[QuickTidal]

I call them "trashy" because I find that I will call ANY spin-off media of TV shows in book form (Battlestar, Buffy, Star Wars) trashy. They are short, and usually could be presented as one episode of said show.

These BBC hardcover books though....are WAY better than I expected. I bought the first one that is meant to represent David Tenant's Doctor and Rose "The Stone Rose" by Jacqueline Rayner, and I read it in about 2 days and thought, wow better than you'd expect. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Great pacing and the characters are bang on!

So I bought a second one. "The Feast of the Drowned" by Stephen Cole. Just as good!

So I bought a 3rd. "The Price Of Paradise by Colin Brake. About halfway through, and also, just as good.

So, I now have two more winging their way to me in the mail from Chapters, and I don't plan to stop. These are great little reads....especially in the interim between series 3 and series 4 on TV.

Anyways. Like I said. Trashy, but alot of fun with great pacing and spot on characters.

[Dolorous Menhir]

I have two older Doctor Who books, predating the new run. They are really good two, though it's not clear which Doctor they are meant to be about.

Ace and Bernice are the companions in one, and the other has just Bernice (Ace seems to have died) and introduces Kadiatu.

[QuickTidal]

Dolorous Menhir;207973 said:

I have two older Doctor Who books, predating the new run. They are really good two, though it's not clear which Doctor they are meant to be about.

Ace and Bernice are the companions in one, and the other has just Bernice (Ace seems to have died) and introduces Kadiatu.

As far as I know Bernice Summerfield was a companion created for the New Adventures book series which continued from the Seventh Doctor through to the eighth (Paul Mcgann in the one time TV movie), in the late 90's. So likely it was the seventh Doctor who she was companion to though she never appeared in the TV show.

That being said, how much these books can be considered Canon is arguable....but then Rose referred directly to an adventure in one of the new books in a 2005 season episode called BoomTown...which marked the first time the TV show referenced the books...and I think that's HELLA cool....so take from that what you will.

[Werthead]

The official stance is that The New Adventures are canon until they are officially contradicted by a TV episode. Many of the current writers, including Davies, Mark Gatiss and Paul Cornell, wrote novels for the range and aren't too keen to 'de-canonise' them. I think the only one that has been de-canonised is Human Nature (also arguably the best Doctor Who novel ever written) because it got turned into two episodes of the current series.

However, there is a question mark over the novels (culminating in Lungbarrow) which dealt with the Doctor's true identity and origins, as I don't think RTD is too keen on the 'Cartmel Masterplan' plot from the last two seasons of the old series which was supposed to expose the Doctor's secrets.

[QuickTidal]

Werthead;208010 said:

The official stance is that The New Adventures are canon until they are officially contradicted by a TV episode. Many of the current writers, including Davies, Mark Gatiss and Paul Cornell, wrote novels for the range and aren't too keen to 'de-canonise' them. I think the only one that has been de-canonised is Human Nature (also arguably the best Doctor Who novel ever written) because it got turned into two episodes of the current series.

However, there is a question mark over the novels (culminating in Lungbarrow) which dealt with the Doctor's true identity and origins, as I don't think RTD is too keen on the 'Cartmel Masterplan' plot from the last two seasons of the old series which was supposed to expose the Doctor's secrets.

Agreed, with you last statement there....and I think RTD is right to do so. I don't feel that it fits in with the new series....plus I thought the last season of classic Who in the 90's(7th Doctor) was awful.

[Aptorian]

This must be some weird english culture phenomenon that has never taken on in Denmark.... Who or what is Dr... who?

Apt, where?

[Werthead]

Erm, what?

:confused:

Okay, a quick guide:

Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction television series in the world and the second-most-popular (beaten only by Star Trek). It ran for 26 seasons and over 750 episodes from 1963 to 1989, and was revived in 2005 for a new series, the fourth season of which airs next year. At its height in the 1970s it was watched by 15-17 million people a week in the UK.

The central character is 'The Doctor'. The Doctor is a Time Lord, a humanoid alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time and space in a machine called a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space). The Doctor, like all Time Lords, can 'regenerate' which severely injured or traumatised. This causes his body and physical appearance, even some aspects of his personality, to change. This mechanism was introduced so that the series can survive indefinitely no matter if the lead actor chooses to leave. The current Doctor, played by David Tennant, is the tenth incarnation of the character. The most famous is probably Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981.

The TARDIS is supposed to alter appearance depending on its surroundings, but on a visit to 1963 London the machine was damaged and it is now permanantly stuck in the appearance of a 1960s London police telephone box, which makes it incongruous on visits to other times and worlds.

The Doctor's mortal foes are the Daleks, cyborgs from the planet Skaro who have vowed to conquer the universe and destroy all species not like them. In the current series the Time Lords and Daleks obliterated one another in a vast war. The Doctor is the last surviving Time Lord. Several Daleks survived, one of which is still at large. However, the Doctor's enemies are legion and also include the Master (a renegade Time Lord and the Doctor's nemesis), the Cybermen (another race of cyborgs, but these guys are emotionless and want to transform all humans into Cybermen) and the Ice Warriors (who, Klingon-style, are honourable warriors who sometimes side with the Doctor and sometimes are his foes).

The Doctor usually travels through time and space with one or more 'companions', usually humans from Earth (who stand in for the audience by looking confused and being there for the Doctor or other characters to bounce exposition off) though occasionally aliens or, randomly, a robotic dog with a laser cannon in its nose.

[Aptorian]

Weird, never heard of it.

Hmm... must look into it, starting with wiki.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian;208162 said:

Weird, never heard of it.

Hmm... must look into it, starting with wiki.

Wow. Is it just that i am Canadian and we were once a colony that it aired here when I was a kid?

Come to think I don't even know if the classic series aired in the states.

[Skywalker]

I first learnt of Doctor Who through the 'trashy' novels... they used to sell for the equivalent of about 12 cents (US) about a decade ago in India. Particularly the ones by Terrance Dicks were pretty good reads for the young adult...

I didn't watch a single episode of Dr Who until I moved to the US and the Christopher Eccleston series began airing on SciFi and Canadian TV...

But yeah, all things being equal, Dr Who is some of the best campy yet serious science fiction to grace a TV screen.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal;208175 said:

Come to think I don't even know if the classic series aired in the states.

It did, late nights on public television. My brother and I were total addicts.

[QuickTidal]

McLovin;208232 said:

It did, late nights on public television. My brother and I were total addicts.

Haha! Nice! I remember I'd be in the kitchen while my mom was cooking dinner and hear the theme music in the other room and bolt for the TV. I was a hardcore fan even at like the age of 6.