The Quantum Archangel

 

"Against the power of a vengeful god, what could a simple Time Lord do?"

Writer: Craig Hinton

Format: Novel

Released: January 2001

Series: PDA 38

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

'Hear me, Lord of Time. We are a vengeful people. Our reach is infinite and our patience eternal. For your actions, we will have vengeance. And the vengeance of the Chronovores is terror beyond imagining.'

Five thousand years ago, the Priest-Kings of Atlantis attempted to enslave Kronos, greatest of the Chronovores. They failed, with catastrophic results. Thirty years ago, the Master sought to do the same, and barely escaped with his life. 

London, 2003; torn apart by tragedy, the Doctor and Mel have gone their separate ways, only to find their paths crossing once more. While the Doctor tries to stop an old friend from making a terrible mistake, Mel is horrified to learn that her best friend has fallen under the influence of the Master. 

As the Master desperately tries to defend himself against the power of Kronos, the Doctor and Mel must overcome their differences. If they don't, the Quantum Archangel will be triumphant. And if she is, nothing in the Universe will ever be the same again.

Verdict

The Quantum Archangel was a very good novel! It followed on from my watching of The Time Monster very well and serves as a great sequel. As the author acknowledges in his acknowledgements, the idea of a sequel to that particular adventure is a little questionable but I thought this worked really well! I particularly enjoyed the interaction between the Sixth Doctor and the Master as it was the first time I have come across a meeting between the pairs where there was no outside Time Lord involvement. We had the Rani alongside them in The Mark of the Rani of course and then there were Time Lords in abundance during The Ultimate Foe segment of The Trial of a Time Lord. It was brilliant to have them interact and I was a big fan of the sixth incarnation characterisation throughout the novel and the start with he and Mel finishing up an adventure on Maradnias where a miscalculation from the Doctor proved fatal to billions of innocents. The concept of that is extraordinary and Mel's outburst is quite something! She berates the Doctor and is so appalled by what happened that she departs the TARDIS. The Doctor is clearly impacted by his actions which is interesting to read, but from there he is thrown into action. His confronting Professor Hyde was terrific and I quite liked how he recognised that it was the Doctor after all these years despite the change of appearance. The concept behind TITAN as the son of TOMTIT was fun and its abilities to go beyond its predecessor was really good. I loved the predicament the Master was in with regards to his body and the Source of Traken almost running out within him to keep his current body going. His efforts to once again use the Chronovores and this time TITAN to literally become a god and harness a new power to ensure his body continued was magnificent. I also loved the degeneration into his emaciated form once again as that was really intriguing to associate with the Anthony Ainley incarnation post-The Keeper of Traken. I thought the return of Kronos was done very well and I certainly wasn't expecting Paul Kairos to be revealed as the Chronovore, although I did have suspicions of some link given his surname. The characters of Paul and Arlene were very good and I liked Mel's involvement with her university connections very well. The way she eventually came around to being with the Doctor again was a good development throughout the book. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the makeup of the universe and the Millennium War some hundred and fifty years million years ago. The sheer scale of that war was incredible and whilst I think the involvement of a huge number of familiar races was a little overkill, it was still super interesting to read and was excellent in establishing the status of the Mad Mind that had linked with Anjeliqua to form the Quantum Archangel. That was a good way to finish the first part of the book and from there there was a lot of description of past events which I enjoyed. The idea of the Lux Aeterna and Calibi-Yau Space was really intriguing and the amount of description within eleven dimensions was spectacular. There was definitely a lot going on which was great to read and I just enjoyed reading. Playing with the idea of infinite universes and each person on Earth having their own universe was good. Mel's version seeing herself as Prime Minister was marvellous along with the Doctor continuing as scientific advisor in 2003. I did think the ninth chapter that displayed the different universes with the likes of Arlene's side step as well went on for too long, but then I did enjoy what it entailed. The ending was quite simple really with the Doctor literally becoming a god and getting to put wrong the events on Maradnias, but Mel wasn't letting him forget that despite them not technically happening anymore. The Master managing to escape with a new power source for his body was delightful and I liked the earlier mention of the Cheetah People planet being a potential place for him to rejuvenate, of course foreshadowing the events of Survival. Kronos deciding to commit suicide was about the only way logical to deal with Chronovore and in the end, normality was restored. Overall, a really good read that was probably a little too continuity heavy. Still, a fantastic story though!

Rating: 8/10