What exactly is Time Lord Victorious? And how do the various strands of this unprecedented adventure knit together? Your guide begins here…

Feature by JOHN J JOHNSTON and DAN TOSTEVIN

A Kotturuh, the Tenth Doctor and Brian the Ood assassin feature on the cover of the BBC Books novel The Knight, the Fool and the Dead. Art by Lee Binding.

Lee Binding’s cover art for BBC Books’ All Flesh is Grass includes the Eighth, Tenth and Ninth Doctors.

Time Lord Victorious - arguably the most ambitious non-televised project in the history of Doctor Who - is a single, linked narrative, strewn across a diverse array of media, much as the Doctor’s adventures are themselves scattered throughout time and space.

From the outset, BBC Books provided an obvious and productive medium for Time Lord Victorious. Steve Cole - author of the Time Lord Victorious novel The Knight, the Fool and the Dead, and consultant editor for BBC Books’ Doctor Who range - points out that “Because there was so much to factor in for this ‘event’ series, and I had a feeling ingredients and requirements would inevitably be subject to change, I decided to assign myself the first book as it would need more editing than usual to lead smoothly into Una McCormack’s book.

“One of the big features for me is the setting,” he adds. “It was fun to figure out how to get across the ancient nature of the Dark Times - how technology and life would be different, if death were more an accidental occurrence than an inevitable part of a cycle.” Steve describes the Kotturuh, a new but very ancient species, as “very different and frightening - dark aliens for dark times. This may sound odd but the Brothers Grimm were of particular importance during the invention of this novel. The folk story of Godfather Death [first published by the Grimms in 1812] really chimed with the themes of Time Lord Victorious and the Doctor’s whole attitude to death - and cheating it. We’re not just randomly setting these stories post The Waters of Mars [2009, in which the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ first appeared]. There are themes to explore and emotional arcs to resolve, for more than one Doctor.” From the outset Una McCormack, the author of the second novel All Flesh is Grass, found her brief exacting but exciting. “It was fairly daunting!” she admits. “I knew that I had, in part, to work through the ramifications of Steve’s novel. But I also had to write a story about the last of the Kotturuh, which really intrigued me, and seemed the heart of the book: to be the last of your species, responsible for the extinction of so many others, and to be coming to terms with your own mortality. Much of Doctor Who since 2005 has been concerned with coming to terms with mortality, I think. In cases like these, it’s important to keep the heart of your story in mind, and not get overwhelmed by the big picture.