?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? This text liberated by ? ? The SHAKAAR CELL..... ? ? because Resistance Is NOT Futile! ? ? ? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Previous Shakaar Releases: - FEBRUARY 2001: Star Trek: Dark Passions vol 1 by Susan Wright FEBRUARY 2001: Star Trek: Dark Passions vol 2 by Susan Wright FEBRUARY 2001: Star Trek: The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood This Release dated March 2001: - The Shakaar proudly presents the four-volume mini-series which launched Virgin's Doctor Who New Adventures series. The individual titles are (1) Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel. (2) Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance Dicks. (3) Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson. (4) Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell. These were chosen for our March release because they are currently out of print. Many fans have found that the only way to obtain copies is to pay inflated prices to dealers or collectors. However, if you enjoy these works, keep an eye out for other works by the same authors - you won't regret it! A WORD ABOUT DOCTOR WHO IN PRINT... Doctor Who was a science fiction series which first appeared on the BBC on November 22nd 1963. For three decades, and through 7 different incarnations, the Doctor prospered. When the show was discontinued, a legion of loyal fans lobbied for its revival. There have been numerous fan-produced video and audio stories, a tv movie, radio dramas and now there is an ongoing series of commercial audio adventures. In addition, there were the books. The Doctor's televisual adventures had always been turned into novels for children and young adults. These were published by Target books. When the TV series ended, the BBC licensed Virgin books to publish New Adventures, continuing the story where the TV series had ended. In addition, Virgin produced Missing Adventures, featuring previous Doctors and companions. When Virgin's licence expired, the BBC began publishing its own range of Dr Who books, featuring all the Doctors including the 8th Doctor from the TV movie. A WORD ABOUT THE NEW ADVENTURES SERIES IN GENERAL.. The four novels which comprise this month's release launched the Virgin series of stories and provide an excellent introduction to its strengths and weaknesses. Virgin decided to tell stories "too broad and too deep for the small screen". They are to be applauded for this, as they could undeniably have churned out formulaic Who and still found a market. At last, on the printed page, The Doctor was liberated from the restrictions of a BBC budget, from quarries and corridors, and truly given the freedom of the universe. They also gave many new, young SF authors a break. Alongside old favourites like Terrance Dicks and John Peel, we got Paul Cornell, Kate Orman and others. Any series featuring new writers will have its ups and downs - these authors brought moments of astonishing inventiveness and occasional moments of callowness and pretension. However, Virgin picked its writers well, and the new authors produced the most memorable of the New Adventures. Virgin also realized that, since Doctor Who had been discontinued on TV, the people buying the books would tend to be fans of the series. Who fans tend to know the show's continuity inside out. All the books were steeped in it. The casual viewer of the show will find perplexing references within the texts, but the total Who newbie will probably be out of their depth. Generally, this immersion in the Who universe was satisfying for fans, enabling the Doctor and his companions to be explored in greater depth than the TV show had ever allowed. At times, however, it became excessive and self-indulgent. Perhaps the most controversial thing about the New Adventures was that they followed the lead given by Andrew Cartmel, script editor of the TV show in its final days. Cartmel had decided to restore some of the Doctor's air of mystery. Amongst other things, his version of the Doctor ceased to be a hapless wanderer stumbling into trouble. He became instead an active crusader against evil, someone who played chess against the monsters. Consequently, the Doctor gained in mystery but sacrificed some of his innocence. In the New Adventures, the Doctor sometimes verged on the manipulative. At times, he was an anti-hero. To many fans, the central, unshakeable fact about the Doctor was that he was utterly good, the purest of heroes. (A couple of the very early Hartnell stories showed him as being morally ambiguous, but that wasn't the idea of The Doctor that most fans knew and loved.) For all the continuity references, stories about a "dark" Doctor just didn't feel like Doctor Who. This portrayal of The Doctor didn't last - he returned to being more gentle and whimsical, more in the style of Patrick Troughton's Doctor. However, while it lasted, it was an interesting and unsettling attempt to bring the Doctor into a more adult ethical universe, to confront him with the consequences of his actions. CONTACTING THE SHAKAAR CELL. If you have comments, suggestions, requests please go to alt.binaries.e- book and leave a message headed ATTN SHAKAAR.