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Post by nucleusofswarm on Aug 5, 2023 20:50:44 GMT
We've had a few here and there, usually ones with famous monsters or writers, but I'm talking a hypothetical beginning to end republishing of the whole series (whether as mass market or some type of boutique collector's thing I leave to you to decide). Timewyrm to Dying Days. Worth it, or are these other books perhaps worth remaining in the past and lost to the fog of nostalgia?
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Post by thegreendeath on Aug 5, 2023 21:47:15 GMT
I’ve started reading (and in many cases re-reading) these and am four books in. They are definitely the missing link from Survival to Rose and there’s some great stories in there (as well as some clunkers), but feel they are so different thematically from where Who is now and so moored in 1990s cynicism and edginess that I can’t imagine the BBC wanting to re-release them under the Who banner.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Aug 5, 2023 21:57:36 GMT
All of them? No. Some more of them? Yes. All Consuming Fire, Original Sin and Theatre of War are both good, but got the audio adaptation treatment (that said, some interesting stuff got cut). There is some truly DIRE stuff in there. But a rerelease of First Frontier? Just War? Dying Days? Hell yes.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Aug 5, 2023 22:00:40 GMT
I have zero of the books, unfortunately read zero. the prices on eBay are just ridiculous (plus the P&H people try to charge- lets just round up to the nearest $10 !)..
I would be down for reprints- just don't Edit them, keep every word intact.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Aug 5, 2023 22:36:47 GMT
I have zero of the books, unfortunately read zero. the prices on eBay are just ridiculous (plus the P&H people try to charge- lets just round up to the nearest $10 !).. I would be down for reprints- just don't Edit them, keep every word intact. There’s some contentious stuff that the BBC might be inclined to edit (First Frontier for example has Ace tell someone in Russian to go F…. his mother).
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Post by relativetime on Aug 5, 2023 23:22:52 GMT
I hope they eventually do get a reprint or at least are released online in a way that's easy for most people to access. Regardless of whether it fits the current brand of Who or not, these books were undeniably an important part of the franchise's history and it'd be a shame to lose those stories to time.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Aug 6, 2023 1:05:29 GMT
I started collecting them when they first came out but, like any series written by multiple and - well, many of them were at the time - inexperienced authors, the quality was so wildly all over the place that I just lost interest. Untangling the rights for them would be the really big issue these days, I think.
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enofa
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Post by enofa on Aug 6, 2023 2:35:00 GMT
Agreed, the rights situation would make it a nightmare, especially given some… controversial authors, shall we say, like Gareth Roberts, and the likes of Lawrence Miles being unlikely to be interested.
It’s hard to come up with a reasonable list of potential reprints, even for a scaled down run. I tried and still ended up with 30, which I still think is beyond what the BBC would do. Prior to Human Nature, I think the hit rate was very low, but from that book on I think they were mostly winners and I’d really love those later books, with a few earlier ones to set them up, to become a bigger part of current Who fandom, but I just don’t see it happening, sadly.
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Post by sherlock on Aug 6, 2023 9:05:49 GMT
I’d like at least some of them to get reprinted or audiobooks. The second hand market isn’t awful (usually in £10-25 range from what I’ve seen on eBay), barring rarer ones that get monstrously inflated (cough-Lungbarrow-cough), but it’s still helluva investment to pick up them that way.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Aug 6, 2023 10:07:58 GMT
Agreed, the rights situation would make it a nightmare, especially given some… controversial authors, shall we say, like Gareth Roberts, and the likes of Lawrence Miles being unlikely to be interested. It’s hard to come up with a reasonable list of potential reprints, even for a scaled down run. I tried and still ended up with 30, which I still think is beyond what the BBC would do. Prior to Human Nature, I think the hit rate was very low, but from that book on I think they were mostly winners and I’d really love those later books, with a few earlier ones to set them up, to become a bigger part of current Who fandom, but I just don’t see it happening, sadly. What ones did you think were worth reprinting, even with the BBC caveat?
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enofa
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Post by enofa on Aug 6, 2023 11:58:37 GMT
My list was something like this: Timewyrm: Revelation (with an added prologue explaining the setup from the first three books) Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible (maybe with the CC bit removed from the title) Nightshade Love and War Transit (maybe. It introduces Kadiatu so if this was a truncated but convergent version of the series it’d be important) Deceit (for Ace’s return and nothing else. There’s also references to Witch Mark that would make this a little difficult for newcomers, but eh, there has to be a limit) Birthright Iceberg (maybe. Only because it ties in to Birthright) Blood Heat Conundrum The Left-Handed Hummingbird (never got into this one myself but others seem to love it. I suppose more stories in the arc make the next book make more sense) No Future Theatre of War All-Consuming Fire Set Piece Sanctuary Human Nature Original Sin Sky Pirates! Head Games The Also People Just War SLEEPY Death and Diplomacy Happy Endings Christmas on a Rational Planet (if Lawrence Miles agreed somehow) Return of the Living Dad Damaged Goods So Vile a Sin Eternity Weeps The Room With No Doors Lungbarrow The Dying Days
Also! Oh No It Isn’t! Dragons’ Wrath Beyond the Sun Ship of Fools Deadfall Ghost Devices Walking to Babylon Oblivion Where Angels Fear The Mary Sue Extrusion Dead Romance (what’s that weird cracking noise? Oh, it’s just hell freezing over) Tears of the Oracle Return to the Fractured Planet Twilight of the Gods
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Aug 6, 2023 12:27:38 GMT
Given how much the BBC has pushed non-TV/nicher media in recent years, I have to figure they are aware that there would be an audience for something less-family friendly and more boutique. Like (if rights and everything else could be sorted) I can't be alone imagining some kind of premium set. A Doctor Who Treasures or 'DW Black Archive' thing, with (at least) Timewyrm 1-4, Love & War, Damaged Goods and Dying Days as high quality hardbacks with optional new artwork (new on the jacket, original on the cover) and forewords talking about the era.
Now Lungbarrow - it's basically the Shada of the books, the one that has a mystical reputation even if you've never read it. I think that one you could put out ala something like Scratchman, like this lost work finally returned. I can see a Twitter or Youtube trailer touting, 'The Most Controversial Doctor Who novel of all time returns...'
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Post by jadominek on Aug 6, 2023 13:11:41 GMT
I'd prefer Past Doctors Adventures, not a big fan of Virgin cycles - if I want something "adult" and "edgy" I just read something from completely other brand than DW.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 6, 2023 14:15:14 GMT
In case anyone wasn't aware Mad Norwegian Press produced a 3 volume comprehensive review guide on the Virgin New Adventures and the BBC Novels called I Who (still available in E-Book Format) www.madnorwegian.com/category/books/doctor-who/Regards mark687
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enofa
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Post by enofa on Aug 6, 2023 15:51:40 GMT
I'd prefer Past Doctors Adventures, not a big fan of Virgin cycles - if I want something "adult" and "edgy" I just read something from completely other brand than DW. To be fair, the PDAs have their fair share of edgy adult stories - Combat Rock, Warmonger, Rags, Catastrophea, Byzantium!, and The Indestructible Man are probably worse for it than most of the Virgin books. For what it’s worth, if they’re going to do these I wouldn’t be surprised if they did them around the same time as a Wilderness Years BluRay set. There will undoubtedly be a documentary about the books if that set comes along, so it’d be the perfect time to get a few in print to profit off it. Mind you, that’s the exact kind of thing BBC Worldwide would never think of.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Aug 7, 2023 22:46:24 GMT
Yeah, Mick Lewis was a... was quite 'unique'.
If Miles wasn't around, I feel like he'd be 'that name' with the books.
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enofa
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Post by enofa on Aug 8, 2023 0:28:38 GMT
My girlfriend chatted to him in a Facebook group for the punk band The Damned once, he seemed like a sweet bloke and admitted that his books were maybe a bit on the extreme side.
For what it’s worth, I actually really like Rags. It’s just so out of keeping with the actual UNIT era that it’s kind of hilarious.
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Post by sherlock on Aug 8, 2023 7:17:07 GMT
Yeah, Mick Lewis was a... was quite 'unique'. If Miles wasn't around, I feel like he'd be 'that name' with the books. And is still associated with the show as a monster actor; even got his name in credits for being a Cyberman in Series 12 finale.
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Post by pdt on Aug 8, 2023 10:40:59 GMT
I don't think there's any commercial gain in reprinting the New Adventures en masse, even if the BBC did decide they were okay with the content. But it'd be nice to have them available in eBook format - I know they're archived on the Internet Archive, and there's less reputable 'eBook versions' around, but honestly I'd pay just to have them freed from all the scanning and formatting errors.
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Post by thegreendeath on Aug 9, 2023 0:47:21 GMT
I don't think there's any commercial gain in reprinting the New Adventures en masse, even if the BBC did decide they were okay with the content. But it'd be nice to have them available in eBook format - I know they're archived on the Internet Archive, and there's less reputable 'eBook versions' around, but honestly I'd pay just to have them freed from all the scanning and formatting errors. Yeah the internet archive versions are functional but I’d also happily buy them again (I’ve owned all of them physically in the past) just to have them free from format issues and as a thanks to the authors.
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