Let’s talk about the
Seventh Doctor and the idea of the Eighth Man Bound. At the Academy on Gallifray there is a
tradition amongst those who have just become Time Lords and gained their
regeneration cycle. They sit in a circle
with one of them in the middle and a state of ambiance is created by chanting
the Time Lord’s name and the Time Lord has to hold out. This almost forces a state of regeneration
and is said that the Time Lord may be able to see what sort of life they are
going to lead. The Doctor is said to
have matched the Eighth Man Bound, the most regenerations seen by one person
and the villain of this story causes him to go back to that moment. Chris sees the Doctor in San Francisco which
we know is where he regenerates. The
Carnival Queen/Cacophony causes the Doctor to constantly go back to the moment
of his first regeneration, which is something that no Time Lord ever forgets. It repeats like a time loop in a horror film
as things progressively go towards a dark place with Ben and Polly chanting at
the Doctor his own sins.
The Seventh Doctor also
plays an important role in Chris’s portion of the story as we explore Chris’s family
history and how he doesn’t really trust the Doctor. He is stuck on the TARDIS with an interface
that is trying to get him to think irrationally about situations which is the
furtherance of the plot as he is put under the villain’s control. It’s really the best Chris has been portrayed
since Original Sin which is really
good for Chris which is something that should really work well. Roz also gets a lot done in the story, even
if she really doesn’t have a lot to do in this story except her great bits near
the beginning of the novel. The big
problem with the novel however is still the novel doesn’t have any focus and
really is just set up for Miles’s hand in writing the Faction Paradox Arc for
the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels.
To summarize, I like Christmas on a Rational Planet, but it
is a novel that on the whole is way too confusing to attempt to make any real
sort of sense with the thing working well.
The characterization and insight into Time Lord Mythology are both
really good at working with the Cartmel Master Plan, but I could barely follow
what was going on in the story to get things going. Hopefully his other work is going to be less
confusing for everyone’s sake. 70/100
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