With the
release of Original Sin and
Cold Fusion, Big
Finish's novel adaptations line seems to be over. Its been a pretty
good run that hit most of the high points of the Virgin line: we
heard the Doctor's first meetings with Bernice Summerfield and
Sherlock Holmes; got to hear Gareth Roberts' rightly legendary Fourth
Doctor trilogy come to life; Russell T. Davies' first Doctor Who
story (which, space-cocaine aside was practically a manifesto for his
TV series); we even got a Chelonian story out of the deal.
Still, with
how good the last two were it feels like the series is over just as
it was starting to hit its stride so here are a few... *ahem*, humble
suggestions on where the line might go if it ever returns. Honourable
mentions for books that can't be adapted because of the sad loss of
vital actors: The Dying Days, Happy Endings, The Shadow of
Weng-Chiang, Managra and First Frontier off the top of my head.
The Empire
of Glass
The whole
point of this novel is to place the staunchly non-interventionist
First Doctor in the sort of adventure he'll have in later lives: a
pseudo-historical set in Renaissance Venice with loads of different
aliens knocking around because Irving Braxiatel wants to hold an
intergalactic peace conference. Also Gallileo, Shakespeare and
Marlowe are there. It sounds over busy and, frankly, it sort of is
but it has the potential to be a fun little romp with lashing of
Miles Richardson thrown in.
Lungbarrow
Whilst the
“true origin” of the Doctor as Marc Platt writes it here might
not be to my taste, it was the cap off to the Seventh Doctor's
adventures back in the day. It tied off a lot of threads that had
been seeded throughout the novels, including in Cold Fusion.
Now, a lot of these ideas got re-used by Platt in other work for Big
Finish, the Doctor's origins being something of a pet project of his,
but I'd love to see the original story see the light of day again.
Set Piece
This was the
book that wrote out Ace and had her become her own hero, Time's
Vigilante (as opposed to the Doctor as Time's Champion). Given that
Big Finish are muleheadedly dedicated to not giving Ace a definitive
send-off she might as well finally get one in the canon grey area
that is the novel adaptations. Its a good send-off, too, unsurprising
given its written by Kate Orman.
The
Sorcerer's Apprentice
A high
fantasy romp set in the early, anything goes days of Season One. A
year ago this would not have made the list since it has a really
substantial solo story for Barbara but with Jemma Powell taking the
role in The Early Adventures the possibility is open. Its a great
little novel that handles the four person TARDIS crew better than
most of the TV stories they appeared in giving everyone something
substantial to do. Plus, the First Doctor doing magic is just too
delightful an idea to resist.
Andrew
Cartmel's War trilogy
The “Cartmel
Masterplan” is, of course, not a thing. He's been quite upfront
about how he had no endgame in mind when he seeded all those hints
about the Doctor's past into the episodes he script edited. If
anything its the Platt Masterplan but we dealt with that earlier in
the list.
But if there
were a Cartmel Masterplan this would be it: unapologetically
political, anti-corporate Doctor Who with a focus on how the Doctor
affects the world around him.
So Vile a
Sin
Never read
it. Probably never will. Out of print pretty much the moment it came
out and insanely expensive second hand. The grand sequel to Original
Sin with Chris and Roz returning
to their home time written by two of the NA's best talents Kate Orman
and Ben Aaronovitch. Frankly, even if it didn't sound great on paper,
just the fact that its stupidly hard to get hold of makes it a
worthwhile addition to this list.
Vampire
Science
Naughty,
I know. This was a BBC novel not a Virgin one and so probably Big
Finish wouldn't be able to get the rights but it is absolutely the
best Eighth Doctor Adventure in the whole in the whole series (which,
being the second in s eries if seventy three novels is praising with
faint damnation) and if I could have only one novel brought to life
in audio it would be this.
Vampire Science is basically Kate Orman
and Jon Blum writing a stage by stage guide on how the TV Movie
should have been made. Its set in San Francisco, the Doctor teams up
with a female scientist who's having relationship difficulties, it
delves into the series back catalogue for an antagonist but it does
all these things in fresh and interesting ways. I absolutely love
this novel.
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