PROFILBARU.COM

Just War
Just War
Big Finish Productions audio drama
Series	Bernice Summerfield
Release no.	5
Featuring	Bernice Summerfield
Written by	Lance Parkin ; adapted by Jac Rayner
Directed by	Gary Russell
Produced by	Gary Russell
Executive producer(s)	Jason Haigh-Ellery
Length	1 hr 50 mins
Release date	August 1999

Just War
Author	Lance Parkin
Cover artist	Nik Spender
Series	Doctor Who book:; Virgin New Adventures
Release number	46
Subject	Featuring:; Seventh Doctor; Benny, Chris, Roz
Publisher	Virgin Books
Publication date	January 1996
Pages	272
ISBN	0-426-20463-8
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.

The story is set in Nazi Germany-occupied Guernsey, a rare example of part of the British Isles being 'colonised' by another power.

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.

Continuity

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 Occurrences Watch".^[1]

Writing and development

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. Parkin used several Xhosa words to reflect the background of the character of Roz Forrester.^[2] The novel is a historical story,^[3] which range editor Rebecca Levene warned Parkin was more of a challenge to write.^[4]

This was Parkin’s first professional writing work.^[5] Levene described it as “one of the best first books we ever got from a writer”.^[6]

The cover was by Nick Spender. He had previously done covers for some Target Doctor Who novelisations. Mark Jones was also considered for the cover, but not chosen.^[7]

Audio adaptation

In 1999, Just War was adapted by Big Finish Productions into an audio drama starring Lisa Bowerman as Bernice.^[8] 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.

Cast

Bernice Summerfield — Lisa Bowerman
Jason Kane — Stephen Fewell
Oberst Oskar Steinmann — Michael Wade
Standardtenfuhrer Joachim Wolff — Mark Gatiss
Ma Doras — Maggie Stables
Nurse Rosa Kitzel — Nicky Golding
Private Franz Hutter — Anthony Keetch
Private Gerhard Flur — Simon Moore

References

^ "Just War questions".
^ The Who Adventures by David J Howe, Canterbury: Telos Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-84583-185-1, p. 183-5
^ ”Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who”, edited by David Butler, Manchester University Press, 2007
^ ”Time Unincorporated 1: The Doctor Who Fanzine Archives (Volume 1: Lance Parkin)”, by Lance Parkin, Mad Norwegian Press, 2014
^ ”The Shared World of "Doctor Who": from "The New Adventures" to "The Regeneration"”, by Wright, Peter. Foundation 28 (Spring 1999): 78.
^ The Who Adventures by David J Howe, Canterbury: Telos Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-84583-185-1, p. 183
^ The Who Adventures by David J Howe, Canterbury: Telos Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-84583-185-1, p. 183-4
^ ”Encyclopedia of Weird War Stories: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Film, Television, Games and Other Media”, by Paul Green, 2017. ISBN 9781476628745