The PDA/EDA box-set game!

[Anthony Williams]

Here is your challenge: you are a BBC Books exec, charged with creating a reprint boxset of eight books from the PDA/EDA ranges. The rules are simple: one book per Doctor, and no author can be included twice. What do you choose?

Here are my choices:

First Doctor - Byzantium! (Keith Topping)
Second Doctor - The Roundheads (Mark Gatiss)
Third Doctor - Catastrophea (Terrence Dicks)
Fourth Doctor - Corpse Marker (Chris Boucher)
Fifth Doctor - Imperial Moon (Christopher Bulis)
Sixth Doctor - Blue Box (Kate Orman)
Seventh Doctor - Illegal Alien (Mike Tucker and Robert Perry)
Eighth Doctor - Alien Bodies (Lawrence Miles)

What would YOU put out!?

[Andrew Curnow]

I've not read many PDAs at all, so sticking strictly to the brief and not ringing up Virgin to see if I can get the rights to some MAs, I'll have to plump for...


First Doctor - Salvation (Steve Lyons). Not just by default as the only Hartnell PDA I've read, it's also one of the best Who books I've read. Even down to the gorgeous, green, Hartnell & Statue of Liberty cover.

Second Doctor - I've not read any Troughton PDAs at all, so I'll just bung in Dicks' World Game and hope for the best!

Third Doctor - Hmm, I'm not 100% sure this counts, as the Doctor himself is as near as dammit totally absent. In other words, I'm going for The Face of the Enemy by David A McIntee, where in the Doctor's absence the Brigadier is forced to turn to the other resident Time Lord for assistance. The combination of the Master with UNIT, not to mention Ian & Barbara, is a compelling read - the scene between Ian & the Master, in the aftermath of Barbara's (apparent) death is superb.

Fourth Doctor - Eye of Heaven by Jim Mortimore. It took forever to get into, but this Easter Island tale eventually became a compelling, unputdownable read. Not to mention Leela catching a whale!! Plus it's the only fourth Doctor PDA I've read...

Fifth Doctor - I've only read one fifth Doctor PDA, and it was King of Terror, and it was by Keith Topping, and it was awful. So can I cheat and just say, anything BUT King of Terror?

Sixth Doctor - To my shame I've read Spiral Scratch (Gary Russell) twice, but it's definitely rubbish, so I'll go for his Business Unusual instead, which is at least a little more cogent, and has the Brigadier in it!

Seventh Doctor - Atom Bomb Blues by the infamous Mr Cartmel. There's some padding in the shape of faffing about with an alien midway through (if my memory serves) but in general it's a neat little book, with an evocative sense of period.

Eighth Doctor - I was going to go for To The Slaughter, but that's by yer man Steve Lyons (ie, the author of Salvation above). Gallifrey Chronicles is excellent, but probably just a bit too continuity-heavy to deserve a place. Father Time is incredible for 2/3 of its running time, but loses it in the last section. Oh bugger, there are so many good EDAs... I'll go for Demontage by Justin Richards - its "Casino in Space" blurb made me shudder and expect the worst, but it's just such a lovable, rompy, read. One of the very few I've read twice in fact!

[MacNimon]

I'll have to think about this one...while there's loads of great novels to pick from, many of my favourites will no doubt have been written by the same old writers. I'll get back to you on this!

[Jon Masters]

Hmmm - not so easy if you can't repeat authors, so I've ended up with

1st Eleventh Tiger by David A McIntee - stands out for both the image of Billy fighting in a martial arts film, and the gradual realisation of what's going on

2nd Dreams of Empire by Justin Richards - one of my favourite ever DW books, sublimly plotted but also having great Troughton characterisation.

3rd Rags by Mike Lewis - too many of the UNIT books are too cosy for me, whereas this is just brimming with nasty horror.

4th Drift by Simon A Forward - was surprised when his characterisation of Leela was better than in the Chris Boucher books (though Psi-ence Fiction was a close second); the army unit are very well drawn too.

5th Fear of the Dark by Trevor Baxendale - again, for being just quite disturbing especially in how he handles Nyssa

6th Synthespians by Craig Hinton - a great romp, and not the usual Hinton physics overload (would have had Mission Impractical or Grave Matter without the author limitation though)

7th Matrix by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry - quite fanwanky, but some very neat ideas

8th - not really fair to pick an EDA (otherwise it would be Casualties of War), but Fear Itself by Nick Wallace is a cracking MDA anyway

9th - Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell

[SiHart]

I've been having a think about this and have decided on:

Hartnell: The Witch Hunters- a very traditional but nonetheless very good and very moving historical story

Troughton: The Final Sanction- a good Troughton under threat story and a great chapter from the POV of the Salachians.

Pertwee: Last of the Gaderene- as trad as they come, but great comfort reading.

Tom: Tomb of Valdemar- A lovely, chilling tale that uses the much under-used Key to Time team very well.

Davison: Fear of the Dark- a good tense chiller and full of gore!

Colin: Synthespians- Camp and ridiculous but great fun.

McCoy: The Algebra of Ice- a loving tribute to the NAs.

McGann: The Burning- a massive (much needed at the time) reset switch for the series and a great place to join the 8th Doctor's travels.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

The Burning- a massive (much needed at the time) reset switch for the series and a great place to join the 8th Doctor's travels

It's one of my favourites in the entire collection, as Marc Platt might say! I often think how chilling it would have been on TV, particularly that scene on the church tower when the Doctor first reveals that he has no memory of who he is.

[MacNimon]

I've got to admit that I really struggled with my 4th & 5th Doctor choices, once I realised that my favourites were actually Virgin MA's and that I really hadn't read many of their BBC titles! Other than that it was a juggling act trying to use each writer only once, with a number of favourite novels failing to make the cut, such as Grave Matter, The Burning, Dreams Of Empire, The Witch Hunters, Revolution Man and numerous others.

1st: Salvation - Steve Lyons: While Dodo was one of my least favourite companions, it was nice to see her getting fleshed out a bit
2nd: The Roundheads - Mark Gattis
3rd: Wages Of Sin - David McIntee Simply for being a pure historical Pertwee which also featured both Liz and Jo
4th: Last Man Running - Chris Boucher
5th: Imperial Moon - Christopher Bulis
6th: Players - Terrance Dicks With Winston Churchill, this would have tied in with Victory Of The Daleks on tv
7th: Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker/Robert Perry The Krill were simply too good a villain not to be used on tv. Too bad we'll probably never see them on tv!
8th: Demontage - Justin Richards

Most of these make my list simply because I found them to be hugely enjoyable, memorable reads and would go back to them again (4th and 5th Dr choices being the possible exceptions)