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	?     This text liberated by                             ?
	?     The SHAKAAR CELL.....                          	 ?
	?     because Resistance Is NOT Futile!               	 ?
	?                                                        ?
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	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.

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