Faction Paradox
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Faction Paradox |
| Abbreviation(s): | FP |
| Creator: | Lawrence Miles |
| Date(s): | |
| Medium: | Books Audios Comics |
| Country of Origin: | UK |
| External Links: |  |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Faction Paradox is a series of books, comics, and audios focusing on the War in Heaven, and named after a group of the same name that appear in the series. FP is one of the many canon-defying spinoffs of Doctor Who, with the group's first appearances prior to their own series being in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, starting with Alien Bodies in 1997.
hey! if you're a fan of time travel, metafiction, history (as a weapon), fantasy-esque occurrences in science fiction, the fetishisation of death, or just doctor who, you might be interested in faction paradox! (there are no refunds for emotional or mental damage caused by getting into it. always read the fine print.)[1]
Canon
Christmas on a Rational Planet
The first mention of anything FP related technically happens in the VNA book Christmas on a Rational Planet, in which Grandfather Paradox is briefly mentioned. However, given the reference is so quick, most FP fans don't tend to recommend starting with it.
EDAs
The EDAs introduce the concept of Faction Paradox and the War in Heaven, beginning in 1997's Alien Bodies. The most relevant books to the arc in this series include: Unnatural History, Interference Part 1: Shock Tactic, Interference Part 2: The Hour of the Geek, The Taking of Planet 5, The Shadows of Avalon, and The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.
Further appearances of or references to the Faction in both the EDAs (The Ancestor Cell and The Gallifrey Chronicles) and PDAs (The Quantum Archangel) are often contradicted by further stories in the wider FP universe, and are therefore sometimes ignored by the fans.
Several FP concepts are first introduced in these EDAs: the Celestis, the Remote, the Eleven Day Empire etc. Key FP characters introduced in the EDAs include:
The Faction Paradox Protocols
BBV Productions produced a series of six audios from 2001-2004 called The Faction Paradox Protocols. These six audios are: The Eleven-Day Empire, The Shadow Play, Sabbath Dei, In the Year of the Cat, Movers, and A Labyrinth of Histories.
These audios are pretty consistently recommended.
Mad Norwegian Press
The American publisher Mad Norwegian Press released a series of books focused on the War in Heaven, beginning with one of the most influential and arguably important texts of the whole series: The Book of the War, an encyclopedic look into key concepts present throughout the series. The book is also infamous for its usually high cost to acquire physically.
TBOTW was followed by: This Town Will Never Let Us Go, Of the City of the Saved..., Warlords of Utopia, Warring States, and Erasing Sherlock.
The True History of Faction Paradox
BBV Audios (2021-)
From 2021, BBV began to release further FP audios, as well as an incomplete video crossover series with their other spinoff P.R.O.B.E.. However, a lot of fans tend to ignore them, especially as Lawrence Miles seemingly had nothing to do with them:
I no longer have full control over the copyright, but I strongly recommend that you don't buy any Faction Paradox material from BBV.[2]
Other BBC Books
- The NSA The Eyeless is implied to reference the War in Heaven.
References in Other Media
The Eleven Day Empire is referenced in SCP-3999.
Fandom
[@90RavenBlack]
Those of us who have cared about Faction Paradox enough to still follow the series in print, have been treated to some of the finest (vaguely) Doctor Who-related fiction, if not Science Fiction in general, to have been written over the past twenty years.[3]
Experienced fans of the series will often provide reading lists for people, usually Whovians, to read to get into the series.
There's a bit of a meme that New Who stole a lot of its ideas and concepts from the EDAs, especially regarding the War in Heaven arc. The Doctor's death, powerful sentient weapons, a companion stepping into the Doctor's timestream, and the idea of a Time War itself. Alien Bodies in particular features a lot of concepts that are similiar to later ideas that show up in New Who.
Due to the somewhat mysterious and ambiguous aspect to the series, fan theories and meta are quite common. Many of these involve piecing together bits of canon information from both the wider Doctor Who universe and FP itself, and theorising how they connect, especially when new canon is frequently being released. This is often referred to as 'canon-welding' by fans, though the definition used is slightly different to that of the TVTropes page for either Canon Welding or Fanon Welding, existing more in between the two: theorising about the connections, whether intentional or not, between related universes, rather than solely intentional connections by the authors or between two unrelated universes.
One of the most common discussions centres around the identity of the Enemy itself.
[fanonical]
there are only two genders: people who know what faction paradox is, and normal human beings[4]
Wider Doctor Who Fandom
Common Tropes & Themes
- The Macabre/Fascination with Death -
- Fuck Canon - Emphasised in canon works such as Unnatural History and often further explored in fanworks.
- Time Travel - Frequent use of time travel, especially regarding history and fucking up people's timelines.
- Doctor Who concepts -
Forums/Messageboards/Mailing Lists
Panels
- An FP panel occurred at Kansas City Comic Con 2017. Nobody showed up, however the panel was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.[5]
Hero of a Hundred Fights
Hero of a Hundred Fights was an obscure American rock band active from around 1999-2001 whose music makes several explicit references to Faction Paradox. Their 2001 EP The Remote, The Cold is a direct reference to the Remote and the Cold from the EDA Interference Books 1 & 2. One track is titled The Celestis and another Faction Paradox.
I feel like I kinda overlooked just how weird the existence of this album is. this is a post-hardcore album professionally recorded by Steve Albini with lyrics that retell the plot of a Doctor Who novel from the 90s. the guy who recorded Nirvana also recorded Doctor Who fanfic. that's my girlfriend's favorite band and my most deranged fixation. this is my rabbithole. it was made for me.[6]
It's been speculated that band member William Zientara, at least, is a Doctor Who fan, given his other bands. One, Managra, shares its name with an obscure VNA, and released a song titled Happiness Patrol.[7] Another, Fuiguirnet, has a song titled What Grows From The Seeds Of Doom.[8]
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Some fans of the book This Is How You Lose the Time War have pointed out similiarities between it and FP.
[scribblesscript]
I know there's a good chance the authors of This is How You Lose the Time War have never read a Faction Paradox story in their lives but if you told me they had copies of The Book of the War on their shelves to consult periodically throughout writing I'd say "yeah checks out"[9]
Co-author of the book Amal El-Mohtar is herself a Doctor Who fan, having contributed to non-fiction books such as Queers Dig Time Lords and Chicks Unravel Time, though it is unknown whether she is aware of FP.
Fanworks
Fanfiction
- What Could Have Been (and Never Should Have) (Apr 2014) by JulisCaesar
- A Remote Transmission (Feb 2016) by Ununnilium
Fanart
- 'Faction Paradox but its a 90s anime (which is a style i cant recreate)' (Sept 2023) by howlaround
- 'Nowhere, in a never-time, the Yssgaroth bred with the Time Lords.' (May 2023) by heimeldat, featuring a depiction of the Yssgaroth
Resources & External Links
- Faction Paradox - Wikipedia page
- Faction Paradox (series) - TARDIS Wiki page
- Faction Paradox Wiki - FANDOM wiki
- Faction Paradox - Various Authors - Ao3 tag for the books
- Faction Paradox (Audio Plays) - Ao3 tag for the audios