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 prepared for, 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. It’s the ultimate guide to the Virgin New Adventures and Missing Adventures ranges of books, which saw several authors, including Russell T Davies, Ben Aaronovitch and Mark Gatiss publishing early works of original fiction!
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.
A follow-up to the critically-acclaimed and best-selling The Target Book!
All copies ordered from Telos Publishing direct will be SIGNED by the author, David J Howe.
INITIAL COMMENTS ON THE BOOK:
‘A terrific encapsulation of a very important period in the ever-expanding Doctor Who universe where opportunity was matched so effectively with talent – conveyed with some superbly chosen quotes and contextual text and brought to life perfectly with all the amazing imagery. A real delight.’ Andrew Pixley
‘Yet again, David J Howe and his design elves set the gold standard for Doctor Who non-fiction with a book that looks every bit as sumptuous as his other books, and in particular, its’ astonishing companion piece about the Target range. The Virgin New Adventures are I think the most consistent run of great Doctor Who stories there has been and consequently are my favourite era of the show (forget that telly nonsense ;-)) So, to get an intricately researched history of the range and an absolute slew of images both familiar and new is an extra bonus. What a lovely, lovely thing this book is. Bravo, David and Telos, bravo!’ Paul Ebbs
‘A beautiful book all about the New and Missing Doctor Who Adventures and the perfect gift for anybody, and Doctor Who fans!’ Andrew Hunt
‘Great presentation.’ Robin Prichard, TTL Productions
‘Fantastic job all round.’ Mike Nicholson
‘This book is amazing, it’s full of so much amazing art that I’ve never seen before. It’s basically my dream book!’ Dr Who Cover Story (Twitter)
‘This gorgeous book just arrived. I can’t wait to enjoy this. Took a quick glance through the pages and it’s absolutely packed with good stuff.’ Faux Rehman
‘It’s a great read … content is superb.’ Ian Golden
‘A really lovely book with more artwork than I thought existed.’ Alder on Gallifreybase
‘Wow! What a triumph! I love the The Who Adventures. It carried me back to the 90s when I was still at secondary school. My parents and I would go on holiday to Cornwall or Wales and we would make a point of scouring the bookshops to find the New and Missing Adventures. My parents are no longer with us and those days seem a long way away. Your book helped me to travel back to that time. Thank you so much.’ Ian Harris
‘My copy of The Who Adventures just arrived – what a gorgeous book! I just wanted to commend you for such a wonderful product. I can already see it’ll be a marvellous accompaniment to marathoning the novels themselves. What a treat. It’s like a Who coffee table book – stunning to look at, but with research / historiography value too!’ Tom Marshall
‘Where The Who Adventures shines is in its main function: as a gallery for the series’ cover art, roughs and early sketches. Some of the images here, like the late Peter Elson’s work for Time’s Crucible and Warhead, are wonderfully evocative. The real revelation is Phil Bevan, whose beautiful, shadowy illustrations have an unsettling Vertigo comics vibe. The New Adventures was a forward-thinking range, one that eschewed many of the trappings of Doctor Who’s past. Ironic, then, that this book is a nostalgic treat.’ Will Salmon, SFX Magazine
‘Goodness! This is an impressive volume. A real piece of quality. The presentation and standards are amazing! Definitely one of those tomes that I know will be enjoyed, referred to, and look magnificent on the bookcase!’ Andrew Pixley
‘Come for the beautifully reproduced artwork, stay for the historical insights – one of Telos’ best books …’ Paul Simpson, SciFiBulletin
‘Just a note about The Who Adventures that recently came out. I do very few reviews / feedback but just to say that I love this book. The sense of nostalgia as I read this was incredible. The presentation is excellent and it’s become my favourite recent factual book on Doctor Who. It is a book of real quality. It has taken me back to the 1990s where Doctor Who felt so fresh, dangerous and unknown again. I am getting my copies of the New Adventures off the shelves now to show my kids… though maybe they can’t read some of them just yet! Thank you David Howe!’ James Baker
‘Highly HIGHLY recommended! Brought back lots of memories reading these books and the behind-the-scenes of how Virgin was making this series makes for a great read.’ Jeremy Bement
‘Just overflowing with insight on both the writing process and the cover art for the Virgin books. Amazing stuff!’ Joshua Pruett, Twitter
‘A nice glossy book to have to hand on your coffee table or extra-strength shelf … a labour of love and some sweat and tears for David Howe’ Sue Davies, SF Crowsnest
‘Beautifully illustrated … Definitely for the New Adventures fans!’ John Peel
‘Part history of Virgin’s New Adventures series, and part art book. For me it’s the perfect reminder of just how good some of the fiction published during Doctor Who’s television wilderness years was, and left me wanting to reread the series.‘ Brian Stabler, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David J Howe has been involved with Doctor Who research and writing for over 40 years. He has been consultant to a large number of publishers and manufacturers for their Doctor Who lines, and is author or co-author of over 30 factual titles associated with the show. He also has one of the largest collections of Doctor Who merchandise in the world. David was contributing editor to Starburst magazine for 17 years from 1984-2001. From 1994 he was book reviews editor for Shivers magazine until it ceased publication in 2008. In addition he has written articles, interviews and reviews for a wide number of publications, including Fear, Dreamwatch, Infinity, Stage and Television Today, The Dark Side, Doctor Who Magazine, the Guardian, Film Review, SFX, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Collectors’ Gazette, Deathray and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
He edited the bi-monthly newsletter of the British Fantasy Society from 1992 to 1995, and also edited and published several books for them, including the British and World Fantasy Award shortlisted Manitou Man, a limited edition hardback and paperback collection of short fiction by horror author Graham Masterton. He also edited the BFS’s fortieth anniversary anthology, Full Fathom Forty, published in September 2011.
He wrote the book Reflections: The Fantasy Art of Stephen Bradbury for Dragon’s World Publishers and has contributed short fiction to Peeping Tom, Dark Asylum, Decalog, Dark Horizons, Kimota, Perfect Timing, Perfect Timing II, Missing Pieces, Shrouded by Darkness and Murky Depths, and factual articles to James Herbert: By Horror Haunted and The Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction. He wrote the screenplay for Daemos Rising, a film released on DVD by Reeltime Pictures in 2004, and contributed to the screenplay for The White Witch of Devil’s End, released in 2018.
He wrote about Doctor Who merchandise for Doctor Who Insider magazine, and contributes liner notes for AudioGO/BBC Audio’s range of Doctor Who novelisation CDs.
He is currently Editorial Director of Telos Publishing Ltd, a UK based independent press specialising in horror/science fiction novellas, crime novels, and guides to a variety of film and TV shows. In 2006 the company won the World Fantasy Award for their publishing work, and in 2010 received the British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020.
Paul Simpson –
https://scifibulletin.com/doctor-who/reviews/review-doctor-who-books-the-who-adventures/
‘Come for the beautifully reproduced artwork, stay for the historical insights – one of Telos’ best books …’
Andrew Pixley –
Had the pleasure of finishing off my reading of this yesterday… and it’s an extremely enjoyable book on so many levels.
First of all, being able to see the development of the artwork for the books in this manner is wonderful. The suggestions, the debates, the technical and strategic sales influences, the different approaches, the blind alleys, the refinements… all leading to the finished pieces. To have this level of visual history is massively engaging – allied with all the material about the artists and their own comments. Having decent biographical entries is also a delight as it gives me a greater appreciation of the careers of all the different artists – and a chance for me to maybe seek out some more examples of their work.
Reading the text, my first thought is that it all seems so long ago. I was only a sporadic reader of both ranges – at the time, I don’t think I appreciated correctly what they were setting out to do and, indeed, what they were able to achieve (although I do recall going “WOW!” when reading both “Exodus” and “Revelation”). Nevetheless, when the books were appearing I was generally aware of what was happening in them – even if I wasn’t reading them. Now I know that I really need to get my copies of “I, Who” off the shelf again to remind myself of some more of the detail of the narratives because after three decades all the details are getting rather foggy…
… but despite my decaying memory, what I drank in was all the comments from the writers and, even more so, the editors. Reading Peter and Rebecca’s words about how they wanted to drive the different ranges and what they were aiming for was a real highpoint of the text for me; I love it when people can explain a process in this manner, so clearly and with such engagement.
And the other lovely thing that made reading this volume so enjoyable was the excitement and thrill of being reminded about how these projects allowed a whole heap of very talented, creative people to be able to create “Doctor Who” and to do so on a professional level. Look at the biog box-outs again and seeing where these stories fitted into people’s lives and how very often it was the start of something really big and life-changing for them that allowed them to strike out on a new direction in their lives was really brilliant. Really made me very happy that these opportunities were available to those with such talents – both as writers and artists. Even now, all these years later, I felt so thrilled for them!
So, yes, a terrific encapsulation of a very important period in the ever-expanding “Doctor Who” universe where opportunity was matched so effectively with talent – conveyed with some superbly chosen quotes and contextual text and brought to life perfectly with all the amazing imagery. A real delight.
Sue Davies –
https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/the-who-adventures-the-art-and-history-of-virgin-publishings-doctor-who-fiction-by-david-j-howe-book-review/
‘A nice glossy book to have to hand on your coffee table or extra-strength shelf … a labour of love and some sweat and tears for David Howe’ Sue Davies
David Havers –
I got this book for Christmas last year, it is a visually stunning, and a complete joy to read.