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Post by Stripes on Aug 5, 2008 17:48:35 GMT
Clocket, I think You and Doctor Who were just meant for each other! How cute!
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Post by jjpor on Aug 5, 2008 19:58:13 GMT
Alas, this talent does not apply to lottery numbers. Isn't that always the way?
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Post by magnusgreel on Aug 6, 2008 22:40:43 GMT
That was when the New Adventures novels started... I guess that was as long as others could wait, too. Did you ever find any solace there?
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Post by jjpor on Aug 7, 2008 17:11:02 GMT
That was when the New Adventures novels started... I guess that was as long as others could wait, too. Did you ever find any solace there? I jumped into the New Adventures with both feet, to be honest. Lapped up the Timewyrm series, and went on from there. To be honest, though, I sort of fell out of love with them the further on they went, and the more they grew away from the TV show. I didn't like was they did to Ace, and always thought Bernice Summerfield was a tad overrated. Don't get me wrong, there were some really good novels in the range, but there were some not so good ones, too, and I read fewer and fewer of them as time went on. Looking back, they talked about making stories "too broad and deep for the small screen", but that was often just meant shoehorning in as much sex and violence as possible (a bit like Torchwood :-) ) The last proper new adventure, "The Dying Days", though, was an absolute stormer, and bears an uncanny resemblance to some of the alien-invasion stories in the new series. There were also the Missing Adventures, too, with past Doctors. The one issue I had with them, though, was again a tendency at times to write some very dark stuff, thinking it was "adult". Nothing wrong with dark stories, but I always thought it stretched credulity a bit to put the characters through the physical and emotional mill in between exisiting TV stories and sort of pretend that for some reason they must have recovered completely and decided never to mention it again. Then it was on to the BBC Eighth Doctor books, which are a whole 'nother story.
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Post by magnusgreel on Aug 8, 2008 1:38:27 GMT
jjpor... Good criticism there. With my eye thing, I needed to get the NAs read onto tape. I listened up until the one where Bernice is introduced. I stalled there. I liked to think I didn't care how it was recorded, because after all these were volunteers, but in the end they couldn't stand what they were reading, I think, and rushed through it in a deadpan voice, and sometimes it was impossible to understand. This is a tangent I guess, sorry. Anyway, I got all enthusiastic about the NAs, I have almost all of them, and I know it's supposed to get better later. I look at the great novel covers and wish I had access to what's inside.
I love the NA approach, valuing continuity and making DW unapologetically adult and detaching the myth from the TV program. I agree that many writers, most in the US probably these days, use a sort of generic, simple, pseudo-adult, crude sort of "dark" content, inserting sex and violence cynically and pointlessly, as an easy substitute for real adult drama, and by "adult", I mean for grownups with brains and souls.
I've seen some of that in the NAs so far. It seems mixed. One of the Cat's Cradles, I think, showed Ace as some seasoned, cynical soldier, long before she was supposed to become that. She's still supposed to be an unsure teen. That one was still interesting.
This deserves a separate thread, but I wanted to answer jjpor.
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Post by jjpor on Aug 8, 2008 18:14:36 GMT
Just a quick reply, Magnus, 'cos you're right this needs its own thread:
Of the NAs I've read, I'd agree with you that they are a mixed bag. There are some very good books in the range, and some not so good ones, but that's what you're going to get with a series of this type. There's a difference between adult and "adult", is what I'm saying, I suppose - and in the case of the NAs, the difference tended to relate to how good the writer actually was. You're right that one of the best aspects of the series was the way it allowed the mythology to grow and play out in ways that never would have been possible on TV. However, I did miss out on quite a few of the later ones; I'm sure there were some fantastic stories there that I've never read; it's on my to-do-list to catch up with them one of these days.
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