Virgin New Adventures

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The New Adventures published by Virgin were a series of original, full-length Doctor Who novels that continued the adventures of the Seventh Doctor (and, originally, Ace) following on from the TV story, Survival. These books were notable for having greater scope than most televised stories and as the books were geared for an older audience, included more mature themes including language, violence and sexuality. One book in the "NA" series, Shakedown was unique in that it was a novelisation of the non-BBC spin-off production, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, but greatly expanded to include the Doctor.

The series concluded with the Eighth Doctor novel The Dying Days. The series ended because, following the broadcast of the 1996 TV movie, BBC Books took over the licence for publishing original Doctor Who fiction, although there was an overlap of more than a year to allow Virgin to publish its contracted novels. One immediate change, however, saw the book line change its branding, relegating the Doctor Who logo to the spine and rebranding the series as "The New Adventures". Ultimately, The Dying Days contained no references to Doctor Who on the cover at all.

After The Dying Days concluded, the books continued with Bernice as the principal character in a new series of novels which were officially dubbed "The New Adventures" (with a new NA logo introduced).

Virgin launched two spin-off lines following the initial success of the NA line: the Decalogs, a series of short story collections, and the Missing Adventures, chronicling the adventures of the first six Doctors. The NA line also published one novelisation, Shakedown.

Although the continuity of the NA line was initially ignored by the BBC Books lines, this restriction was eventually relaxed and references to NA and MA adventures began to appear. As for the series' canonicity with televised Doctor Who, that is a question that falls into a grey area, especially given that one NA novel, Human Nature, was later adapted as the television episodes Human Nature and The Family of Blood.

Doctor Who: The New Adventures

# Title Author Doctor Companions Published
1 Timewyrm: Genesys John Peel 7th Ace June 1991
2 Timewyrm: Exodus Terrance Dicks 7th Ace August 1991
3 Timewyrm: Apocalypse Nigel Robinson 7th Ace October 1991
4 Timewyrm: Revelation Paul Cornell 7th Ace December 1991
5 Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible Marc Platt 7th Ace February 1992
6 Cat's Cradle: Warhead Andrew Cartmel 7th Ace April 1992
7 Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark Andrew Hunt 7th Ace June 1992
8 Nightshade Mark Gatiss 7th Ace August 1992
9 Love and War Paul Cornell 7th Ace and Bernice (introduction) October 1992
10 Transit Ben Aaronovitch 7th Bernice December 1992
11 The Highest Science Gareth Roberts 7th Bernice February 1993
12 The Pit Neil Penswick 7th Bernice March 1993
13 Deceit Peter Darvill-Evans 7th Ace and Bernice April 1993
14 Lucifer Rising Jim Mortimore and Andy Lane 7th Ace and Bernice May 1993
15 White Darkness David A. McIntee 7th Ace and Bernice June 1993
16 Shadowmind Christopher Bulis 7th Ace and Bernice July 1993
17 Birthright Nigel Robinson 7th, Muldwych Ace and Bernice August 1993
18 Iceberg David Banks 7th none September 1993
19 Blood Heat Jim Mortimore 7th Ace and Bernice October 1993
20 The Dimension Riders Daniel Blythe 7th Ace and Bernice November 1993
21 The Left-Handed Hummingbird Kate Orman 7th Ace and Bernice December 1993
22 Conundrum Steve Lyons 7th Ace and Bernice January 1994
23 No Future Paul Cornell 7th Ace and Bernice February 1994
24 Tragedy Day Gareth Roberts 7th Ace and Bernice March 1994
25 Legacy Gary Russell 7th Ace and Bernice April 1994
26 Theatre of War Justin Richards 7th Ace and Bernice May 1994
27 All-Consuming Fire Andy Lane 7th Ace and Bernice June 1994
28 Blood Harvest Terrance Dicks 7th Ace and Bernice July 1994
29 Strange England Simon Messingham 7th Ace and Bernice August 1994
30 First Frontier David A. McIntee 7th Ace and Bernice September 1994
31 St Anthony's Fire Mark Gatiss 7th Ace and Bernice October 1994
32 Falls the Shadow Daniel O'Mahony 7th Ace and Bernice November 1994
33 Parasite Jim Mortimore 7th Ace and Bernice December 1994
34 Warlock Andrew Cartmel 7th Ace and Bernice January 1995
35 Set Piece Kate Orman 7th Ace and Bernice February 1995
36 Infinite Requiem Daniel Blythe 7th Bernice March 1995
37 Sanctuary David A. McIntee 7th Bernice April 1995
38 Human Nature Paul Cornell 7th Bernice May 1995
39 Original Sin Andy Lane 7th Bernice, Chris (introduction) and Roz (introduction) June 1995
40 Sky Pirates! Dave Stone 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz July 1995
41 Zamper Gareth Roberts 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz August 1995
42 Toy Soldiers Paul Leonard 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz September 1995
43 Head Games Steve Lyons 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz October 1995
44 The Also People Ben Aaronovitch 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz November 1995
45 Shakedown Terrance Dicks 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz December 1995
46 Just War Lance Parkin 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz January 1996
47 Warchild Andrew Cartmel 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz February 1996
48 Sleepy Kate Orman 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz March 1996
49 Death and Diplomacy Dave Stone 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz April 1996
50 Happy Endings Paul Cornell 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz May 1996
51 GodEngine Craig Hinton 7th Chris and Roz June 1996
52 Christmas on a Rational Planet Lawrence Miles 7th Chris and Roz July 1996
53 Return of the Living Dad Kate Orman 7th Bernice, Chris and Roz August 1996
54 The Death of Art Simon Bucher-Jones 7th Chris and Roz September 1996
55 Damaged Goods Russell T Davies 7th Chris and Roz October 1996
56 So Vile a Sin Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman 7th Chris and Roz May 1997
57 Bad Therapy Matthew Jones 7th Chris December 1996
58 Eternity Weeps Jim Mortimore 7th Chris January 1997
59 The Room With No Doors Kate Orman 7th Chris February 1997
60 Lungbarrow Marc Platt 7th Chris, Romana, Leela, Ace, K-9 Mark I and Mark II March 1997
61 The Dying Days Lance Parkin 8th Bernice, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT April 1997

Notes

Continuity

  • The New Adventures introduced a few new companions into the life of the Doctor: Bernice Summerfield (debuting in Love and War), Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej (debuting in Original Sin) and Wolsey the cat (who debuted in Human Nature).
  • Ace was written out in Love and War and left the Doctor for three years (in terms of Ace's timestream) before reuniting with him in Deceit. During that time she changed considerably and turned into what some fans refer to as "Space Bitch Ace". Ace left a second time, permanently, in Set Piece. Ace's character development and departure were contradicted by later media, which also contradicted each other.
  • Apart from the novels, a few of the comics and audios take place specifically in the New Adventures continuity. These feature the Seventh Doctor, Bernice and the older version of Ace.
  • Eternity Weeps portrays the death (some years in the future, from the viewpoint of readers when the book first came out) of the Third Doctor's companion, Liz Shaw.
  • In many novels of the Virgin New Adventures, featured old foes of the TV series, including:

Adaptations

Major Links to the Virgin Missing Adventures

Production Notes

  • So Vile a Sin was published out of sequence with the other books because of the delays. In story terms, however, it took place between Damaged Goods and Bad Therapy. The death of a major character in that book was meant to be a surprise, but because of the production delay, that was spoiled, and the prologue started off with the funeral for that character. The delayed publication rendered it the final Doctor Who New Adventures novel to be issued.

See also

External links

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