Despite what some people might believe, Nigel Farage's word is not the law of the land.
Doctor Who due a major shake-up as bosses aim for 'brand new show' in 2018
- Thread starter Haggis and tatties
- Start date
Despite what some people might believe, Nigel Farage's word is not the law of the land.
Also, he said that two years ago. Not yestederday.
Well, I guess that apocryphal disussion between writers of the NDWA and Moffat that they had back in the '90's could light some indication as to why there hasn't been many DW novels. He just doesn't want to oversaturate the market with too much DW. Of course, when you don't do a series for a whole year, it would've helped if there was some novels featuring the 12th Doctor to trade around and stuff...
No, that's not it at all. Nothing to do with the 90s, nothing to do with oversaturation in the market.
Notice that Penguin Books publishes more twelfth Doctor prose in anthologies and Choose Your Own Adventure-type books than BBC Books does. Also notice that we're coming up on two years since BBC Books last published a novel with the twelfth Doctor (the batch with Deep Time and The Big Bang Generation), and no Twelve/Fred novels have been announced. Further notice that the closest thing to "current" Doctor Who fiction BBC Books has published in the last eighteen months is Legends of Ashildr, an anthology. Finally, notice that what little Doctor Who fiction BBC Books does publish is centered on past Doctors.
There's a picture there in those dots.
What keeps me going at times like this is the other stuff. Admittedly a lot more niche than the BBC books, but we're talking about Doctor Who on TrekBBS. We're who the niche stuff is for.
- Big Finish is producing a lot of Doctor Who audio material, with the classic Doctors and some new series material like the War Doctor, a Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble set, River Song, UNIT, and Torchwood.
- Titan is producing half a dozen or so comics a month for various Doctors and Torchwood. Doctor Who Magazine is still going strong and producing its regular comic strip and occasional collected editions.
- The semi-authorized spinoff books are still around. Obverse Press still produces new Faction Paradox (and possibly Iris Wildthyme), and newer entries Lethbridge-Stewart and Erimem have produced quite a few books in a surprisingly short time. There's also been a lot of activity in the charity/fanthology world, with books like Seasons of War, A Target for Tommy, The Temporal Logbook, Time Shadows, and others.
There are three new novels due out in the spring: Plague City, Diamond Dogs, The Shining Man. Granted, at the moment we know only titles and authors, but I suspect they are likely a new batch of Twelfth Doctor novels. Also note, the release date is the week after Easter, possibly indicating the new season will have the old Easter weekend premiere tradition.
Still, yeah, the Twelfth Doctor has really been underrepresented in the novels. Consider, assuming these three novels are featuring him, then in the three years since he was introduced, the Twelfth Doctor has only had three more novels than the Ninth did in one year. Kind of sad.