The Virgin New Adventures

Lawrence Miles wrote:You may remember a time, in the days before "Doctor Who fans" meant thirteen-year-olds, when the Virgin / BBC novels actually seemed important. The authors certainly thought they were important, and pride was their most valued possession. After all, the reason I gained a reputation as an unhealthy influence was that I broke what Keith Topping called "the unspoken code", the Omerta-like law which held that New Adventures writers should all stick together in the face of fandom and not publicly criticise each others' work. I say "Omerta", but in practice, they behaved more like Medieval overlords than mafiosa: the elite have to form a united front, because otherwise, they'll be revealed as weak, flabby individuals and the peasants will get ideas above their station. Oh, and you're the peasants, by the way. When the new series began, those authors who were promoted to scriptwriter-level went from "overlords" to "royalty", which is why my heartless attack on Mark Gatiss was received with the same shock as if a small-time landowner in the Middle Ages had just referred to the Prince of the Realm as a big spaz.

You think I'm exaggerating…? Then consider this. When Paul Cornell took me to task for the social faux-pas of having opinions, he seemed appalled that I was incapable of respecting the natural hierarchy, and asked whether there was anybody I 'bent the knee' to. Bent the knee…? What is this, geek feudalism? When I told him that I had no interest in serving or reigning, he asked me: 'Do your followers know that?' I found it horrifying that anyone could even think that way, and I still do.

ClockworkOcean wrote:

Lawrence Miles wrote:You may remember a time, in the days before "Doctor Who fans" meant thirteen-year-olds, when the Virgin / BBC novels actually seemed important. The authors certainly thought they were important, and pride was their most valued possession. After all, the reason I gained a reputation as an unhealthy influence was that I broke what Keith Topping called "the unspoken code", the Omerta-like law which held that New Adventures writers should all stick together in the face of fandom and not publicly criticise each others' work. I say "Omerta", but in practice, they behaved more like Medieval overlords than mafiosa: the elite have to form a united front, because otherwise, they'll be revealed as weak, flabby individuals and the peasants will get ideas above their station. Oh, and you're the peasants, by the way. When the new series began, those authors who were promoted to scriptwriter-level went from "overlords" to "royalty", which is why my heartless attack on Mark Gatiss was received with the same shock as if a small-time landowner in the Middle Ages had just referred to the Prince of the Realm as a big spaz.

You think I'm exaggerating…? Then consider this. When Paul Cornell took me to task for the social faux-pas of having opinions, he seemed appalled that I was incapable of respecting the natural hierarchy, and asked whether there was anybody I 'bent the knee' to. Bent the knee…? What is this, geek feudalism? When I told him that I had no interest in serving or reigning, he asked me: 'Do your followers know that?' I found it horrifying that anyone could even think that way, and I still do.

https://beasthouse-lm2.blogspot.com/2008/05/week-eight-my-life-with-new-god-king.html

Kaled Hygiene wrote: he's always hailed by fandom as a genius.

Kaled Hygiene wrote:Cornell's rugged good looks

Kaled Hygiene wrote:Does anyone else wish this range of novels had never existed? I was too young to read them but I remember pretentious extracts in DWM and the prohibitive retail price.

Can we ever forgive a range of novels which successfully launched the career of Paul Cornell? I don't think so. In fact the entire NA range and its sister range the Missing Adventures appears to have blooded quite a few writers who would go on to be stalwarts of the modern revival of Doctor Who. Not least Russell T Davies himself. Some of the most ardent NuWho propagandists were mainstays of the NA range and the successor to it, the equally over saturated Eighth Doctor Novels. Without the Virgin line of novels the 2005 revival may not have got off the ground or at least not involved writers like Cornell and Gatiss.

Then there's the inclusion of nudity and bad language in some of the novels for no other reason than to appear 'edgy' and appeal to the nascent young adult fiction market. There may have been the occasional interesting book like Blood Heat and Lungbarrow (never read them) but from what I can tell too many of the novels were focused on exploring the personal lives of the hipster companions, while having a general air of right-on-left-wing politics that would make Grange Hill look like serious drama. Not to mention the Dalek's were virtually absent for the entire run, although this may have pertained to rights issues?

Then there's the fact so many of the damn things were churned out and the wilderness years far from being the golden age that its often portrayed as was actually the time when the iconoclastic fanboys, resentful of what they deemed to be flaws in the Classic Series (an asexual Doctor and zero interest in the companions sexual lives), finally took over and decided Doctor Who would never be something so resolutely unfashionable again. This led to the smug 'romcom' that is modern Doctor Who.

Kaled Hygiene wrote:

burrunjor wrote:Completely 100 percent agreed. The Virgin New Adventures are the epitome of self loathing fanboyism that ultimately led to New Poo.

I'm not into book burning as you know but I would happily take part in a mass burning of NewAdventures.

The generation of NewAdventure writers and fans (a somewhat blurred line)  are often smug sanctimonious tossers as well. Usually they're passionate NuWho advocates who think 'Benny' and her complicated life is everything the Classic Series was lacking.

burrunjor wrote: Also yes nothing that launches the career of Paul Cornell should EVER be forgiven, including arguably the brand of Doctor Who in the first place LOL.

If there is a bigger cuck, egotist, self loathing fanboy, sellout, chancer, macktivist on the planet than Paul I've yet to hear of him.

I couldn't have put it better myself. By their own admission hacks like Paul Cornell weren't fussed on the actual television programme but on the series mythology, whatever that means.

ClockworkOcean wrote:the part where the Doctor very arguably scolds Ace for objecting to the prospect of being raped

Boofer wrote:I like the fact you kept 'Virgin' in the title, as they were mainly read by that demographic.

Pepsi Maxil wrote:The Seventh Doctor PDAS books were more satisfying to me. There were several decent New Adventures novels, but many of them rubbed me up the wrong way and sometimes the Seventh Doctor just didn't feel like the Seventh Doctor to me. I also found the idea that Glitz dumped Mel on a plant and then buggered off to be incredibly mind-spirited.

SomeCallMeEnglishGiraffe wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:The Seventh Doctor PDAS books were more satisfying to me. There were several decent New Adventures novels, but many of them rubbed me up the wrong way and sometimes the Seventh Doctor just didn't feel like the Seventh Doctor to me. I also found the idea that Glitz dumped Mel on a plant and then buggered off to be incredibly mind-spirited.

Same here. There were many great 7th Doctor PDA'S that I enjoyed than most of the VNA'S. Relative Dimentias, Matrix, The Algebra of Ice, are all magnificent books.