Between 1991 and 1997,
Virgin Publishing produced successful spin-off novels under the
New Adventures and
Missing Adventures ranges. However, following the
Doctor Who television movie in 1996, the
BBC did not renew
Virgin Publishing's license to continue publishing
Doctor Who material. Instead, they opted to publish their own range beginning in 1997 with
The Devil Goblins from Neptune by
Martin Day and
Keith Topping. The range continued to be published through to 2005. Virgin had distinguished the New and Missing Adventures with different
cover designs. BBC Books, however, did not differentiate their novels featuring the current and past Doctors in this way, although they were listed separately within the books. Fans, however, continued to distinguish the
ongoing story of the Eighth Doctor from the more stand-alone adventures of past Doctors. Despite moving to the BBC, the writers (many of whom wrote for the Virgin series) have broadly attempted to maintain continuity with the New and Missing Adventures and many elements from these series have appeared in the Past Doctor Adventures (which replaced the Missing Adventures). Indeed, one of the novels —
Millennium Shock by
Justin Richards — was a direct sequel to
System Shock, a Missing Adventure published by Virgin. Another notable release was
Scream of the Shalka, a novelisation of the webcast of the same title and the only release in the Past Doctor range that did not feature an "official" incarnation of the Doctor.
The Infinity Doctors, written by
Lance Parkin, featured an unidentified Doctor. In addition to the Past Doctor Adventures and the Eighth Doctor Adventures, the BBC also published three short story collections under the title of
Short Trips, which feature all eight (at the time of publication) Doctors. These were also inherited from Virgin, a version of their
Decalog short story collections, and when the BBC ceased publishing them, a licence to continue was sought by
Big Finish Productions, who continued to publish their own range of
Short Trips collections until 2009. The range has ceased publication. In the spring of 2005, BBC Books began publishing a series of hardcover books, the
New Series Adventures. The BBC Past Doctor paperback series continued for the remainder of 2005, but no titles were announced after
Andrew Cartmel's
Atom Bomb Blues, which was released in November 2005. In a talk in July 2006,
commissioning editor Justin Richards said that BBC Books have plans for the future of the Past Doctor Adventures, but that decisions had not yet been taken. Beginning in 2012, hardback books featuring past Doctors are being published, with longer books and in a larger format, though at a much reduced rate compared with the pre-2005 output. ==List==