Doctor Who

[Davros sock drawer]

They... look?

From the various reviews I've read in Who magazine (just been reading some now actually, before I send them off to Biglime), and from the covers/back cover descriptions. They give me a feeling of "Right, here's what Sylvester McCoy should have been like, if they hadn't got rid of my beloved show!".

But I'm probably wrong. Give me a top 5 recommedations then, I might give one a go.

[linkster]

From the various reviews I've read in Who magazine (just been reading some now actually, before I send them off to Biglime), and from the covers/back cover descriptions. They give me a feeling of "Right, here's what Sylvester McCoy should have been like, if they hadn't got rid of my beloved show!".

But I'm probably wrong. Give me a top 5 recommedations then, I might give one a go.

I'd recommend starting at the beginning of the Eighth Doctor run with Vampire Science. I started mid way and I really regret it as some jaw dropping moments were seen in retrospect and I was scrabbling thereafter to read them in order. The Eighth is a perfect antidote to your concerns because it makes up for that terrible movie and gives McGann's doctor a life he never had on the telly.

[Davros sock drawer]

Ok, well I don't quite know where I'm going to summon the enthusiasm to read a story with Paul McGann's Doctor in it, but I'll give it a go. Are they still readily available in the shops?

[linkster]

Ok, well I don't quite know where I'm going to summon the enthusiasm to read a story with Paul McGann's Doctor in it, but I'll give it a go. Are they still readily available in the shops?

No, they've all been deleted. You can pick up some in Borders but the key ones are only on eBay. You are welcome to borrow a few as I said.

[cassidy]

Which book was that? I only read the aftermath in Alien Bodies.

Interference Book 2. Both Interference books are well worth reading but they really spllit fan opinion, mainly because their Doctor Who does politics and also TV continuity goes all mental because of the end of Book 2. Alien Bodies though, is quite possibly the best Dr Who ever.

[sweetdaddyg]

linkster the annual and davies comments are official canon as he is the big chief.

[linkster]

Interference Book 2. Both Interference books are well worth reading but they really spllit fan opinion, mainly because their Doctor Who does politics and also TV continuity goes all mental because of the end of Book 2. Alien Bodies though, is quite possibly the best Dr Who ever.

Ah, cool. I never got around to buying those ones. I read about 15 then floundered with Placebo Effect which was terrible, need to force myself to finish it so I can can carry on. Summer's the time when I put the games away and start reading so I'll do that tonight.

[Davros sock drawer]

No, they've all been deleted. You can pick up some in Borders but the key ones are only on eBay. You are welcome to borrow a few as I said.

No, don't put yourself out. I'm sure I can find a copy on eBay.

[linkster]

No, don't put yourself out. I'm sure I can find a copy on eBay.

You will, but be lucky to under a tenner.

[cassidy]

To answer Davros about the NA's

You should read

Love and War by Paul Cornell

The Also People by Ben Aaronovitch (Dr Who does The Culture)

Damaged Goods by RTD

So Vile a Sin By Kate Orman and Ben Aaronovitch

The Left-Handed Hummingbird by Kate Orman

Return of The Living Dad by Kate Orman

Blood Heat by Jim Mortimorte (sequal to Silurians)

The Room with No doors by Kate Orman

Just War by Lance Parkin

Christmas on a Rational Planet by Lawrence Miles

Flea bay should help you out but I have a feeling finding a cheap copy of So Vile a Sin would be nigh on impossible. Its one I dont own and generally goes for about £60-£100 I have read it though and it made me cry.

[cassidy]

Ah, cool. I never got around to buying those ones. I read about 15 then floundered with Placebo Effect which was terrible, need to force myself to finish it so I can can carry on. Summer's the time when I put the games away and start reading so I'll do that tonight.

Placebo Effect isnt a good book to be honest, which is a shame as I can now count the author Gary Russell as a friend. Lovely bloke too.

[linkster]

No Eighth Doctor books made your list? Interesting.

[cassidy]

No Eighth Doctor books made your list? Interesting.

Just concentrating on the NA's, I can come up with a Eighth Dr list as well, dont you worry about that

My rule of thumb for Who fiction though is anything by Kate Orman, Lance Parkin or Lawrence Miles is usually bloody excellent. Paul Cornell is excellent during the NA period but lost it a bit with his Eighth Doctor books. Then found his voice again when the New Series started.

[linkster]

Just concentrating on the NA's, I can come up with a Eighth Dr list as well, dont you worry about that

My rule of thumb for Who fiction though is anything by Kate Orman, Lance Parkin or Lawrence Miles is usually bloody excellent. Paul Cornell is excellent during the NA period but lost it a bit with his Eighth Doctor books. Then found his voice again when the New Series started.

Oh, I thought NAs included the Eighth Doctor. Such a noob.

[cassidy]

Oh, I thought NAs included the Eighth Doctor. Such a noob.

Easy mistake to make.

NA's =New Adventures = Virgin Published Who fiction 93-96 includes one Eighth Doctor Book The Dying Days

EDA's = Eighth Doctor Books = BBC published 96-05

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Easy mistake to make.

NA's =New Adventures = Virgin Published Who fiction 93-96 includes one Eighth Doctor Book The Dying Days

EDA's = Eighth Doctor Books = BBC published 96-05

Those acronyms are the most annoying thing ever. They make no sense.

[cassidy]

Those acronyms are the most annoying thing ever. They make no sense.

They do.

NA = New Adventure

EDA = Eighth Doctor Adventures Simple.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

They do.

NA = New Adventure

EDA = Eighth Doctor Adventures Simple.

Yeah but you can't have FDA for First Doctor because you also have a Fourth and Fifth. Second, Sixth, Seventh?

And isn't every adventure a New one when it comes out?

[linkster]

Yeah but you can't have FDA for First Doctor because you also have a Fourth and Fifth. Second, Sixth, Seventh?

And isn't every adventure a New one when it comes out?

Just relax and refer to this handy but bewlidering list

http://www.drwhoguide.com/who.htm

[cassidy]

Yeah but you can't have FDA for First Doctor because you also have a Fourth and Fifth. Second, Sixth, Seventh?

And isn't every adventure a New one when it comes out?

Well that is where it gets confusing hence there being a catch all

PDA = Past Doctor Adventure

[Ste Pickford]

This series just isn't quite clicking with me. I though Dr Who was the best programme on TV for the last couple of series (with the possible exception of Life On Mars), but I've hardly been bothered that I missed the last two Saturday showings due to football, and had to watch them on Sunday. It almost felt like a chore sitting through the whole episode last night.

I really want to like it, but some of the cheap / lazy / repetitive aspects of the plotting seem a bit too garing to me now (emergency temporal shift *yawn*, the sonic screwdriver, the whole of humanity / earth is going to die... again, the magic powering up of the dead city in 5 seconds flat at the end of gridlock, the pointless saving of the pig man, martha has a dysfunctional / rowdy london family, etc), and Martha hasn't clicked with me at all yet.

Maybe it will just take one annoyance-free episode to get me back on side, but so far every episode this series has had some glaring flaw or laziness in the script which has soured the whole episode a little for me.

I did love the remaining Daleks being shifty with each other this week. That was fun.

[Eighthours]

I know, hybrid tentacles don't move like that in real life.

Come on guys, they were awful. Truly. I know you don't think it's important, but it affected every scene that Sec was in for me. They've done better prosthetics in the past, so I don't know quite what happened there.

the pointless saving of the pig man

For me, that smacked of "last minute ending change" syndrome. And if the Doctor is a genetics whizz-kid, then why couldn't he at least partially undo the "pig" aspect? It was never explained in any way how he solved the "you're dying" problem either. I mean, it's not important at the end of the day I suppose, but again it's an example of lazy writing.

[linkster]

This series just isn't quite clicking with me. I though Dr Who was the best programme on TV for the last couple of series (with the possible exception of Life On Mars), but I've hardly been bothered that I missed the last two Saturday showings due to football, and had to watch them on Sunday. It almost felt like a chore sitting through the whole episode last night.

I really want to like it, but some of the cheap / lazy / repetitive aspects of the plotting seem a bit too garing to me now (emergency temporal shift *yawn*, the sonic screwdriver, the whole of humanity / earth is going to die... again, the magic powering up of the dead city in 5 seconds flat at the end of gridlock, the pointless saving of the pig man, martha has a dysfunctional / rowdy london family, etc), and Martha hasn't clicked with me at all yet.

Maybe it will just take one annoyance-free episode to get me back on side, but so far every episode this series has had some glaring flaw or laziness in the script which has soured the whole episode a little for me.

I did love the remaining Daleks being shifty with each other this week. That was fun.

Sad but alll too true. I just don't know how it can have gone quite so wrong. Desperation to milk it for all it's worth, I suppose.

[DeNeo]

Easy mistake to make.

NA's =New Adventures = Virgin Published Who fiction 93-96 includes one Eighth Doctor Book The Dying Days

EDA's = Eighth Doctor Books = BBC published 96-05

So what are the new ones called? I keep getting confused when you say 'New Adventures'.

[cassidy]

So what are the new ones called? I keep getting confused when you say 'New Adventures'.

Well their referred to as NSA's = New Series Adventures. I personally just refer to them as shit compared to the glories of the past. However the latest batch

Wooden Heart

The Last Dodo

Sting of the Zygons

are all ok reads. But as I stated above not a patch on the previous Fiction ranges.

[c-cat114]

Our of interest what did RTD say about the time war in the annual? It seems a pretty innocuous place to give away something that is often alluded to in the show as being a big reveal/movie basis plot.

I think, having read the more recent comments, that I'm not disliking the show for anything other than the scripts. The imagery/sets/most of the characters and basis for plots is doing the do, it's just when we get to the scripts themselves they seem so lazy and contrived. Within seconds of the second Dalek/Manhattan episode you knew it was going to be somewhat of a retread of the Dalek episode from season 1 and that the baggage of emotions would carry over to the finale. For a second I thought that was going to be turned on its head when Sec started talking about war, anger and all that, but then it went back onto dull, familiar territory and, much like the Borg instead of creating ingenious manners of defeating an incredibly powerful enemy the only way for the hero to make it through the story was to weaken the enemy itself, which I don't mind, but it is like painting a smiley on a Da Vinci and saying that it's more mainstream and acceptable. And, tbh, the contrived gay referance per ep is... well, doesn't bother me so much, but it ain't no Bad Wolf in terms of message shoehorned in to me, in much the same way that Torchwood crashed and burned on the need to add 'ADULT CONTENT!' per ep I just think it's a little dull really, like a drinking game where you know it's not worth the effort of getting ready for the next signpost, all in all I'm surprised it wasn't the Daleks that did the obligatory joke but I guess they'll leave that for the TW ep. I used to work at a place where the boss fancied men with ponytails and seeing all of her stooges start to grow their hair so they could tie it up was both funny and entirely unfunny at the same time which is much how I guess I feel about some of the content of the shows (including Marthas every ep discussion on how the Doctor just doesn't fancy her.

And the escape at the end had me almost slapping my head in disbelief, much like the Dalek must have been when it thought to itself, hang on, why didn't I shoot him BEFORE doing the 'LA ZY ESCAPE TRAP DOOOORRRRR' manoeuvre.

So anyhow, wanting to like the new series, and it is good in places and patches, but I dunno I guess in the professionalism dsplayed it's lost some of the warmth and the heart for me IMO.

[DeNeo]

Well their referred to as NSA's = New Series Adventures. I personally just refer to them as shit compared to the glories of the past. However the latest batch

Wooden Heart

The Last Dodo

Sting of the Zygons

are all ok reads. But as I stated above not a patch on the previous Fiction ranges.

Ta

[Mac_B]

Martha hasn't even had a wash, or change of clothes since she met the Doctor

phew-wee!

does the Doctor even wash?

[Nick R]

The first episode of this two parter was quite educational - until then, I always thought that "President Hoover" (and the Hoover Dam) referred to J Edgar Hoover!

[Treble]

This series just isn't quite clicking with me. I though Dr Who was the best programme on TV for the last couple of series (with the possible exception of Life On Mars), but I've hardly been bothered that I missed the last two Saturday showings due to football, and had to watch them on Sunday. It almost felt like a chore sitting through the whole episode last night.

I really want to like it, but some of the cheap / lazy / repetitive aspects of the plotting seem a bit too garing to me now (emergency temporal shift *yawn*, the sonic screwdriver, the whole of humanity / earth is going to die... again, the magic powering up of the dead city in 5 seconds flat at the end of gridlock, the pointless saving of the pig man, martha has a dysfunctional / rowdy london family, etc), and Martha hasn't clicked with me at all yet.

I agree with all this and add my biggest bone of contention: no alien worlds.

I don't care if it's like Star Trek TOS re-dressing California desert as planet Omegabetazeta, but SOME effort must be put into making you believe the Doctor travels through space as well as time. Even the eps that aren't set on Earth are set on space stations (read: sets) or somewhere in the solar system (Luna; Mars).