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Beige Planet Mars
''Beige Planet Mars'' is a 1998 novel by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham featuring the fictional archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. The New Adventures were a spin-off from the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. The cover features a Martian canal, a reference to a popular trope in science fiction stories and art about Mars. Writing Mark Clapham explained, "Lance arkinasked me o co-write it He wanted to write for the Benny range, but didn't want to write a whole one. I had this murder plot I wanted to do, and he wanted to write a book about Mars." Plot The novel is set on Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ... and draws on previous depictions of the planet in the New Adventures. References External links * {{K9 stories, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin is a British author. He is best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular ''Doctor Who'' (and spin-offs including the Virgin New Adventures and Faction Paradox) and as a storyliner on ''Emmerdale''. Doctor Who Parkin first became known in ''Doctor Who'' fan circles, writing both criticism and fan fiction. His most notable work was for Seventh Door Fanzines, including the novella ''Snare'' in the ''Odyssey'' series (which he edited for a period) and 1994's ''The Doctor Who Chronology'', a detailed timeline of events in the ''Doctor Who'' universe. The ''Odyssey'' series later included novellas by Parkin's then-girlfriend Cassandra May and his later protégé Mark Clapham. Parkin's first professional novel, ''Just War'', published in 1996, for Virgin's New Adventures series of original fiction ''Doctor Who'' novels. This was followed by ''A History of the Universe'' (a re-working of his ''Chronology'') and a second novel, ''Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Clapham
Mark Clapham (born 1976) is a British author, best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular relating to ''Doctor Who'' (and its spin-offs) and Warhammer 40,000. Writing Clapham started out writing ''Doctor Who'' fan fiction and, through Seventh Door Fanzines, began to work with Lance Parkin. Notable fan fiction work included ''Integration'', a novella in Seventh Door's ''Odyssey'' series, edited by Parkin. Having been asked to write a '' New Adventure'' (a Bernice Summerfield novel for Virgin Publishing) for the November 1998 slot, Parkin found himself too busy with other commitments to write a book on his own and, with editor Rebecca Levene's blessing, brought in Clapham as a co-author. Between them, the two devised '' Beige Planet Mars'', a campus mystery novel set at a Mars University. Clapham was later offered the final Virgin Benny slot and, with a tight deadline, brought in Jon de Burgh Miller as his co-writer on '' Twilight of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, part of a humanoid species called Time Lords. The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling Spacecraft, spaceship called the TARDIS, which externally appears as a British police box. While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating List of Doctor Who villains, foes. The Doctor usually travels with Companion (Doctor Who), companions. Beginning with William Hartnell, List of actors who have played the Doctor, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; the most recent being Ncuti Gatwa, who portrayed the Fifteenth Doctor from 2023 to 2025. The transition between actors is written into the plot of the series with the Regeneration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin New Adventures
The ''Virgin New Adventures'' (NA series, or NAs) are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British Science fiction on television, science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989. From 1991 to 1997, all the books except the final one involved the Seventh Doctor, who was portrayed on television by Sylvester McCoy; the final book, ''The Dying Days'', involved the Eighth Doctor, who was portrayed in Doctor Who (film), the 1996 television film by Paul McGann. In further books published between 1997 and 1999, the New Adventures series focused on the character Bernice Summerfield and the Doctor did not appear. Publication history ''Doctor Who'' Virgin had purchased the successful children's imprint Target Books in 1989, with Virgin's new fiction editor Peter Darvill-Evans taking over the range. Target's major output was novelisations of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernice Summerfield
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length ''Doctor Who'' novels, the '' New Adventures''. The ''New Adventures'' were authorised novels carrying on from where the ''Doctor Who'' television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel '' Love and War'' in 1992. History A 26th-century archeologist, Summerfield became a hugely popular character amongst fans of the books, and was present until their end in 1997. She officially stopped travelling with the Doctor in ''Happy Endings'' but returned a few times thereafter, including the last Virgin New Adventure, '' The Dying Days''. That year, Virgin had lost the licence to publish ''Doctor Who'' fiction, which was not renewed by the BBC. However, range editors Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene decided to continue the series with Summerfield ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm in the late 1970s; in the latter part of the 1980s Virgin purchased several existing companies, including WH Allen, well known among '' Doctor Who'' fans for their Target Books imprint; Virgin Books was incorporated into WH Allen in 1989, but in 1991 WH Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd. Virgin Publishing's early success came with the ''Doctor Who'' New Adventures novels, officially licensed full-length novels carrying on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of ''Doctor Who'' reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint. In recent times the company is best known for its commercia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Another Girl, Another Planet (novel)
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length ''Doctor Who'' novels, the '' New Adventures''. The ''New Adventures'' were authorised novels carrying on from where the ''Doctor Who'' television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel '' Love and War'' in 1992. History A 26th-century archeologist, Summerfield became a hugely popular character amongst fans of the books, and was present until their end in 1997. She officially stopped travelling with the Doctor in ''Happy Endings'' but returned a few times thereafter, including the last Virgin New Adventure, ''The Dying Days''. That year, Virgin had lost the licence to publish ''Doctor Who'' fiction, which was not renewed by the BBC. However, range editors Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene decided to continue the series with Summerfield as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Where Angels Fear
''Where Angels Fear'' is an original novel by Rebecca Levene and Simon Winstone featuring the fictional archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. The New Adventures were a spin-off from the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...''. Levene had been editor of the New Adventures for some years, with Winstone latterly her deputy and then her successor. ''Where Angels Fear'' was commissioned as Levene handed over to Winstone and it sets up a story arc that ran through to the final New Adventure, '' Twilight of the Gods''. Synopsis Bernice's home planet of Dellah, once a place of learning, is being overrun by a new religious movement. Closer investigation reveals the major powers of the universe are literally ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction On Television
Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality. Visual production process and methods The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond the reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of the 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into the basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By the late 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martian Canal
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was erroneously believed that there were "canals" on the planet Mars. These were a network of long straight lines in the equatorial regions from 60° north to 60° south latitude on Mars, observed by astronomers using early telescopes without photography. They were first described by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli during the opposition of 1877, and attested to by later observers. Schiaparelli called these ''canali'' (" channels"), which was mis-translated into English as "canals". The Irish astronomer Charles E. Burton made some of the earliest drawings of straight-line features on Mars, although his drawings did not match Schiaparelli's. Around the turn of the century there was even speculation that they were engineering works, irrigation canals constructed by a civilization of intelligent aliens indigenous to Mars. By the early 20th century, improved astronomical observations revealed that, with the possible e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps (with seasonal snow), but no liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. It is half as wide as Earth or twice the Moon, with a diameter of , and has a surface area the size of all the dry land of Earth. Fine dust is prevalent across the surface and the atmosphere, being picked up and spread at the low Martian gravity even by the weak wind of the tenuous atmosphere. The terrain of Mars roughly follows a north-south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1998 British Novels
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles. * January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria. * January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning. * January 17 – The ''Drudge Report'' breaks the story about U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, which will lead to the Impeachment of Bill Clinton, House of Representatives' impeachment of him. February * February 3 – Cavalese cable car disaster (1998), Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying EA-6B Prowler severs the cable of a cable-car. * February 4 – The 5.9 February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake, Afghani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
