A History of the Universe
AHistory
An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe
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A History of the Universe |
Mad Norwegian press AHistory An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe |
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| Author | Lance Parkin |  |
| ISBN# | 0 97594 463 0 | |
| Publisher | Mad Norwegian Press | |
| Published | 2005 |
| Summary: Covers the whole of the TV series up through the 2005 season starring Christopher Eccleston; the Virgin and BBC books up through The Gallifrey Chronicles; all of the Telos novellas; and the Big Finish audio range up through Terror Firma. |
A Review by Terrence Keenan 16/4/06
About 10 years ago, Lance Parkin decided to come up with his own version of the Doctor Who universe. Entitled A History of the Universe, it covered the original TV series and all the Virgin releases novels up a certain point.
10 years later, Lance is back with a revised edition that includes all the Virgin line novels, all of the BBC novels up through The Gallifrey Chronicles, a whole herd of the audios and even the Telos novellas.
Let's get this out of the way and call AHistory what it is: high geekery. But it's well-done high geekery, trying to put together a consistent history of the universe that flows and makes sense.
The format of the new version is a vast improvement over the original edition. The notes are now on the bottom of the pages, instead of the sides, and are lined up with the entries they refer to.
The other major change with AHistory is the dating of UNIT stories. In the orginal edition, they were placed in "the Seventies." But for this edition, Parkin creates the "UNIT Year X" and places the stories there and explains where they might occur, without ever committing to a date. Parkin is trying to have it all ways, but does make his points well.
AHistory is worth checking out. You don't have to agree with it, but you can applaude the attempt to make sense of the Whoniverse.