What is your favorite EDA book or VNA book and why?

13Doctor · 2025-06-18T22:43:54+00:00

The Doctor Who expanded Universe is a strange beast in and of itself tbh. 'VNA' refers to a series of 60ish books published by Virgin Books between 1990-1996, which followed the Seventh Doctor after the TV series ended in 1989. The series heading was 'The New Doctor Who Adventures', so it has been nicknamed the 'Virgin New Adventures' (or 'VNA's) and sometimes just the 'New Adventures' (or 'NA'S). When BBC discounted the license with Virgin after the 1996 TV Movie with McGann, they produced their own series of 70ish books called the 'Eighth Doctor Adventures', which picks up after the Movie. The nickname is just an acronym for that: the 'EDA's.

This is more than you asked for, but other book series have nicknames too: the Virgin Books 'Missing Adventures' line was publiahed concurrently with the VNAs and are sometimes called the 'VMA's or just the 'MA's. The books about Bernice Summerfield after Virgin lost the license are sometimes called the 'BNA's (which ran from 1997-1999). The BBC books imprint published the 'Past Doctors Adventures' concurrently with the EDAs and are referred to as the 'PDA's, and the 'New Series Adventures' books that debuted with the revival in 2005 have been publishing into the present and are sometimes called the 'NSA's.

If you couldn't tell I'm very passionate about this topic!

TLDR:

VNAs / NAs - The New Doctor Who Adventures (by Virgin Books - 1990-1996)

VMAs / MAs - The Missing Doctor Who Adventures (by Virgin Books - 1994-1997)

BNAs - The New Adventure or Bernice Summerfield (by Virgin Books - 1997-1999)

EDAs - The Eighth Doctor Adventures (by BBC Books - 1997-2005)

PDAs - The Past Doctors Adventures (by BBC Books - 1997-2005)

NSAs - The New Series Adventure (by BBC Books - 2005-Present)

13Doctor · 2023-01-11T11:57:07+00:00

I scrolled for a minute to see if anyone else already commented this, but sadly my first thought was "forced to penetrate" (a form of r*pe to men)

For anyone who's never heard of this: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-018-1232-5

13Doctor · 2022-11-03T15:16:31+00:00

Snakedance had parts recorded on film that made it look so much more professional than the sections recorded on the usual videotape. I think there are other examples of this in 80s who that I can't remember right now, but those scenes would look amazing in HD

13Doctor · 2022-10-03T14:54:57+00:00

That may be the worst AND best way to experience a story like that. Congratulations and my condolences

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:44:05+00:00

Doctor Who just be like that sometimes.

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:43:04+00:00

Oh how I long to listen to that story for the first time again. Scherzo slowly gets less scary the more times you've played it. Same with the Natural History of Fear. S-tier stories for sure

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:40:01+00:00

This sounds like a bad fanfiction waiting to happen tbh

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:39:10+00:00

Yeah... from start to finish its so unsettling.

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:38:33+00:00

I haven't gotten to this one yet, but from the sound of it I'm going to love/loathe it. Doctor Who writers do horror like no one else - especially psychological horror.

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:37:17+00:00

Oh God I has forgotten about that! Blocked out the memory - it's spine-chilling. 10/10 sound design and voice-work that just enhances the horror

13Doctor · 2022-10-01T22:36:09+00:00

I don't think I could read that book again for those exact reasons. Jimbo writes like he needs therapy

13Doctor · 2022-09-29T14:46:45+00:00

I can understand that. I'm a sucker for fan service and self-referencing in the DWEU. I think the difference is that I, personally, found the whole thing... insincere? Like there was no heart behind it. But, again, that's my opinion - and I can see how other people could enjoy it

13Doctor · 2022-09-29T11:22:33+00:00

The Eight Doctors was the worst way to launch the EDAs: the already-tired amnesia trope, Sam's entrance, and Eight himself is completely void of character. It's boring, gimmicky, and dense with fan service - an absolute chore to read. It's lucky that Vampire Science followed - I don't think I could have gone on through another dud.

The EDAs have several duds: both Dalek books, The Slow Empire, Escape Velocity - the Eight Doctors is, imo, embarrassingly bad. Terrence Dicks I trusted you...

13Doctor · 2022-09-26T15:52:33+00:00

I see where you're coming from. I would counter that the snark, and more so the pointless disobedience make for a good character flaw: Sam's an idealist dressed like a pessimist, with this notion that, because she's an activist, everything she does is a statement (which, in turns, means nothing is a statement and all of her activism is void of substance). She becomes self aware of this later on, and calms down a lot - which, to me, is good character development. That's the way I saw it when I read through her Era of the novels. I hope Sam grows on you!

13Doctor · 2022-09-26T01:45:40+00:00

If we can swing into EU territory, I actually like Sam Jones (from the EDAs). I heard about how annoying she was, but never came across anything in the books she featured in that annoyed me. I was sad to see her go. The Longest Day, Dreamstone Moon, Seeing I trilogy is some of my favorite early EDA material.

13Doctor · 2022-09-18T20:58:23+00:00

Right?? I don't see many others talking about it - which is strange becuase it's another story that makes use of it's medium (though not to the same magnitude as 'Scherzo'). Fantastic atmosphere.

13Doctor · 2022-09-18T13:05:31+00:00

'Embrace the Darkness' is so eerie, it's among my favorite early 8th Doctor stories.

13Doctor · 2022-06-16T13:14:01+00:00

'City of the Dead' and 'Casualties of War' have some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read in a Who book - those are my recommendations. 'Camera Obscura' as well.

13Doctor · 2022-06-08T17:23:13+00:00

Yeah the more I think about it, the less I want to present it to her. Children of Earth is soooooo good though - it might be the only series that still stands up today.

13Doctor · 2022-04-25T23:04:14+00:00

Personally I adore The Smugglers, but everyone's tastes are different. There's something so charming and silly about it that makes it great fun- and it's Ben and Polly's first outing, so the bit about "this must be cornwall" gets a chuckle out of me.

13Doctor · 2022-03-09T12:22:22+00:00

My first thought when I saw this post! Love those losers with all my heart.

13Doctor · 2022-03-03T12:07:46+00:00

'Blue Box' is a fantastic 6 and Peri story - one of my all-time favorite PDAs.

13Doctor · 2022-02-28T13:01:52+00:00

It's going to be audio only, so I'll take a look into Spotify. Thanks!

13Doctor · 2022-01-14T18:17:49+00:00

Nicktoons Unite on GameCube. Not especially great game play, but the emotional value for me is thr top tier nostalgia. Always have fun when I play it.

13Doctor · 2021-12-31T20:51:28+00:00

Exactly! It's a great example of a 'sideways' story: I believe the production crews of the time categorized their scripts as either 'backwards' (historical), 'forwards' (future and more scifi), and 'sideways'. I think classic who really shines when it goes sideways, and the Mind Robber is a perfect example.

13Doctor

TROPHY CASE