State of Change

State of Change
Author Christopher Bulis
Series Doctor Who book:
Virgin Missing Adventures
Release number
 5
Subject Featuring:
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Set in Period between
Revelation of the Daleks and
The Trial of a Time Lord
Publisher Virgin Books
Publication date
 December 1994
ISBN ISBN 0 426 20431 X
Preceded by The Crystal Bucephalus
Followed by The Romance of Crime

State of Change is an original novel written by Christopher Bulis and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel features the Sixth Doctor and Peri, although the dimensional instability of the realm they are currently visiting causes the Doctor to briefly regress through his first five incarnations; the Sixth Doctor also spends a great deal of time allowing the personality of the Third Doctor to take control of his body when he is forced to fight.

Plot

The story takes place c. 10 BC. The Roman Empire has discovered electricity generation, airships, and radio and who knows what else. When the time ship lands, the Doctor and Peri find themselves in ancient Rome, in the tomb of Cleopatra. But something is very wrong. The tomb walls depict steam-driven galleys and other disturbing anachronisms. The Roman Empire is preparing for a devastating war — using weapons from the future capable of destroying the entire world.

The Doctor and Peri discover that Rome has advanced far beyond its natural means, and they must recruit the aid of Ptolemy Caesar to prevent his half-siblings, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II, from waging a potentially world-ending war with each other. Meanwhile, Peri begins to revert to a form she thought she was rid of, and The Rani reemerges.

Continuity

It is implied at the end of the novel, when the Dominion is transported to a newly created duplicate of Earth in a distant star system, that this is the same planet as Mondas - the eventual home of the Cybermen.

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