I have given myself the challenge to map two transitional eras of Doctor Who and ask whether the first, Virgin Publishing's New Adventures, has had an influence on the second, the new series of Doctor Who?
I think that a substantial aspect of the nature of both these eras of Doctor Who is that they are both posses qualities of transition, that there is behind both series a force of modernity.
There are many examples of both series that I can sight to suggest this, in an attempt to summarise these are -
+ reflection on the series' past and to make a change from that past;
+ both have attempted and succeeded to set up a new language;
+ engagement with its medium as a means to attempt something different;
+ meditation on the contemporary political and social eras in United Kingdom - though their subjects are very different, the NAs refelcted on a post Thatcher/Major past (and even further) and the RTD era is concerned about the future UK is creating.
