History Literature / DoctorWhoNewAdventures

* CassandraTruth: Played for drama in ''Just War'', when an undercover Benny is captured and interrogated by the Nazis until she cracks and confesses everything -- and the interrogation continues because the interrogator doesn't believe her. In a twist, it's not simply that he doesn't accept her claim to be from the future, but that he doesn't accept the future she claims to be from: he's genuinely convinced the Nazis will win and create a future that will not contain people like Benny.

* CoversAlwaysLie: ''Just War'' has the deliberately dishonest kind of lying cover, with the blurb making a big deal about the Doctor arriving in World War II to find the Germans occupying English soil, and assuring the reader that this is not an alternate universe and there will be no reset button at the end. It turns out the blurb is using deliberately obtuse language to talk about the historical occupation of the Channel Islands.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Just War''

* GivingRadioToTheRomans:
** In ''Just War'', an incautious time traveler accidentally gives the Nazis a technological leg-up, resulting in them developing stealth bombers in time for World War II.
** In ''The Room With No Doors'' [[spoiler: Joel explains to a 17th century Japanese warlord how to turn a loom into a calculating engine. He's surprised at how quickly the warlord catches on, and comes up with uses for computers that Joel thought he'd have to lead up to.]]

* LeaveBehindAPistol: The Doctor does this for one of the villains in ''Just War''. (The villain first attempts to use it on the Doctor.)

* StupidJetpackHitler: ''Just War'' takes the idea of the Nazis having anachronistic technology and plays it surprisingly straight.

* ThoseWackyNazis: The Nazis in ''Just War'' are not wacky at all.
* TimelineAlteringMacGuffin: Played with at the end of ''Just War''. A Nazi official gets hold of a book Benny was using to blend into the time period, which details the entire progress of the war, but history is unaffected because he's unable to get his warnings heard by the paranoid and disorganized Nazi high command, and is left to watch impotently as the Third Reich falls apart on cue.

* BeachBury: Happens to the Doctor in the BeachEpisode epilogue of ''The Also People''.

* CaptainErsatz: ''The Also People'' revolves around the Doctor's dealing with "the People", whom the author has openly admitted were heavily inspired by ''Literature/TheCulture''.
-->'''[[WordOfGod Ben Aaronovitch]]''': I'd like to remind everyone that while talent borrows and genius steals, New Adventure writers get it off the back of a lorry, no questions asked.

* ConstantlyCurious: Discussed in ''The Also People''.

* DeusEstMachina: In ''The Also People''.

* DysonSphere: The setting of ''The Also People''.

* FunTShirt: ''The Also People'' mentions that on a previous adventure the Doctor's then-companions bought a matched set of shirts from a custom screen-printing stall saying "Hello, I'm Ace and this is my friend the Doctor", "Hello, I'm Benny and this is my friend the Doctor" and "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is my friend [delete where applicable]".

* FutureMusic:
** In ''The Highest Science'', trends in 22nd century music (and associated subculture) are explicitly organised by the record companies, and one character is considered weird for continuing to listen to a genre that's been declared Last Season. "Headster" music is the equivalent of pseudo-deep, drug-based psychedelia, whereas the current trend is "Freakster", which seems more like bubblegum pop.
** In ''The Also People'', the {{Epigraph}}s at the start of the chapters are all lines from fictional songs, including Silurian rock, Hith rap, 25th century human folk music, and Cyberman blues.

* GoodCopBadCop: In ''The Also People'', Roz and Chris discuss what approach to take to a suspect, considering several variants that are standard in their time before settling on "standard Aristocracy drill: Good Cop, Downright Sycophantic Cop".

* JustOneSecondOutOfSync: Used to hide the TARDIS in ''The Also People''.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle:
** ''No Future'' takes its title from the punk anthem "God Save the Queen" by the Music/SexPistols.
** ''The Also People'' comes from the "the 'things' are also people" scene in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse''.

* NonStandardKiss: In "The Also People", the People (a CaptainErsatz of Literature/TheCulture) rub noses rather than kiss, leading to some confusion the first time the Doctor's companion Chris tries to make out with his GirlOfTheWeek.

* PickACard: The Doctor does this to amuse the People of the Worldsphere when he wants to take a break from the heavy plot of ''The Also People''. The People may be SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, but they're always intrigued by novel forms of entertainment.
-->"Now for my first trick I need a volunteer from the audience. Yes you, sir, float right up. Have I ever worked with you before? Of course I haven't. What's your name? Ki'Xikati? All right, ki'Xikati, in a moment I want you to pick a card, any card and show it to the audience but not to me. But first I want you to scan this deck of cards. Are they marked, tagged, smell-identified, or in any way anything other than a series of sequential designs printed on rectangular pasteboard? Would you tell the audience that? Thank you so much.
-->"Now," said the Doctor, "pick a card."

* PunctuationShaker: In ''The Also People'', the People have names like "aM!xitsa" and "saRa!qava", but not as a result of random punctuation scattering to make them look more alien -- their language is inspired by one of the African languages that incorporates clicking sounds, transcribed as "!x", "!c", and "!q". There's a pronunciation guide in the front of the book, for those readers who can be bothered.

* RobotsThinkFaster: The machine intelligences in ''The Also People'' think much faster than their biological compatriots. Demonstrated in the scene where Roz meets aM!xitsa; in the moment between aM!xitsa saying "You must be Roz" and her saying "That's right", aM!xitsa has time to hold three "longish" electronic conversations with other machines and also to write a thesis on human comparative anatomy, file it, re-read it, change the title, re-file it, re-read it again, and delete it after deciding the whole thing's nonsense.

** ''The Also People'', in addition to being one huge ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheCulture'', also features a number of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' references, such as a merchant named [[HonestJohnsDealership C!Mot]], a [[Discworld/ReaperMan suspicious yellow dip at parties]], a drink called [[Discworld/MenAtArms a Double Entendre]], the Doctor seeing into the time vortex because he has [[Discworld/TheColourOfMagic octagons in his eyes as well as rods and cones]] and the phrase "[[Discworld/{{Pyramids}} a better class of recurring dream]]".

* SmartHouse: Ubiquitous in ''The Also People''.

* SpoonBending: In ''The Also People'', the Doctor claims that he once attempted the universe record for continuous spoon-playing, but was sabotaged by a telekinetic who kept bending his instruments.

* {{Area 51}}: Corman Air Force Base, Nevada, in ''First Frontier''.

* CompensatingForSomething: Benny's reaction the first time she encounters the Master and his [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/gallery/master/images/640/17.html TCE]].

* DangerRoomColdOpen: Played with in ''First Frontier'', where the first chapter has a scene with the Doctor and Ace that ends with them both dying, then turns out to be a training simulation ''for the bad guys'': the villain has crossed paths with them before, knows the odds are in favor of the Doctor showing up at the worst possible moment, and wants his mooks to be ready. When the real Doctor encounters the same situation later in the book, the trap almost works -- except that the Doctor's now traveling with ''two'' companions, and the simulation didn't plan for the second one.

* ForeignCussWord: Sometime after the series stopped using real swear words, David A. [=McIntee=] got away with having a character in ''First Frontier'' say something ''very impolite'' in Russian. (The same character in the same book also says something slightly less impolite in [[PardonMyKlingon Klingon]].)

* FriendlyAddressPrivileges: The Doctor's latest companion meets the Master for the first time: "Summerfield. Bernice Summerfield. My friends call me Benny, but you can call me Professor Summerfield."

* TheGreys: ''First Frontier'', set in the 1950s, features the Greys.
* HalfHumanHybrid: In ''First Frontier'', the alien Tzun (TheGreys of 1950s UFO lore) create the Ph'Sor (the Nordics of 1950s UFO lore) by combining Tzun and human DNA.

* HumanAliens: The human-seeming "Nordic" aliens of 1950s UFO lore appear in ''First Frontier'', where they are genetically-engineered HalfHumanHybrids created by TheGreys.

* InsultBackfire: In ''First Frontier'', the villain's description of his ultimate gambit draws a response of "That's despicable" -- to which he replies, "Thank you, my dear. One tries one's best."

* TheMothership: The Tzun Stormblade in ''First Frontier''.

* OnePhoneCall: The Doctor expresses a belief in the legally-mandated one phone call when he and his companions are arrested in ''First Frontier'', but it's not put to the test.

** ''First Frontier'' has a classic example of an alien using an alien swearword in the middle of an English sentence. It also has Ace saying "[[Series/RedDwarf smeg]]" a lot (the author originally had her using real swearwords, but the editor made him take them out), and at one point she says something impolite in actual Klingon.
* ParrotExpowhat: In ''First Frontier'', when Ace warns an FBI agent their opponents will probably be armed with disruptors. "Dis-what?"

* PlayingBothSides: ''First Frontier'' initially seems like a standard AlienInvasion, but it turns out that the real villain of the novel is playing both sides against each other to achieve his own goals.

* PunnyName: One of the aliens' historical figures in ''First Frontier'' is Councillor Ph'Roch, which if you read it aloud is pronounced "Frock".[[note]]It's also a FandomNod -- at the time, fandom was divided between the 'Gun' and 'Frock' factions.[[/note]]
* PurpleEyes: The HalfHumanHybrids in ''First Frontier'' all have blond hair and violet eyes.

* RightHandCat: The Master has a black one on his first appearance in the novels, a callback to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival his last TV appearance]]. Benny, not knowing its history, snarkily asks him if it's black for copyright reasons.

* {{Safecracking}}: The Doctor does a bit of the old listen-to-the-tumblers safecracking in ''First Frontier''.

** ''First Frontier'', being a 1950s SF movie homage, has numerous shout-outs to those movies, including ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' (the Doctor squares himself with the American authorities by reminding the CIA of the help he gave them with an "illegal alien" problem in Santa Mira in '56), ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'' (including the inevitable KlaatuBaradaNikto), and even ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' (Doctor Von Scott has a cameo as a scientist brought in to examine UFO wreckage).

* SmokingBarrelBlowout: The villain of ''First Frontier'', after using a remotely-operated bomb to make a killing, blows across the top of the remote control device "as if blowing smoke from the barrel of the gun".

* WalkThisWay: In ''First Frontier'':
-->'Hardly. Walk this way,' the Doctor said mysteriously, and hopped away from the car in a peculiar manner. When he saw that the women were strolling normally after him, he hurrumphed loudly and wandered off towards a low rise just to the left.

* WhatsAnXLikeYouDoingInAYLikeThis: Invoked by the villain of ''First Frontier'' when he recognises Benny from her centuries-in-the-future archaeological career, leading to the reveal that he's a time-traveller too.

* YouWatchTooMuchX: In ''First Frontier'':
-->'You don't intend to just walk into a Cold War base, surely?' Ace called out to him. 'They'd probably shoot us, just in case.'\\
'You've been watching too many cheap TV shows, Ace.'

From 1994 onwards, the New Adventures were accompanied by a sister range of novels entitled "[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Missing Adventures]]", which adopted similar principles to the New Adventures: longer, usually DarkerAndEdgier novels aimed at more adult audiences. This series included Doctors One to Six, with each monthly novel starring a different Doctor and companion(s). The first of these, ''Goth Opera'', was a direct sequel/prequel (let's just say [[TimeyWimeyBall "timey-wimey"]] and leave it at that, yeah?) to ''Blood Harvest'', a New Adventure published the same month. One of the later ones actually featured the Seventh Doctor and his companions appearing (both of these novels, curiously enough, starred the Fifth Doctor), but they were for the most part stand-alone, although certain characters and concepts naturally mixed together.

** The Doctor worked with UsefulNotes/AlCapone to try and keep the peace among Chicago's gangs (''Blood Harvest'').

* CrossThrough: From the NA ''Blood Harvest'' to the [[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures Missing Adventure]] ''Goth Opera''.

* GanglandDriveBy: ''Blood Harvest'', set in Prohibition-era Chicago, has a variation. A passing car rolls down a window and sprays machine gun fire through the windows of a restaurant where a gang boss is eating. Nobody is killed, but that's part of the plan: the idea is to lure the boss and his men out onto the street where a second car can get them more easily.

* HandCannon: Dekker, the HardboiledDetective in ''Blood Harvest'', packs a Colt 1911. "Some people say the old 1911 Model Army Colt Automatic is big and clumsy and noisy, and I guess it is. But hit a man anywhere with the slug from a .45 and he'll go down and stay down." This gets a MeaningfulEcho near the end when he establishes that even a vampire will be severely inconvenienced.
* HardboiledDetective: Dekker in ''Blood Harvest'' is a hardboiled detective in the Creator/RaymondChandler vein.

* InspirationNod: ''Blood Harvest'' features a hardboiled detective and part-time first-person narrator inspired by the works of Creator/RaymondChandler; his opening narration is almost word-for-word the opening narration of Chandler's ''Literature/TheBigSleep''.

* RequiredSpinoffCrossover: As a promotional tie-in the first [[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures Missing Adventure]], ''Goth Opera'', was a sequel to ''Blood Harvest'', the New Adventure released in the same month. (That is, for the Doctor ''Goth Opera'' happened first, but for several other characters who appeared in both books ''Blood Harvest'' happened first. Ah, time travel.)

* SelfDeprecation: In one of Creator/TerranceDicks's novels, one character mocks another because he can't come up with a better description for that sound the TARDIS makes than "a wheezing, groaning noise". It's the same description Dicks always used in the Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations he wrote.

* {{Cyberpunk}}: Many of the writers of the NAs were heavily influenced by Cyberpunk and many of the purest cyberpunk DW stories are found in this range.

* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Pseudoscience ideas like NinetyPercentOfYourBrain and PinealWeirdness are used as plot hooks in several of the novels. For instance, in ''All-Consuming Fire'' a character develops psychic powers after suffering a massive head trauma which forces his brain to reroute processing through the previously unused 90%.

* CrosswordPuzzle: ''All-Consuming Fire'' has a fun incidental joke involving the Doctor struggling with the Times crossword.

* DidYouGetANewHaircut: In ''All-Consuming Fire'', the Doctor leaves Benny in India, and picks her up again two months later:
-->"There's something different about you." He frowned, and looked me over again. "Don't tell me. Let me guess."\\
"Doctor, I..."\\
"It's the hair, isn't it? You've had your hair done."\\
"No, I..."\\
"I know! You've lost weight."\\
I sighed.\\
"No, Doctor, I'm [[SweetPollyOliver disguised as a man]]."\\
He checked again.\\
"Are you? How very [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]]. Well, I'm sure you've got a good reason."

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the Cthulhu Mythos.

* IsTheAnswerToThisQuestionYes: Played with in ''All-Consuming Fire''. Ace says, "Does the pope wear a funny hat?" Watson, who met the pope earlier in the story, replies, "Not the last time I saw him."

* MajoredInWesternHypocrisy: The Eton- and Cambridge-educated Nizam of Jabalhabad in ''All-Consuming Fire''.

* MyCard: In ''All-Consuming Fire'', the Doctor calls on Franchise/SherlockHolmes while he's out, and leaves a card reading simply "The Doctor -- Travelling". Holmes is able to deduce several extra details, particularly that the card is a one-off, not part of a batch, and was printed recently, perhaps specifically for the purpose of being left for Holmes.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: The Franchise/SherlockHolmes crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'' has the framing device of being an account written up by Doctor Watson, with an epilogue in which the Doctor and Benny have just read it themselves. Benny queries the Doctor about such details of Victorian life as using strychnine as a flavouring for beer, and filtering sugar through bull's blood. He assures her they're all true.

* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: While visiting Egypt in ''All-Consuming Fire'', the Doctor is buttonholed by a conjurer who does a series of tricks with baby chickens, including making them appear and disappear. When he pauses in expectation of payment, the Doctor pulls a rabbit out of his own hat and hands it to him. (How he manages this when he presumably had no idea in advance that a rabbit would be called for is never explained.)

** The Literature/SherlockHolmes crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'', as well as multiple Holmesian references, features an appearance by ''Literature/{{The Lost World|1912}}'''s Lord John Roxon, and references to Literature/ProfessorChallenger, Literature/FuManchu, and Creator/KimNewman's Literature/DiogenesClub agent Charles Beauregard. It's also one of several New Adventures to have references to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, including an alien race that fits the physical description of the aliens in "Literature/TheWhispererInDarkness".

* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: ''All-Consuming Fire'' features what first appears to be a case of this, but it ultimately turns out to have been murder-by-pyrokinesis.

* StockUnsolvedMysteries: The origin of the San Francisco Fire in ''All-Consuming Fire''.

* HaveWeMetYet: Because of the way time is distorted in the setting of ''Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'', the first time (for her) that Ace meets the Phazels, they already know who she is. From her point of view, she meets their earlier selves a little later.
* AHeadAtEachEnd: The Process, the monster in ''Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible''.

* LivingBattery: In ''Time's Crucible'', a prototype time capsule is powered by the psychic energies of its crew. "Battery" is an official title of one of the crew.

* MagicalEye: In "Time's Crucible", the Pythia steals an eye from a decapitated Sphinx and substitutes it for one of her own, to boost her waning prophetic powers.

* TakingYouWithMe: The Pythia in ''Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'' attempts to take all of Gallifrey with her.

* TimeyWimeyBall: The main setting of ''Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible'' is a literal TimeyWimeyBall -- the inside of a sphere, about three miles across, containing the same city at three different points in time. At the start, things that change in the 'past' city affect the 'present' and 'future' ones, but as the book progresses, those rules begin to break down and the place ends up as a TimeyWimeyBall in ''every'' sense.

* EasyAmnesia: The first novel opens with Ace suffering amnesia, which goes away once all the AsYouKnow exposition required to set up the series has been delivered.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Inverted by Chris Cwej. His surname should be pronounced "Shvay", but because everyone pronounces it "Kwedge" he's decided to go along with it. In his first appearance, although his new partner Roz Forrester pronounces it ''correctly'', he corrects her.

** The books in the "Timewyrm" arc are named from books of Literature/TheBible.

* MiseryBuildsCharacter: In the first of the New Adventures, the Doctor uses this as an excuse for abandoning Ace in the company of an increasingly [[BoisterousBruiser drunk and horny]] [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]]. Luckily, Enkidu is present in the role of the OnlySaneMan. In the whole of Mesopotamia.

* ReadingYourRights: The Adjudicators' version of reading your rights is pretty close to "you have no rights" anyway, but Roz Forrester still adds her own spin:
-->"I am obliged to inform you that your words, guestures and postures are being recorded and may form part of any legal action against you. Under the terms of the data protection act 2820, as amended 2945, I am also obliged to inform you that you and any appointed legal representative will be able to purchase a copy of all recordings upon payment of the standard fee. I am obliged to tell you that, but I won't bother. Just don't piss us around."

* BizarreAlienReproduction: According to ''Lungbarrow'', Time Lords are all sterile and are "born" from a "Loom", a machine in their giant sentient semi-organic family Houses. Each Loom weaves Family members according to a common template, ensuring that they're related; every Family member is genetically a cousin to the others.

* BornAsAnAdult: Loomed Time Lords, according to ''Lungbarrow'', come out of the Loom physically full-grown.

* GeniusLoci:
** The 1992 novel ''Transit'' featured a 22nd-century interplanetary subway system (the "stunnel") that had become so complex that it had evolved sentience.
** Lungbarrow, the Doctor's family House on Gallifrey, from the 1997 novel of the same name (and really, ''most'' Houses on Gallifrey).

* LamePunReaction: ''Lungbarrow'' has one for the Hand of Omega:
-->Omega, despite his sacrifice, still had a hand in their affairs. It was a rather good joke he thought, but Rassilon didn't find it funny at all.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Leela and Andred's relationship in ''Lungbarrow''. The other Time Lords find it rather embarrassing that Andred is with a 'non-Gallifreyan'. Leela and Andred, however, don't mind at all.

* NoHuggingNoKissing: Infamously, ''Lungbarrow'' revealed that, since a long-ago catastrophe rendered their entire race sterile, Time Lords don't have sex -- they get created on ''looms''. (Included at no extra cost: A tortured explanation of how, in that case, the Doctor can be Susan's grandfather.) This revelation was entirely ignored by the TV series.

* OverlyLongName: Time Lord names in ''Lungbarrow'', with first prize going to Quencessetianobayolocaturgrathadeyyilungbarrowmas, the 422nd Kithriarch of the House of Lungbarrow.

When the TV series was revived, it took plenty of cues from the New Adventures. One story in particular, ''Human Nature'', was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature adapted for television]] by writer Creator/PaulCornell.

* AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp: In ''Human Nature'', the Doctor turns himself into a human schoolteacher, with none of his usual abilities, to experience what life is like for his companions, and is promptly embroiled in an alien plot. Justified by the revelation that the character who gave him the idea in the first place was one of the aliens, deliberately so that they could take advantage of his reduced state.

* ArcWelding: The villain of ''Original Sin'' is retroactively claimed to have been at work behind the scenes in a number of the Doctor's earlier adventures.

* BaseballEpisode: The chapter in ''Happy Endings'' where the Doctor defuses tensions between visiting aliens and the local humans by organizing a cricket match.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought a cybernetic construct (''Timewyrm: Genesys''); the Doctor worked with UsefulNotes/AlCapone to try and keep the peace among Chicago's gangs (''Blood Harvest''); Akhenaten helped Ace escape AncientEgypt, while Benny went on an expedition with Vivant Dominique Denon, father of modern archaeology (''Set Piece''); and William Blake traveled with the Doctor (''The Pit'').

* CannibalismSuperpower[=/=]YouAreWhoYouEat: In ''Human Nature'' (which was later adapted for the TV series, but without this aspect), one of the members of the Family is a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shifter]] who can imitate any animal he's eaten part of, including humans. If he does it while they're alive, he can also gain their memories.

* ContinuityPorn:
** ''Happy Endings'', the 50th New Adventure, featured a plethora of returning ''New Adventures'' characters and a festival of loose-end-tying.
** ''Return of the Living Dad'', published near the end of the run, basically exists to tie up the novels' largest remaining loose end, and also ties off a bunch of smaller loose ends that ''Happy Endings'' missed, all the way back to a WhatHappenedToTheMouse question from the second story arc.

* CranialProcessingUnit: Lampshaded in ''Original Sin''.

* DecoyLeader: In ''Death and Diplomacy'', the leader of the notoriously devious Saloi is a figurehead, and the real power rests in the hands of a certain apparently minor official -- but it turns out that he is himself a decoy, acting on coded instructions from the true leader. This comes as a surprise even to the true leader, who had had himself mentally conditioned to not be consciously aware that the decoy wasn't really in charge.

* FloatingHeadSyndrome: The cover illustration for the first novel, ''Timewyrm: Genesys'', features the Doctor's head in this style.

** The 1991 novel ''Timewyrm: Revelation'' featured Saul, the spirit of a church in Cheldon Bonniface, England.

* {{Gesundheit}}: In ''Original Sin'', Benny says "Bless you" when offered a tisane by Provost-Major Beltempest. Beltempest doesn't realize she was making a joke, and explains what a tisane is.
* {{Ghostapo}}: ''Timewyrm: Exodus'' features a Nazi mystic cult (though, this being ''Doctor Who'', the source of their power is ultimately revealed to be alien rather than supernatural).

* IHaveThisFriend: Lampshaded in ''Original Sin'':
--> 'Doc, there's something I need to ask you... It's -- well...'\\
'It's about this friend of yours,' the Doctor prompted.\\
'Yeah. Right. He's got a problem.'\\
'Friends always do.'

* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: ''Human Nature''
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: In ''Timewyrm: Revelation'', Ace gets pulled into the Seventh Doctor's psyche by the titular Timewyrm.

* MeaningfulRename: Done by an entire ''species'' in ''Original Sin'', after losing an extremely unpleasant war with the Earth Empire. The two Hith met in the course of the book are named "Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone" and "Powerless Friendless And Scattered Through Space".
* MegaCorp: Initec in ''Original Sin''.

* NoHuggingNoKissing:
** The Doctor's celibacy becomes a major plot point in ''Human Nature'', when he's NotHimself and becomes attracted to a woman. It's interesting to see how the novel presented this idea PlayedForDrama, whereas a certain ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho039BangBangABoom episode]]... [[{{Panto}} didn't]].
** Infamously, ''Lungbarrow'' revealed that, since a long-ago catastrophe rendered their entire race sterile, Time Lords don't have sex -- they get created on ''looms''. (Included at no extra cost: A tortured explanation of how, in that case, the Doctor can be Susan's grandfather.) This revelation was entirely ignored by the TV series.

* NotSoDifferent: In ''Original Sin'', the Doctor is trapped in a room with homicidal maniac Zebulon Pryce, who claims that the Doctor's Technical Pacifism is not so different in practice from Pryce's usual behaviour, and challenges him to prove otherwise.

* OpenSecret: In ''Death and Diplomacy'', the Saloi are a PlanetOfHats of devious conspirators, as typified by the fact that whatever the official hierarchy charts say, the true reins of power rest in the hands of an apparently minor functionary with the title of Assistant sub-Administratorial Secretary. And every Saloi (as well as most of their enemies) is well aware of this, "for the simple reason that the subject of such a 'secret' would ordinarily have the life expectancy of a snail in a blender unless ''everybody knew about it''."

* PhantasySpelling: For reasons unknown, the title of the first New Adventure is ''Timewyrm: Genesys'', spelling "genesis" with a Y.

* PigLatin: ''Original Sin'' has the Doctor working with some military types to stop an alien starship that's leaking dangerous radiation. When he has to go and retrieve the TARDIS, knowing that the military probably want to seize the ship for their own purposes, he gives their commander a message to pass on to Benny: "Ashtray the ipshay".
* PlanetOfHats: Parodied in ''Death and Diplomacy'', in which three warring empires have been carefully manipulated to be Planet of the [[ExtremeOmnisexual Sex-Obsessed]] [[BarbarianTribe Savages]], Planet of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Uptight Military]], and Planet of the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Devious Assassins]]. It's specifically mentioned that none of these societies would actually ''work'' if someone wasn't pulling the strings.

* PocketProtector: Subverted in ''Death and Diplomacy'', where Jason Kane tells a cynical anecdote of his grandfather, who went away to war wearing a crucifix of great sentimental value. One day, a bullet fired at him hit the crucifix -- which shattered, aggravating a wound that would otherwise not have been lethal.

* PowerBornOfMadness: In ''Timewyrm: Exodus'', the Timewyrm tries to possess UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and is instead trapped in his mind by his madness.

** In ''Death and Diplomacy'', the Czan sergeant is a clear pastiche of Sergeant Major Williams in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'', to the point that at one point he responds to "[[YouNoTakeCandle Is you soldier boys]]?" by claiming to be a concert party. The villains result in several shout-outs to Saturday morning cartoons, at one point setting up a death-trap disguised as a village of happy [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs Smurf]]-like creatures. At the end of the book, when it's revealed the villains are [[spoiler: evolutionary-enhanced Gallifreyan rodents]], one of them asks what they'll do now; another rants "[[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain We do what we always do, try to take over the universe!]]"

** In ''Happy Endings'', the musicians Jacquilian and Sanki are based on the characters Julian and Sandy from the sketch comedy series ''Radio/RoundTheHorne''. The scene where the Doctor hires them to play at Benny's wedding follows the standard form of a Julian and Sandy sketch, with the Doctor taking Kenneth Horne's role as the straight man.

* SignificantAnagram: Multiple examples. One notable one is "Interstellar Nanoatomic ITEC" in ''Original Sin'', which only works because the author declared that in the Future, "ITEC" will be a common company-name suffix like "Ltd" or "Inc".

* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: In ''Timewyrm: Exodus'', the Doctor translates his occasional makeshift identity of "Dr John Smith" into German, presenting himself as "Dr Johann Schmidt".
* ThoseWackyNazis: The Nazis in ''Timewyrm: Exodus'' are not totally wacky, but are played with a lighter tone than they might have been. The Nazis in ''Just War'' are not wacky at all.

* TitledAfterTheSong: ''Original Sin'' is a reference to the Music/{{INXS}} song.

* UnderCity: In ''Original Sin'', Spaceport Overcity Five was built on top of London, and what's left of the old city is referred to as the Undercity and occupied only by criminals and people who can't afford to live anywhere better. (In a variation on the trope, the Undercity isn't buried: the entire Overcity hovers above it on AntiGravity engines.)
* UnreliableIllustrator: ''Original Sin'', which introduces new companions Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej, features several internal illustrations to help readers get an idea of what they look like. For this reason, they depict Chris as he usually looks, which (due to a plot point involving MagicPlasticSurgery) is not actually what he looks like in some of the scenes depicted (including the one on the cover).
* VirginSacrifice: One of the earliest novels, ''Timewyrm: Exodus'', has Ace offered up as a virgin sacrifice. By a [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] [[{{Ghostapo}} Mystic Cult]]. This may seem surprising given her [[ReallyGetsAround later reputation]], but it ''was'' one of the earliest novels.

* WeDidntStartTheFuhrer: Played with in ''Timewyrm: Exodus'', where Hitler separately receives covert assistance from two different groups of aliens attempting to further their own ends -- but neither is able to control him, and what he does with their assistance is all entirely his own idea.

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Bernice finds herself in this situation after an extended drinking session with Jason Kane in ''Death and Diplomacy''.

* YourHeadAsplode: In ''Human Nature''.

** The Literature/SherlockHolmes crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'', as well as multiple Holmesian references, features an appearance by ''Literature/{{The Lost World|1912}}'''s Lord John Roxon, and references to Literature/ProfessorChallenger, Literature/FuManchu, and Creator/KimNewman's Literature/DiogenesClub agent Charles Beauregard. It's also one of several New Adventures to have references to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the Cthulhu Mythos. The Creator/BigFinish adaptation goes one step further, and makes it a crossover with their own ''Sherlock Holmes'' series starring Nick Briggs, which is otherwise completely separate.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the Cthulhu Mythos.

From 1994 onwards, the New Adventures were accompanied by a sister range of novels entitled "[[Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures The Missing Adventures]]", which adopted similar principles to the New Adventures: longer, usually DarkerAndEdgier novels aimed at more adult audiences. This series included Doctors One to Six, with each monthly novel starring a different Doctor and companion(s). The first of these, ''Goth Opera'', was a direct sequel / prequel (let's just say [[TimeyWimeyBall "timey-wimey"]] and leave it at that, yeah?) to ''Blood Harvest'', a New Adventure published the same month. One of the later ones actually featured the Seventh Doctor and his companions appearing (both of these novels, curiously enough, starred the Fifth Doctor), but they were for the most part stand-alone, although certain characters and concepts naturally mixed together.

The series was followed by the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures, which took the principles started here and just went ''ballistic'' applying them to the relative blank-slate that was the Eighth Doctor.

* DisappearedDad: Benny Summerfield's father, who went Missing in Action under circumstances that resulted in him being branded a coward and traitor. The truth of his disappearance was ultimately revealed in the shamelessly-titled ''Return of the Living Dad''.

* ForeignCussWord: Some time after the series stopped using real swear-words, David A. [=McIntee=] got away with having a character in ''First Frontier'' say something ''very impolite'' in Russian. (The same character in the same book also says something slightly less impolite in [[PardonMyKlingon Klingon]].)

* HollywoodVoodoo: ''White Darkness'' uses spelling as a distinguishing feature: American soldiers who don't know what they're talking about refer to "voodoo" and "zombies", native Haitans and the Doctor talk of "vodoun" and "zombi". Mind you, despite the author [[ShowTheirWork Showing His Work]] there's still an evil voudon priest who actually worships the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]]...

* {{Oxbridge}}: ''The Dimension Riders'' by Daniel Blythe is set in the fictional St Matthew's College, Oxford. The college president is a retired Time Lord. Presumably, the author (an alumnus of St John's, Oxford) wanted to balance out "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]".

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the Cthulhu Mythos. The [[BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish]] adaptation goes further on the Holmes front, by making it an explicit crossover with their own ''Sherlock Holmes'' series, starring Nicholas Briggs as Holmes.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the Cthulhu Mythos.

** Another author who does it a lot is [=David A. McIntee=]. The villains in ''White Darkness'' are Film/HammerHorror stalwarts Creator/PeterCushing and Ingrid Pitt. The ultimate villain in ''First Frontier'' is Basil Rathbone.
** Franchise/SherlockHolmes, in the IntercontinuityCrossover ''All-Consuming Fire'' is also Basil Rathbone, at least on the front cover. On the cover of ''Happy Endings'' he isn't (reportedly the cover artist was explicitly instructed not to, possibly because the novel also features the villain from ''First Frontier''), but Watson is Nigel Bruce.

** ''Original Sin'' is a reference to the Music/{{INXS}} song.

** ''Original Sin'' is a reference to the InXS song.

The Seventh Doctor initially traveled only with Ace, his companion at the time of the show's cancellation. They were soon joined by Characters/BerniceSummerfield, AdventurerArchaeologist, a more stable and experienced character compared to Ace, who allowed for greater CharacterDevelopment. Other new companions included Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej, SaltAndPepper police detectives from the 30th century. Bernice (or Benny for short) became a BreakoutCharacter and eventually [[Franchise/BerniceSummerfield got more spinoffs than can be sensibly listed]], the most well-known of which is her own ongoing Creator/BigFinish audio series.

-->'''Joel''': We get all kinds. [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial ETs]], {{mutants}}, strays, [[TheGreys greys]], [[LittleGreenMen LGMs]], [=BEMs=], UNIT deserters, [[AlienAbduction Striebs]], dweebs, [[Literature/TheStepfordWives Stepford Wives]], [[Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos Midwich Cuckoos]], missing persons, [[Creator/JohnBuchan faraway people]], peepers, buzzers, hoppers, [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy hitchers]], [[Series/QuantumLeap Leapers]], Series/{{Sliders}}...

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Many of the "earth-bound" stories took place in this vague era, a few years ahead in order to allow for some fantastic elements, but not far enough to be unrecognisable. ''Iceberg'' (published in 1993), for example, went to great lengths to give background and character to the far future world...of '''2006'''![[note]]...and actually didn't do too badly in a lot of respects. No jet-boat luxury cruisers or holocameras just yet, but a single European currency and maddeningly paranoid airport security was spot on.[[/note]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the Seventh Doctor and his ManipulativeBastard[=/=][[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] ways. Much of the series touches on the fallout of the Doctor's [[MoralDissonance less than spotless ethics]] and how people..."appreciated" it.

* BaitAndSwitchLesbians: While the TV show's implications about Ace's sexuality are ... confused (if you're ''very'' generous, the intent is that she's bi; it's probably more accurate to say her preferences were entirely DependingOnTheWriter), the lesbian subtext is rather spectacularly contradicted in the books.

** The Literature/SherlockHolmes crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'', as well as multiple Holmesian references, features an appearance by ''Literature/{{The Lost World|1912}}'''s Lord John Roxon, and references to Literature/ProfessorChallenger, Franchise/FuManchu, and Creator/KimNewman's Literature/DiogenesClub agent Charles Beauregard. It's also one of several New Adventures to have references to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.

* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''White Darkness'' has the Doctor meets the CthulhuMythos. ''All-Consuming Fire'' sees the Doctor team up with Franchise/SherlockHolmes, again against the CthulhuMythos.

** The Literature/SherlockHolmes crossover ''All-Consuming Fire'', as well as multiple Holmesian references, features an appearance by ''Literature/TheLostWorld'''s Lord John Roxon, and references to Literature/ProfessorChallenger, Franchise/FuManchu, and Creator/KimNewman's Literature/DiogenesClub agent Charles Beauregard. It's also one of several New Adventures to have references to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.