Puneet Varma (Editor)

Beautiful Chaos (Russell novel)

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Publication date
  
December 26, 2008

Originally published
  
26 December 2008

Preceded by
  
The Story of Martha

Publisher
  
BBC Books

4/5
AbeBooks

ISBN
  
1-84607-563-7

Author
  
Gary Russell

Followed by
  
The Eyeless

Release number
  
29

Beautiful Chaos (Russell novel) t1gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcStSlJwTgG7M1KfXZ

Subject
  
Featuring: Tenth Doctor Donna Noble Wilfred Mott Sylvia Noble

Set in
  
Period between "Partners in Crime" and "The Stolen Earth"

Similar
  
Gary Russell books, New Series Adventures books, The Doctor books

Beautiful Chaos is a BBC Books original novel written by Gary Russell and based on the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble. It was published on December 26, 2008, alongside The Eyeless and The Story of Martha.

Contents

Summary

Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed — he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Tenth Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony.

But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left...

The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times. Something powerful, angry, and all-consuming...

Continuity

  • The novel features the return of the Mandragora Helix and is a sequel to the 1976 Fourth Doctor serial The Masque of Mandragora. The Doctor not having had a decent Italian meal "since 1492" is, in itself, a reference to the serial. Reference is also made to the Past Doctor Adventure The Eleventh Tiger, the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip The Mark of Mandragora, and the Big Finish audio drama Sarah Jane Smith: Buried Secrets in which fragments of the Helix previously returned.
  • Several references are made to Park Vale, the school which features in The Sarah Jane Adventures. The Tycho Project telescope from The Sarah Jane Adventures serial The Last Sontaran is also mentioned.
  • The Doctor says that astrology dates from the "Dark Times", and is shared by every species in the universe. This was also the basis for the Sarah Jane Adventures serial Secrets of the Stars.

    • Critical reaction

    The novel was previewed and later reviewed in Doctor Who Magazine and was well received by critics, leading to one review to call for Russell to be allowed to script an episode of the TV series. The novel was chosen to represent the Tenth Doctor in the special Anniversary reprint set from the BBC in 2013.

    Audiobook

    An abridged audiobook was released on April 9, 2009, read by Bernard Cribbins who played Wilfred Mott in the TV series.

    References

    Beautiful Chaos (Russell novel) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA