Howling:Gallifrey's destruction in past novels
I have heard that long before the new series came along, there were some DW novels published by Virgin and BBC Books, taking place in the classic era, where the Doctor occasionally encountered hints that, for some people and places, Gallifrey was already long since dead. I think one such reference occurs in "Goth Opera", and it's been said that the planet New Alexandria in "The Crystal Buchephalus", is implied to be Gallifrey in its distant future (The novel takes place around the tenth millennium AD). Can anyone help flesh out these details a little more? Are there any other such references in other books (excluding the War arc in the Eighth Doctor novels culminating in "The Ancestor Cell")? Thanks. EJA 19:05, April 29, 2011 (UTC)
In Dead Romance, Christine Summerfield writes her diary on what appears to be an abandoned Gallifrey, although I think the implication was that they left Gallifrey to hide from the People so that they could launch their own attack on them.
I find that http://www.whoniverse.org/discontinuity/ is a brilliant source for all this kind of stuff, take a look. --Revan\Talk 14:44, April 30, 2011 (UTC)
I think there a reference in one of the later EDAs to the fact that Gallifrey had already been destroyed and come back twice (with The Ancestor Cell presumably being the second, since the LGTW hadn't been written yet). (Maybe The Tomorrow Windows; wasn't there a bit about them thinking Gallifrey was destroyed yet again, but it turned out to be Gallifrax 3 or something like that?)
But my guess is that any such references you're talking about were Lawrence Miles playfully dropping hints about a future war he never expected he'd really be allowed to write. The EDA plot arcs reflected a three-way struggle between Mad Larry, Lance Parkin, and everyone else. If Larry couldn't convince the others, or shout them down, he could trick them by sneaking in ideas that would inexorably lead to his plots (and then bitch about them stealing his ideas to make sure they'd do it even more). Of course in the end, Larry (well, Peter Anghelides) was able to finally destroy Gallifrey--and then Lance Parkin undid it a couple years later, and RTD had the last laugh on behalf of the majority faction by getting to pointedly ignore both versions. --99.33.26.0 07:18, May 5, 2011 (UTC)
