Between 1989 and 2005, Doctor Who was, mostly, off the air. But it was still surprisingly big business and, if you were the kind of geek who wanted brand new stories about everyone’s favourite Time Lord, then you could choose from a dizzying array of books, comics and audio plays.
I, I’m afraid to say, was exactly that kind of geek, and spent much of my adolescence reading the New Adventures: a series of books that, from 1991 to 1997, continued the story of Sylvester McCoy’s manipulative Seventh Doctor. These did loads of innovative stuff (story arcs; characters with emotional lives), that’s been a major influence on the 21st-century series. But they also did some things you won’t be seeing on TV any time soon.
- It’s set on a council estate in 1987, and concerns a family called Tyler.
- Its villain is the possessed corpse of a drug dealer called the Capper, who begins the novel by burning himself to death, then later bursts from the grave.
- One plotline involves a desperately poor single mother selling an unwanted baby to a rich family.
- Another involves a Gallifreyan super weapon, designed to kill giant vampires, that’s somehow infected some cocaine. If you take the cocaine, eventually big bits of metal weaponry burst out of your skull.
- It has a scene in which the Doctor’s companion Chris, a muscular blond policeman from the 30th century, experimentally tries gay sex in the back of a car. Because he’s from the future, this act accidentally introduces HIV-resistant antibodies into the population, contributing to an eventual cure for Aids.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
