BASIC PLOT
Fitz is under interrogation regarding a burglary and fire at the Kremlin... where the Doctor disappeared in the flames.

DOCTOR
Eighth.

COMPANIONS
Fitz and Trix.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 12 The TARDIS has materialised in the Kremlin armoury before the story began.

Pgs 176/178 Russia, September 2, 1812.

Pgs 200/201 Paraiso (although the TARDIS materialises between scenes).

Pg 241 Garudin's laboratory, 2024.

Pg 265 Siberia, 1812 (although the TARDIS materialises between scenes).

Pg 274 Paraiso (although the TARDIS materialises between scenes).

PREPARATORY READING
The Talons of Weng-Chiang might be helpful, but isn't essential.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 33 "Ogron?" Not, it turns out, the aliens from Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space, but rather a Russian organisation. "You read Cyrillic?" Trix's familiarity with the Russian language was seen in Time Zero. Reference to UNIT. You know who they are.

Pg 75 "She and fellow students had fled west, driven by the advance of the PacBloc forces and stories of Mogushestvo and Greel" The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 77 "Greel may have retreated to China" The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 86 "I don't know nearly enough about Zygma energies." The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 107 "I'll not have another one slip away like Greel." The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 148 "From Magnus Greel. The Butcher of Brisbane" The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Also, the Doctor doesn't recognise the name here, thanks to his amnesia from The Ancestor Cell.

Pg 149 "What is important is that he was engaged in research into Zygma technology" The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 197 "Greel, no less." The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 211 "To Fitz, it sounded too much like Meet me in St Louis." The Ancestor Cell, Escape Velocity.

Pg 228 "Another mutant brainchild of Greel's" The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pgs 228/229 "The weapon is some sort of psionic device, designed for subversion. [...] The weapon, smooth and ebony black, nested in a delicate cradle in the centre of the cryo-locker" This is the same weapon that finds its way back to 1933 in Eater of Wasps.

Pg 236 "Confronted with this world, Fitz's memories of Siberia were almost a comfort." Time Zero.

Pg 247 "'Yeah, one more trip to Siberia.' Fitz gave a weak imitation of a laugh." Time Zero.

Pg 252 "Mogushestvo was no Greel, he was no god" The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Pg 270 "There's no telling what damage Greel's experiments might have done to the timelines. Perhaps my temporal paratroopers are best developed into a unit for policing the past and preserving the future." The Talons of Weng-Chiang. These presumably become the time agents Greel refers to in that story, of which Captain Jack Harkness was a member (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances).

Pg 273 "'A crystal, with a wonky kite design imprinted on its structure at a molecular level. The same one we found on a book.' A cross-section, the Doctor had pointed out again, of a diamond." Timeless.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
The Icelandic Alliance appearing here was mentioned in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Napoleon appears briefly on page 237 (he also appeared in The Reign of Terror and The Sands of Time and later appears in World Game).

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Dusha Vishenkova, Razum Kinzhal, Natasha Vishenkova, Irena Vishenkova, Count Yuri Vishenkov (Papa), Colonel Bugayev, Tatyana, Aphrodite Diamante.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Front Cover: The image suggests that the Napoleonic army confronted 51st century tanks, yet there's no such battle. The only contact between the two timezones is via a few individuals who travel discreetly.
2. Pg 149 "'What's the safe limit? About two hundred years for the average human mass?' 'The severity of cellular disruption increases exponentially after that.' 'But you can just about get a man to the twenty-first century and back.'" Which is quite impressive, because Kinzhal's men are heavier than average and yet survive a journey of almost three thousand years, or fifteen times longer than they should. Did the Doctor mean to say "two thousand years"?
3. Pg 168 "Waiting soldiers took charge of them and lead them off along the rails to assembly points." Why does this switch from the past to the present tense? It should be "led", not "lead".
4. Pg 172 On the trail of the locket, Trix returns to Aphrodite's home, Paraiso, via the lake that links dimensions. She discovers that Vorman, the soldier from the future, has disappeared, taking the locket with him. Whereupon she promptly reprograms the lake to take her to the belt's home time. Except, did it not occur to her that, by reprogramming the lake, she's actually reprogramming the coordinates that - and we feel this is important - the only other individual on the planet, whom she desperately wants to follow, just used? And this is exactly what happens: Vorman went to 1812 and Trix reprogrammed the lake to "follow" him to 5000, where she subsequently gets stuck for several months and only escapes because the Doctor happened to turn up at some point.
5. Pg 220 "She ran for the blazing wagon and slashed at the straps tethering the horses. Once free, they needed no more encouragement to gallop on their way. [...] Dusha slapped the rump of one of the horses" Those are some pretty loyal horses, who gallop on their way and then evidently return for their owners in the midst of a fire. They bred them well, back in the nineteenth century.
6. Pg 256 "The space programme is non-existent in this century, Doctor." Someone should tell Professor Marius that, as right now he's on the Bi-Al Foundation, having left Earth a few years earlier and about to return this very same year (The Invisible Enemy). Not to mention that the Doctor says that the year 5000 is the year of the Great Breakout, when humanity conquers the stars. Not bad for a year that starts with no space program whatsoever.

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]

1. The image is of one of those historical reenactment societies, enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the 51st century, thanks to the recent invention of time travel. If you look closely, that's Magnus Greel dressed up as Napoleon and Captain Jack Harkness is the camp soldier in the background.
2. The severity does increase exponentially, but it's still a very mild exponent, only doubling every century or so.
3. Angel's tired and not narrating her tenses correctly.
4. Trix really is stupid.
5. Dusha's emotional power even affects animals, so they really do come back for her.
6. Since it's the year 5000, Razum is being quite literal and there's been no space program for a few months, but that means there hasn't been any for the whole century! Presumably he's one of those people who spends every January 1st walking up to all his friends and saying "I haven't seen you all year!" After the war's end here, there's presumably a tremendous drive to explore other worlds.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 204 Magellans, living stars who are capable of reproducing but usually don't.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Back cover: Russia, 1812 (Sept 2nd, according to page 178).

Back cover: Russia, 2024.

Back cover: Russia, 5000.

Pg 100 Paraiso, a world outside time.

Pg 163 In an aircraft above Siberia, 5000.

Pg 231 Russia, c 5000, but slightly in the past. Russia, c 4800.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Somewhat appropriately, Emotional Chemistry reads a lot like a Russian novel: it's slow, sometimes torturous and far too dense for its own good. Despite the tiny print, a great deal of action happens between scenes, but the whole thing feels top-heavy: most of the good stuff is at the end, so you have to wade through a lot of extraneous material to get there. The underlying ideas are actually pretty good, but by the time the payoff eventually arrives, you've stopped caring. Some good bits, but far too many dull stretches.