In AHistory (or at least the third edition of it), Lance Parkin asserts that there was a deleted line in his Tenth Doctor novel The Eyeless that would confirm the Eighth Doctor was betrayed by his then-companions at either his death and regeneration, the destruction of Gallifrey, or both. He specifically reveals this as a mirror to the scene in the rather forgotten (heh) comic The Forgotten, where the Tenth Doctor tells Martha that the Eighth Doctor was born alone and died alone.
Ignoring the fact that I’m very goddamn upset that this was not in the published novel, it’s actually incredibly interesting for the continued implications it gives to Lance Parkin’s bizarre-but-wonderful take on the pre-The Day of the Doctor NuWho Time War.
(First off, I must say, had this line been in the finished book, if you squinted, it would have very easily lined up with the Night of the Doctor. Cass takes on a very brief companion role, “betrays” the Doctor’s offered hand of help and travel, and it all leads to his death and ultimate regeneration on Karn with the Sisterhood. But, obviously, The Eyeless, and this line, were written before Night of the Doctor, and before Moffat (for better or for worse) closed off any future Time War narratives, simultaneously withering all prior narratives birthed in the Wilderness years or fandom imagination. That’s not meant to be hateful or anti-Moffat btw, just factual. It was going to happen eventually.)
Parkin’s original intent with his hint of the Eighth Doctor’s final moments, betrayed by his companions, was born in 2009, before The End of Time had aired, when the Time War was still mostly mystery. One of my favorite parts of AHistory is when Parkin presents a fascinating Time-War theory that combines the RTD era NuWho lore and The Gallifrey Chronicles’ retconned version of The Ancestor Cell:
But could Gallifrey have been destroyed just once? The Doctor certainly experiences the destruction of Gallifrey twice, in two different contexts. But this doesn’t rule out it being the same event. If there was only one destruction of Gallifrey, he and his future self would have to be present, and both culpable.
Surprisingly, this already fits what we know from The Ancestor Cell - the Doctor’s future self, Grandfather Paradox was there. Moreover, this future eighth Doctor fits everything we know about the Doctor who fought the Time War: fighting a vast time war has scarred him, made him lose his faith in humanity, made him a little callous. In The Gallifrey Chronicles recap of the end of The Ancestor Cell, Grandfather Paradox even wears a leather coat. As for the destruction of Gallifrey - The Doctor’s description in Dalek, “I watched it happen … I made it happen… I tried to stop it” is a neat summary of his actions in The Ancestor Cell.
If this theory is true, the Doctor’s memories of the War are conflicted because he was literally fighting his (earlier) self over “pulling the lever” that destroyed Gallifrey. So it’s Grandfather Paradox who has fought the Last Great Time War, the Daleks, the Nestenes, and so on. He goes back to The Ancestor Cell having done all that, confronts his earlier self… Who then outsmarts him by blowing up Gallifrey. Following this defeat, it’s Grandfather Paradox who regenerates into Eccleston (growing his arm back in the process).
For this to be the case, it involves the introduction of the tiniest bit of extra information: the War that’s being fought in the future has the Daleks in it and at some point they make a decisive move on Gallifrey. What the “current” eighth Doctor doesn’t know - but which his future self does - is that, in the future, the War’s going so badly that the Daleks are heading for Gallifrey. The Daleks were ruled out as “the Enemy” in Alien Bodies, but they don’t need to be for this theory to work - they just need to be capable of hitting the Time Lords hard.
Now, most of Lance Parkin’s theory is based almost entirely on Lance Parkin’s recontexualization of The Ancestor Cell, found in the, very Lance Parkin-ish, Lance Parkin’ novel The Gallifrey Chronicles. In the original The Ancestor Cell, Grandfather Paradox is revealed to be a future Eighth Doctor contaminated by the Paradox virus, who, at an unclear point in the war, travels back to right at its beginning and leads the true (but incredibly badly written) Faction in an invasion of Gallifrey to conquer it, rewrite its history, reclaim it in the name of paradox, etc etc.
In the recontextualization of TAC in the The Gallifrey Chronicles, however, with additions from Lawrence Miles’ own retconning in interviews and The Book of the War, an aspect of the Grandfather who just so happens to be the future Eighth Doctor, from specifically 292 years into the War, decided the War was going so badly, takes control of a rouge and parodic separate sect of the Faction, travels back in time and leads an invasion of War Queen Romana III’s Gallifrey at the War’s beginning specifically to take control of the War and change it’s outcome.
(Regarding the “292 years,” for more context, The Book of the War and most Faction novels other than Head of State and Spinning Jenny takes place only within the first 50 years of the War. Alien Bodies was originally intended to take place 500 years into the War (so, therefore, similarly casts Interference and The Taking of Planet 5 with the same dating assumption), but it remains a discussion point in the FP fandom whether or not that still holds with the BBV and Magic Bullet audios.)
So, in the end, Lance Parkin’s view of the Time War as of 2011, in the TLDR version, is this: one version of the future Eighth Doctor experiences the first two centuries of the War, sees that the Time Lords are losing to the enemy, the Daleks enter the fray as an extremely powerful force and make things worse for the Time Lords, and while being rotted and twisted by the Paradox virus, takes control of a (REALLY BAD) splinter sect of the Faction, leads an invasion of Gallifrey at the War’s beginning, encounters his old self, blah blah blah, Gallifrey blows up, the “current” Eighth Doctor goes into The Burning while the Grandfather Paradox Doctor regenerates into Eccleston, clears his mind, and goes into NuWho.
And you know what’s funny about this? The Daleks are not actually blatantly confirmed to be the main Enemy of the Time War until Gridlock, and while certainly it was the implication, you could totally force a “the Daleks weren’t the only enemy” agenda while watching series 1-2 (also nobody seems to remember that the Ninth Doctor implies the Time War is still happening in Rose).
So, why bring all this back to The Eyeless? Parkin, all throughout his Tenth Doctor adventure, constantly implies and hints that the Weapon creating the story’s conflict is the weapon that destroyed Gallifrey, or at the very least is related to the Time War. The Eyeless also has a haunting sequence when the Tenth Doctor remembers Gallifrey’s destruction in the Time War… and it’s word-for-word the destruction recounted in The Gallifrey Chronicles with the Eighth Doctor. Even if his AHistory theory doesn’t and can’t line up with The Eyeless’ idea of the Weapon, Parkin irrefutably asserts in The Eyeless that the destruction of Gallifrey in NuWho’s Time War and the destruction the BBC Books’ Eighth Doctor experienced are one and the same.
Which leads us to “being betrayed by his companions.” Because the only person who could remotely fill that void in The Ancestor Cell/TAC: The Gallifrey Chronicles Cut is Father Kreiner, who is pulled into the Grandfather Doctordox’s fight, and who ultimately “betrays” him for the “current” Eighth Doctor, leading to the destruction of Romana’s Gallifrey and the defeat of the (shitty) Faction Paradox.
Which only makes sense, as does all of Parkin’s theory, if you really remember and stress that the Grandfather Eighth Doctor is fucking insane.
From the POV of the real Eighth Doctor, the “hero” of The Ancestor Cell and The Gallifrey Chronicles, the future reflection twisted into the Grandfather is evil, ugly, nasty, war-like. But, also, mentally unstable. So think of this whole affair, this whole theory, from that Doctor’s POV. He sees the Time Lords losing the War, he sees his oldest enemies entering the fray, the War is ending with the utter destruction of everything, so he dons the guise of the Grandfather, leads a bunch of rebel teenagers pretending to be the Faction to the Gallifrey he knows best, recruits an old friend (Father Kreiner), only to be betrayed, fought against by his old self, who destroys Gallifrey, sending him to his rightful time, alone, lost, and regenerating into a Ninth Doctor with a clearer head, healed body, and confused and conflicting memories of what the living hell happened.
So basically, yes, I’m turning all this, all of this writing and reading, into more reasons to be said about Fitz/Father Kreiner.
None of this remotely matters anymore, of course. The Day of the Doctor did it’s thing, it was a mostly good thing, NuWho benefits from not being this complicated or connected, etc etc.
It’s still rather fun, innit? Or hurtful. Take what you will.
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