h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What was the 'Time War'? I have never heard of that before. MUst have passed me by...

I don't know which story originally introduced the concept, but it's explained in The Infinity Doctors.

The Infinity Doctors? Never heard of it. Is it a very early one, or is it one of the New Adventures??

The Infinity Doctors is a BBC produced novel by Lance Parkin, published to coincide with Doctor Who's 35th anniversary. It doesn't necessarily fit with the continuity of the other novels, the TV show or the 'Time War' plot, but is instead a sort-of parallel universe Doctor Who story that simultaneously panders to fans and confuses them. It's all quite dizzying.

As for the 'Time War' plot, it began in an even better BBC book called 'Alien Bodies' by Lawrence Miles. He came along right when Doctor Who was seeming a bit thin in the new ideas department and blew the doors wide open with a stunningly good action yarn that features everything we've loved about the good Doctor while creating a host of new villains and new dangers for him to tangle with. It's cracking good and has energized the Eighth Doctor series (in fact, the whole Time War plotline is being wrapped up this very month with 'The Ancestor Cell').