WHO REVIEW: "Seasons of War: Gallifrey" by Paul Driscoll and Kara Dennison

Declan May's Seasons of War was a triumph of fan fiction. Multiple authors came together to create a story of the Time War from start to finish, affording glimpses of how the Time Lord formerly known as the Doctor resorted to acting in the universe-threatening conflict. It was a big enough success that further explorations of the Time War under its banner were welcome and inevitable.

The first such release – is it a spin-off? A sequel? - is Gallifrey, the hugely impressive debut novel from Paul Driscoll (The Black Archive, A Clockwork Iris, The Hybrid, the original Seasons of War) and Kara Dennison (The Hybrid zine, Crunchyroll, Owl's Flower). Together, they create a version of Gallifrey that is at once steeped in Doctor Who lore, and entirely original. It's always been difficult to reconcile the different images of Gallifrey we've seen over the years, from the aloof demigods of The War Games to the agrarian homesteads of The Day of the Doctor and Hell Bent, but that's exactly as it should be when catching glimpses of a whole planet and an ancient civilisation. The authors present a vision of a Gallifrey torn apart by caste divisions, riddled with distrust, but home to decent, real people who just want to get on with their lives.

Although ostensibly a Doctor Who story, Gallifrey focuses on a cast of four new characters, living on the Time Lord planet at the outbreak of war. We follow the intertwined stories of Savalia, a poet living in the outlands of Gallifrey; her cousin Kendo, a newly inducted Time Lord senator; Tor Fasa, an ancient Time Lord on his penultimate regeneration; and his protege Mordicai, the Engineer, and idealistic young man who shares a strained romance with Savalia. They are all fascinating, well drawn characters; as the novel progresses, their paths diverge and cross repeatedly, and we see the same events from different perspectives. How the characters present themselves to each other and how they really feel about their actions are frequently at odds, and the same actions take on very different colours when seen from inside and outside.

Of the core characters, I enjoyed Tor Fasa the most. An old contemporary of the Doctor – who even asked Fasa to travel with him when he left Gallifrey – he's an elderly, idealistic but pragmatic schemer, whose one consistent physical feature across his regenerations is a vicious scar across his face. His manipulations drive much of the plot forward, but events are forever out of his control. While the Doctor appears only sparingly, his fingerprints are all over the book, not just in his obvious influence on the character of Fasa but particularly as the inspiration of Mordicai's philosophy. Easily the most naïve of the four main characters, Mordicai is also the most noble, and takes the Doctor's transformation into a soldier as a personal betrayal. The War has irreversible consequences on all the characters, though, with perhaps Savalia changed the most, dragged into the war effort and finding herself surprisingly suited to it.

The bizarre realities of Gallifrey are explored in depth. Regeneration, and its chaotic consequences, is a theme running throughout the novel. The authors take the concept to its extreme, exploring just how devastating such a transformation could be, even if it went to plan. There's a character suffering from a regeneration sickness, perpetually cycling through all her incarnations, while one of my favourite characters, Commander Bez, has regenerated from a hulking male soldier to a hyperactive little girl. The Death Zone is a major location, taking on critical importance to the plot, and explored in far more conceptual detail than it was ever afforded on television.

Perhaps the most fascinating element is how the Time War is presented itself. There's a divide between the very physical warfare seen on screen and the nightmarish temporal warfare spoken about. Gallifrey uses this contradiction well, with the more esoteric warfare happening on the front lines, distant from Gallifrey itself, while the physical soldiery existing as the last line of defence should the War reach its shores. Intriguingly, there's the clear suggestion that the War is progressing faster on the front lines than on Gallifrey, with the constant threat that the future is going to come crashing down on the present. Given the litigousness of the Nation estate, the Daleks don't feature, being only briefly alluded to, but this works in the story's favour. The Daleks hitting Gallifrey is the final event of the War, while for the most part they act through their slaves and allies, both alien and Gallifreyan.

Gallifrey is an excellent exploration of the Doctor's homeworld with some brilliantly drawn characters and some wonderful concepts. There's the occasional bit of clunky dialogue, and it does end rather abruptly, but the ending sets up the possibility of further adventures for some of the characters and further exploration of their universe. This is the best exploration of Gallifrey and the Time Lords since The Infinity Doctors. 

Seasons of War: Gallifrey is available from Altrix Books in both paper and e-book formats, with all proceeds going to Caudwell Children.