Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The National Space Museum in London is the venue for a spectacular event where the great and the good celebrate a unique British achievement. In Adisham, Kent, the most dangerous man in Britain has escaped from custody while being transported by helicopter.
In Whitehall, the new Home Secretary is convinced that there is a plot brewing to overthrow the government. And, on a state visit to Washington, the British Prime Minister prepares to make a crucial speech, totally unaware that dark forces are working against him. However, soon all will be overshadowed. This time, the Doctor is already too late Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published May 7th by Virgin Publishing first published May More Details Original Title.
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Apr 20, Jason Wilson rated it it was amazing. When Dr Who ended fo the first time the franchise took on its own afterlife. There had always been comic strips and annuals of varying quality, but as Target books began to run out of stories to novelise they wanted to produce original novels.
Not till the tv version was gone, dead and buried till except for a one off TV movie would they they get the chance. I remember a convention in clacton when writer Paul Cornell, later to write for the tv series , pleaded with us all to take them seriou When Dr Who ended fo the first time the franchise took on its own afterlife. I remember a convention in clacton when writer Paul Cornell, later to write for the tv series , pleaded with us all to take them seriously.
The range would produce 61 new adventures and about half as many for the older doctors. And so the TV movie of came and went. Still no TV series, but the old doctors got their eras expanded and the eight doctor had a new life in print and on audio.
Dr who, ironically, had rarely been in better health, even if only the adult fans were left. There had been way too much angst at times, and a fair amount of books that were simply boring, but there had also been some tremendous high concept story arcs, and some all time great stories , some of which fed back into the reborn tv series and imbued it with a new emotional intelligence.
There had been some redevelopment of Gallifreyan mythology that foreshadowed what the Whittaker seasons would do. A mysterious brotherhood probed latent telepathy in humans. A meddling monk messed with time. The Silurians won, sort of. A sentient alien drug reprogram human DNA. The old gods of Egypt return in twenties England.
And there are vampires. And that made up for the dull ones. But still the books would have many fans and copies of some later ones changed hands for stupid money on amazon. And so to the Dying Days - come and watch an ice warrior being crowned king of England!
General election night - as the tories resigned themselves to being massacred by Tony Blair voluble Tory MP and fan Tim Collins would spend the night reading the Dying Days so he had read all the books under a Tory Government.
And why not? Oct 29, Kerry rated it really liked it Shelves: read-pre-tracking , , 9 , media , reread , rereads-in , sf. This is the last book in the Virgin New Adventures series and the last I've reread in order to listen to the latest and penultimate episode of the Oncoming Storm podcast. The tl;dr version of this review is: The book is still awesome after 20 years and you should read it.
I've supplied the few continuity references you might need in one of the last paragraphs. If you want all the rambling details, here This is the last book in the Virgin New Adventures series and the last I've reread in order to listen to the latest and penultimate episode of the Oncoming Storm podcast.
If you want all the rambling details, here you go. I first read this when in came out in I had recently, not only watched the TV movie but fallen in with a group in fandom for the first time. I feel that I discovered being a fan back with my first serious doctor, Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, but this is when I discovered fandom. And I was lucky, because it was a great group of caring and supportive fans based om a mailing list - remember those, all you oldies like me?
I'm still in touch with a number of them these days thanks to Facebook. As best as I can recall, I loved it, right from the cover, through the story to the very satisfying epilogue someone on the list either wrote or directed the rest of group to read.
But 20 years is a long time. Would I love it this time? I did, but I think perhaps just a little bit less. I've been thinking about why, and I have a fragment of an idea. This book was one of several beginnings being made at that time relating to the Eighth Doctor.
There were also comics, the BBC range of books that was about to start and we hoped, even though it never prevailed, that there might be a new series on TV with Paul McGann.
Nobody quite knew what this Doctor was going to be like. We'd only had 90 minutes screen time to base anything on, and different projects went in different ways depending on which aspects of the TV movie had most caught their makers' attention.
I can't possibly deny that, as there is a , word fanfic based on a similarly insufficient amount of knowledge floating around on my computer with my name on it. I really like what Lance Parkin did and reading his notes from the time the story was up on the BBC website in the early s about this situation is fascinating , and I like where he took this story, how he wrote it and the satisfying sum of its parts that it becomes.
I started steadily consuming the BBC Eighth Doctor novels after this one and while some were really excellent, the direction that range took stopped matching my preferences after a while - and I couldn't afford the regular monthly cost at the time, since they were pretty expensive for me anyway by the time they arrived in New Zealand. Like I said above, 20 years is a long time. I borrowed some of the early ones from a friend to listen to, but then they put out Paul McGann ones.
Doctor Who, with my actual, favourite Doctor's actor performing in them. Despite the cost, I bought those ones. And I loved them. Despite how much I have or haven't kept up with Big Finish's other ranges, I own all the Paul McGann stories meaning I was very grateful when I could shift from CDs to downloads and I've listened to almost every single one of them with a few left to go back to when I need some new McGann.
Damn the blocked ear and earache that is stopping me from starting the new Time War boxset! What this rambling aside is trying to say is that the Doctor of The Dying Days is a Doctor written with less depth than one might wish for, simply because the author didn't have enough information to write a shared character with that kind of depth.
For me now, twenty years later, the Eighth Doctor is a character of great depth of whom I have a deep appreciation and, I admit, a total fangirl crush on.
Lance Parkin couldn't match that - but he most definitely had an enormous hand in establishing and beginning that in this book. Thank you, Mr Parkin, for laying the groundwork for me get all that lovely content in the years since There's also a whole essay to be written on how this book, in similar ways to what I've discussed above, but more widely, lays foundations for the new series we enjoy today. I agree with much of that, but I've already written way to much here and there are other places to look for that.
As for the others characters: Benny and the Brigadier make excellent companions to the Doctor in this story, even if Benny is struggling to work out what to make of this new Doctor and the Brig is separated from him for most of the story his response to this new regeneration is to shrug and comment that he's done it again.
This isn't a book about the end of the universe, or even the end of the world, but it's a great story about characters adjusting to change and finding their ways onwards from there. Even if my love for it was a little less, I still did love the book. I reckon a New Who fan could even read it without having read the others. A few things will go over your head, but not many. The Seventh Doctor had lots of adventures with an awesome companion called Dr Bernice Summerfield, both while Ace was travelling with him and after she left.
Benny married a guy called Jason Kane but it didn't work out very well. Britain first went to Mars in the s. The Brig is retired and his replacement is Brigadier Winifred Bambera, who had met the Doctor's seventh regeneration. Ice Warriors aka Martians have appeared in Doctor Who before. There you go, that's the basics.
Now you can go and read. I hope you have fun. Nov 10, Shannon Appelcline rated it really liked it Shelves: doctor-who , science-fiction. It's unfortunate that this was Virgin's only use of the character. Positioning Eight with his old companion, Benny, was a great way to help define him — even though Benny does take over toward the end of the book, to highlight her own upcoming series.
The adventure is also very nicely conceived, with the Ice Warriors invading modern London. There's tons of continuity here, all paid proper respect, but it doesn A strong first-take on a new Doctor that's so much better than BBC's The Eight Doctors. There's tons of continuity here, all paid proper respect, but it doesn't get in the way of telling a good story.
Base Under Siege? Sure, but played out over the entire country of England. The result is epic. I've written more extensive discussions of this book as part of a continuing forum thread at RPGnet. Mar 07, Alejandra rated it it was amazing Shelves: doctor-who. Feb 05, Ian rated it really liked it Shelves: sci-fi. Time-travelling archaeologist Bernice Summerfield is reunited with the Doctor in , only to find that he has regenerated into an unfamiliar and younger-looking incarnation.
Soon they are thrust into action together again, however, when it becomes clear that traitorous elements of the British government The sixty-first and last book of The New Doctor Who Adventures they'd even already dropped 'Doctor Who' from the title and the only one to feature the Eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann.
Soon they are thrust into action together again, however, when it becomes clear that traitorous elements of the British government have launched a conspiracy which paves the way for the country to be invaded by the Ice Warriors of Mars. A bit of history first: during the years that Doctor Who was off the air, Virgin Publishing kept the fanbase engaged with their licenced novels, in particular The New Doctor Who Adventures.
When the TV movie came along the BBC took it as their chance to reclaim the licence and get that sweet publishing dollar for themselves and unceremoniously pulled the rug out from under Virgin. This book then marks the transition point in the franchise, the crossover between the new incarnation of the Doctor and the departing publisher.
Virgin would go on to continue The New Adventures, however, but with no licenced elements and Bernice Summerfield as the main character. Because of how and when it was published, this book had only a short print run and is now relatively rare which is why you can expect to pay big money for a copy online. But, on to the review! Knowing all of that about this book's publishing history, I was somewhat surprised to find it to be a thoroughly enjoyable Who story which is, mostly, capable of standing alone.
Sure, you'd have to know that Benny travelled with the Seventh Doctor, I suppose, but beyond that all the associated New Adventures lore is just referenced for those in the know and is not integral to the plot. I have to say that I also loved seeing the Brigadier back in action, turning up in Bessie to bring a smile to the faces of long-time fans.
What struck me most reading this book was just how much it felt like so-called New Who, capturing the spirit of dynamism and adventure of the modern era TV series eight years before that series debuted. The Doctor too feels like the recent incarnations, without the sometimes ruthless scheming which was a big part of the Seventh's nature; instead being the compassionate, excitable and improvisational type of Doctor recent fans will be familiar with.
There's a brilliant bit where he confronts the Ice Warriors with a brief speech that begins with "I'm the man who gives monsters nightmares. The Doctor! Just all round good Doctor Who. And, honestly, I do have a real soft-spot for McGann's Doctor, whose time was over all too briefly. Dec 06, Mikey rated it really liked it. It feels Soon enough, they find themselves reunited with old friends - namely two Brigadiers - and facing old foes - as a Mars mission soon brings the Ice Warriors dangerously close to home.
The story holds together really well and moves along at a great pace, allowing for an appropriate balance between furthering the plot and giving the characters good moments throughout.
In a way, I suppose it works as it sets up Benny taking charge from here on out, and we do still get some nice moments where Benny considers just how much the Doctor has changed from the man she first met. Nov 28, Matthew Kresal rated it it was amazing. If Doctor Who has shown us anything in the last fifty years, it is that change is inevitable. In the world of the Doctor's paper bound adventures, change was in the air as well as the BBC effectively revoked its license to Virgin in favor of starting its own series of novels.
While t If Doctor Who has shown us anything in the last fifty years, it is that change is inevitable. While the Virgin New Adventures had a last hurray in the form of Lungbarrow, which tied up much of the range's ongoing story arcs, Lance Parkin's The Dying Days would be its sendoff and a fantastic one at that. Oddly for the last novel in the range and perhaps because Lungbarrow had preceded it, this is oddly upbeat in tone.
A large part of that might have to do with the fact that it has the distinction of being the eighth Doctor's first literary appearance. Given that Parkin only had the TV Movie to go on, he captures the eighth Doctor masterfully once he gets past the first chapter's initial meeting between the Doctor and Benny.
Parkin gets Paul McGann's speech patterns down pretty quickly and he captures this Doctor in a handful of moments as well, as demonstrated by a sequence where the Doctor goes out of his way to save a cat while trying to get away from poisonous gas for example. Nowhere perhaps though does Parkin capture then in the last two chapters, including a moment that I'd swear Steven Moffat pinched for the New Series. Having admittedly only read a handful of the later EDA's, I can't help but feel that this is by far the best characterization I've seen of this Doctor in book form.
Part of the tone might also have to do with the fact that, while this was the last Virgin New Adventure to feature the Doctor, they were about to continue with Bernice Summerfield or Benny to her friends. To a certain extent, The Dying Days is a test run for her solo novels for a number of reason. Perhaps the biggest is that she gets an increased presence in the last hundred or so pages of the novel where she very much takes center stage and quite literally becomes the central character in place of the Doctor.
While this may be a Who book, it is at times as much Benny's tale as his. The Dying Days also features a wealth of references and characters from the past as well.
The two Brigadiers both show up with Lethbridge-Stewart getting to play a major role in proceedings and bringing UNIT to do battle with them. The novel is also in a weird way a psuedo-sequel to The Ambassadors Of Death with Mars 97 being the first manned UK Mars mission since with one of the former Mars Probe astronauts being a supporting character and former space controller Ralph Cornish making a cameo appearance. Looking forward a bit, the image of a spaceship hovering over London in full view of the public and the subsequent invasion calls to mind what Russell T Davies would do nearly a decade later in David Tennant's first story The Christmas Invasion.
And of course, there's the Ice Warriors Being the last novel of the range, Parkin presents us with a full fledged invasion of Britain by the Ice Warriors in full sight of the world.
Not only is it an invasion but an occupation as well with a collaborative government and, in one of the oddest and memorable moments of the book, a Martian King Of England is crowned.
Also, Parkin has some fun proving that TV Movie producer Phillip Segal's insistence that an alien invasion couldn't be done with just two monsters is wrong. Parkin gives us the Ice Lord Xznaal and a whole army of Ice Warriors but no more than two being seen at any one time.
It's something the reader might not even notice but if you do spot it, it adds some flavor to this tale. There's also a clear influence of the various versions of H. Wells' The War Of The Worlds, particularly with the Red Death that comes into play in a couple of places that seems like a more modern update of the Black Smoke used by the Martians in that story.
Spoilers are precisely defined here. Rules vary by the story's medium. Info from television stories can't be added here until after the top or bottom of the hour , British time , closest to the end credits roll on BBC One.
Therefore, fans in the Americas who are sensitive to spoilers should avoid Tardis on Sundays until they've seen the episode. It was the only story in the series to feature the Eighth Doctor. On the Mare Sirenum , British astronauts are walking on the surface of Mars for the first time in over twenty years. The National Space Museum in London is the venue for a spectacular event where the great and the good celebrate a unique British achievement.
In Adisham , Kent , the most dangerous man in Britain has escaped from custody while being transported by helicopter. In Whitehall , the new Home Secretary is convinced that there is a plot brewing to overthrow the government.
And, on a state visit to Washington , the British Prime Minister prepares to make a crucial speech, totally unaware that dark forces are working against him. However, soon all will be overshadowed. Tardis Explore. Main episode list Classmates. Main episode list K9 and Company. Other media.
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