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Eighth Doctor Adventures #65
Doctor Who: Timeless
With time running out, the Doctor finally understands why 'our' universe is unique. In proving it, he nearly destroys the TARDIS and all aboard -- and becomes involved with the machinations of the mysterious Timeless organisation. They can fix your wildest dreams, get away with murder and bring a whole new meaning to the idea of victimless crime. Soon, Fitz and Trix are married, Anji's become a mum, and an innocent man is marked for the most important death in the universe's long history. The reasons why force the Doctor into a deadly showdown in a killing ground spawned before time and space began.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 24, 2003
About the author
Stephen Cole
234 books150 followersSee also: Steve Cole.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 1, 2013
Oh thank goodness someone rescued this. The multiverse arc has gone on for probably far longer than was comfortable, especially since the conflict was so maddeningly vague at times but if the books were entertaining it was easier to read them as separate entities and not worry about the overall plot in the background. But as the last few books wavered between stridently mediocre and outright bad we were starting to lose that tenuous link between interest and loyalty. I wanted to see this arc end but less because I was becoming emotionally invested in it and more just to see that it was finally over. Part of this has been because it's difficult to write parallel dimensions in a series that can travel to any place in space or time at a whim, as it's hard to tell whether you're in a true parallel scenario or just another weird planet in a strange galaxy. The recurring motif of Sabbath wasn't helping either, as he'd often saunter on as if obligated to make an appearance, do or say something mysterious and then waddle back off again to get ready for the next novel. This is not a situation practically brimming with drama.
But finally Cole promises us a resolution of sorts. Or at least gets us a step closer to it. I wouldn't have pegged Cole as the obvious choice to redeem this last slump. He's written some decent "Who" novels (and was Project Editor for a while, which means he was somewhat responsible for the quality of the line, or lack thereof) as recently as "Ten Little Aliens", but nothing earthshattering. His last attempt to end an arc in "The Ancestor Cell" was capable at best, but did nothing to synthesize the parts given into something greater. Here, with easier components to work with (I imagine Lawrence Miles' ideas were probably difficult to parse properly if you weren't actually him) and maybe a type of story that works closer to his skillset, Cole is able to produce something that comes remarkably close to the feel of the old Virgin adventures, managing to be both universe spanning and personal at the same time.
What makes this one interesting is that it almost simultaneously resolves the multiverse issue and expands on it, fixing a paradox almost as an aside while introducing a problem that Cole seems far more interested in detailing. The Timeless organization is able to make people's dreams come true in a way that seems to involve murder without anyone actually dying, forcing the Doctor to fight a group that maddeningly refuses to define itself.
From the start there's more a sense here of elements working behind the scenes, of everyone maneuvering to gain the best advantage, even when they don't fully know who the players are. It has the Doctor being proactive and mysterious at the same time, using his friends as a conductor plays an orchestra and throwing them into situations where they can be useful. For once, people treat Fitz and Anji like the experienced adults they are, Anji especially having grown used to this life enough that she can stand with the Doctor. They investigate and operate, aided with the assistance of new member Trix, (re)appearing here for the first time. Her introduction is one of the few false notes in the novel, treated in a sort of clumsy fashion as a stowaway that we never see stowaway, someone pressed into reluctant service who decides to stick around. It's a nice coincidence that her skills are useful, and the interactions between her and the Doctor (the one man she had trouble conning) add a nice element that we don't get from Anji and Fitz. Time will tell whether she becomes a character in her own right.
Fortunately the novel does have character to spare. The new incidental characters (Guy and Stacy in particular) manage to populate the novel without making it utterly crowded, while the various levels of relationships going on kept the momentum intact. Whether it was the TARDIS crew dealing with each other in the little habits and tics they've developed over the years, or how the newcomers deal with them or even how the villains all deal with each other, there's a constant reprocessing at play, an awareness of what homeostasis the novel exists in and what the exact effects can be when something comes along to disturb it. It helps the twists have more impact, making moments like when Sabbath finally starts to make moves have an actual tangible effect, as opposed to mysterious people doing mysterious things for the sake of being mysterious. What struck me most is how it succeeded in the little moments (Fitz's terrible film about parallel universes, or his first casual and wordless hello to Guy) while also managing to balance it out with mystery, often throwing the two together as contrast.
And it is that sense of mystery that redeems this from the novels that have preceded it. While the others were content to wallow in typical SF tropes, this one gives us that essential element of strangeness that sets the good books apart from the average ones. The first appearance of the little girl and her weird pet mark this as a different affair, presenting the mysteries without calling undue attention to their natures and leaving readers to puzzle out the gaps (who is Erasmus? who is working with Sabbath?), straddling that line between the explained and the unexplainable, giving us a Doctor who knows more than he is letting on but is still out of his depth to some extent. Maybe it'll all get overexplained later but here, it works. It's that combination of strangeness working in and against the background of ordinary lives, that mystery that lies under the surface of the world, the quiet horrors and secret battles, that sets the more adult "Who" books apart from their televised cousins.
It's not that everything works here, it's that ninety-nine percent of everything does. Like "Ten Little Aliens" before, Cole manages to give the impression of a bigger world and bigger forces at work without having to tediously detail it. Freed from the need to hit every continuity button or fill in every gap, he's allowed to infuse the story with a combination of lightness and urgency, people using their familiarity as strengths while opponents of equal intelligence sparring in a manner befitting their smarts. This is the first time in a while the Doctor/Sabbath duel of wits has worked for me and it's a welcome thing. If the book does fall from being just short of one of the greats, it's the lack of the extreme emotional gut punch the masterclass authors were capable of delivering, and the fact that this isn't the total resolution, but a partial one of sorts.
Still, it's an ending, literally so in the case of one of our regulars, who gets to bow out with a grace that's both welcome for her and sad for us. Those scenes come close to the book giving us what the peaks demand, with a blend of nostalgia and elegance and finality, giving us an ordinary day and the end of an era, and doing it without the histrionics that a modern-day companion departure seems to require. Friends come and friends go and these friends are perhaps a minute away always, and in some sense across a forever gap. It works, in that tiny way that life sometimes does. Not a masterpiece and not ground breaking, it's simply a matter of a variety of moving parts meshing together extraordinarily well and it's perhaps a sign of how far the line has drifted that the sudden jump in quality is this noticeable. This should be the baseline level of competence, not the happy circumstance it seems to have become.
But finally Cole promises us a resolution of sorts. Or at least gets us a step closer to it. I wouldn't have pegged Cole as the obvious choice to redeem this last slump. He's written some decent "Who" novels (and was Project Editor for a while, which means he was somewhat responsible for the quality of the line, or lack thereof) as recently as "Ten Little Aliens", but nothing earthshattering. His last attempt to end an arc in "The Ancestor Cell" was capable at best, but did nothing to synthesize the parts given into something greater. Here, with easier components to work with (I imagine Lawrence Miles' ideas were probably difficult to parse properly if you weren't actually him) and maybe a type of story that works closer to his skillset, Cole is able to produce something that comes remarkably close to the feel of the old Virgin adventures, managing to be both universe spanning and personal at the same time.
What makes this one interesting is that it almost simultaneously resolves the multiverse issue and expands on it, fixing a paradox almost as an aside while introducing a problem that Cole seems far more interested in detailing. The Timeless organization is able to make people's dreams come true in a way that seems to involve murder without anyone actually dying, forcing the Doctor to fight a group that maddeningly refuses to define itself.
From the start there's more a sense here of elements working behind the scenes, of everyone maneuvering to gain the best advantage, even when they don't fully know who the players are. It has the Doctor being proactive and mysterious at the same time, using his friends as a conductor plays an orchestra and throwing them into situations where they can be useful. For once, people treat Fitz and Anji like the experienced adults they are, Anji especially having grown used to this life enough that she can stand with the Doctor. They investigate and operate, aided with the assistance of new member Trix, (re)appearing here for the first time. Her introduction is one of the few false notes in the novel, treated in a sort of clumsy fashion as a stowaway that we never see stowaway, someone pressed into reluctant service who decides to stick around. It's a nice coincidence that her skills are useful, and the interactions between her and the Doctor (the one man she had trouble conning) add a nice element that we don't get from Anji and Fitz. Time will tell whether she becomes a character in her own right.
Fortunately the novel does have character to spare. The new incidental characters (Guy and Stacy in particular) manage to populate the novel without making it utterly crowded, while the various levels of relationships going on kept the momentum intact. Whether it was the TARDIS crew dealing with each other in the little habits and tics they've developed over the years, or how the newcomers deal with them or even how the villains all deal with each other, there's a constant reprocessing at play, an awareness of what homeostasis the novel exists in and what the exact effects can be when something comes along to disturb it. It helps the twists have more impact, making moments like when Sabbath finally starts to make moves have an actual tangible effect, as opposed to mysterious people doing mysterious things for the sake of being mysterious. What struck me most is how it succeeded in the little moments (Fitz's terrible film about parallel universes, or his first casual and wordless hello to Guy) while also managing to balance it out with mystery, often throwing the two together as contrast.
And it is that sense of mystery that redeems this from the novels that have preceded it. While the others were content to wallow in typical SF tropes, this one gives us that essential element of strangeness that sets the good books apart from the average ones. The first appearance of the little girl and her weird pet mark this as a different affair, presenting the mysteries without calling undue attention to their natures and leaving readers to puzzle out the gaps (who is Erasmus? who is working with Sabbath?), straddling that line between the explained and the unexplainable, giving us a Doctor who knows more than he is letting on but is still out of his depth to some extent. Maybe it'll all get overexplained later but here, it works. It's that combination of strangeness working in and against the background of ordinary lives, that mystery that lies under the surface of the world, the quiet horrors and secret battles, that sets the more adult "Who" books apart from their televised cousins.
It's not that everything works here, it's that ninety-nine percent of everything does. Like "Ten Little Aliens" before, Cole manages to give the impression of a bigger world and bigger forces at work without having to tediously detail it. Freed from the need to hit every continuity button or fill in every gap, he's allowed to infuse the story with a combination of lightness and urgency, people using their familiarity as strengths while opponents of equal intelligence sparring in a manner befitting their smarts. This is the first time in a while the Doctor/Sabbath duel of wits has worked for me and it's a welcome thing. If the book does fall from being just short of one of the greats, it's the lack of the extreme emotional gut punch the masterclass authors were capable of delivering, and the fact that this isn't the total resolution, but a partial one of sorts.
Still, it's an ending, literally so in the case of one of our regulars, who gets to bow out with a grace that's both welcome for her and sad for us. Those scenes come close to the book giving us what the peaks demand, with a blend of nostalgia and elegance and finality, giving us an ordinary day and the end of an era, and doing it without the histrionics that a modern-day companion departure seems to require. Friends come and friends go and these friends are perhaps a minute away always, and in some sense across a forever gap. It works, in that tiny way that life sometimes does. Not a masterpiece and not ground breaking, it's simply a matter of a variety of moving parts meshing together extraordinarily well and it's perhaps a sign of how far the line has drifted that the sudden jump in quality is this noticeable. This should be the baseline level of competence, not the happy circumstance it seems to have become.
December 2, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. All of characters involved were written very well. Sabbath continues to go through a process of villain decay: he's easily fooled by something reminiscent of something that fooled him back in The Infinity Race, but he's hardly the focus of the story. There's a good balance of light and dark in this one (which is refreshing given the darkness of the story arc they're working with in these later novels) and Anji gets a very odd but not entirely unsatisfying exit from the TARDIS.
September 26, 2026
Stephen Cole is responsible for ending this grouping of Eighth Doctor Adventures surrounding the collapse of the multiverse and further plans of Sabbath. Timeless is not a novel lacking in ideas or interesting imagery. Cole brings the TARDIS team back to Earth and Trix MacMillan closer to the forefront, she even gets upgraded to proper companion status by the end of the book, with Anji Kapoor after multiple books foreshadowing that her time in the TARDIS is coming to an end finally gets to go back to her ordinary life. There is something quite odd about this book being the first time a companion of South Asian descent leaves the TARDIS with a child in tow that they don’t necessarily want, but at least in this case the justification is there and Anji isn’t deprived of her agency in this story. Timeless is a novel with some incredibly odd parallels to “The Reality War” and with Russell T. Davies use of the Wilderness Years ideas, I wouldn’t be surprised if the influence in the rewrites of that episode were intentional. This is because at the core of Timeless there is the destruction of Gallifrey that is hanging over the Doctor’s head as a failure, while the book’s stakes are the already collapsing multiverse. The child, Chloe, is heavily implied to be a Time Lord along with Erasmus, both being stand ins for the Doctor and a companion. Erasmus is missing a heart and Chloe still retains that sense of childlike wonder that fits a generic Doctor Who companion. Between them they also have a dog, which feels like a comment on the extreme popularity of K9 in the public consciousness. Cole is actually quite good at making Timeless work with the rather large stakes it is playing around with.
Where Timeless falls flat and never quite reaches its full potential is its pace, the first half of the novel is incredible. It’s where most of the commentary is included and the mystery on exactly what Chloe and Erasmus are is fascinating. Sabbath working with something that is seemingly bigger than himself, ultimately to be betrayed, is emblematic of where the back half of the novel falls apart. Mainly because the conclusion plays too close into typical Doctor Who when Cole had been going so far into pushing the story away from Doctor Who. There is a sense that the status quo has not been restored which keeps this as quite a good novel all things considered, but it is also so clearly meant to be the reset that was coming. There is also a strong possibility that, as this novel was released a month before the revival of Doctor Who was commissioned and the BBC had already been making moves to bring the show back, the editorial staff were desperate to move things towards something more standard in case the book range was concluded unceremoniously. In terms of publishing the release schedule had diminished to one novel a month after Time Zero and would remain that way until the end of both the Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures at the end of 2005, with a five-month break in the first half of 2005 to allow the revival to air.
Trix MacMillan as a character is quite fascinating. Yes, she had a major part to play in the previous novel, The Last Resort, but under the pen of Stephen Cole she immediately becomes a fascinating pairing with Fitz. As a pair, they are both larger than life, Trix throwing herself into the disguises and performing roles to save the multiverse with Fitz. Anji as a part of the companion trio in Timeless finishes her run once again as the rational, serious companion who is set up to be more concerned with getting the job done than having a good time while saving the world. Fitz and Trix clearly mask their inner lives while Anji has her serious influence on the Doctor. The Doctor does begin the novel very much against Fitz’s weird scheme to make films remembering each universe they have been through, Fitz coming from the perspective of everybody deserving to be remembered. Having the TARDIS team entirely in states of emotional distress in Timeless is what makes the first half of the novel work so well, everything is falling apart and while each character is on the same page in saving the multiverse. There is this moment where the Doctor finally softens, seeing how rude he is being, and it might just be one of the best moments for the Eighth Doctor in this book range.
Overall, it’s the first half that makes Timeless worth reading, even if this is a book that Stephen Cole is using to hang on a wire. The Eighth Doctor Adventures are entering their last leg with a brand new TARDIS team, but it’s telling a story that will be told again far worse in two decades time on television. Sabbath, while characterized quite well, does become a bit too close to the Master in what Cole is doing and the restoration of the Earth is walking a very fine line between moving the story forward and retconning a lot of the ideas the Eighth Doctor Adventures have been playing with. It is the ides present in the subtext about the universe lacking the Time Lords and the War both looming and already happening that makes the novel interesting to talk about when Cole wraps it up in standard Doctor Who. 6/10.
Where Timeless falls flat and never quite reaches its full potential is its pace, the first half of the novel is incredible. It’s where most of the commentary is included and the mystery on exactly what Chloe and Erasmus are is fascinating. Sabbath working with something that is seemingly bigger than himself, ultimately to be betrayed, is emblematic of where the back half of the novel falls apart. Mainly because the conclusion plays too close into typical Doctor Who when Cole had been going so far into pushing the story away from Doctor Who. There is a sense that the status quo has not been restored which keeps this as quite a good novel all things considered, but it is also so clearly meant to be the reset that was coming. There is also a strong possibility that, as this novel was released a month before the revival of Doctor Who was commissioned and the BBC had already been making moves to bring the show back, the editorial staff were desperate to move things towards something more standard in case the book range was concluded unceremoniously. In terms of publishing the release schedule had diminished to one novel a month after Time Zero and would remain that way until the end of both the Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures at the end of 2005, with a five-month break in the first half of 2005 to allow the revival to air.
Trix MacMillan as a character is quite fascinating. Yes, she had a major part to play in the previous novel, The Last Resort, but under the pen of Stephen Cole she immediately becomes a fascinating pairing with Fitz. As a pair, they are both larger than life, Trix throwing herself into the disguises and performing roles to save the multiverse with Fitz. Anji as a part of the companion trio in Timeless finishes her run once again as the rational, serious companion who is set up to be more concerned with getting the job done than having a good time while saving the world. Fitz and Trix clearly mask their inner lives while Anji has her serious influence on the Doctor. The Doctor does begin the novel very much against Fitz’s weird scheme to make films remembering each universe they have been through, Fitz coming from the perspective of everybody deserving to be remembered. Having the TARDIS team entirely in states of emotional distress in Timeless is what makes the first half of the novel work so well, everything is falling apart and while each character is on the same page in saving the multiverse. There is this moment where the Doctor finally softens, seeing how rude he is being, and it might just be one of the best moments for the Eighth Doctor in this book range.
Overall, it’s the first half that makes Timeless worth reading, even if this is a book that Stephen Cole is using to hang on a wire. The Eighth Doctor Adventures are entering their last leg with a brand new TARDIS team, but it’s telling a story that will be told again far worse in two decades time on television. Sabbath, while characterized quite well, does become a bit too close to the Master in what Cole is doing and the restoration of the Earth is walking a very fine line between moving the story forward and retconning a lot of the ideas the Eighth Doctor Adventures have been playing with. It is the ides present in the subtext about the universe lacking the Time Lords and the War both looming and already happening that makes the novel interesting to talk about when Cole wraps it up in standard Doctor Who. 6/10.
June 28, 2020
Hm, it's an enjoyable enough read but it does feel slightly... muddled and convoluted. I guess that's fitting seeing as Anji's introduction was also a bit of a mixed bag. Still, it's a shame to have to finally say goodbye to her. She's been a really strong companion and brought a more grounded presence to the TARDIS crew, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare without her.
But, yeah, I don't really have much to say about the story for the most part. There's nothing that stands out as like particularly bad, and there's some interesting concepts mixed in there, but yeah, I can't help feeling that there's something about it that just doesn't quite connect for me. Anji's ending feels a little rushed, I suppose, but like... hey, nothing wrong with a happy conclusion.
But, yeah, I don't really have much to say about the story for the most part. There's nothing that stands out as like particularly bad, and there's some interesting concepts mixed in there, but yeah, I can't help feeling that there's something about it that just doesn't quite connect for me. Anji's ending feels a little rushed, I suppose, but like... hey, nothing wrong with a happy conclusion.
July 5, 2026
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/timeless-by-stephen-cole/
This brings a loose end to the incomprehensible multiple timelines arc that began with Time Zero, and writes Anji, one of my favourite book-only companions, out of the TARDIS, replacing her with the rather two-dimensional Trix. There’s more complex overlapping timeline stuff, and some very un-Doctorly incidents of Eight gratuitously hurting the bad guys. This came out in 2003 a month before BBC Wales announced the coming of New Who, and really shows the dead end into which Who books were being written at the time.
This brings a loose end to the incomprehensible multiple timelines arc that began with Time Zero, and writes Anji, one of my favourite book-only companions, out of the TARDIS, replacing her with the rather two-dimensional Trix. There’s more complex overlapping timeline stuff, and some very un-Doctorly incidents of Eight gratuitously hurting the bad guys. This came out in 2003 a month before BBC Wales announced the coming of New Who, and really shows the dead end into which Who books were being written at the time.
August 9, 2008
I couldn’t get into this at all and I couldn’t even begin to tell you why. It had all the ingredients for a brilliant EDA yet it seemed so dull. The story, whilst intriguing and full of interesting elements just didn’t go anywhere. While the Doctor was, for a change, very well written – I could really hear Paul McGann’s voice saying Steven Cole’s words (which is sometimes a struggle) Anji and Fitz were weak, I thought, and Trix was just annoying. I couldn't engage with it at all and really struggled to finish.
March 27, 2012
Absolutely not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews