The Quantum Archangel
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A BBC novel by Craig Hinton, featuring the sixth Doctor and Mel Publication Date: January 2001 '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 beyong 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 oversome 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. |
Continuity
This story takes place after the events of Terror of the Vervoids, and after Mel's appearance at the trial, as she knows the Master. At the start of the story the Doctor has just inadvertantly caused the destruction of Maradnias. She recalls stowing away "all those years ago". In her room, she has a party hat from the end of 1999, a Quark processor unit, a holoempathic image of a bearded male named Troy, a Dalek logic crystal and a stuffed owl (a present). Despite leaving the Doctor, she keeps her TARDIS key.
She refers to "a day trip to the Big Bang" suggesting at some point they'd taken one, remembers an adventure with rogue Bandrils during which she and the Doctor had to repair the TARDIS's dynamorphic generators. The blue stone and sapphire of the Midnight Cathedral reminds Mel of a "great kingdom" she once knew.
She is referred to as having come from 1986 (pg 17) and 1989 (pg 181). West London University is in Isleworth. Her university friends included Julia Prince, Leonor Pridge, Chantel Edwards, Anjeliqua Whitefriar, Wesley, Teresa, Fran, Toby, Vicky, Karl, Paul Kairos, and Arlene Cole. Stuart Hyde taught her when she was there in 1985.
She stays in the Osterley Hotel, its bar a favourite with West London University students. She hacks into the university computers at one point.
Mel once considered a career in politics, which forms the basis of the alternate reality where she is Prime Minister of England, with the third Doctor as an advisor.
Comments
The opening with Mel dissatisfied with the Doctor's actions echos Head Games nicely, though she spend a lot of the story wandering around the Master's TARDIS. There's an interesting alternate reality, but she doesn't get as much to do as in Millennial Rites.
Craig previously wrote Millennial Rites. His Doctor Who novels also include The Crystal Bucephalus and Godengine.