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The BBC New Series Adventures is a banner under which the novels published by BBC Books (and, from 2013, Broadway Books in North America) featuring the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fifteenth Doctors have been collected since 2005. This line is the successor to BBC Books' earlier Doctor Who fiction lines, the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures.
Publication history
Ninth Doctor
Launched in mid-2005, the New Series Adventures introduced a new format for Doctor Who fiction — paperback-sized hardcovers with a smaller word count than the previous EDA and PDA lines. For a few months, the "NSA" line coexisted with the EDA and PDA lines, until they were retired at the end of 2005.
With this series of books, BBC Books also established a release pattern it has continued ever since, releasing the books in batches of three, initially at least twice a year. The books are considered standalone and thus may be read in any order (at least among a particular set of three).
Unlike past fiction lines, there was some effort to tie the books more closely to television continuity. Notably, the first-ever direct reference to a novel occurred in the episode Boom Town, in which Rose Tyler referenced a location she and the Doctor had visited in the novel The Monsters Inside. Supporting characters Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler also appeared in the novel Winner Takes All.
The novels tended to reflect changes in the cast. The first three books featured the Ninth Doctor travelling with Rose, while the second set feature Rose and Jack Harkness as companions.
This line of novels continued to be issued following Christopher Eccleston's departure from the series until the end of 2005, after which the series continued, featuring the Tenth Doctor in 2006.
A number of the books have been reprinted in paperback editions, including in North America by Broadway Books. The covers of these reprint editions omit the image of Billie Piper.
On 2 May 2019, Ninth Doctor Novels Volume 1, a box set collecting readings of three of the Ninth Doctor novels was released.
Tenth Doctor
With the coming of the Tenth Doctor era, BBC Books continued its New Series Adventures line in 2006, featuring the new incarnation. Again, the books were published more-or-less in connection with a particular cast line-up in the series, with the first six books featuring Rose Tyler, after which Martha Jones was featured in twelve consecutive novels. Donna Noble was then featured in only four books, with most of the books released during her era actually featuring Martha. Wilfred Mott appears in the final novel featuring Donna, Beautiful Chaos.
Following the events of Journey's End, the books changed format somewhat. Beginning with The Eyeless, published in late 2008, the books featured the Doctor travelling alone, with no ongoing companions (in keeping with the format of the 2008-2010 specials). Also published was The Story of Martha, a short story collection that returned Martha Jones to the NSA line for one book. This was the first NSA book to be a direct tie-in with a televised episode (it takes place during the events of The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords). All NSA novels issued during 2009 featured returning alien races and villains from the TV series.
The final three Tenth Doctor novels were published in September 2009.
Two new spin-off lines were introduced during the 2006-2009 period. Quick Reads, an annual series of paperback novellas intended to promote literacy, was launched in 2006 with the novel I Am a Dalek. This spin-off line featured the return of long-time Doctor Who novelist and scriptwriter Terrance Dicks to the world of Doctor Who fiction. A total of five Tenth Doctor novellas were published in this line, with the last issued in March 2010; the line continued with the Eleventh Doctor.
Also launched during this period, in conjunction with BBC Audiobooks, was a series of original, made-for-audio stories performed by cast members of the series. The first of these, Pest Control, was issued in 2008. A total of seven Tenth Doctor stories were published until 2010. David Tennant performed most of these, with Catherine Tate reading two and Michelle Ryan performing one. Again, releases continued after the introduction of the Eleventh Doctor.
All of the Tenth Doctor publications other than the Quick Reads were released as audiobooks. The first three were read by David Tennant. After that, other actors from the series replaced Tennant, who did not re-appear as narrator until the made-for-audio stories. The other actors include Freema Agyeman, Georgia Moffett, Anthony Head and Adjoa Andoh. Most of these audiobooks are abridged, but some of the later novels were released as unabridged audiobooks that are only available for download.
As with the Ninth Doctor, a number of Tenth Doctor novels have been reissued in paperback by BBC Books and Broadway Books. New editions of novels featuring Rose Tyler, however, omit the image of Billie Piper from the cover art.
Eleventh Doctor
The New Series Adventures line continued with novels featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The first set of three were released in April 2010, with more novels released later in the year.
The books had some design changes from past releases to incorporate the new Doctor Who logo introduced for the new era. The most noticeable change is that the books are taller than those published for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, now closer in height to the Torchwood novels. They also no longer included the Gallifreyan numerical symbols on the spines of the NSA books as seen during the Eccleston and Tennant eras.
In October 2010, a special standalone New Series Adventures book was released, entitled The Coming of the Terraphiles and written by noted fantasy author Michael Moorcock. The series resumed in 2011, with the release of three books in April and another three in June. As well as this, a new concept of 2 in 1 Books was put into action. The stories in these books were shorter than those in normal books but there were two of them per book, set at some point after Series 5, written by two different authors. They were published in the tête-bêche format.
With 2012 the frequency of regular NSA releases was decreased, with the line focusing more on the standalone hardcover editions, which saw two additional releases, The Silent Stars Go By in 2011 and Dark Horizons in 2012. No "set of three" releases occurred in 2012; 2013 saw the release pattern change to a single batch of three per year.
Continuing on from the Tenth Doctor era, BBC Audiobooks, later AudioGO, continued to release original-to-audio stories read by various cast members including Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill. The Decide Your Destiny series also continued, as did the Quick Reads novellas after a year's hiatus.
Beginning in 2011, and for the first time since 2005, the NSA line found itself competing with BBC Books releases featuring past Doctors, beginning with the start of a reprint series featuring Target novelisations, followed by the launch of a novelisation line with Shada and the launch of a new series of standalone hardcover novels featuring past Doctors.
The final trio of Eleventh Doctor novels published in 2013 marked a major change in how the books were marketed and formatted outside the United Kingdom. Broadway Books took over the North American publishing of the books, which were now exclusively to be published in trade paperback editions, with the BBC Books hardcovers officially no longer circulated. Broadway also began republishing older NSAs from the Eleventh Doctor and earlier eras in new standard paperback editions.
A final "Eleventh Doctor" NSA novel, Engines of War, featured the War Doctor rather than the incumbent, acting as the fourth in the "deluxe" range.
Twelfth Doctor
The New Series Adventures line returned in 2014 with new novels featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald. As with the final Eleventh Doctor novels, UK editions were published in hardcover by BBC Books, but in North America, the novels were published in trade paperback editions only by Broadway Books.
In late 2013, AudioGO went into administration, prompting the license for audiobooks to revert to Random House Audio. The publisher released readings of the first three Twelfth Doctor novels in 2015 before the imprint returned as BBC Audio.
In 2015, Big Bang Generation featured Bernice Summerfield, a character that was first introduced in the Virgin New Adventures from Virgin Books. The novel also featured characters Peter Summerfield, Ruth, and Jack, all of whom originated in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield series.
2016 saw only one standalone release in the main NSA series: In the Blood, a Tenth Doctor novel featuring Donna Noble. However, two Choose the Future books featuring the Twelfth Doctor were also released. These were considered a follow on from the Decide Your Destiny range.
The final set of Twelfth Doctor NSA novels were released in 2017, and featured Bill Potts as the companion, with Nardole also featuring in the last novel.
Thirteenth Doctor
In 2018, the New Series Adventures line continued with novels featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions Graham O'Brien, Yasmin Khan, and Ryan Sinclair.
No new NSA novels were released in 2019, but 2020 saw the release of standalone novel, At Childhood's End, which featured the return of the Doctor's past companion, Ace. This novel was written by Sophie Aldred, who played Ace in the last few seasons of Doctor Who's original run.
Fifteenth Doctor
In 2024 the NSA line returned with the Fifteenth Doctor and new companion Ruby Sunday.
Novels
- Main article: The Doctor Novels (series)
Specials
Special releases were released individually, and featured longer novels aimed at older readers. They were primarily released in hardcover format and retailed at a higher price. Their cover art did not use the same format as the standard releases, and they occasionally featured Doctors other than the incumbent at the time of publishing.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Published | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | The Coming of the Terraphiles | Michael Moorcock | Eleventh Doctor | Amy | 14 October 2010 | Clive Mantle |
| S2 | The Silent Stars Go By | Dan Abnett | Amy, Rory, Ice Warriors | 29 September 2011 | Michael Maloney | |
| S3 | Dark Horizons | J. T. Colgan | 5 July 2012 | Neve McIntosh | ||
| S4 | Engines of War | George Mann | War Doctor | Daleks, Time Lords | 31 July 2014 | Nicholas Briggs |
| S5 | In the Blood | Jenny Colgan | Tenth Doctor | Donna, Wilf, Sylvia | 12 May 2016 | N/A |
| S6 | At Childhood's End | Sophie Aldred, Mike Tucker, Steve Cole | Thirteenth Doctor | Ryan, Yaz, Graham, Ace | 6 February 2020 | Sophie Aldred |
| S7 | The Ruby's Curse | Alex Kingston, Jacqueline Rayner | None | River Song, Melody Malone, Cleopatra | 20 May 2021 | Alex Kingston |
Audiobooks
- Main article: The Doctor Tales (series)
Tie-ins
Beginning in 2012, BBC Books has released a number of books and anthologies featuring elements from the new series that do not fit into the standard format of novels featuring the current Doctor.
E-Books
| # | Title | Author | Featuring | Published | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery | Justin Richards | River Song | 4 October 2012 | Alex Kingston |
| 2 | Devil in the Smoke | Paternoster Gang | 18 December 2012 | Dan Starkey | |
| 3 | Summer Falls | James Goss | Eleventh Doctor | 4 April 2013 | Clare Corbett |
Anthologies
BBC Books
BBC Children's Books
2 in 1 Books
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Death Riders | Justin Richards | Eleventh Doctor | Amy, Rory | 3 February 2011 |
| Heart of Stone | Trevor Baxendale | ||||
| 2 | System Wipe | Oli Smith | 18 February 2011 | ||
| The Good, the Bad and the Alien | Colin Brake | ||||
| 3 | Alien Adventures | Amy, Rory | 1 September 2011 | ||
| Underwater War | Richard Dinnick | ||||
| Rain of Terror | Mike Tucker | ||||
| 4 | Sightseeing in Space | Amy, Rory | 25 October 2011 | ||
| Web in Space! | David Bailey | ||||
| Terminal of Despair | Steve Lyons | ||||
| 5 | Monstrous Missions | 27 March 2012 | |||
| Terrible Lizards | Jonathan Green | Amy, Rory | |||
| Horror of the Space Snakes | Gary Russell | ||||
| 6 | Step Back in Time | Amy, Rory | |||
| Extra Time | Richard Dungworth | ||||
| The Water Thief | Jacqueline Rayner | ||||
Past Doctors New Novels
| Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Published | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Wheel of Ice | Stephen Baxter | Second Doctor | Jamie, Zoe | 16 August 2012 | David Troughton |
| Harvest of Time | Alastair Reynolds | Third Doctor | Jo, The Brig, Yates, Benton, The Master | 4 June 2013 | Geoffrey Beevers |
| The Drosten's Curse | A. L. Kennedy | Fourth Doctor | 16 July 2015 | Clare Corbett |
Other "New Series" ranges
External links
- Doctor Who Online - Merchandise Guide - BBC New Series Books
- http://www.timelash.com/tardis/ A database of Doctor Who books, DVDs and Audios
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