BBC New Series Adventures
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, and Twelfth 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 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. The first three novels probably take place between World War Three and The Empty Child, and the latter three between The Doctor Dances and Boom Town.
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.
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, the most of any companion to date. 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 audio books. The first three were read by David Tennant. After that, other actors from the series replaced Tennant, who did not reappear as narrator until the made-for-audio stories. The other actors include Freema Agyeman, Georgia Moffett, Anthony Head and Adjoa Andoh. Most of these audio books are abridged, but some of the later novels were released as unabridged audio books 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 are published in hardcover by BBC Books, but in North America the novels are 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.
Novels
Ninth Doctor
| Title | Author | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Clockwise Man | Justin Richards | Rose | 19 May 2005 |
| The Monsters Inside | Stephen Cole | Rose, Slitheen | |
| Winner Takes All | Jacqueline Rayner | Rose | |
| The Deviant Strain | Justin Richards | Rose, Jack | 8 September 2005 |
| Only Human | Gareth Roberts | Rose, Jack | |
| The Stealers of Dreams | Steve Lyons | Rose, Jack |
Tenth Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
| Title | Author | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 23 | Justin Richards | Amy | 22 April 2010 |
| Night of the Humans | David Llewellyn | Amy | |
| The Forgotten Army | Brian Minchin | Amy | |
| Nuclear Time | Oli Smith | Amy, Rory | 8 July 2010 |
| The King's Dragon | Una McCormack | Amy, Rory | |
| The Glamour Chase | Gary Russell | Amy, Rory | |
| The Coming of the Terraphiles | Michael Moorcock | Amy | 14 October 2010 |
| Dead of Winter | James Goss | Amy, Rory | 28 April 2011 |
| The Way Through the Woods | Una McCormack | Amy, Rory | |
| Hunter's Moon | Paul Finch | Amy, Rory | |
| Touched by an Angel | Jonathan Morris | Amy, Rory, Weeping Angels | 23 June 2011 |
| Paradox Lost | George Mann | Amy, Rory | |
| Borrowed Time | Naomi A. Alderman | Amy, Rory | |
| The Silent Stars Go By | Dan Abnett | Amy, Rory, Ice Warriors | 29 September 2011 |
| Dark Horizons | J. T. Colgan | 5 July 2012 | |
| Plague of the Cybermen | Justin Richards | Cybermen | 8 April 2013 |
| The Dalek Generation | Nicholas Briggs | Daleks | |
| Shroud of Sorrow | Tommy Donbavand | Clara |
Twelfth Doctor
| Title | Author | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Blood Cell | James Goss | Clara | 11 September 2014 |
| Silhouette | Justin Richards | Clara, Paternoster Gang | |
| The Crawling Terror | Mike Tucker | Clara | |
| Royal Blood | Una McCormack | Clara | 10 September 2015 |
| Big Bang Generation | Gary Russell | Benny, Peter, Ruth, Jack | |
| Deep Time | Trevor Baxendale | Clara | |
| The Shining Man | Cavan Scott | Bill | 20 April 2017 |
| Diamond Dogs | Mike Tucker | Bill | |
| Plague City | Jonathan Morris | Bill, Nardole |
Audiobooks
Tenth Doctor
| Title | Author | Narrator | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pest Control | Peter Anghelides | David Tennant | Donna | 8 May 2008 |
| The Forever Trap | Dan Abnett | Catherine Tate | Donna | 9 October 2008 |
| The Nemonite Invasion | David Roden | Catherine Tate | Donna | 12 February 2009 |
| The Rising Night | Scott Handcock | Michelle Ryan | 2 July 2009 | |
| The Day of the Troll | Simon Messingham | David Tennant | 8 October 2009 | |
| The Last Voyage | Dan Abnett | David Tennant | 7 January 2010 | |
| Dead Air | James Goss | David Tennant | 4 March 2010 |
Eleventh Doctor
| Title | Author | Narrator | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Ring of Steel | Stephen Cole | Arthur Darvill | Amy | 5 August 2010 |
| The Runaway Train | Oli Smith | Matt Smith | Amy | 6 October 2010 |
| The Jade Pyramid | Martin Day | Matt Smith | Amy | 10 February 2011 |
| The Hounds of Artemis | James Goss | Matt Smith, Clare Corbett | Amy | 5 May 2011 |
| The Gemini Contagion | Jason Arnopp | Meera Syal | Amy | 14 March 2011 |
| The Eye of the Jungle | Darren Jones | David Troughton | Amy, Rory | 7 July 2011 |
| Blackout | Oli Smith | Stuart Milligan | Amy, Rory | 9 September 2011 |
| The Art of Death | James Goss | Raquel Cassidy | Amy, Rory | 5 January 2012 |
| Darkstar Academy | Mark Morris | Alexander Armstrong | Amy, Rory | 8 March 2012 |
| Day of the Cockroach | Steve Lyons | Arthur Darvill | Amy, Rory | 3 May 2012 |
| The Nu-Humans | Cavan Scott and Mark Wright | Raquel Cassidy | Amy, Rory | 5 July 2012 |
| The Empty House | Simon Guerrier | Raquel Cassidy | Amy, Rory | 6 September 2012 |
| Sleepers in the Dust | Darren Jones | Arthur Darvill | Amy, Rory | 1 November 2012 |
| Snake Bite | Scott Handcock | Frances Barber | Amy, Rory | 6 December 2012 |
Twelfth Doctor
2 in 1 Books
| Title | Author | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Riders | Justin Richards | Amy, Rory | 3 February 2011 |
| Heart of Stone | Trevor Baxendale | Amy, Rory | |
| System Wipe | Oli Smith | Amy, Rory | 18 February 2011 |
| The Good, the Bad and the Alien | Colin Brake | Amy, Rory | |
| Alien Adventures | 1 September 2011 | ||
| The Underwater War | Mike Tucker | Amy, Rory | |
| Rain of Terror | Richard Dinnick | Amy, Rory | |
| Sightseeing in Space | 25 October 2011 | ||
| Web in Space! | David Bailey | Amy, Rory | |
| Terminal of Despair | Steve Lyons | Amy, Rory | |
| Monstrous Missions | 27 March 2012 | ||
| Terrible Lizards | Gary Russell | Amy, Rory | |
| Horror of the Space Snakes | Jonathan Green | ||
| Step Back in Time | |||
| Extra Time | Richard Dungworth | Amy, Rory | |
| The Water Thief | Jacqueline Rayner | Amy, Rory | |
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.
Novels
| Title | Author | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery | Justin Richards | River Song | 4 October 2012 |
| Devil in the Smoke | Justin Richards | Paternoster Gang | 18 December 2012 |
| Summer Falls | James Goss | Eleventh Doctor | 4 April 2013 |
| Engines of War | George Mann | War Doctor, Daleks, Time Lords | 31 July 2014 |
Anthologies
| Title | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Summer Falls and Other Stories | Various | 22 October 2013 |
| Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand | Eleventh Doctor | 27 February 2014 |
| The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who | Various | 4 June 2015 |
| Time Lord Fairy Tales | Various | 1 October 2015 |
| The Legends of Ashildr | Ashildr | 10 December 2015 |
| The Legends of River Song | River Song | 11 February 2016 |
Past Doctors New Novels
| Title | Featuring | Published |
|---|---|---|
| The Wheel of Ice | Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe | 16 August 2012 |
| Harvest of Time | Third Doctor, Jo, The Brigadier | 4 June 2013 |
| The Drosten's Curse | Fourth Doctor | 16 July 2015 |
| In the Blood | Tenth Doctor, Donna, Wilf, Sylvia | 12 May 2016 |
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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