Just War (Doctor Who)

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Doctor Who book
Book cover
Just War
Series Virgin New Adventures
Release number 46
Featuring Seventh Doctor
Benny, Chris, Roz
Writer Lance Parkin
Publisher Virgin Books
ISBN ISBN 0426204638
No. of pages 272
Release date January 1996
Preceded by Shakedown
Followed by Warchild

Just War is a novel by Lance Parkin from the Virgin New Adventures. The New Adventures were based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel featured the characters of the Seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield (known as Benny), Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester.

Publisher Virgin Books had a policy of accepting submissions from newcomers and this was author Lance Parkin's first professional writing following earlier Doctor Who fan fiction. He went on to write numerous further Doctor Who and other books.

Like all Doctor Who spin-off media, its canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.

Parkin had recently completed an MA and his dissertation thesis was on postcolonial literature. The novel echoes that by showing reversals of familiar colonial perspectives. The story is set in Nazi Germany-occupied Guernsey, a rare example of part of the British Isles being 'colonised' by another power. The novel also depicts Roz's experiences of discrimination as a black woman of African heritage in wartime England. This contrasts with Roz's background as she comes from a gender-equal far future where African nations dominate and is racist in her attitudes to white Europeans.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The Doctor and his companions land in German-occupied Guernsey in 1941 where the Nazis are pursuing a top-secret weapon which could change the course of the war.

[edit] Trivia

  • A typographical error in the foreword of the novel places it in 1941 instead of 1940. This was admitted by the author in his 1996 Doctor Who chronology A History of the Universe, also published by Virgin.
  • A second error later in the book sees the character of Chris referred to as "Christ".
  • The novel features a predecessor to UNIT called "LONGBOW". In a thread on the Usenet group rec.arts.drwho as to what this stood for, Parkin admitted he had only got as far as "League Of Nations Global..." He accepted Chris Schumacher's suggestion of "League Of Nations Global Bizarre Occurences Watch".[1]

[edit] Audio adaptation

Big Finish Productions audio play
Album cover
Just War
Series Bernice Summerfield
Release number 5
Featuring Bernice Summerfield
Writer Lance Parkin
adapted by Jac Rayner
Director Gary Russell
Producer(s) Gary Russell
Executive producer(s) Jason Haigh-Ellery
Set between Birthright
and Dragons' Wrath
Release date August 1999

In 1999, Just War was adapted by Big Finish Productions into an audio drama starring Lisa Bowerman as Bernice. The plot was changed to fit in with the run of Bernice audio dramas. Big Finish had begun by adapting New Adventure novels from after when Virgin had lost their licence to do Doctor Who stories and the series had focused on Benny. Big Finish also had no Doctor Who licence at the time, but they decided to dramatise two Doctor Who New Adventures, adapting them to remove the Doctor Who references. Thus, the audio adaptation achieves time travel through the use of Benny's Time Rings. The Doctor, Chris and Roz are removed from the narrative, with Jason Kane's role replacing some elements of the parts played by the Doctor and Chris from the novel.

The adaptation was done by Jacqueline Rayner, who adapted most of this first series of Benny audios.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

[edit] Just War New Adventure

[edit] Just War New Adventure Reviews

[edit] Just War Audio Adaptation

[edit] Just War Audio Adaptation Reviews

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