The Spin Off DoctorsBookmark and Share

Tuesday, 4 January 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
The Sydney Morning Herald on January 1 ran a story called "The spin-off doctors" by Mark Juddery in which the writer spoke of science fiction tie-in novels, including Doctor Who. "In 1991, two years after the television series was cancelled, Virgin Books began a series of young adult novels billed as 'stories too broad and too deep for television'," says the article. "It provided everything from dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy to Terry Pratchett-style goofiness, and alienated several long-term fans in the process. 'They're 'only' TV spin-offs, of course, but they're easily the best in the genre,' Britain's SFX magazine announced in 1996, suggesting that the "open-door policy" on submissions made it "the last, best hope for new SF [science fiction] talent in British publishing".'" The article goes on to interview writers Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum ("A lot of fans were worried the books would be 'dumbed down', or aimed at much younger readers, but that didn't happen," Orman said) including mentioning their Telos novella winning Best Australian Science Fiction Novel at last year's Aurealis Awards. "People are prejudiced against tie-ins because they figure that it's cheating if you write stories about characters you didn't create," Blum told the Herald. "Well, there goes a huge swathe of literature from Shakespeare to Jasper Fforde. If you can write something as lovely and enduring as The Night Before Christmas as a tie-in with a pre-existing fantasy character, there's no reason you can't do something as good with Doctor Who."




FILTER: - Press