Cold Fusion (novel)

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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 the novel 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[[edit] | [edit source]]

"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[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cultural references from the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individual Time Lords[[edit] | [edit source]]

Languages[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Fifth Doctor speaks a sentence in Gallifreyan to Patience.

Organisations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Unitatus is what UNIT became; they use the old UNIT logo (a grid within a circle) as their herald.

Spacecraft[[edit] | [edit source]]

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]

Weapons[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 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[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • In AHistory, the author Lance Parkin confirms that the husband of Patience, in her memory seen by the Fifth Doctor's telepathic contact with her, is the character portrayed by Douglas Camfield during the mindbending sequence of TV: The Brain of Morbius.
  • In Time, Unincorporated: Volume One, it is revealed that the original version of PROSE: The Infinity Doctors would have confirmed that Patience's husband is also the character played by Robert Banks Stewart during the mindbending sequence of TV: The Brain of Morbius.
  • 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.
  • 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 the audio stories Peri and the Piscon Paradox and The Four Doctors and the television story 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 sort of feckless charm that simply wasn't [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 Gallifreyan sentence recited by the Doctor on page 124 is represented in the text by Greek letters: "Ανδ Ι τυρνεδ αρουνδ ανδ τηεψ ωερε αλλ ωεαρινγ εψεπατχηεσ." The passage doesn't actually mean anything in Greek, but if the symbols are transliterated letter-by-letter using a standard English keyboard layout the passage becomes "And I turned around and they were all wearing eyepatches," a reference to the infamous Eyepatch Story which Nicholas Courtney often told at conventions of cast antics during the filming of Inferno.
  • Lance Parkin's charity story Executive Action (published in Walking in Eternity) provides further details for the riots seen in Patience's memories. The Watch were rounding up all Womb-born, the Loom-born determined to become Gallifrey's dominant faction. According to Rema-Du, loomed Gallifreyans were "pale imitations" compared to the naturally born. This is the same story that states Wardog and the others of the Special Executive were prototypes of Rassilon's loom.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

v • e
Virgin Missing Adventures
First Doctor
Susan, Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara, Vicki
Vicki, Steven
Dodo
Second Doctor
Ben, Polly
Jamie, Victoria
Jamie, Zoe
Third Doctor
Liz, UNIT
Jo, UNIT
Jo, Yates
Sarah, Jeremy,
The Brig
Fourth Doctor
Sarah, Harry
Sarah
Romana I, K9
Romana II, K9
Fifth Doctor
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Nyssa, Tegan
Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion
Turlough
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Grant
Mel
Seventh Doctor
Chris, Roz
Other
Victoria, Sarah, The Brig
Second, Third, Seventh Doctors
with Dodo and UNIT
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