The BBC 8th Doctor Adventures discussion thread.

Interference was very clunky, but I rather enjoyed Miles's Alien Bodies, Dead Romance and The Adolescence of Time. The first of that trio feels like the kind of story that Ben Aaronovitch's Transit was, something that people at the time derided for being an independent story with Doctor Who characters stapled on. In reality, I don't think you could have told it without those trappings from the show and it really couldn't have been told any other way. Ironically, I'm glad the Faction Paradox line evolved into its own entity, it remains for me the definitive approach to exploring the events of a time-active war through a variety of differing mediums. The True History of Faction Paradox is a glorious exploration into the Osirian Court politics that lead up to Pyramids of Mars (following Cousins Justine and Eliza from the destruction of the Eleven Day Empire) and Lance Parkin's Warlords of Utopia is marvellous for taking two parallel universe clichés -- "What if Rome never fell?" and "What if Nazi Germany won the Second World War?" -- and pitting them against one another with his viewpoint character stuck in the middle.

The sad thing about The Eight Doctors is that I rather like Terrance Dicks's previous work. Shakedown is one of my favourites because it's so fun and Exodus has an indelibly smart characterisation of the more moody Seventh Doctor of Season 26. He was unfortunately just one of those writers who didn't think very much of the TV Movie at all. I'd have liked to have seen him take it a bit more seriously and give us a story closer to those earlier efforts. Alan Barnes managed to get around the problem of characterisation by having the DWM version of him act a little bit like a cross between his first three incarnations. A bit of Hartnell here, a bit of Troughton there, a bit of Pertwee there and the results aren't all that bad. Very close to what we'd see a little while later in Big Finish.

It doesn't really turn up again beyond that story, the rest of Faction Paradox is focussed on other, far grander ideas. It's more than a bit like Down in that respect. Have a crack at reading Newton's Sleep, same universe with a very different tone. Some of the Obverse Books like The Breakspeare Voyage and Against Nature could be read in tandem with Jim Mortimore's Eye of Heaven (featuring the Fourth Doctor accompanied by Leela) and the styles would beautifully intertwine.