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Will the 'classic' novels ever return?

Chris227

Lieutenant Commander
When the new series came out, BBC books has been focused entirely on publishing new series novels and effectively cancelled the classics/original series (Doctor 1-8) line. While the adventures of 'classic' Doctors-well, at least a few of them-are still being done in audio form, it'd still be nice to have classic adventures in book form. I mean, we now have a classic figure line (Anybody know how well those are selling?) and the classic series DVDs are coming out at a faster rate, why not bring back the classic novels?
 
Justin Richards has recently said there should be an announcement about new classic Doctor novels in the next couple of months.

However, until the TV series gets cancelled and DW becomes purely the province of the Fans again I wouldn't expect to see novels like the ones we had between 1991 and 2005.
 
Richards has been tossing out oblique comments like that for a long time, though. I'm not holding my breath.
 
Lance Parkin has noted multiple times on the Doctor Who Forum that the NSAs sold magnitudes better than the EDAs/PDAs for the same amount of effort. Simple economics, then, says you stick with what gives you the maximum return. That's the NSAs, pure and simple. There's no economic sense to doing EDAs/PDAs when there's less return on the investment.

I think that if the PDAs do return, they would probably be structured a lot like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. (Not the DVD versions. The original television versions.) The covers would feature the current Doctor alongside whichever past Doctor starred in the novel, and they would be published in the same hardcover format. Two-thirds of the novel would be a previous Doctor adventure, and the balance would be the current Doctor in either a wraparound or having a sequel to that adventure.
 
EDA - Eighth Doctor Adventure (when he was the current one)
PDA - Past Doctor Adventure.

So I'd guess NSA is New Series Adventure.
 
Lance Parkin has noted multiple times on the Doctor Who Forum that the NSAs sold magnitudes better than the EDAs/PDAs for the same amount of effort.

Flicking through copies of the first couple of books in Waterstones recently I saw they were already on their 10th printing.
 
I think that for the near future, the best we're going to get are the (excellent) Short Trips anthologies from Big Finish.
 
I think that for the near future, the best we're going to get are the (excellent) Short Trips anthologies from Big Finish.

Which I'd buy if they weren't £14.99 for 200 pages.
A lot of them are closer to 300 pages, and the print is quite small, so you're getting a lot for your money.

And you can get them a lot cheaper online: The Quality of Leadership (which features stories from a bunch of Trek writers) is only £9.89 at WHSmith, and Companions (one of the earlier anthologies) is £8.91 at BlahDVD.

:)
 
The way I see it, why read 10th Doctor stories while Tennant is still making them on TV? I prefer the books on the older Doctors, particularly #4 & #7.
 
The way I see it, why read 10th Doctor stories while Tennant is still making them on TV? I prefer the books on the older Doctors, particularly #4 & #7.

Well to turn it around; why would the kids who these books are largely aimed at want to read about Doctors who they've never seen?
 
I have over 50 novels from Doctors 1 thru 7 I bought in the 80's. l also have tons of hard cover books and 3 years (in the late 80's) worth of the DW magazine. They may be worth somthing some day. Back then i was a Dr Who. novel hunter and got what ever i could. I will have to catalog what i have at some point and see.
 
Well to turn it around; why would the kids who these books are largely aimed at want to read about Doctors who they've never seen?
That's why I suggested the Young Indy structure for future PDAs, which is the same sort of structure IDW's The Forgotten is using. To give readers a hook in the "present" to anchor the "past." Like a gateway drug, that sort of thing.
 
I dont have any figures but I suspect the New Series Adventures books are selling very well at the moment, and I think its right to focus on them for now.

As you all know im a typical new series fan, and new series books are what im buying.
 
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