Novelisations Novelisations based upon individual
Doctor Who serials were first published in the mid-1960s, the first being
Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks by
David Whitaker, a loose adaptation of the show's second serial,
The Daleks.
Doctor Who novelisations continued in the early 1970s when
Target Books (initially published by Universal-Tandem, later to become part of W.H. Allen & Co and then
Virgin Publishing) began publishing them on a regular basis. The first three novels (all featuring the
First Doctor) were republished editions of the mid-1960s books, and new books, initially featuring the
Third Doctor, followed from 1974. The initial three novelisations had been published in various editions both inside and outside the United Kingdom (editions appeared in the
Netherlands, Canada and the United States). Further foreign editions of the novelisations appeared from the 1970s, with the books being translated for readers in the Netherlands,
Brazil,
Turkey, the US (where the texts were slightly tweaked to eliminate unfamiliar Anglicisms),
Japan,
West Germany,
Portugal,
France and
Finland. Every televised story from 1963 to 1996 was published by Target Books (which became part of
Ebury Publishing's
BBC Books imprint since 2018) by 2021. Five of these—
The TV Movie,
City of Death,
The Pirate Planet,
Resurrection of the Daleks, and
Revelation of the Daleks—had differing BBC Books versions printed from 1996–2019. Other novelisations include radio serials (
Slipback), stories slated for the "missing season" but never produced due to the 18-month hiatus in 1985–1986 (
The Nightmare Fair,
The Ultimate Evil and
Mission to Magnus), the spinoff
K-9 and Company, and even a 1976 children's story record (
The Pescatons). (The Target logo was retained for later reprints and intermittent new titles up to 1994 and was by this time used exclusively for
Doctor Who.) Most of these novelisations contained minimal amounts of original material and were (usually) adapted closely from the shooting scripts, with the intent of the books being souvenirs of previously aired shows in the pre-VCR era; the decision by the BBC to delete many episodes from the Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee eras resulted in many of these books becoming the only way for these "lost" adventures to be experienced prior to the release of soundtracks for those episodes and/or recovery of lost episodes. Although novelisations became more elaborate in later years, the early books usually followed a set formula and were for a time restricted to a maximum page length as they were considered children's literature. Not all Target novelisations faithfully followed the scripts.
John Lucarotti's
The Massacre (1987) completely changed the plot of the source serial, ''
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve''. Some guide books (notably 1999's
A Critical Guide to Doctor Who on Television by Kenneth Muir) describe the plot of the novel rather than the original serial due to the fact the original serial is one of the many that were lost. Also, when Target launched the novelisation line, there was no inkling that ultimately more than 150 of the show's storylines would be adapted; as a result, there are numerous continuity gaps between early Target books and the scripts and/or later published novelisations; one example is
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon (based upon
Colony in Space) which as written depicts
Jo Grant's first adventure with the Doctor, even though the television series introduced her several serials earlier in
Terror of the Autons (which was novelised at a later date and ignored the discrepancy). Authors sometimes added epilogues to their novelisations which were at odds with other material:
The Curse of Fenric by
Ian Briggs suggested a fate for
Ace that differed from later original novels, and
Philip Martin's adaptation of the
Mindwarp segment of
The Trial of a Time Lord included an ending that completely contradicted the scripted ending of the televised serial. A one-time return to serial novelisations occurred in 2004 when BBC Books novelised the made-for-Internet adventure,
Scream of the Shalka. After Virgin began its
New Adventures and
Missing Adventures line of original novels in 1991, it also published several additional novelisations both on their own and under the Missing Adventures label. These were two
Dalek stories from the Troughton era,
The Power of the Daleks and
The Evil of the Daleks, along with another radio novelisation
The Paradise of Death.
The Ghosts of N-Space, a second radio serial featuring
Jon Pertwee produced in the mid-1990s was novelised by Virgin, as were several non BBC spinoff video productions such as
Shakedown (as one section of a larger original novel) and
Downtime, adding an air of official sanction to them. The unmade stories
Shada,
The Krikkitmen, and
Doctor Who Meets Scratchman were novelised by BBC Books from 2012–2019. Elements of
The Krikkitmen had also been used by its original author
Douglas Adams in his 1982 novel
Life, the Universe and Everything. None of these have paperback versions with the Target imprint. Three novels of the original run were rewritten as audiobook exclusives, but were later published in print, once again by Target: •
The Stones of Blood, rewritten by
David Fisher (audiobook released 5 May 2011, print version released 14 July 2022) •
The Androids of Tara, rewritten by David Fisher (audiobook released 5 July 2012, print version released 14 July 2022) • ''
Warriors' Gate and Beyond'', rewritten and expanded by
Stephen Gallagher (audiobook released 4 April 2019, print version released 13 July 2023) Another novel from the Virgin era,
The Evil of the Daleks, was re-adapted by
Frazer Hines in hardback in 2023 and paperback in 2024. In 2007,
Penguin Books revived the novelisations concept for the spinoff series,
The Sarah Jane Adventures. As of early 2010, all stories from the series' first season, two from the second, and one from the third, have been adapted. The third-season novelisation, adapting "
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", marked the first appearance of the Doctor in a TV-based novelisation since the 1996 TV movie was adapted. In 2018, BBC Books began a line adaptations of episodes from the 21st-century revival of
Doctor Who as part of "The Target Collection".
Original fiction The earliest original
Doctor Who spinoff fiction appeared in children's annuals from 1964, and over the years many short stories, novellas and full-length novels have been published.
Short stories and novellas The earliest original Doctor Who fiction were short stories that appeared in the official BBC
Doctor Who annuals, which were published from 1964 to 1985 (and later revived by
Marvel Comics as
Doctor Who Year Books and as annuals by the BBC in 2005). A 45-page
novella titled
Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space, published in 1966, is the earliest known original long-form prose
Doctor Who adventure. Short stories also appeared in other venues such as two anniversary specials produced by the editors of the
Radio Times. The first of these (1973) was
Terry Nation's "We Are the Daleks!" while the second (1983) had Eric Saward's "Birth of a Renegade". The former explains the origins of the Daleks and the latter reveals the background of
Susan, but both contradict the series and many other stories on the subject. There were also stories in newspapers and comics, storybooks and even serials published on confectionery wrappers and trading cards. In 1979, Nation wrote "Daleks: The Secret Invasion", a novella included in ''Terry Nation's Dalek Special
; this was the first original Doctor Who''-related fiction to be published by Target Books. During the 1990s,
Virgin Publishing launched a series of
Doctor Who-based short story anthologies titled
Decalog. A total of five volumes were published, and the last two,
Decalog 4 and
Decalog 5 were published after Virgin had lost the
Doctor Who franchise and did not feature the Doctor. Decalog 4 concentrated on the family of Roz Forrester—a companion introduced in the NAs—over a thousand-year time span. Also during the 1990s,
Marvel Comics commissioned the writers of the various original novels under Virgin's New and Missing Adventures lines (see below) to write short pieces entitled "Preludes" which were run in
Doctor Who Magazine. These short stories (never more than one magazine page in length) usually focused on an event just prior to a particular novel, or on a character prior to his or her encounter with the Doctor. Some non-novel related short stories titled "Brief Encounters" were also written, including one in which the Seventh Doctor met a future incarnation of himself. (The illustration accompanying this story based the future Doctor on actor
Nicholas Briggs, who had played the Doctor in unauthorised audio dramas produced by the fan group
Audio Visuals. The Briggs Doctor also appeared in the DWM comic strip.)
BBC Books, after it took over the licence to publish original
Doctor Who fiction, published several
Decalog-style anthologies in the late 1990s under variations of the title
Short Trips.
Big Finish Productions later obtained a license to produce hardback short story anthologies and appropriated the
Short Trips title; Big Finish has also published short story collections featuring
Bernice Summerfield, a former companion of the Seventh and Eighth Doctors. In the early 2000s,
Telos Publishing produced a
series of original Doctor Who novellas, published individually in hardcover; the first,
Time and Relative by
Kim Newman, was released on 23 November 2001. Although the series was reasonably successful (in spite of the odd publication format, which resulted from the BBC having reserved for its own use the rights to publish
Doctor Who story collections and
Doctor Who books in paperback), the BBC chose not to renew Telos's licence, and the series ended in March 2004, having completed 15 novellas featuring the Doctor. Prior to losing the license, a small number of Telos releases were re-issued in paperback form (albeit in a larger format than the BBC Books releases) following a separate agreement with the BBC. Telos subsequently launched a new series of novellas,
Time Hunter, featuring characters created for the
Doctor Who novella,
The Cabinet of Light while
Obverse Books has published novels and short story collections featuring the character of Iris
Wildthyme from the BBC book range, and others using the setting and characters created by
Stephen Wyatt for the tv episode
Paradise Towers. Obverse also currently publishes books based on
Faction Paradox, created by
Lawrence Miles for the BBC book range (previous books in the same setting were released by
Mad Norwegian Press and Random Static). In 2006, BBC Books launched an annual series of
Doctor Who novellas as part of the government-sponsored "
Quick Reads Initiative" which were shorter stories (generally less than one hundred pages) intended to promote literacy in younger readers. The cover formats were the same as that for the New Series Adventures, however the books are published in paperbacks and do not have the same international distribution as the hardcovers. The first Quick Reads release was
I Am a Dalek by
Gareth Roberts. Released in March 2006, it was actually the first original Tenth Doctor novel to be released, predating the first series of full-length Tenth Doctor novels by a month. Further volumes were released until 2013.
Novels After years of only novelisations being published, the first full-length original
Doctor Who-related novels appeared in 1986 when Target launched a series of books titled
The Companions of Doctor Who which were original works focusing on the Doctor's former assistants. The first two books were
Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma by Tony Attwood, published in July 1986 based upon the character played by
Mark Strickson in the early 1980s and ''
Harry Sullivan's War written by Ian Marter, who had actually played Harry Sullivan on the series a decade earlier, published in October 1986. Other novels would have featured Tegan, the Brigadier, Victoria and Mike Yates. Victoria eventually was the focus of the novel (and subsequent video) Downtime by Marc Platt. Yates would have appeared in The Killing Stone'' by actor
Richard Franklin, but the novel was never published, although an abridged recording by Franklin based on the book appeared in 2002. In 1989, Target launched another short-lived series of "original" novels, this time titled
The Missing Episodes and based upon serials commissioned for but never produced for the cancelled 1985–1986 season. Again, only three books were published, the first being
The Nightmare Fair by
Graham Williams in May 1989, followed by
The Ultimate Evil by
Wally K. Daly in August 1989, and
Mission to Magnus by
Philip Martin in July 1990. Virgin Publishing's line of original novels, the
New Adventures, featuring the
Seventh Doctor began in July 1991 with
Timewyrm: Genesys by
John Peel, and were billed as telling "stories too broad and deep for the small screen". Virgin's predecessors, Target Books and
W. H. Allen Ltd, had by this point been publishing novelisations for twenty years, and even before the series had come to a conclusion, successive editors of the range such as Nigel Robinson and
Peter Darvill-Evans had identified the need for original material to complement the few stories there were left to be novelised. The first four New Adventures were a single story arc called
Timewyrm, and the first volume was controversial for including sexuality and violence of a level not encountered in the Target Books range. A second story arc, the three-volume ''Cat's Cradle
followed, after which the NA'' range settled into a mixture of standalone and arc stories. The
New Adventures were joined in 1994 by a companion series (the
Missing Adventures) telling "untold" stories with earlier Doctors, set between episodes of the television series. At its height, new novels in both lines were being published monthly. Many authors of these books went on to write for the revival of
Doctor Who in 2005:
Russell T Davies,
Paul Cornell,
Gareth Roberts,
Matt Jones and
Mark Gatiss. Indeed, if one counts Steven Moffat's contribution to the second Decalog collection, then about 75% of episodes of the new series were written by people who contributed to the Virgin line. (The same cannot be said of the BBC Books line. In fact, no writer who made their Doctor Who debut on the BBC Books line has written for the new series. The only writers to have contributed to the BBC line and the new series are those who also wrote for the Virgin line—Gatiss, who wrote two BBC books, and Cornell, who wrote one. Several writers from the BBC line have written tie-in novels for the new series, however, including editors
Justin Richards and
Stephen Cole.) In the climate of renewed interest in the series that followed the
1996 telemovie, the BBC decided to reclaim Virgin's licence when it next came up for renewal and publish its own series of
Doctor Who novels. The last two Virgin
Doctor Who novels were released in April 1997, bringing to an end almost 25 years of
Doctor Who publishing outside of the BBC, with the first two BBC-published novels released in June that same year. Virgin, meanwhile, continued the New Adventures line for several years afterward, focusing upon the Doctor's former assistant, Professor
Bernice Summerfield who had been the first companion created specifically for literature, rather than for television. These books (sometimes referred to informally as
The Adventures of Benny Summerfield) gained their own fan following and featured appearances by other characters created specifically for the literary world of
Doctor Who. The BBC began releasing two new novels every two months, one featuring the ongoing adventures of the Eighth Doctor and the other an "untold" story of an earlier Doctor, referred to as the
Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDAs) and
Past Doctor Adventures (PDAs) respectively. Although many authors who wrote for the Virgin line returned to write for the BBC series, direct continuity between the two sets of books was discouraged, at least initially. Later, the editors loosened their policy on links between the Virgin and BBC novels, even publishing direct sequels to novels by the other publisher; for example, Justin Richards'
Millennium Shock was a sequel to his earlier Virgin Missing Adventure
System Shock. For the most part, however, links between the fictional ranges were kept deliberately oblique so as not to alienate new readers. In 2004, the BBC almost halved the frequency of publication from 22 books a year (one EDA and one PDA per month) to 12, each release now coming out once every other month. When the new television series began in 2005, the EDAs came to an end, with future novels featuring the Eighth Doctor to be part of the PDA range. A new line of
New Series Adventures began with three
Ninth Doctor novels in May 2005; another three Ninth Doctor novels followed the same year. After this the series continued in 2006 with original novels featuring the
Tenth through
Fifteenth Doctors, with the books periodically changing every years to feature the current Doctor on television. Beginning in 2012, hardback books featuring past Doctors are being published, though at a much reduced rate compared with the pre-2005 output. The books are longer, in a larger format, and written by (or in once case, adapted from earlier work by) prominent science fiction authors. As of the beginning of 2012, the three titles announced are
Shada by
Gareth Roberts (a novelisation of the unbroadcast television story by
Douglas Adams),
The Wheel of Ice by
Stephen Baxter and
Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds. The ninth Doctor novel
The Monsters Inside by
Stephen Cole is the first spinoff novel to be referred to in the television series — in the episode "
Boom Town", the Doctor and Rose's trip to the Justicia system is mentioned. In 2007,
Paul Cornell's NA novel,
Human Nature, was adapted (with significant changes) as the two-part story
Human Nature and
The Family of Blood. By far, the most prolific writer of
Doctor Who fiction is
Terrance Dicks, who has written well over 70 titles including
Target Books novelisations and original works for both the Virgin and BBC Books series. In March 2007, his first work for the revived series, the Tenth Doctor adventure
Made of Steel, was released in the Quick Reads format. This was the first original novel published featuring companion
Martha Jones. A number of characters created for original
Doctor Who fiction have been spun off into series of their own, such as the comic book
Miranda based upon a character created for Lance Parkin's novel
Father Time, though the comic was not a success and was cancelled after three issues. First
Mad Norwegian Press and later
Random Static published a series of
Faction Paradox books, based on the characters created by
Lawrence Miles for the novel
Alien Bodies, and also republished one of the Bernice Summerfield novels originally published by Virgin. Similarly,
Chris Cwej received a novel series of his own from Arcbeatle Press,
Cwej. == Comics ==