The Doctor did have a nickname, as we saw when he met up with an old classmate from the Academy, who addressed him as "Theta Sigma."
Got it, read it, loved it. Pretty much everything I hoped it would be. I can't really think of a single complaint to level at it. The tone of the book is closer to series 1 than the rest of new Who, with the odd new adventure tone leaking into it (in a good way). It still feels like it could be an epic New Who special, but perhaps shown later in the day. Basically it feels like a slightly darker series 1 (when series 1 was dark and it could be real dark in Parting of the Ways). Just right. It shows a war where both sides have been pushed to extremes, with the other species(humans for this novel) trapped in the middle. The Daleks and the Time Lords are shown to be both desperate, discarding their ideals as they try to survive and win. Yes, Daleks discarding their ideals. The "War Doctor" himself is glorious in this.
I'm glad to hear this. I ordered it from Book Depository; I wanted the UK hardcover rather than the US paperback, and I didn't want to wait until September. It's on its way, and hopefully I'll have it soon-ish.
Spoiler: about that Oh is that why they haven't exterminated the Skaro Degradations for being different as they usually do in this case.
Well, I'm content to wait until the American edition in September, but nice to know it's a good book. Any other characters from the show in this? I've heard on other sites Spoiler: could be a spoiler, I guess Rassilon is in it. Anyone else?
Spoiler Just one other, Borusa. The rest of the Time Lords are original characters, though there is at least a small mention of the Master.
Nice bit of artwork by popular DW fan artist Paul Hanley (the guy who basically designed McGann's "Night of the Doctor" outfit). Our new companion for the War Doctor (with the consultation/guidance of Engines of War writer George Mann) has essentially been cast: Presenting Special Guest Star Hayley Williams (of Paramore) as Cinder.
Getting really bored, how every medium has to have a human young female as the companion - titan launched their 10th and 11th doctor comics last week and both do the same. Other types of companions do exist!
Absolutely no problem with a female lead but does she always have to be a) European and b) from contemporary urban society? The show doing it is one thing but the comics and tie-in media doing the same is a bit dull - it's a particular problem because the 10th and 11th Doctor comics have come out at the same time and have a similar focus.
I'm certainly not saying that. I'd welcome companions from other worlds and eras. But for what it's worth, in the new Titan comics, neither of the new companions is Caucasian and only one is English (Ten's companion is a Latina from Brooklyn and Eleven's is a black woman from London). The shows haven't had an American companion since Peri (I don't count Grace and Chang Lee as companions) and I don't think they've ever had a Hispanic companion.
Does the novel explain how long the War Doctor fought in the war? The reflection in "Night of the Doctor" looks like 1970's I Claudius/Alien John Hurt, for instance, and we know the Doctor usually ages slowly in his current body (The Matt Smith Doctor, for instance, seemed to last quite a few centuries-such as in season 6-before visibly aging on Trenzalore). I'd like to think the Doctor himself doesn't really know for the most part, especially given the fluctuating ages given by the original series and to a degree the novels.
Ever since "Night of the Doctor," I've taken the Doctor's stated age as marker of how long it's been since he gave up being the Doctor to become the Warrior. (Since new Who ages aren't consistent with old Who ages, there has to be a point where the Doctor restarted his count.) So, the War Doctor lived for eight hundred and some, the ninth Doctor for a few decades, the tenth for about five years, and the eleventh Doctor for eleven hundred or so.
"Cinder had heard it said that in simple, linear terms, the war had been going on for over four hundred years." - Engines of War When Eight became Warrior, the GTW had been going on already, long enough for the Time Lords to get a nasty reputation. Presuming we're not going straight from Dark Eyes III to the latter, let's say "Night of the Doctor" happened within the first, oh, ten years of the war. Four hundred years seems about right for Warrior to age visibly from forty to around seventy. Given that River could "take the age down a little" with a conscious effort, Warrior may have subconsciously been letting events visibly wear him down a little more than normal as well. (Four becoming haggard and starting to go grey in Season 18, after all, coincided neatly with him becoming all depressed and fatalistic.) The novel also reveals Rassilon's resurrection also happened in the early days of the GTW, which strongly implies (to me at least) that his predecessor, Romana, is no longer among the living in any incarnation. (Whether killed by the Daleks, or a treacherous Time Lord, is yet to be revealed.)
Hm... the Eighth Doctor spent 600 years in Orbis, and he didn't visibly age at all. So the Doctor can control his aging now? I'm not sure. At the same time, I wonder how Rassilon came out of the Divergent Universe. He was stuck on an endless loop, by the Divergence. And I always thought Romana was one of the two people kneeling like Weeping Angels in End of Time (the other being Susan, obviously).
Not consciously, like I said. He's never had any real control over regeneration, let alone the aging process. The Orbis thing I didn't know about - I haven't gotten to the Eight audio dramas yet! Wonder how long a year on Orbis is... Engines of War says Rassilon was sprung from his tomb in the Death Zone, so he obviously made his way back there somehow (or the Time Lords used the tomb itself to pull him out of the Divergent Universe). Susan/Romana...I just don't know anymore. Fed up or not, I can't see the Doctor not trying to rescue any family/friends from Gallifrey before going for the Moment, unless he thought a) it was impossible to get to them or b) there were no family/friends left to be saved. For all I know, Romana was the woman Rassilon blasted to dust for suggesting it might be best for the Time Lords to fall. Leela and K-9 Mark I are both already gone by then, and who knows what happened to K-9 Mark II.
Bah! I would imagine Romana is clever enough to know when to high-tail it out of there and back into E-Space or something.