BASIC PLOT
The Doctor travels back to the Ancient Days, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known. Then come the Kotturuh: creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality. They judge each and every species and decree its allotted time to live. For the first time, living things know the fear of ending. And they will go to any lengths to escape this grim new spectre, death.

DOCTOR
Tenth.

Also featuring the first (in flashback) and cameos from the eighth and ninth Doctors.

COMPANIONS
Brian the Ood assassin (who previously appeared in the audio story The Minds of Magnox).

Pg 49 Barbara, Ian and Susan in flashback.

Pg 83 Rose in flashback.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 7 The TARDIS is on Andalia when the novel opens.

Pg 63 Inside a tunnel a mile underneath the planet Mordeela.

Pg 92 On board the Polythrope.

Pg 143 Back on Andalia.

Pg 159 Andalia, five days forward in time.

PREPARATORY READING
The Waters of Mars.

The Time Lord Victorious story appeared across multiple media, although you don't really need anything to get into this one.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 8 "Only, life got out of hand a bit. On Mars." The Waters of MArs.

"She enters the dark house. CLoses the door. Snow flaling. You're already walking away. You hear the blast -" Adelaide Brooks killing herself at the end of The Waters of Mars.

Pg 9 "You hear the blast. You turn. No light at the window. All silent on Davies Steet." The Waters of Mars.

Pg 12 "And he'd not only read about the rise of the Old Ones, he'd stumbled across the remnants of a fair few: once-giants of the universe like the Exxilons, the Eternals, the Jagaroth and the Racnoss." Death to the Daleks, Enlightenment, City of Death, The Runaway Bride.

"Why wouldn't he come here, despite the funereal peal of the TARDIS' cloister bell, clanging as she took him back through that obliging fracture in time?" Logopolis.

Pg 22 "He pulled out the sonic screwdriver ready to play it over her." Fury From the Deep et al.

Pg 25 "For a second he was back on snowy Davies Street, eyes locked with a vision of Ood Sigma, chosen of the Ood Brain, staring at him in silence." The Waters of Mars.

Pg 32 "Words on a tombstone, a legend glaring from a screen: Captain Adeliade Brooke, 1999-2059..." The Waters of Mars.

Pg 49 "What had this man or woman done, who-knew-how-many thousands of years ago, to end their miserable days here in the cave of Skulls with a stone axe in the back of their head?" We revisit the Tribe of Gum part of An Unearthly Child in the firts interlude.

Pg 75 "If I die, I'll regenerate, the Doctor thought [...] He felt it tighten, and all he could think was, I. Don't. Want. To-" The End of Time.

Pg 111 "Anyway the tailor's daughter goes to the Princess, who's very beautiful, probably." City of Death.

Pg 144 "'"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass,'" the Doctor said quietly." Forward reference to the next book, All Flesh is Grass.

Pg 149 "The worlds that could be saved! Ascinta, Perganon, Gallifrey - worlds you've never dreamed of!" Ascinta and Perganon were mentioned in School Reunion. Gallifrey you probably already know.

"Think of it - the Time Lords may never fall, the Daleks may never evolve, the people of Mondas never wear out so they never become Cybermen..." The Time War, Genesis of the Daleks, The Tenth Planet.

Pg 150 "There were times I couldn't be the Doctor." Day of the Doctor.

Pg 167 "Someone once told me that if I could decide who lives and who dies, that would make me a monster." Mr Copper, in Voyage of the Damned.

Pg 168 "But all flesh is grass, Kotturuh - even yours." Forward reference to All Flesh is Grass.

Pg 171 "The Doctor closed his eyes. 'Do I have the right?' You can't doubt it, he told himself." Genesis of the Daleks.

Pg 175 "'Ashes to ashes,' said the Doctor, and a chill spread across the bridge." Remembrance of the Daleks.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
Brian the Ood, who previously appeared in The Minds of Magnox.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Estinee (she dies at the end but retains a consciousness).

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS
None.

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

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pgs 7/9/10 Andalians, who are thin, have beaks, jade skin and look like aged chickens.

Pg 10 Flies.

Pg 23 Brian is an Ood (The Impossible Planet et al).

Pg 34 The Kotturah. They have squirming tentacle-like legs, jellyfish eyes, six fingers and a hard carapace.

Pg 42 Chalskal is a Skalithai, diminutive carbuncled creatures with vestigal limbs that stand on a triped of three tails. Their faces are hairy and warty, with a single yellow eye.

Pg 69 A tall and angular creature with spiky limbs and ceremonial armour.

Pg 70 A variety of creatures with bulging eyes.

Pg 73 A gargoyle-like animal with two sets of arms.

Pg 75 A luminous robot the size of a tank, with caterpillar tracks.

Pg 93 Fallomax has violet skin and crimson hair, but we don't learn anything else about her species.

Pg 177 Daleks.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 1 Destran, the Dark Times (long, long ago).

Pg 7 Andalia.

Pg 49 In the Cave of Skulls, Earth, 100,000 BC.

Pg 63 Mordeela.

Pg 92 The Polythrope.

Pg 109 Moslin, time unknown.

IN SUMMARY - Stacey Smith?
This is utterly stupendous. It's clever, funny, touching and has one hell of a cliffhanger. It's the first piece of Time Lord Victorious I've consumed, but if they're all as good as this then we're in for a treat. The Doctor is mostly recognisable until the end, and the jokes throughout are hilarious (my favourite is the End of Time one). And then we get THAT cliffhanger, which is just incredible. I can't believe how effective this is, nor how excited I am to read the next book in the series. Why haven't we had cliffhangers in this range before? Easily Steve Cole's best book. I cannot recommend this highly enough.