The Discontinuity Guide
 |
|
| Author | Paul Cornell, Martin Day, Keith Topping |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Slatter–Anderson |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Doctor Who |
| Published | 1995 Virgin Books |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 357 (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 60225122 |
The Discontinuity Guide is a 1995 guidebook to the serials of the original run (1963–1989) of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. The book was written by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping and was first published as Doctor Who - The Discontinuity Guide on 1 July 1995 by Virgin Books.
The book focuses on the fiction of Doctor Who. For each serial, the authors discuss the roots of the story, technical and narrative gaffes, technobabble, dialogue disasters and triumphs, continuity, and a "bottom line" critical analysis of the story. The book also contains short essays on subjects in Doctor Who continuity, such as the Doctor's family, the history (or histories) of the Daleks, UNIT dating and the origins of the Time Lords. One of these essays marked the first publication of the Season 6B theory.
Although The War Games is the final serial to feature Patrick Troughton as the current incarnation of the Doctor, he would go on to make three appearances in later stories. His appearances in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors have led to fans raising points about continuity problems regarding the Second Doctor's ultimate fate.
The authors of The Discontinuity Guide gave voice to these various points and came up with the hypothesis that a significant period of time occurred between the end of The War Games and the beginning of Spearhead from Space in which the Doctor remained in his second incarnation and was not immediately exiled to Earth. This hypothesis has been expanded into the Season 6B concept. In this, the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA, a Time Lord intelligence organisation mentioned in The Deadly Assassin) recruits the Second Doctor immediately following his trial at the end of The War Games to serve as a clandestine agent, undertaking missions for them on an as-needed basis. For this, he is given back his TARDIS (together with the Stattenheim Remote Control) and allowed to reunite with both Jamie and Victoria as companions. The events of The Two Doctors are just one of the missions that the Doctor subsequently undertakes before, at some point, his association with the CIA ends and his sentence of exile on Earth and forced regeneration is carried out, leading into Spearhead from Space.
...
Wikipedia