Doctor Who Books - Little sections

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Trends in a series can be determined by looking at the most recent set of ratings in isolation to determine if that series is improving or failing to satisfy its market. The following sections will show early and recent trends as well as highlighting some of the story arcs within each series.

The Twenty Most Recent Books

This shows the floating average using only the data for the last 20 books. This enables a good idea to be obtained how the recent form of each line is progressing. The BBC 8th Doctor series, although slowly improving, is still consistently below all the other series. The other two current series are around the level of the last of the NAs showing the high standard they are reaching. The books in each of these series run from :

*BBC 8th*	Legacy of the Daleks to Frontier Worlds
*BBC Past*	Face of the Enemy to Divided Loyalties
*Benny*	Beyond the Sun to The Joy Device
*NAs*	Toy Soldiers to The Dying Days
*MAs*	Managra to The Well-Mannered War

The Ten Most Recent Books

This shows the floating average using only the data for the last 10 books. While the data sample is quite small it does allow viewing of the popularity of very recent trends within each series. All of them are positive except a slight downturn for the Bennys and a rather significant one for the BBC Past Doctor series which is dropping while its stablemate rises. The books in each of these series run from :

*BBC 8th*	Demontage to Frontier Worlds
*BBC Past*	The Infinity Doctors to Divided Loyalties
*Benny*	Dry Pilgrimage to The Joy Device
*NAs*	Christmas on a Rational Planet to The Dying Days
*MAs*	Scales of Injustice to The Well-Mannered War

The First Twenty Books

This shows the floating average of the first 20 books of each of the above graphs. This is especially interesting because the BBC 8th Doctor series takes an early lead over the Virgin New Adventures. Hopefully the former can follow the latter's long term upward trend. The books in each of these series run from :

*BBC 8th*	The Eight Doctors to Demontage
*BBC Past*	Devil Goblins from Neptune to Deep Blue
*Benny*	Oh No It Isn't to Tears of the Oracle
*NAs*	Timewyrm : Genesys to The Dimension Riders
*MAs*	Goth Opera to The English Way of Death

Story Arcs

Within the ongoing series there are occasionally story arcs where a number of books are linked on a plot level. The eight arcs are shown below. Note that other arcs can run with a common theme rather than a linked plot; these are not shown. The arcs are :

*Timewyrm (NAs)*	Genesys, Exodus, Apocalypse and Revelation
*Cat's Cradle (NAs)*	Time's Crucible, Warhead and Witch Mark
*Future History (NAs)*	Love and War, Transit, The Highest Science, The Pit, Deceit and Lucifer Rising
*Alternate History (NAs)*	Blood Heat, The Dimension Riders, The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Conundrum and No Future
*Psi Powers (NAs/MAs)*	Warchild, Sleepy, Death of Art, Damaged Goods, Cold Fusion and So Vile A Sin. This was an unusual arc in that there were standalone novels interspersed with the arc books.
*Desperately Seeking Sam (EDAs)*	Longest Day, Legacy of the Daleks, Dreamstone Moon and Seeing I
*Gods (Bennys)*	Where Angels Fear, The Mary-Sue Extrusion, Dead Romance, Tears of the Oracle, Return to the Fractured Planet, The Joy Device and Twilight of the Gods. Note that this arc has not yet completed
*WTF? (EDAs)*	Interference Books 1 & 2, The Blue Angel, The Taking of Planet 5, Frontier Worlds, Parallel 59 and The Shadows of Avalon. Note that this arc has not yet completed

Arc	Books	Rating	Compared to Non-Arc
Timewyrm	4	64.88	Worse
Cat's Cradle	3	58.73	Worse
Future History	6	61.49	Worse
Alternate History	5	74.14	Better
Psi Powers	6	72.87	Better
Desperately Seeking Sam	4	61.12	Worse
Gods	6	75.76	Better
WTF?	6	77.62	Better

Total Arcs	40	67.40
Total Non-Arc	131	69.04

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