a series of books.
Barring one notable evening in May 1996 when we got 90-minutes of Grace: 1999 (aka The McGann Movie).
But yes, rewind to 1991. It had been a scant 2 years since the series had last aired.
Doctor #7 and Ace (She was like totally rad in 1988) were caught in a strange limbo. They were still the current Tardis "team", yet there was no show to be seen.
By this point it was becoming fairly obvious that the BBC had no intention of bringing back the show anytime soon (it was never actually "canceled", just put "on hold". For 16 years...). Into the fray stepped Virgin Publishing with their aim to begin a series of original novels that would pick up where the series ended. Plus the added bonus that we'd have whatever constituted "Stories too Broad and too Deep for the Small Screen".
*snerk*. Broad and Deep "Virgin Doctor Who Books". Oh the innuendo that was had!
So to kick things off we got a series of 4 books which would revolve around the Doctor fighting the Malevolent Timewyrm(sic).
It was the early-90s, oddly placed Ys were cool.
Amazingly the Virgin Adventures (*guffaw*) ended up being very successful (helped by now-familiar authors such as Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts and a certain Russell T Davies). Well successful enough that after 1996 the BBC brought the series in-house for the transition from Doctor #7 to #8(although I stopped reading at that point). It could actually be argued that the popularity of the books allowed for the Big Finish Audio series to thrive which helped convince the BBC to take a risk in 2003 and announce that the show was coming back. It's amazing in these days with 5 hugely popular series and 3 more Doctors behind us how unlikely the series ever being made again once seemed let alone how hugely successful its been.
Anyways, I'm now about 2/3rds of the way through Genesys and I'm finding the experience...odd. The book is so "Doctor Who as it was" as to seem very very strange indeed in this post-Billie Piper world. What stands out most is the constant continuity references, with multiple references to the likes of Adric, Katarina, Sontarans, Time Lords, Leela, K9 and a multitude of past stories. I'd forgotten how *cliquey* the show had become by the time it had gone off air, with a sense that in order to be a "fan" you had to know every little fact and figure about the entire 26-year run of the show. I think that's probably one of the main factors as to why the show became so unpopular by the late-80s (although some truly terrible stories (Warriors of the Deep, Attack of the Cybermen, Timelash, Trial of a Timelord, Time and the Rani, etc.), a horrifically slashed budget and Colin Baker's coat I suspect also contributed).
I'd also forgotten how much the series had become about Ace by this time, with the malcontent from Perivale very much hogging the spotlight away from the Doctor. It's sort of amazing to remember how important the character was to the show for so long considering how forgotten she's now become in comparison to the likes of Sarah Jane Smith or even Jo Grant.
However, now that I'm past the first desperately clunky (and most continuity-laden) chapters I'm finding the book to be much more enjoyable than I expected. Well, despite John Peel's less than stellar writing abilities, although he is good at keeping things very "visual". This is an easy book to picture in the mind. I know that the series does get much better as it goes along so I'm willing to give it some slack. Actually, it's rather impressive how quickly the series started to move away from the initial set-up and become much more original (getting rid of Ace and bringing in Benny for instance). I'm also impressed how rather than going for a "futuristic" start we've got a story set in 2500BC Mesopotamia (albeit with an alien menace pretending to be a God).
It's also interesting how much of this first book I still remember despite last reading it almost 20 years ago. Although it's probably not surprising considering how much sex and nudity there is in it (especially descriptions of 13-year-old prostitutes; John Peel was a bit of a perv), which I remember all seeming terrifically naughty to a pre-teen Andrew (and obviously stuck in the mind).
Considering that I'm now well through the first novel I hopefully will be able to get my way through the entire series over the coming months, and then on to the BBC 8th-Doctor books which I've never read.
So I'm happy to say that I'm surprised that despite being from a previous "era" the New Adventures still seems to hold up very well. Although I suspect that very very few post-2005 fans will ever read them, which is a bit of a shame.
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