- The Also People
Doctorwhobook
title=The Also People
series=Virgin New Adventures
number= 44
featuring=Seventh Doctor Bernice, Chris, Roz, Kadiatu
writer=Ben Aaronovitch
publisher=Virgin Books
isbn= ISBN 0-426-20456-5
pages=
date=November 1995
preceding=Head Games
following=|"The Also People" is an original novel written by
Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who ". It features theSeventh Doctor , Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.DWspinoff It does feature cameos (in a dream sequence) by a
Dalek , aCyberman and aSontaran . (beginning of chapter 10)The People
The Also People introduce a race of beings known only as "The People", and later used in the
Virgin New Adventures . The People are a highly advanced society (for example, they live inside aDyson Sphere ), with abilities rivalling those of theTime Lords ; as such, they have been kept in check by the Time Lords to prevent them from learning the nature of time travel. This had led to tense relations between the Time Lords and The People. The People appear to be a combination of biological and artificial beings; they can switch their forms or their minds at will or even as punishment, one day a humanoid person, the next day the intelligence of a spaceship.Influences
The society of the People has a very close resemblance to
the Culture ofIain M. Banks : the "everything is free" moneyless utopia, the built-in ability of the humanoid citizens to change sex and control their reproduction, the origin of the humanoids as a genofixed merger of several humanoid alien species, the floating intelligent machines known as drones, the intelligent ships and their classisifications, the coordination (arguably, quiet rule) of the structure by a single superintelligent computer. The influence has been openly acknowledged by Aaronovitch on the Usenet group rec.arts.sf.written [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/00b793589aee3ee3] ; the book itself contains in the Acknowledgements the line "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."External links
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_na44 | title=The Also People
* [http://members.lycos.co.uk/cloisterlibrary/also.htm The Cloister Library - "The Also People"]Reviews
*OG review | id=na-44 | title=The Also People
*DWRG | id=also | title=The Also People
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/NA44.php The Whoniverse's review on "The Also People"]
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