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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

What is wrong with the New Adventures?

By Nicholas Withers

On my shelf I have about twenty-five New Adventures and one Missing Adventures novel. I have read most of them at least once and some of them even twice. Also on my vast book shelf I have the massive Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion book (it is one book split into two manageable volumes), William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Frank Herbert's Dune sequence.

The purpose of this article is to explore on a basic level why to a large extent Doctor Who fiction is currently almost unworthy to sit on the same shelf as these masterpieces of the science fiction genre that I mentioned. Make no mistake I enjoy reading the New Adventures. At the current time these, and the Missing Adventures, are the only continuation there is to the series and for this I am thankful. The format allows for stories that the confines of the TV series could not permit. However now Doctor Who is part of the larger genre of written science fiction, and as such deserves comparison.

Inspiration vs Plagiarism

I once had an English teacher who suggested that all modern fiction plots essentially came from Shakespeare. How true this is, is another matter. What the idea does illustrate however is the fact that all new fiction tends to draw inspiration from older fiction. Such inspiration is carefully re-crafted into a new form. However there is often a tendency to 'over-borrow', to plagiarise.

For an example of this let us engage in a close inspection of Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson. To do this I will give a quick summary of plot details of both this book, and of a well-knowing Hugo award-winning science fiction epic:

Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel RobinsonHyperion by Dan Simmons
A force is manipulating the innocent and unaware humans while appearing to be their benefactors (the Panjistri/Timewyrm). A force is manipulating the innocent and unaware humans while appearing to be their benefactors (the AI Techno-core).
The true location of this force, which turns out to be right under their noses, remains unknown until near the end (in the orbiting space station). The true location of this force, which turns out to be right under their noses, remains unknown until near the end (inside the far-caster Web) .
This manipulation involves the use of a real ugly and big creature (the Homunculus). This manipulation involves the use of a really ugly and big creature (the Shrike).
The purpose is discovered to be a desire to create the Omega Point. The purpose is discovered to be a desire to create the Omega Point (the Ultimate Intelligence).
The planet is essentially one giant experiment and there is a falseness about the history of it. The planet is essentially one giant experiment and there is a falseness about the history of it (the New Earth).

Nigel Robinson takes the ideas straight from Hyperion and cosmetically changes them in the hope that those of the New Adventures readership who have read Hyperion will not notice the remarkable similarities (he had me fooled until he mentioned the Omega point).

Another New Adventure guilty of taking an already established motif and not sufficiently personalising is Andrew Cartmel's Cat's Cradle: Warhead, which pales in comparison to the pinnacle cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer.

Credibility vs the Ridiculous

I picked up Goth Opera hoping for a gothic opera involving vampires as intelligently created as Anne Rice's coven, or at the least, as nasty and alien as Brian Lumley's vampires from his Necroscope series. What I got instead was pathetic and unbelievable. While the Doctor and his companions were handled with some success, Paul Cornell created vampires - which were as unconvincing and two-dimensional as Bela Lugosi's vampire in Plan 9 from Outer Space. The modern public has generally been presented with two forms of vampires in cinema and fiction. The first is the pulp vampire, as seen in The Lost Boys. They are usually characterised by supernatural powers that go unexplained (Keifer and his band could fly, for instance).

They tend to suit pulp adventure movies and fiction. Sometimes, such as in The Lost Boys, the format works because it doesn't claim to be anything but adventure.

The second form of vampire tends to be the explained sort. We are invited inside their heads and to know the extent and reasons for their powers. This is most clearly evident in Anne Rice' vampires and even in Brian Lumley's vampires. The key point with these vampires is that they are essentially explained and are thus more credible.

Cornell's abominations fly around the place and proceed with other B-grade vampire activities without a second thought as to how they are actually accomplishing it. In a universe such the Doctor Who one where science is meant to be the rule and not the exception, this is unbelievable. Paul is asking us to accept the incredible, rather than the credible as most science fiction or thought-out horror does. Goth Opera is an example of a Doctor Who novel that stretches credibility to much to be considered reasonable science fiction or horror, let alone a good Doctor Who novel.

Epic vs Ho-Hum

Another problem when comparing the New Adventures to good science fiction is the complete lack of 'epic-ness'. Perhaps it is the clichéd format which nearly every one follows that makes them predictable, and without the epic sweeping grandeur and complexity of masterpieces such as Hyperion or Dune. Before reading a New Adventure we tend to already know that the Doctor will either stumble across, or intentionally become involved with, a life-threatening (usually on a planetary scale but sometimes on a galactic or universal level) alien of amazing power and evil. All will seem momentarily lost or without hope until the author realises that he only has three chapters left and suddenly the Doctor finds, or in the least is involved in, a fairly elegant and simple solution. The Doctor will survive, as will the Earth and Universe, because there another 20 or so more novels due out that year. Even when a planet or seven are destroyed there is a lack of emotion, and a lack of the feeling of power, behind it.

Plagiarism in some lack of credibility in others, and a general lack of epic-ness tends to result in Doctor Who fiction not comparing well with much science fiction. Is it possible to write a brilliant and epic science fiction novel that is also a Doctor Who novel? I do not know. Maybe the Doctor Who novel has too much baggage from its past to achieve anything higher.

This item appeared in TSV 44 (June 1995).

Index nodes: Timewyrm: Apocalypse, Goth Opera