First Principles
By Richard PrekodravacAs it appeared in Broadsword issue oneAre the New Adventures to Doctor Who, as Star Trek: The Next Generation is to `original’ Star Trek. This can be answered many ways, a cynical approach would suggest that both NA and STTNG are far better than their predecessors. But this article is more concerned with the unfortunate practice, to compare something new to it’s predecessor. Perhaps it’s an innate Human behaviour, Addams family(movie) to Addams family (TV), Keating to Hawke. In the realm of Doctor Who NA are defined with respect to the TV series.Perhaps the reason for this is that we already know the TV series, so it is easy to talk in terms of the series, when discussing NA. What this actually becomes are criticisms of the form:that it is not like the series,it is no where as good as the series,it is not a part of Doctor Who. And for something which had the difficulty of gaining acceptance to establish itself, criticisms, from a highly critical group (DW fans), condemning NA as not a part of Doctor Who, defeats the purpose of establishing the series of novels.Thus it is necessary for New Adventures to be defined in terms of itself. This would imply that the NA are unique and significantly different from the TV series. Even though this is true, it isn’t acknowledged.Another perspective is to consider both the TV series and NA as contributors to the Doctor Who universe. Perhaps alternative realities? But this implies and agreeably so, that both forms are of equal value.The step for DW fans to make is one that redefines what is Doctor Who.It is no longer exclusive to those televised adventures.