Return of the Living Dad

• written by Kate Orman
• Review:

The Death of Art

• written by Simon Bucher-Jones
• Review:

Damaged Goods

• written by Russell T. Davies
• Review:

So Vile A Sin

• written by Ben Aaronovitch & Kate Orman
• Review:

Bad Therapy

• written by Matthew Jones
• Review:

Eternity Weeps

• written by Jim Mortimore
• Review:

The Room With No Doors

• written by Kate Orman
• Review:

Lungbarrow

• written by Marc Platt
• Review: This penultimate entry in the New Adventures series of original Doctor Who novels marks the final literary appearance - well, sort of - of the seventh incarnation of the Doctor (as played on TV and briefly in the 1996 movie by Sylvester McCoy). In a long-awaited and legendary storyline, which was briefly considered for inclusion in the final year of Doctor Who's life as a BBC television series which evolved into the broadcast episode Ghost Light, the Doctor returns to his homeworld of Gallifrey. But by the worst luck of the draw, the TARDIS has brought him to the forgotten and buried, but not abandoned, House of Lungbarrow - the ancestral home of the Doctor's Time Lord family, most of whom are trapped there, doomed to spend their remaining regenerations trying to eke out a barren existence until they finally die.

  This book delves into numerous aspects of Time Lord society which are just as revolutionary to the Doctor Who concept as the earlier revelations about the Doctor's homeworld seen in several episodes of the television series. Building on a few of the final televised episodes and many previous New Adventures, as well as setting the stage for the seventh Doctor's appearance in the movie (which had aired a year before the book's publication), Lungbarrow doesn't spend a lot of time allowing the reader to catch up. It assumes that you know that a dark secret has been bubbling up toward the surface of the seventh Doctor's personality, and assumes that you're up-to-date with the New Adventures' concept of the Time Lords as a genetically engineered society which long ago gave up procreation. It assumes that you know who Romana is, and why she's now the President of Gallifrey. It assumes that you know who Ace is, why she is now called Dorothee, and why she has a time-hopping motorcycle. It assumes that you know who Leela is, who Andred is, and why there are two robots called K-9 living among the Time Lords.

  Now, I've seen most of the existing Doctor Who TV episodes, and have read many - but by no means all - of the New Adventures (and fewer books of the related Missing Adventures series, the first of which apparently explained how Romana got back to N-Space, returned to Gallifrey, and took office... which was a complete mystery to me). But by missing such books, you're bound to be missing at least a few clues as to why certain characters are who and where they are in Lungbarrow. This is not a book to start with if you're new to the New Adventures.

  The Doctor's family is an interesting assortment of characters, though it seems as if Wednesday Addams is bound to pop out of the woodwork at some point; after all, Owis - a cousin who was woven from the genetic loom to replace the Doctor after his flight from Gallifrey - sounds a lot like Pugsley. The rest of the cousins are suitably creepy, especially Glospin. But you'll have to read the book if you want to learn more about him.

  In the name of trying to tie up the New Adventures' continuity with the 1996 TV movie which saw the end of the seventh Doctor, Lungbarrow seems to set up numerous non-sequitur storylines. Why does the Doctor leave Chris Cwej and Ace on Gallifrey? Because in the movie, we see him traveling without any companions. What is the secret mission which Romana must order the Doctor to carry out? To retrieve the remains of the Master - which is what he has just finished doing when the movie opens. Why does the Doctor "fold" and then restore the internal dimensions of the TARDIS? To account for the vast changes in the TARDIS set as seen in the movie. What makes the Doctor different from the rest of the Gallifreyan race? According to the movie, he's half-human.

  Lungbarrow sometimes overdoes the retroactive continuity, when in some cases it would have been just as well to leave these things open. Companions have disappeared without a farewell scene before, and the TARDIS has changed its appearance more often than its owner, both without explanation. This is one of those cases where "retconning" is limiting - there's no point in wasting all that space on exposition for an entirely separate story. Still, that aside, it is nice to see that the New Adventures did take the movie into account at all, since the movie's place - or lack thereof - in the Doctor Who canon is a subject of fan debate even now. Just like Lungbarrow, in fact.

The Dying Days

• written by Lance Parkin
• Review: This is the first and only eighth Doctor novel published by Virgin Books prior to surrendering the Doctor Who license to BBC Books in the summer of 1997. One thing to consider when judging any eighth Doctor book is that there were a mere 90 minutes of Paul McGann's performance as the revitalized Time Lord from which to extrapolate the entirety of the character. It's been interesting to see how different authors (and their editors) have interpreted that performance and that character. For the most part, The Dying Days does it rather well.

  Near the end of the 20th century, Bernice visits the Doctor's house on Allen Road, a residence he maintains in seclusion on Earth, where they have arranged to meet. But things have changed for the Doctor in the intervening months/years - he has regenerated. After convincing Benny that he is the same Time Lord she once knew, sinister events literally land on top of them as a man - whom the government has declared to be a dangerously unstable fugitive - escapes on the eve of the a British manned landing on Mars. (Presumably this story takes place in the same alternate history in which Britain landed on Mars in 1970 in the Pertwee story The Ambassadors of Death.) But the mission goes very wrong - the astronauts stumble into the burial crypts of the Martian natives, whom the Doctor knows as the Ice Warriors. Immediately an Ice Warrior invasion seizes Britain, deposing the monarchy and establishing a Martian foothold on Earth. The Doctor, with his centuries of experience with both the Ice Warriors and despotic would-be rulers such as the man who claims a place as the Martian liaison to the British people, tries to intervene, finding help in unlikely places. The aging Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his young successor Bambera (a fondly remembered character from the 1989 Battlefield episode) have gone underground, preparing to wage a guerilla war on the Ice Warriors (and the greedy humans who are trying to achieve their own status by becoming the aliens' collaborators), and Benny, who has a great deal of experience with the Ice Warriors herself.

  One of my favorite New Adventures, The Dying Days bids farewell to the Doctor Who franchise (officially, anyway) in class, with a very familiar and welcoming blend of high drama and eccentric, distinctively British humor. It also turns the tables on several Who conventions - in this case, the Brigadier remembers the Doctor immediately because they've already met...in the eighth Doctor's future. (Usually it's the other way around.) Benny's uncertainty about just who the new Doctor is is portrayed very well throughout the book, and is one of its more intriguing features, culminating in a slightly controversial scene - at least in fan discussions - where Benny realizes that the new Doctor's timeless ideals of peace and justice, combined with his dashing young appearance, hold a certain amount of sex appeal for her, whereas the seventh Doctor was an older, more fatherly figure to her. I could tell you how Benny acts on this realization, but that would be telling. In another very effective scene, there is a brief mention of Benny feeling a chill as she sees the seventh Doctor's trademark umbrella gathering dust in the TARDIS. While The Dying Days expands very well on Paul McGann's very brief stint as the Doctor, it also reminds us of how much we miss Sylvester McCoy's portrayal as well. It's also effective as a light dramatic romp, very much like the 1996 movie, a much-needed break from the doom-laden gothic atmosphere of Lungbarrow.

  Additionally, in one scene, the Doctor risks his new incarnation to save not the world, not a city, not one person, but a stray cat, from falling victim to the Red Death (the Ice Warriors' intelligent airborne virus), almost getting himself killed by it in the process. As a friend of kitties everywhere, I have to applaud this scene, but it's also a perfect and simple example of the quality that the eighth Doctor seemed to exemplify best in his time on the screen - a deep respect and care for all things living, but with a more innocent and less devious aspect. In that regard, Lance Parkin captured the eighth Doctor perfectly and set a standard for future novels featuring the character to follow.