* AudienceAlienatingEra: The second half of the series, when everything got so much DarkerAndEdgier it was difficult to recognize it as ''Doctor Who''; Ace was converted into a NinetiesAntiHero, the Doctor was increasingly flipping between being a DemotedToExtra PinballProtagonist or a batshit insane Machiavellian KnightTemplar that was difficult to root for, and many of the best writers of the Frocks crowd, like Creator/PaulCornell or Gareth Roberts, had stopped writing books for the line. Production problems led to ''So Vile a Sin'', the book that [[spoiler:killed off Roz]], coming out after the books in which she was dead.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Benny. In ''spades''. A companion for roughly two-thirds of the novels, she would later be the focus of [[Literature/BerniceSummerfield more novels]] once Virgin lost the ''Series/DoctorWho'' rights, then of a Creator/BigFinish audio-drama series. She even met the ''Twelfth'' Doctor in the 2015 novel ''Big Bang Generation'' (her inclusion was a last-minute substitute for another AdventurerArchaeologist, River Song, when Gary Russell couldn't use that character because it would have contradicted "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]").
* GrowingTheBeard: Opinions vary, naturally, but typically around the time of Benny's introduction and/or Ace's sojourn away from the TARDIS is when the quality started to level out somewhat.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHappyEndings Happy Endings]]'', written in 1996 but set in April 2010, the aging [[TheBrigadier Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart]] is dying of cancer and hoping to keep living for another year. Fortunately, in the course of the story, the Brig is rejuvenated and does not die. Sadly, in RealLife, the Brigadier's actor Creator/NicholasCourtney died in February 2011 after a long battle with cancer.
** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresTheLeftHandedHummingbird The Left-Handed Hummingbird]]'' (1993) has the Doctor get put on a gurney and wheeled into a morgue with "John Doe" on his toe tag, exactly what would happen to him after his death in the 1996 movie. It also has the ArcWords, "[[Creator/PaulMcGann The Healer]] becomes [[Creator/JohnHurt the warrior]]".
* HilariousInHindsight:
** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHumanNature Human Nature]]'' features a cameo by Creator/StevenMoffat as the school bursar.
** The same novel has one of the Aubertides tell Bernice he is the Tenth Doctor, but she realises he isn't the Doctor as he eats meat. Later the Tenth Doctor would be in the TV version of "Human Nature", by which time the Doctor was no longer a vegetarian.
** The mention of "Councillor Ph'Roch" in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresFirstFrontier First Frontier]]'' would just have been a throwaway pun at the time. But since the publication of ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'', it's got an additional aspect -- Ph'Roch is yet another military officer with an item of clothing named after him.
** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresTheDyingDays The Dying Days]]'' establishes Queen Elizabeth II's re-coronation (she had been temporarily deposed by invading Ice Warriors) marked the start of the New New Elizabethan Age, a popular naming convention for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth five billion years]].
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree The Brigadier's female descendant also joins up with UNIT?]] Sorry, Kate, Kadiatu beat you to it.
** Kadiatu also prefigures River Song in a lot of ways, being an occasionally recurring character who is descended from one of the Doctor's companions, was shaped into a more-than-human weapon against the Doctor but chose her own path, and has her own adventures through space and time instead of becoming a companion herself. (None of the romance stuff, though; her relationship with the Doctor is more like a cherished but AnnoyingYoungerSibling.)
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresNoFuture No Future]]'', the novel that served as the series' 30th anniversary special, brought back a villain (the Meddling Monk) and an alien race (the Vardans) that were regarded by the fandom as ludicrous jokes, teamed them up, and showed how dangerous they could be in the right hands. (While simultaneously - because this is Creator/PaulCornell, the frockiest of the frocks - being giddily affectionate about how silly they were in the first place.)
%% RonTheDeathEater: Does this to the Sixth Doctor.
* TearJerker: The denouement of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresLoveAndWar Love and War]]''. Watching the relationship between Ace and the Doctor disintegrate is ''brutal''.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: A common critique about the books as they go on is that they become too grim. The Doctor loses his fun and playful side from the television series and becomes a callous manipulating bastard, while Ace turned into a hardened space marine who also lost all of her likeable traits and just became a hardened bitch. Throw in copious amounts of violence, sex and gore and you have one of the bleakest versions of ''Doctor Who'' ever.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Many bookshops shelved the first few novels with the Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations in the children's section, until Virgin pointed out that the way the novels were developing meant that it wasn't a good idea. Reported to have been consciously averted by Creator/RussellTDavies when the BBC wanted to reissue ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresDamagedGoods Damaged Goods]]'' to take advantage of his fame as the ShowRunner of the revived series - he flatly told them that he didn't want child fans of the TV show reading it.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The Monk. In [[spoiler:''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresNoFuture No Future]]'']], just not so successfully at actually accomplishing this.
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