 | |
| Author | Lance Parkin |
|---|---|
| Series | Doctor Who book: Virgin Missing Adventures |
Release number | 29 |
| Subject | Featuring: Fifth Doctor;Seventh Doctor Adric,Nyssa,Tegan;Chris, Roz |
| Set in | Period between Castrovalva and Four to Doomsday |
| Publisher | Virgin Books |
Publication date | December 1996 |
| ISBN | 0-426-20489-1 |
| Preceded by | The Plotters |
| Followed by | Burning Heart |
Cold Fusion is an original novel written byLance Parkin and based on the long-running Britishscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who.[1] It features theFifth Doctor, withAdric,Nyssa, andTegan, immediately afterCastrovalva. Also appearing is theSeventh Doctor, withChris and Roz, from between theVirgin New Adventures novelsReturn of the Living Dad andThe Death of Art.[2] It was the only one of the VirginDoctor Who novels to feature more than one Doctor.[3]
The story deliberately contrasts the characterisation of the Fifth Doctor and of the Seventh Doctor in theVirgin New Adventures.[4] In an interview for the BBC, in discussingCold Fusion, Parkin described the character of Adric as "hopeless with Davison".[5] Parkin has said he was writing a book about theYugoslav Wars, that is a conflict "where horrible things are happening, and clearly there's a case for international intervention, but … well, there's no clear good guys and bad guys. And that was the idea of the book: two Doctors show up and they look at a situation like Yugoslavia/Syria and they, completely independently, perfectly sensibly, pick a side to support. And they pick different sides, so spend the book fighting each other." He also said he "was never happy with Cold Fusion. It was the second novel I wrote, and I always had the sense it had got away from me, but I'd never been able to explain why. My first, Just War, was very taut, serious, fine-tuned. Cold Fusion was always a lot more ramshackle."[6]
Cold Fusion includes many references to theCartmel Masterplan which would be more fully explored inLungbarrow. More is learned about the character of Patience in theBBC Past Doctor Adventures novelThe Infinity Doctors, also by Lance Parkin. It is suggested that she is the Doctor's (or possiblyThe Other's) wife,[7] but how she fits into normal continuity is deliberately not revealed.[1]
Notably, this novel features a sequence in which the Doctor recalls his life onGallifrey and in which this earlier Doctor has recently regenerated in a form heavily inferred to be one of the "Morbius Doctors" seen in the mind bending sequence of the serialThe Brain of Morbius, specifically the incarnation which was represented by an image ofDouglas Camfield.[8] While it is inferred in this book to be an incarnation ofthe Doctor, the novelLungbarrow suggests it may in fact be an incarnation ofthe Other.[9]
Names in the book are very similar to those of the main characters (and the actors) in the BBC comedyTerry and June, so the book includes a Medford, a Whitfield, a Scott, and a Terry and June.[4]
Readers ofDoctor Who Magazine gave the novel a rating of 76.69% (from 845 votes).[10]
Empire magazine recommended the book if someone were to only read one Missing Adventure, describing it as "mind-bending sci-fi with the Fifth Doctor (and a cameo for the Seventh) and an inside-out TARDIS."[11]
Big Finish Productions released an audio drama adaptation of the novel in December 2016.[12][13] The release was announced in July 2016. It starredPeter Davison,Sylvester McCoy,Janet Fielding,Sarah Sutton andMatthew Waterhouse reprising their television roles as theFifth andSeventh Doctors,Tegan Jovanka,Nyssa andAdric respectively. In addition,Yasmin Bannerman andTravis Oliver reprised their roles as the Seventh Doctor's companions Roz Forrester andChris Cwej from Big Finish's adaptations of the New Adventures novelsDamaged Goods andOriginal Sin.[13]Christine Kavanagh plays the role of Patience.[14]
Starburst gave the audio a mixed review, describing it as "an odd fish".[15]
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