Faction Paradox

**Faction Paradox** is a part of the Doctor Who Universe, only one where The Ancestor Cell never happened – an alternate timeline, like the one in Day of the Daleks, except it never gets stopped. Created by Lawrence Miles for the BBC Eighth Doctor book range, it has since spawned multiple novels, short story collections, comics and audio plays.

## Fictional Biography

### Early Days

Born during an era on the Homeworld 'now' notorious for the rise of renegades and radical thinkers, such as The Imperator President, The War King and, perhaps most notably, the Doctor, Faction (or as it was originally House) Paradox, was an intentional reaction to the strict rules of the Homeworld. Put simply, Gallifrey was a world of functional immortals who eshued anything other than the purely rational, scientifically provable, a society to whom biological reproduction was not only unfamiliar but considered to be gauche verging on the primitive. In order to rebel against such a society, the Founder of House Paradox adopted an old familial title, Grandfather, and wore as emblems of his house mysticism and the carnally biological. He wore the first Bone Mask that would one day emblemise Faction Paradox to the universe. He adopted, what to human eyes, were the trappings of Voodoo, full of fetishes and ritual. Everything done solely to spite and ridicule Gallifreyan society. Instead of mathematics and science, Grandfather Paradox claimed his powers were based on rituals and deals struck with spirits call Loa.

Of course, the traditionalists would not stand for Grandfather Paradox's defiance. He was sentenced to prison, only to either escape or be released by accident. Either way, Grandfather Paradox left Gallifrey with his inner-circle and set course, not in a TARDIS powered by the sciences of Gallifrey, but a gothic chapel powered by rituals and the Loa, towards the planet Earth, and eventually 'the Eleven Day Empire'.

### The Eleven Day Empire

The measurement of time by any culture short of the Time Lords (and perhaps their enemy) is an inexact science. Sooner or later seconds slip due to calendars not adhering precisely to planetary orbits. Over time, those seconds, become minutes, which become hours, which become days. "Lost" days, days that do not, and never did exist.

Such was the case in Britain in the year 1752, where the calendar in that country was 11 days behind that of the rest of the world. It was decided then that on the 2nd of September the next day would be the 14th of September to align the calendars more precisely. It was simply an exercise in accountancy in order to better facilitate business.

What is not widely known is that, prior to the adjustment, strangers were seen in conference with the government. What is even less well known is the sale of those days occured between the government and none other than Grandfather Paradox.

Those eleven days were used to carve out a section of space-time to be the fifdom of Faction Paradox, a looped section of repeating time encompassing the boundaries of the city of London.

### Life in the Eleven Day Empire

The Faction was, again in defiance of the Homeworld, meritocratic and allowed recruits from the "Lesser Species" (i.e. humanity) to not only become members but to rise to positions of power and influence (for example, the Speaker's role in the Empire's equivalent of the House of Parliament is held by Godfather Morlock, who is human). That is not to say there is not friction amongst the Faction between those members who came from the Homeworld and those who hailed from Earth and other places, many Homeworlders find it difficult to shed the natural arrogance that came from being members of the species who literally created history and any human who the Faction recruited would naturally be the sort of person who'd find such an attitude galling.

## BBC Books

* *Alien Bodies* — Lawrence Miles (1997)
* *Unnatural History* — Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman (1999)
* *Interference: Book One (Shock Tactic)* — Lawrence Miles (1999)
* *Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)* — Lawrence Miles (1999)
* *The Taking of Planet 5* — Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham (1999)
* *The Shadows of Avalon* — Paul Cornell (2000)
* *Ancestor Cell* - Stephen Cole and Peter Anghelides (2001)

### Mad Norwegian Press

In 2002 the Faction moved to their own book series, published by Mad Norwegian Press.

* *The Book of the War* — Lawrence Miles et al. (2002)
* *This Town Will Never Let Us Go* — Lawrence Miles (2003)
* *Of the City of the Saved...* — Philip Purser-Hallard (2004)
* *Warlords of Utopia* — Lance Parkin (2004)
* *Warring States* — Mags L Halliday (2005)
* *Erasing Sherlock* — Kelly Hale (2006)

### Random Static

In 2007, New Zealand-based publishers Random Static published a single Faction novel. The cover art, by Emma Weakley, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award (New Zealand science fiction and fantasy award) for Best Artwork in 2009.

* *Newtons Sleep* — Daniel O'Mahony (2008)

### Obverse Books

In 2010 Obverse Books acquired the Faction Paradox prose license.

### Novels

* *Against Nature* - Lawrence Burton (2013)
* *The Brakespeare Voyage* - Simon Bucher-Jones and Jonathan Dennis (2013)
* *Head of State* - Andrew Hickey (2015)
* *Weapons Grade Snake Oil* - Blair Bidmead (2017)
* *Spinning Jenny* - Dale Smith (2017)

### Short story collections

* *A Romance in Twelve Parts* (ed. Stuart Douglas, 2011)
* *Burning with Optimism's Flames* (ed. Jay Eales, 2012)
* *Liberating Earth* (ed. Kate Orman, 2015)
* *Wallowing in Pessimism's Mire* (ed. Alan Smithee, 1956, 2015)
* *The Book of the Enemy* (ed. Simon Bucher-Jones, 2018)
* *The Book of the Peace* (ed. Philip Marsh, 2018)

### The City of the Saved

In 2012, Obverse acquired the rights to The City of the Saved, the galaxy sized city first seen in Philip Purser-Hallard's novel *Of the City of the Saved..*.

### Novellas

* *Vanishing Tales of the City* - Kara Dennison

### Short story collections

* *Tales of the City* (ed. Philip Purser-Hallard, 2012)
* *More Tales of the City* (ed. Philip Purser-Hallard, 2013)
* *Tales of the Great Detectives* (ed. Philip Purser-Hallard, 2014)
* *Furthest Tales Of The City* (ed. Philip Purser-Hallard, 2015)
* *Tales of the Civil War* (ed. Philip Purser-Hallard, 2017)
* *Stranger Tales of the City* (ed. Elizabeth Evershed, 2018)

### Other Faction Novels

* *Christmas on a Rational Planet* — Lawrence Miles

* *Dead Romance* — Lawrence Miles