Byzantium! (novel)
Byzantium! was the forty-fourth BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel. It featured the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki Pallister. Set at the beginning of The Romans as the TARDIS falls off the cliff, this is the first full length story that features Vicki as a companion.
Publisher's summary
"Life is cheap in Byzantium. Life is cheap everywhere that the Romans are."
Byzantium. The imperial city — rising dramatically, as if by a trick of the light, from the peninsula of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Its domes and towers and minarets overlook a place of intrigue, lust, power, oppression, resistance and murder.
Romans, Greeks, Zealots, Pharisees ... all meet in the market squares of the great city, but mutual loathing and suspicion are rife.
Into this cauldron, the Doctor and his companions arrive, expecting to view the splendour and civilisation of the Roman Empire. But events cast them into a deadly maelstrom of social and political upheaval. In the eye of the hurricane they must each face the possibility of being stranded, alone and far from their own times, in an alien culture bunker.
Plot
to be added
Characters
- First Doctor
- Ian Chesterton
- Barbara Wright
- Vicki Pallister
- Gaius Calaphilus
- Thalius Maximus
- Gemellus
- Hieronymous
- Amos
- Daniel
- James
- Reuben
- Ruth
- Bob Franklin
- Julia Franklin
- Fabulous
- Georgiadis
- Evangeline
- Iola
- Gabrielle
- Agrinella Lanilla
- Marcus Lanilla
- Antonia Vinicius
- Cressida
- Crispianus Dolavia
- Damien
- Dorcas
- Dorothea
- Drusus Felinistius
- Edius Flavia
- Erastus
- Fabius Actium
- Felicia
- Germanicus Vinicius
- Hebron
- Jocelyn
- Luke Panathaikos
- Matthew Basellas
- Papavasilliou
- Phasaei
- Rebecca
- Simeon
- Tobias
- Titus
- Yewhe
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor has been travelling in the TARDIS for sixty years, making him two hundred and ninety-six during this story.
- The Doctor has visited Rome, Jerusalem and Antioch and witnessed both the debut performance of King Lear and the assassination of US President William McKinley.
- The Doctor was on the field of battle in the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.
- "Trois Gymnopédies" is being played in a tavern on a musical instrument the Doctor has not seen before.
Individuals
- Barbara compares Vicki to Susan Foreman.
- The ship which transported Vicki to Dido left Earth in 2493.
- Vicki has never heard of Plato, Socrates or Archimedes, though she is vaguely aware of Charles Dickens.
- Maximus tells Ian that Shalmaneser II failed in battle because his army had wicker shields.
- Caesar Tiberius succeeded Augustus in AD 14.
Locations
- Dalmatia and Macedonia are part of the Roman Empire.
Planets and stars
- The Doctor has visited Mondas.
- Ian Chesterton shows Vicki several celestial bodies in the Earth sky: Pegasus, Andromeda, the Seven Sisters, Orion, Betelgeuse, Rigel, the Horsehead Nebula, Orionis Zeta, Orionis Epsilon, Orionis Delta, Polaris (the pole star), the Ursa Minor, Castor and Pollux, Gemini, Venus and Jupiter.
Television series
- Ian mentions The Morecambe & Wise Show.
Notes
- This book is also available as an ebook and from the Amazon Kindle store.
- The novel reveals that Vicki's last name is Pallister. It was never mentioned in any televised episode.
- Vicki states that her mother wanted to call her Tanni, but her father preferred Vicki. This is a sly reference to the fact that the new companion's name in TV: The Rescue was originally going to be Tanni.
- There is a flash-forward scene which reveals Ian and Barbara will have a son, John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton, by 1973. TV: Death of the Doctor and COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone would later confirm that Ian and Barbara will someday marry.
- The details of the story conflict with the earlier short story Romans Cutaway from More Short Trips, which also takes place immediately after the TARDIS falls of the cliff.
Continuity
- Vicki refers to her recent rescue from Dido in 2493. (TV: The Rescue)
- Ian adapts the story of the Daleks and the Thals to entertain an audience. (TV: The Daleks)
- The Doctor seems to be aware that Vicki will eventually become Cressida in circa 1200 BC. (TV: The Myth Makers)
- Barbara mentions that she learned her lesson about trying to change history in Mexico. (TV: The Aztecs)
- By 1973, Ian has befriended Greg Sutton. (TV: Inferno)
- Gaius Calaphilus fought "Boudica's wretched Iceni" in Roman Britain in 60. During his fourth incarnation, the Doctor and his companion Leela would encounter Boudica during her revolt against the occupying Roman forces in Britain. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni) The renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme claimed that she had also been present during the revolt. (AUDIO: The Elixir of Doom)
External links
- Byzantium! at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Byzantium! at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Byzantium!
