Sweet Cock Almighty! And here I thought we were done with James Goss's Fourth Doctor novels. Well, hopefully with this one he won't feel compelled to ape Douglas Adams's prose style.
Doctor Who books (fiction, nonfiction, nonfact)
- Thread starter Steve Roby
- Start date
What I've read about Scratchman doesn't appeal to me much at all, but of course I'll buy it.
And if they have Katherine Kelly, I'll be very happy to buy Class audios.
And if they have Katherine Kelly, I'll be very happy to buy Class audios.
I'll definitely be checking out the Scratchman book! I never thought we would see a final product story of that in any form.
So, looking ahead some more, let's talk about Nu-Target Wave 2 (and there will be one, no way the fans are letting it stop at five books). Which titles would you like to see adapted next? My picks would be:
Resurrection of the Daleks (one of the last two Classic Titles not yet novelized)
The End of the World (continuing Nine's run sequentially. That could get pushed off to Wave 3 if need be in favor of Resurrection)
New Earth (same as above, plus ties into 'Tales from New Earth' audios)
The Eleventh Hour (Eleven's debut)
The Magician's Apprentice, The Witches' Familiar (A strong Twelve/Dalek/Missy story, and our first two-in-one novelization)
The Woman Who Fell to Earth (or whatever Thirteen's debut gets called)
Resurrection of the Daleks (one of the last two Classic Titles not yet novelized)
The End of the World (continuing Nine's run sequentially. That could get pushed off to Wave 3 if need be in favor of Resurrection)
New Earth (same as above, plus ties into 'Tales from New Earth' audios)
The Eleventh Hour (Eleven's debut)
The Magician's Apprentice, The Witches' Familiar (A strong Twelve/Dalek/Missy story, and our first two-in-one novelization)
The Woman Who Fell to Earth (or whatever Thirteen's debut gets called)
I wouldn't hold my breath. Word through the grapevine is that Chibnall wants to make novels more of a thing during his run as showrunner than Moffat, who did sort of let them fall by the way-side. These Targets based on new series episodes was just a way of getting a novel presence during the interregnum as we wait for Whitaker's premiere.
I've read two of the new Target-style novelizations, RTD's Rose and Moffat's Day of the Doctor, and enjoyed both of them quite a bit. Davies adds a lot of background and characterization, Moffat gets meta and playful, but both worked well.
The second issue of Titan's The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor comes out on Wednesday. I managed to get it at work early, so I read it a couple of days ago.
I'm not really sure what the point of this mini-series is.
Both issues thus far are fine. Perfectly adequate, even. Just little one-off stories starring the tenth and eleventh Doctors. (The tenth Doctor story takes place before Year Three, the eleventh Doctor story takes place after Year Three.) And there are little back-up stories, really closer to vignettes, by the creative team for Thirteenth Doctor, that will, I suppose, have some sort of connection to the thirteenth Doctor comics.
But I've seen nothing in them to really commend them.
I'm not really sure what the point of this mini-series is.
Both issues thus far are fine. Perfectly adequate, even. Just little one-off stories starring the tenth and eleventh Doctors. (The tenth Doctor story takes place before Year Three, the eleventh Doctor story takes place after Year Three.) And there are little back-up stories, really closer to vignettes, by the creative team for Thirteenth Doctor, that will, I suppose, have some sort of connection to the thirteenth Doctor comics.
But I've seen nothing in them to really commend them.
The point, I believe, is to entice new readers who haven't picked up Ten/Eleven/Twelve's comics up to this point to get onboard (Much like Thirteen's TV debut is being positioned as a fresh jumping-on point for new viewers), while the vignettes simultaneously tease and set up what will presumably be Thirteen's first full-fledged comic adventure.
I got excited, all four Target novelizations arrived for me today, or so I thought. But, instead of Rose, I ended up with a second Christmas Invasion. I checked my receipt, it does say Rose, so someone dropped the ball during selection. I'm way to busy the next few days anyway, but yeah, a bit frustrating I'll need to sort out returns and exchanges.
The Seasons of War project is essentially over, to judge by a Facebook update today, due to a cease & desist from the BBC.
I'm not surprised by this development.
I'm not surprised by this development.
^^The surprising part is it took this long.
Yep. They seemed to have gotten the message around the time Big Finish announced their War Doctor audios, and they seemed to have decided it was no longer operative once John Hurt died and the last War Doctor audios came out. They weren't just lacking in subtlety, they were overly ambitious. I assume I'll at least get a couple of ebooks but there's certainly no prospect of any more print publications.
The Doctor Who Charity Anthology has been a part of Who fandom since the 90s, beginning with Perfect Timing. They were almost always one-offs (Perfect Timing 2 and A Target for Tommy 2 may be the only exceptions), and they were generally like mayflies -- there would be some rumblings here and there, then there would be a brief window where you could order the thing, and then it was done. Presumably the charity got the money, but as a fan you'd never know. Point is, they didn't linger. Had Seasons of War stayed in that mold -- a one-off book -- it would have been fine, the BBC wouldn't have taken notice, there would have been no C&D. I remembering Declan May saying at one point that they had approval to do all this, but that never struck me as likely. The mission creep -- announcing new books, and even audios -- prolonged the project longer than any other charity project. I can't fault Declan May for prolonging this, printing new editions, etc., because the charity aspect was clearly very important to him. The C&D became, not inevitable, but more likely the longer it went on.
The Facebook post mentioned a "complaint," and I wonder what that might be. A licensee who paid the BBC for the right to use Doctor Who, annoyed that Seasons was playing for free in the playground they bought? A disgruntled customer who wanted products he'd paid for and had never received, sending a complaint to the BBC in the misguided hope that the BBC would prod Seasons along? Once the dispassionate gaze of the BBC had Seasons in their sights, it was never going to let them go.
There’ve been a couple of recent Canadian charity anthologies, Time Shadows and The Temporal Logbook, that have done two volumes, but one of them was told to knock it off and pulled their books from release abruptly. Might be a bit of a crackdown.
Titan's Thirteenth Doctor #0 came out on Wednesday.
It's a 64-page prestige format special that expands on the 12-13 regeneration as seen at the end of "Twice Upon a Time," revealing what was going through the Doctor's mind during the regeneration, memories of past lives and adventures. There's a four-ish page story for each of the preceding Doctors, including Captain Grumpy, so they're not particularly deep. While these stories unfold in the Doctor's mind, we see the process of regeneration change the Doctor from Capaldi into Whittaker, and moments from the regeneration in "Twice Upon a Time" are illustrated (Capaldi's final speech, the ring falling off, etc.)
Some stories work better than others. I'm not entirely sure what happened or why in the second Doctor story, Dorium was a nice bit of fanwank but he didn't do anything in the War Doctor story, but the fourth Doctor story was delightful, the sixth Doctor story felt like something Eric Saward would have written, and the tenth Doctor story is a rare pure historical (there is an alien element, but it's before the story the issue tells and, frankly, unnecessary). I liked that the issue made use of Titan's comic companions (Josie with eight, Gabby and Cindy with ten, Alice with eleven), which is a nice touch for long-time fans of Titan's output, though I'm not sure when we'll see them again.
There were some art niggles. It's a little strange to see an establishing shot of Gallifrey in the fifth Doctor's era use the giant domed city of RTD's era because, in my mind, the fifth Doctor's Gallifrey looks the way Dave Gibbons drew it in "The Tides of Time." And there may be an art error in the eleventh Doctor story; Alice (whose adventures come between "A Christmas Carol" and "The Impossible Astronaut") is shown in the post-"The Snowmen" TARDIS and the Doctor is wearing his purple jacket. While it's probably an instance of the wrong art reference, it's also possible that the eleventh Doctor picks up Alice for more adventures at a much later point in his life.
There's nothing really essential here, but it's nice for what it is, a reminder of all the people the Doctor used to be, sort of a "Five Faces of Doctor Who" in comic book form for a new era.
It's a 64-page prestige format special that expands on the 12-13 regeneration as seen at the end of "Twice Upon a Time," revealing what was going through the Doctor's mind during the regeneration, memories of past lives and adventures. There's a four-ish page story for each of the preceding Doctors, including Captain Grumpy, so they're not particularly deep. While these stories unfold in the Doctor's mind, we see the process of regeneration change the Doctor from Capaldi into Whittaker, and moments from the regeneration in "Twice Upon a Time" are illustrated (Capaldi's final speech, the ring falling off, etc.)
Some stories work better than others. I'm not entirely sure what happened or why in the second Doctor story, Dorium was a nice bit of fanwank but he didn't do anything in the War Doctor story, but the fourth Doctor story was delightful, the sixth Doctor story felt like something Eric Saward would have written, and the tenth Doctor story is a rare pure historical (there is an alien element, but it's before the story the issue tells and, frankly, unnecessary). I liked that the issue made use of Titan's comic companions (Josie with eight, Gabby and Cindy with ten, Alice with eleven), which is a nice touch for long-time fans of Titan's output, though I'm not sure when we'll see them again.
There were some art niggles. It's a little strange to see an establishing shot of Gallifrey in the fifth Doctor's era use the giant domed city of RTD's era because, in my mind, the fifth Doctor's Gallifrey looks the way Dave Gibbons drew it in "The Tides of Time." And there may be an art error in the eleventh Doctor story; Alice (whose adventures come between "A Christmas Carol" and "The Impossible Astronaut") is shown in the post-"The Snowmen" TARDIS and the Doctor is wearing his purple jacket. While it's probably an instance of the wrong art reference, it's also possible that the eleventh Doctor picks up Alice for more adventures at a much later point in his life.
There's nothing really essential here, but it's nice for what it is, a reminder of all the people the Doctor used to be, sort of a "Five Faces of Doctor Who" in comic book form for a new era.
There's some movement on the Seasons of War front. Following some discussion on Gallifrey Base, Declan May got in touch with his successors on the project, Martin and Louise, who apparently hadn't been getting people's emails due to a mail program configuration issue or something. Declan suggested anyone waiting for anything -- ebooks or refunds -- email seasonsofwar.ebooks@gmail.com. In addition, Louise and Martin sent out an email this morning with a fair amount of information on the project's status, but given the BBC clampdown and the closing of the SoW facebook page, they're asking people not to discuss the details in public spaces online.
So if you're owed something and haven't heard from them, email the above address. This morning's email was apparently sent out to everyone whose addresses they have, and should be followed by individual responses. Chances are you'll still have some questions, but there is some info there.
So if you're owed something and haven't heard from them, email the above address. This morning's email was apparently sent out to everyone whose addresses they have, and should be followed by individual responses. Chances are you'll still have some questions, but there is some info there.
I just read Titan's Thirteenth Doctor #1.
It's nice. Rachael Stott's artwork is evocative and expresses a welcome sensawunder. Jody Hauser's story is a little thin on plot, and the characterizations are generic, but the whole package is nice enough that I didn't mind.
In the past, two people steal a painting from a museum (that, based on how it's drawn, might be a holographic painting like "Gallifrey Falls No More"). In the future, a time vortex opens and a hand emerges (like in the "Road to the Thirteenth Doctor" back-up stories) in front of the Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. Now there's a puzzle in front of the Doctor, and if there's something the Doctor loves it's solved a problem... though she might take the scenic route to do it, and solving the problem may create more problems.
It's nice. Rachael Stott's artwork is evocative and expresses a welcome sensawunder. Jody Hauser's story is a little thin on plot, and the characterizations are generic, but the whole package is nice enough that I didn't mind.
Agreed, but it's a nice "in" to a comic with this team.
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