purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)

Cover image from the Doctor Who New Adventure So Vile a Sin.  It shows two young black women in flowing garments and cloaks.  One is holding a flag and staring into the distance.  A landscape of strange glowing structures and a low moon in the sky is behind them.


To this day I can't decide whether or not I believe that Ben Aaronovitch lost his manuscript for So Vile a Sin in a hard drive crash, or whether that was just an excuse for the fact he hadn't actually written it. In either case, when it finally appeared written by Kate Orman, it was a bit of a let down (I felt). It's big event was already spoiled because we had read the books that came after and to be honest, didn't feel entirely earned.
purplecat: The Ninth Doctor with decorative effect with the number 9 (Who:Nine)

The cover to Damaged Goods by Russell T. Davies.  Tentacles erupting from a corpse rising from the ground.

I have not commented on the news that RTD is to return to Doctor Who. Mostly because I'm still all a bit turned around and, if not lacking in time exactly, somewhat lacking in motivation and energy. Still I do have an opinion, which is mild trepidation. I wasn't grabbed by his vision for the show back in 2005 and definitely preferred Moffat's run as show runner (which isn't to ignore how wildly popular his version of the show was, and how much it did to shape and secure the show's future). Obviously RTD has done exciting things since, but I have a vague sense that comebacks are tricky things and often of dubious success. On the other hand, he does know how to adapt to time and circumstance. His one foray into the novels during the wilderness years (cover above) was very much of their time and style and, while one can draw links between it and 2005 Doctor Who (mostly that it's set on a council estate) he created something very different for the family audience. Perhaps he will do something exciting and different again for the modern TV landscape.
purplecat: Drawing of the Seventh Doctor (Who:Seven)

Cover for Time Wyrm: Genesys by John Peel.  A scene of a very female rather robotic blue person in a skimpy dress and ornate necklace against a gold temple entrance into which sneaks a scantily clad warrior.  Sylvester McCoy's face hovers somewhat incongruously top left.


The cover for the first Virgin New Adventure. I read this when it came out and haven't read it since. I recall very little about what I thought on that first read, which is probably informative. I get the impression from views I've heard expressed since that it hasn't necessarily aged well, embodies the fair criticism of the New Adventures that they often interpreted "more adult" as meaning "more sex and nudity", and that the "more sex and nudity" mostly manifests as a slightly creepy attitude towards Ace and other young female characters.

No Future

Apr. 6th, 2019 04:54 pm
purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)
Not a commentary on the current state of politics in the UK, but a Random Doctor Who Picture


Cover for the Virgin New Adventures novel No Future.  Benny is on stage in a grey dress flanked by two guitarists.  Ace is visible in at the audience in dark glasses.


My office has now been painted and so I am starting to move stuff back into it. No Future was selected largely because it was the last book I moved. I have to say I think it is one of the weakest New Adventure covers not that I'm any kind of an art critic. The figures don't seem quite in proportion somehow. What I assume are supposed to be spikey punk haircuts actually look rather fuzzy. The muted grey and yellow colour scheme seems like an odd choice for a punk vibe as well, though it's not helped by the bright red of the logo and title stuck on top of it.
purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)

Cover of the Virgin New Adventures Happy Endings Novel which consists of a picture of Benny and Jason's weddings with misc guests - all well-known faces from Doctor Who (some from the novels) with an ill-advised purple background and a Fiftieth New Adventure stamp in gold.


Paul Cornell has been talking through his experience as a Doctor Who writer one gig at a time in his weekly news letter, in a surprisingly frank fashion. Despite being a member of rec.arts.drwho in the 1990s, a position from which it felt rather as if one had a ring side seat on what certain Dr Who authors were doing, it transpires I was relatively unaware of much that was happening behind the scenes. That said, I imagine there is still much he is missing out. He's just reached the first of his novels for the BBC books so it feels fitting to post the cover of the last of this Dr Who New Adventures (though he wrote the first Benny novel in between).

Happy Endings is a funny book. When the Dr Who Book Club read it they noted that it was almost impossible to understand without a fairly encyclopaedic knowledge of what had gone before. It's about Benny's wedding to Jason Kane, a romance I was never all that fond of, though its major crime (like much of the New Adventures, frankly) is inconsistent character development across books.

You can sign up for Paul's newletters from his website though I should note that this week's newsletter is somewhat atypical since it is dominated by a recent family bereavement (consider this also a content warning).
purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)

The Cover of the Dying Days Virgin New Adventures Novel by Lance Parkin, showing the Eight Doctor and an Ice Warrior

The last Virgin New Adventure and the only one to feature the Eighth Doctor by Lance Parkin who was among the more highly regarded NA authors and who, at one point, had the beginnings of a successful career in television which would have made him an obvious candidate to contribute to the new series. Except it sort of stopped for reasons that have never been clear to me and he seems to have retreated into a career primarily writing spinoffery of various descriptions. Not quite the crash and burn of Lawrence Miles, but odd none-the-less.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)




The Pit is widely regarded as the worst of the Virgin New Adventures novels. I only have dim memories of the one time I read and I recall mostly being a bit bemused and feeling that William Blake was underused. I recently listened to the Doctor Who Bookclub podcast discuss the book and they certainly didn't like it much. Their final conclusion was that there were some potentially interesting ideas in there, but that the execution failed to explore them in a way that brought anything much to life, and the structure meant the whole story ultimately felt rather pointless with the Doctor, Benny and Blake making no real impact on the events.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)




The covers of the New Adventures novels were often rather pedestrian, even when they managed to get the human figures anatomically correct and in proportion (which was not always the case). This cover, by Jeff Cummins, is therefore among the more striking and accomplished. It is also, as it happens, one of my favourite books in the range.
purplecat: The Tardis against a sunset (or possibly sunrise) (Doctor Who)




I can't quite put my finger on what it was about Timewyrm:Revelation, Paul Cornell's first novel, that was so exciting, because I can completely understand the criticism that it is basically too wierd. But I think it was the first time official Doctor Who canon (even if this is a branch of canon that has since been side-lined) served up something that was from a fan of the show being explicitly fannish about the show.

I'm inclined to say this was the moment that the inmates began to take over the asylum. Although arguably that happened in 1988 when John Freeman took over DWM.

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