All - Consuming Fire ( novel ) All - Consuming Fire was a 1994 entry in the New Adventures range of " Doctor Who " novels . It featured the Seventh Doctor , Ace and Benny in an adventure with the real - life " Sherlock Holmes " and " Dr John Watson " . It was notable for its unusual structure . At the beginning of the novel , the Doctor gives Benny a copy of " All - Consuming Fire " by Arthur Conan Doyle , which she duly reads . This sets up a " book - within - a - book " , in which the reader is meant to believe that there ' s an Andy Lane - written prologue and epilogue wrapped around a Conan Doyle novel — itself written from the perspective of " John Watson " . In the epilogue , Benny pronounces that Conan Doyle changed " a lot of the facts " , meaning that Conan Doyle ( or , possibly " Watson " ) is an . The main characters seem to agree that Conan Doyle ' s version is " basically " true . However , Benny ' s revelation that she doesn ' t " remember half of these things happening " makes it difficult to know which " details " actually occurred within the " Doctor Who " universe , and which are embellishments by Conan Doyle . Lane occasionally gives us other points of view , such as when he quotes from Benny ' s diary . These moments , too , are instances where limited perspective leads to unreliable narration . Indeed , it ' s not terribly clear whether these moments of taking from other diaries are meant to be Lane interjecting into the Conan Doyle book , or whether it ' s actually Conan Doyle himself mixing in a bit of Benny ' s voice into his book . In any event , " All - Consuming Fire " — quite unusually for a " Doctor Who " novel — features a book within a book , told mostly in the from the perspective of secondary characters . Publisher ' s summary . England , 1887 . The secret library of St John the Beheaded has been robbed . The thief has taken forbidden books which tell of mythical beasts and gateways to other worlds . Only one team can be trusted to solve the crime : Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson . As their investigation leads them to the dark underside of Victorian London , Holmes and Watson soon realise that someone else is following the same trail . Someone who has the power to kill with a glance . And they sense a strange , inhuman shape observing them from the shadows . Then they meet the mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor - - the last person alive to read the stolen books . While Bernice waits in nineteenth - century India , Ace is trapped on a bizarre alien world . And the Doctor finds himself unwillingly united with England ' s greatest consulting detective . Plot . " to be added " Continuity . It is difficult to know how much of the book to take as a genuine account of things which " actually " happened to the Doctor and his companion s , since Benny outright says that the book was a heavily fictionalised version of events . Nevertheless , the prologue and epilogue are certainly meant to be read as the " reality " of the DWU . And the basic outlines of the plot are confirmed as generally having happened . " Detail " within the bulk of the novel should , however be treated with a great deal more suspicion . That said , some things said in the novel " can " be found in other stories : Holmes and Watson in the DWU . This novel portrays " Holmes " and " Watson " as the fictional names for non - fictional people . Benny is cut off several times right before she announces the " actual " names of " Holmes " and " Watson " . This notion that they are real people is confirmed in PROSE : " Happy Endings " , when the duo show up for Benny ' s wedding . Later she even meets " Mycroft Holmes " ( AUDIO : " The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel " ) However , almost every story written thereafter suggests quite the opposite . " Evolution " , for instance , strongly implies that Holmes and Watson are " wholly " fictional characters , created by Doyle , based on the Doctor and Doyle himself ( although a prelude written suggests that Doyle , altering the characters slightly to protect their true identities , simply based some of the " fictional " Holmes ' characteristics on the Doctor ) . While the Eleventh Doctor suggests that Holmes is fictional in " The Snowmen " , he may simply be responding to Walter Simeon ' s own belief that they are fictional when he himself knows otherwise .