I was reading about Paul Cornell's 90s Missing Adventure novel Goth Opera not long ago, and apparently the book is supposed to make out that as of the twentieth century, Gallifrey and the Time Lords no longer exist in relative time. If anyone owns a copy of the book, can you please offer some more insight into this? I find it quite interesting, given what the new series has established regarding the Time War and Gallifrey's demise.
"Goth Opera" question
- Thread starter EJA
- Start date
there's nothing about that on the TARDIS wiki page...
I think the book you're thinking of is the Fifth Doctor novel The Crystal Bucephalus by Craig Hinton. The Crystal Bucephalus is a restaurant that the novel implies was built on the ruins of Gallifrey.
http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_ma04.htm
http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_ma04.htm
Oh, hang on a moment, there's a bit of a problem. In The Brain of Morbius the Doctor says that the planet Karn is located quite near Gallifrey, which would presumably put it somewhere in the Kastaberous sector. But that story takes place some time in our distant future when humans have established themselves in the galactic community, and Goth Opera takes place in the 20th century, so according to the book's logic, the Doctor shouldn't have been able to visit Karn in The Brain of Morbius. 
Well, the books/comics/audios have a sort of messed up continuity at times. If we take them as total canon, then we'd have to accept that Human Nature happened twice, Gallifrey was destroyed twice, that there were a number of reunions with Susan and Sarah Jane, multiple explanations of the Dalek and Cybermen timelines...and so on. Not to mention the two(three?) Ninth Doctors!
Not that they're not enjoyable or good reads, it's just as with any spin-offs they're not 100% bound to the continuity of the show although adaptations/references/ideas do leak in from time to time (Same is true of Star Trek and Star Wars).
BTW if you read Goth Opera you might want to check out Blood Harvest, it's sort of a prequel/sequel (Seventh Doctor's in it but some of the events take place before Goth Opera). It basically returns to E-space and starts the Romana as lord president storyline that runs through both novel lines.
Not that they're not enjoyable or good reads, it's just as with any spin-offs they're not 100% bound to the continuity of the show although adaptations/references/ideas do leak in from time to time (Same is true of Star Trek and Star Wars).
BTW if you read Goth Opera you might want to check out Blood Harvest, it's sort of a prequel/sequel (Seventh Doctor's in it but some of the events take place before Goth Opera). It basically returns to E-space and starts the Romana as lord president storyline that runs through both novel lines.
I suppose it could be adjusted slightly so that TARDISes aren't allowed to visit the Gallifreyan star system, rather than the whole Kastaberous constellation. I can't help wondering though if the Doctor, or any other Time Lord, ever looked up into the night sky of Karn and where Gallifrey's sun was supposed to be, saw only....nothing. That would be a pretty big indicator that something cataclysmic had (or would) occur in the area in Gallifrey's future.
And the only real reason Brain of Morbius has to take place in Earth's future is the presense of Solon, a human who specifically comes from Earth and is fairly well known in the galaxy. But if we choose to believe that Gallifrey was destroyed in our distant past, then we've little choice but to regard Brain of Morbius as apocryphal.
And the only real reason Brain of Morbius has to take place in Earth's future is the presense of Solon, a human who specifically comes from Earth and is fairly well known in the galaxy. But if we choose to believe that Gallifrey was destroyed in our distant past, then we've little choice but to regard Brain of Morbius as apocryphal.
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