Your Choice DW@50 Book Collection

[Jon Masters]

A thread so obvious it probably spontaneously generated itself from the left over mental energy of all the readers of the similar thread below.

Choose one book for each incarnation 1 to 11 and say why.

I'm too anarchic today to impose rules, but you might want to limit yourself to previous BBC books, or run the whole gamut of DW fiction.
You may decide to add an unexpected extra to make it up to a dozen.

Knock yourselves out !!

(knowing how popular DW book threads are in general ..... )

[Andrew Curnow]

You've not given us your choices, Jon!! But since I never could resist a list. Mind you, I've read comparatively few PDAs, in comparison to the various other ranges, so there'll have to be some Targets in to make up the list...


1st Doctor Salvation. That's the one with a very green Hartnell 'n' Statue of Liberty cover, a proper debut story for Dodo, set in 1960s New York. I've not read it in a long time, but it kind of takes the 'you let Anne die' dispute between the Doctor and Steven, from the end of The Massacre, and airs it a bit more. I certainly remember enjoying it a great deal at the time.

2nd Doctor I've only ever read one Troughton PDA from memory, and it was rubbish. So if it's a Target, I'm going for The Highlanders, simply because I always enjoyed reading it. Simple as that!

3rd Doctor Likewise, other than the two Radio Play books (if you see what I mean) I've not read any full Pertwee PDAs, so will opt for the still rather glorious The Cave Monsters. For obvious reasons (ie, it's got pictures!!)

4th Doctor Tempted to go for Managra, but in hindsight it was probably more clever than entertaining. So I'll go for The Well-Mannered War, one of Roberts' three S17 stories. Oddly I've never read the book as such, but I read it as one of the BBCi eBooks and thus have tremendously fond memories of reading each new chapter of a Friday lunchtime at work. Well, I think it's marvellous...

5th Doctor Frankly, as long as it wasn't Gary Russell's awful Divided Loyalties (Celestial Toymaker and 'Dr Who's Schooldays') I'll be OK with it. But if it's my choice, I'll plump for... oh dear, I don't think (other than Divided Loyalties) I've read any Davison PDAs, what was I doing during the 1990s? Oh, hold up yes I did - sort of by default, but also because for all its faults I have fond memories of reading it, I'll go for Craig Hinton's marvellously-titled The Crystal Bucephalus!

6th Doctor An easy one this because, although I know it's not universally-loved, I have a real soft spot for The Nightmare Fair. In the heady days of the late 80s, it was a real thrill to discover they were releasing this one, the first ever full release of a lost story (I think), and I can remember buying it one Monday morning in WHSmiths in Barnstaple. I've probably read it more times than (a) any other Target and (b) than is good for me!!

7th Doctor If there's any Doctor with a lot to choose from, it's this one (so how bizarre that the BBC's anniversary selection is Remembrance of the Daleks, good though it is). There's lots of tremendously good NAs, but I've tried to narrow it down to one that's not part of a 'story arc', or at least not to any great degree. That takes out quite a few, so I've narrowed it down to two particular favourites, of which I'm going to plump for.... Original Sin, the debut of the glorious Roz, and Chris, and even the rather bizarre revival of an old, old enemy doesn't detract from a good, solid read.

8th Doctor Who was it that said, "If there's any Doctor with a lot to choose from, it's this one..."? Again, the BBC's choice is bizarre as, with all due respect to Jaqueline Rayner, her book is not one of the greats and is an early Anji which I suspect would read rather confusingly in isolation. And there's a great many better from the marvellous EDAs (he said, sighing nostalgically once again). Again, trying to steer clear of heavy arcs, I'll go for... The Space Age. I don't think it's all that popular, according to OG anyway, but I've a soft spot for it, and think the central idea is simple but effective in a S17 'furious logic' kind of way.

9th Doctor I think we've peaked now and are on the slippery slope. The BBC's choice of Only Human is fair enough, I think I'd probably plump for The Stealer of Dreams which is IMHO the only really, really good one of the six.

10th Doctor Hmm, I've read almost all of the 10th Doctor's books but sat here in front of the PC now I am struggling to remember any of them! At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, that probably says it all! Erm, what about the one where.... no, I really am struggling. Even Lance Parkin's one was pretty unmemorable bless him. I've resorted to checking the titles on Wikipedia (tt, and I call myself a fan!) and to be fair, the one with the badgers is pretty good. But I'll go for, which I also quite enjoyed, Prisoner of the Daleks

11th Doctor I've read two only of Smithy's books, Nuclear Time (which was a clever idea but a dull read) and Touched by an Angel. So the angels get it by default.

And, to finish on more of a high, and to make up to a more rounded dozen, I'd like to add in The Face of the Enemy by David McIntee. It's, I guess, nominally a Pertwee, but for those who don't know it's effectively what happens on Earth while the Doctor's away, and involved the UNIT chaps resorting to getting help from the Master, as well as Mr & Mrs Chesterton. I've read it twice, never quite understood the plot either time, but it's a darned entertaining tale and has a few really standout moments.

Well, you did ask!!

[SiHart]

I'm considering my choices.

[Jon Masters]

Well, you did ask!!

I did, and I knew I could trust you, Andrew, not to leave me in Tumbleweed Corner with this thread

You've not given us your choices, Jon!!

And I will, but after much pondering and possibly the influence of alcohol once I get the next two blasted days out of the way and half term can start properly.

The EDA is definitely going to take a lot of thought - currently switching between Fear Itself and Kursaal......

[Andrew Curnow]

Fear Itself and Kursaal

Now, I like Fear Itself; but I like Kursaal. But which is better...?

[SiHart]

Right then...

I'd go for:

The Witch Hunters- brilliant historical Hartnell and rather heartbreaking with it. A brilliant early BBC book

The Dark Path: Virgin's finest Troughton book and a splendid first appearance from The Master, with some great characterisation.

Amorality Tale: A lovely late Pertwee tale, with a rather world weary 3rd Doctor, a passionate Sarah Jane and a 1950s setting that feels alien. Wonderful!

The English Way of Death: A splendid Gareth Roberts 4th Doctor tale. Absolutely marvellous!

Cold Fusion: OK, so we get the 7th Doctor too, but I always loved this book. A classy addition to the 5th Doctor's adventures.

Millenial Rites: No-one did more to rehabilitate old Sixie and Mel than Craig Hinton, and this is a wonderful tale of alternate realities, the Valeyard and the Great Intelligence.

Nightshade: Just great.

Alien Bodies: The first great EDA, and an imporant turning point in the range where it finally found its own feet. A great tale, and it has Krotons in it.

The Stealers of Dreams: Like Andrew, I thought this was a really good one.

Feast of the Drowned: A chilling tale, nicely down frightener.

Borrowed Time: Was torn between this and Touched by an Angel, both were really good, but I did like the concepts in this novel a great deal.

[Si Hunt]

I choose this

[kevinwho]

Well, this was hard for me. I've read 'em all, but most of them I've forgotten. So, my list is based largely on vague impressions...

As it's a BBC collection, I've picked a BBC book for each Doctor. I've also included a Virgin book in some cases where my choice from a broader selection would probably come from Virgin instead.

1 The Witch Hunters (Venusian Lullaby)
2 The Final Sanction
3 The Devil Goblins from Neptune (Dancing the Code)
4 Festival of Death (The Romance of Crime)
5 Deep Blue (Goth Opera)
6 Grave Matter
7 Relative Dementias (Just War)
8 Alien Bodies
9 Only Human
10 Forever Autumn
11 Touched by an Angel
x The Infinity Doctors

[Jon Masters]

1st Salvation – as Andrew said, it stood out head and shoulders at the time and really captured Steven as a character (Eleventh Tiger, with its ninja 1st Doctor came a close second)

2nd Dreams of Empire – one of my favourite DW books, it twists and turns like a twisty turny thing, right up to the very last page.

3rd Rags – this was so different from every other 3rd Doc-UNIT story, and a very strong Earth-based story.

4th Managra – was tempted by some good close seconds, but this again is one of my favourite DW books and shows off the 4th Doctor’s many facets to great effect.

5th Hmm, not a great choice here. I’ll go for Lords of the Storm, which isn’t a great 5th Doctor book but is a great space saga. (I was tempted to cheat and go for The Stockbridge Horror or Tides of Time)

6th Time of Your Life – Vengeance on Varos on steroids A great fun read.

7th Blood Heat – one of the best NAs before they got so portentious

8th A three way battle between Kursaal, Fear Itself and Casualties of War. I’ll pick the first today, but it would change probably on an hourly basis

9th Stealer of Dreams – again, a stand out in the short 9th Doctor batch.

10th Forever Autumn – can’t remember a lot about it except I do know I liked it. Many Hands is pretty good too.

11th – Haven’t read any, so I’ll go Dead of Winter, just because James Goss has written good Torchwood.

BONUS BUY – the Infinity Doctors seems too obvious, and I wasn’t all that keen, but I did enjoy The Scream of the Shalka novelisation. Good old REG !!

[SiHart]

Strong choices Jon. I'd forgotten all about Forever Autumn. Problem with the EDAs is that there are so damn many of them!