From the House of Lungbarrow
By Matthew Kresal
Column 1:
“It's Bigger On The Inside...”
17th January 2011
That quote doesn't just refer to a certain world famous blue box either. In a way it refers to books as well. They can be almost any size from a few inches tall and wide to big enough to take up a small table, but they are more then just pieces of what used to be trees glued together. Within them are worlds of all shapes and sizes ranging from picture books for children to intricate and subtle worlds where a reader's imagination, combined with the talent of a writer, can run wild.
That is why Doctor Who works so well on the printed page. What was the tag-line on many of the Virgin New Adventures? “Tales too broad and too deep for the TV screen,” or something like that. And that's just what Doctor Who books are. From Timewyrm: Revelation's journey into the Doctor's mind to Lungbarrow's complex tale of murder and conspiracy revolving around the Doctor's true identity to the time-line shattering machinations of the Faction Paradox arc of Eighth Doctor novels and beyond, the printed adventures of the Doctor took readers on epic journeys across time and space on adventures that had to be read to believed.
The books also gave us adventures we couldn't have anywhere else. Take The Scales Of Injustice's tale of Silurians and government conspiracies or The Eight Doctors journey through the Doctor's own past as he seeks to regain his memory. How about Matrix with its tale of a Seventh Doctor taking on an old enemy in the form of Jack The Ripper? How about The Time Travelers as the very first TV TARDIS crew finds itself caught up in the consequences of events that happened for them yet? Or even War Of The Daleks with its rather unnecessary attempt to tale an Eighth Doctor/Dalek adventure while referencing both every single Dalek TV story of the original series and rewriting a decade's worth of TV continuity at the same time? These adventures, with their mixing and matching of pieces from the TV series, are unique to the printed page because these stories can't/couldn't be done on the screen for one reason or another.
Or take the very first Doctor Who novel I bought: Who Killed Kennedy. In it, writer David Bishop (as the fictional former journalist James Stevens who is credited as co-author) takes the reader on a journey though the early UNIT years but shows us those stories, that world, through Stevens eyes. Along the way the novel is a feast of continuity with references abundant throughout not to mention it links rather fittingly into the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in its finale as well. Yet it's the way we see that world, and the life of one man caught up in it, that is important. If you can find a copy I recommend it because you'll never look at the Doctor Who universe the same way again.
Above all else, maybe that's why Doctor Who works on the printed page. It isn't just the stories that are
“too broad and too deep for the TV screen,” or stories that can let a fan pick and choose from their favorite elements from the TV series they know and love. It's because we gain a new insight into a seemingly familiar world and we never look at in the same way again as a result. These tales are, like the blue box that helps inspire, bigger on the inside then and rightly so.
That is why Doctor Who works so well on the printed page. What was the tag-line on many of the Virgin New Adventures? “Tales too broad and too deep for the TV screen,” or something like that. And that's just what Doctor Who books are. From Timewyrm: Revelation's journey into the Doctor's mind to Lungbarrow's complex tale of murder and conspiracy revolving around the Doctor's true identity to the time-line shattering machinations of the Faction Paradox arc of Eighth Doctor novels and beyond, the printed adventures of the Doctor took readers on epic journeys across time and space on adventures that had to be read to believed.
The books also gave us adventures we couldn't have anywhere else. Take The Scales Of Injustice's tale of Silurians and government conspiracies or The Eight Doctors journey through the Doctor's own past as he seeks to regain his memory. How about Matrix with its tale of a Seventh Doctor taking on an old enemy in the form of Jack The Ripper? How about The Time Travelers as the very first TV TARDIS crew finds itself caught up in the consequences of events that happened for them yet? Or even War Of The Daleks with its rather unnecessary attempt to tale an Eighth Doctor/Dalek adventure while referencing both every single Dalek TV story of the original series and rewriting a decade's worth of TV continuity at the same time? These adventures, with their mixing and matching of pieces from the TV series, are unique to the printed page because these stories can't/couldn't be done on the screen for one reason or another.
Or take the very first Doctor Who novel I bought: Who Killed Kennedy. In it, writer David Bishop (as the fictional former journalist James Stevens who is credited as co-author) takes the reader on a journey though the early UNIT years but shows us those stories, that world, through Stevens eyes. Along the way the novel is a feast of continuity with references abundant throughout not to mention it links rather fittingly into the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in its finale as well. Yet it's the way we see that world, and the life of one man caught up in it, that is important. If you can find a copy I recommend it because you'll never look at the Doctor Who universe the same way again.
Above all else, maybe that's why Doctor Who works on the printed page. It isn't just the stories that are
“too broad and too deep for the TV screen,” or stories that can let a fan pick and choose from their favorite elements from the TV series they know and love. It's because we gain a new insight into a seemingly familiar world and we never look at in the same way again as a result. These tales are, like the blue box that helps inspire, bigger on the inside then and rightly so.