

This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn't destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).

And when someone accidentally reawakens the Ancients of the Universe — which, Doc reckons, wasn't the wisest or best-judged of actions — things get a whole lot more complicated...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

After receiving a message from Keri asking him to meet her at the White Rabbit, the Doctor arrives in Legion City and learns that she believes that she was invited there by him, producing a series of postcards as evidence. He gets a text inviting him to Sydney in 2015 and, after giving a superphone to Keri and having his sonic screwdriver stolen, he departs for Earth.

In the late 51st century, Colonel Sadkin and Professor Horace Janson request the services of River Song, but the Stormcage Containment Facility reject the request. They are instead joined by Benny, Peter, Ruth and Jack, who were transported from the 27th century by a stone given to Benny by her future self from a time eddy in which she and her friends are stuck. They put most of the team to sleep with Peter's knock-out patches before realising that Jaanson has wandered off; they watch him promise copies of the Glamour to Cyrrus Globb and Kik, criminals sent on behalf of the Headless Monks.

Kik notices Benny and holds her at swordpoint. Benny presents the stone that she has, a shard of the Glamour, and they use it to enter the Pyramid Eternia to find the time portal of the Ancients of the Universe. Inside the portal stands ghostly versions of herself, Peter, Ruth and Jack, scattered through time and sending messages to the Doctor to come and save them. Her Peter, Ruth and Jack are captured as well, but they all manage to get free and find themselves merged with their future selves when they true to use the Blinovitch Limitation Effect to release them. When Benny merges with herself, the entire pyramid vanishes.

In Sydney, the Doctor is accosted by Ruth and Peter and told to meet Jack at a café which, by the time he reaches it, is called the White Rabbit. He meets Benny, who counts down the seconds until the Pyramid Eternia appears. To return the pyramid and everybody transported back to the 21st century, they learn from Keri's search on GalWiki where the Glamour is in 2015 and go back in time in the TARDIS to 1934 to ensure that Tomas G. Schneidter finds it. He does so, but his wife, Roderika, shoots him and it falls to the floor, erasing her and Tomas's men from time.

Returning to 2015 with a spare sonic screwdriver, Benny and the Doctor go with Peter, Ruth and Jack to the Power Station museum and steal the Glamour. Jaanson jumps at it and is erased from time, as are his ancestors and descendants. Time dies and the Doctor meets the Ancients, whom he is able to convince to restore the universe. He finds the Glamour before it had ever been touched by a non-Ancient and returns it to them, erasing anything that ever happened as a result of their technology, after which he is returned to Legion with his TARDIS. Peter returns the screwdriver that was stolen from him.

Benny has the Doctor take her to her future self to warn her not to dig up the shard of the Glamour. Future Benny agrees not to and blows the place up before returning to Legion City with Peter, Ruth and Jack in the Irverfield. She catches a glimpse of the TARDIS as it dematerialises and wishes the Doctor happy landings, whatever face he has.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Postcards[[edit] | [edit source]]

Concepts[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

References to the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]

Bernice Summerfield[[edit] | [edit source]]

Keri[[edit] | [edit source]]

Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Gary Russell states on the endnote page that he originally wanted to use River Song in the story, but Steven Moffat told him he did not want the book to conflict with anything that might happen between River and the Twelfth Doctor on television. Moffat suggested he use Bernice Summerfield instead and Russell was delighted by the idea. As it would turn out, Moffat intended for The Husbands of River Song to be the first and only time the Twelfth Doctor and River met, as it would also be their final adventure together.
  • This is the first New Series Adventures novel to reference characters created for the Big Finish audio dramas (Summerfield having predated that part of the franchise).
  • All of the chapter titles are songs by British band Duran Duran (one song from each studio album, except "Rio" and including the unreleased "Reportage"). Additionally, the names of two Duran Duran side projects, Arcadia and the Power Station, are used as names for a hotel and a museum in Australia, and Medazzaland, an album title, is used as the name of a planet.
  • Bernice says that she comes from "another time, another world" and was "born in the 26th century", alluding to Susan's dialogue from "The Pilot Episode".
  • The Doctor mentions Time Squids and the Crinis, monsters from the Doctor Who Experience Interactive Story that ran from 2014 to 2017.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Additional cover images[[edit] | [edit source]]

Editions published outside Britain[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Published in the USA by Broadway Books in 2015 as a paperback edition.
  • Published in Italy by Armenia in 2016 as a paperback edition.
  • Published in Germany by Cross Cult in 2016 as a paperback edition.
  • Published in the Czech Republic by Jota in 2017 as a hardback edition.

Audiobook[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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