Note: Intended as a companion to the same author’s acclaimed The Target Book, this large format hardcover is a similar in-depth history of Virgin Publishing’s Doctor Who fiction output in the 1990s, primarily the New Adventures and Missing Adventures series of novels.
In 1989 Doctor Who on television came to an end. There were to be no more travels in space and time. But the moment had been foretold, and Virgin Publishing, then the licence-holders for BBC-authorised fiction, stepped into the breach.
This is the story of Virgin Publishing’s New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. Picking up where the television series stopped, and presenting the new and further adventures of the Seventh Doctor and his companion Ace, the books crossed space and time, introducing new companions like archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, and reuniting The Doctor with many old adversaries like the Ice Warriors and the Cybermen.
Noted researcher and historian David J Howe chronicles the origins of the books, speaking to all the major players in their development, and charts their critical reception as well as presenting a plethora of artwork, sketches and other imagery associated with the range. Also included are Virgin’s range of Missing Adventures, original novels featuring the first six Doctors, plus other Doctor Who fiction published by Virgin in the same time period.
Profusely illustrated with all the covers, plus rare and unseen sketches and unused concepts and ideas, The Who Adventures is the definitive guide to a range of books which enjoyed phenomenal success in the first half of the ‘90s, and which kick-started the careers of several authors and artists who have since gone on to immense success.