This page last updated: 5 Oct 2006
 

Introduction

Doctor Who's recent renaissance at the hand of Russell T. Davies adds to the show's long and successful history, but Doctor Who has not just been a success on television. The series has a long and successful history in books and, just as TV Doctor Who has spawned TV spin-offs, so has literary Doctor Who produced its own spin-offs in book form. Some of these are ongoing, but many of the spin-off book series are no longer being published or announced as ending soon. This webpage is dedicated to them, a guide to help you understand and navigate. The opinions herein are just my own, but I'll also be making reference to the Doctor Who Novel Rankings site. There were book spin-offs from the very beginning of Doctor Who. The only original fiction produced by Dalekmania were books and comics. Book Doctor Who really took off, however, with novelisations of the TV show, with most published by the Target imprint. By the 1980s, with TV stories to be novelised running out, the publisher wanted to move into original fiction, but the BBC were reluctant. With the TV series cancelled and after one or two forgettable and abortive attempts, Virgin (who had inherited the Target range) finally got the go ahead in 1991 for a series taking off where the TV show had ended. The New Adventures changed everything. These were original Doctor Who novels, which soon marked themselves out as being very different to the novelisations before them. They were aimed at an adult audience, they were not afraid to innovate, nor to be literary. There was continuity with the TV series too, the NAs using ideas from the last seasons of TV Who and some of the TV writers. Also striking was a commissioning policy that was sympathetic to new authors, something that introduced many new names (including some who have gone on to work on the new TV series, like Gareth Roberts, Matt Jones and Mark Gatiss). The NAs went from success to success, producing the Missing Adventures too (stories set during the TV show). Virgin hatched a plan. Dependent on the BBC for a license to do Doctor Who fiction—a recurring issue for the series on this page—and wanting to expand their own fiction department, Virgin hatched plans for a spin-off. The spin-off would not officially be Doctor Who and wouldn't be able to use the characters and worlds of the TV series, but it would be able to use all the new characters and worlds introduced in the NAs, and use Virgin's editorial experience and pool of authors.

Amazon.com (USA)	The Benny New Adventures Part 1: On Dellah	Amazon.co.uk (UK)
	Doctor Who's return to the TV with the US telemovie led the BBC to find new interest in Doctor Who books. Why license Virgin to make Doctor Who books when the BBC could do it themselves and make more money? At the next renewal, Virgin lost their license. Having had their hand launched, Virgin decided to continue the NAs without the Doctor or the license. The series would continue with the same branding, but now the lead character would be Prof. Bernice Summerfield. Benny, as she was known, was a popular companion of the Doctor's introduced by Paul Cornell in "Love and War". The Benny NAs were not just about Benny. Many other characters and worlds created in the Who NAs were available, so Virgin's post-Who books included on occasion two other book companions, Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej... well, three, if you include Wolsey the cat... and a central role was played by the People, an alien civilisation introduced in "The Also People" and not a million light years away from Iain M. Banks' Culture. In all, there were 23 Benny NAs. That is an impressive number for a book series, let alone a spin-off of a spin-off of some TV novelisations. I am approaching these in two chunks. The initial stories had Benny comfortably based at a university on Dellah. Starting with "Where Angels Fear", the background took a radical shift and, in what is sometimes known as the Gods arc, Benny's world was turned upside down for the remaining NAs. At first, there was a tendency for the Benny novels to just be Doctor Who with the serial numbers filed off. The likes of "Dragons' Wrath" had originally been planned as Who stories. However, from the start, some authors started doing more with Benny and certain themes began to emerge in the series, themes of identity and memory (inspired by Benny's keeping of a diary that she liberally re-wrote to change her past). Metafictional games, stories commenting on themselves and the range, continued as they had in the NAs/MAs. Lawrence Miles so hated Kate Orman's "Walking to Babylon" that he wrote "Dead Romance" (see below) in response, but most everybody else loves it. I think it's the best of the early Benny NAs, with Orman's usual deft mixture of clever hard SF with strong characters and emotion. (It also contains the best sex scene of the series.) Miles' first Benny novel, "Down", tends to get overshadowed by "Dead Romance". Again featuring the People, this dark novel has a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan. Other books worth picking up are "Ghost Devices", a book that attracts mixed review: think even more cerebral Douglas Adams. "Beyond the Sun" was Matt Jones' second novel and this gay coming-of-age story is much better than his debut Who NA; it also introduces the character of Emile. Numerous further Who NA authors stayed with the line. The very first Benny NA was by her creator. "Oh No It Isn't!" is not perhaps vintage Cornell, being so at the 'frock' end of his writing that it's as camp as a row of tents, but I think it's worth reading. Terrance Dicks' "Mean Streets" is a typical Terrance Dicks work, but one of his better ones. "The Sword of Forever" may well be Jim Mortimore's best book—a rollercoaster travelling from a war-damaged future Earth to the age of the dinosaurs with Knights Templar conspiracies in between—but this is Mortimore and the book is let down by the lack of any sort of coherent ending. "Beige Planet Mars" by Lance Parkin and then-newcomer Mark Clapham is a fun book that made the most of the BBC's absence to give us such memorable scenes as fellatio from a giant hamster... The Novel Rankings largely agree with me, considering "Walking to Babylon" (83.6, putting it in the top thirty of all books covered), "Beyond the Sun", "Beige Planet Mars" and "Down" the best of this lot, although "Ghost Devices" scores less well in the poll. PRICE GUIDE: Although all long out-of-print, most of the Benny NAs can be found pretty cheaply (a few £s). Most titles go for less than the original cover price, but of course the better titles tend to be in higher demand.

Amazon.com (USA)	The Benny New Adventures Part 2: The Gods arc	Amazon.co.uk (UK)
	For this initial run of BenNAs, there are minimal connections from book to book. While some similar themes emerge and characters do re-occur, you do not need to read them in order, nor read all of them. "Where Angels Fear" changed that, launching a complex arc that would only be resolved in the final book, "Twilight of the Gods" (not to be confused with the MA of the same name). However, do not fear. You still do not need to read all the books to follow the larger story and, fortunately, you can mostly miss out the weaker ones while still following what's going on. My cut-down approach to the Gods arc is: "Where Angels Fear", "Dead Romance", "Tears of the Oracle", "Twilight of the Gods". From these early books, the stand out is "Dead Romance", the one book not to include Benny herself. Instead, here the main character is Chris Cwej. "Dead Romance" has since been re-printed by Mad Norwegian Press, tying in with their own spin-off range of Faction Paradox novels (see below). Set against the war between the Time Lords and the mysterious Enemy, "Dead Romance" is full of ideas as it shows the consequences for Cwej's character. "Tears of the Oracle" is a surprise. Scheduling issues meant many of the final NAs were written very quickly and it shows with "Tears of the Oracle". You can almost see the story coalescing as author Justin Richards desperately bangs out the words, but after a wobbly first chapter, what emerges is one of the strongest pieces of writing Richards has ever produced with its themes of memory and identity, themes that echo across many of these later NAs. ["Tears of the Oracle" review] Eventually, declining sales and Virgin's general abandonment of fiction killed off the range. "Twilight of the Gods" wraps up the loose ends and even set the stage for a further continuation which never happened. Another book written in a hurry, editor Peter Darvill-Evans gave Mark Clapham a checklist and a short deadline; Clapham in turn brought in Jon deBurgh Miller to co-write. The joins between the witty Clapham and the straightahead action writing of Miller are all too obvious and the final resolution of the arc disappointing, but there are some great moments along the way. Benny was subsequently resurrected by Big Finish. Big Finish began by doing audio adaptations of Benny novels, a prelude to their getting a Doctor Who license. Their first foray into books came with "The Dead Men Diaries", a Benny short story collection. ["The Dead Men Diaries" review] A series of paperback novels and original audios followed. The novels ranged from mediocre to terrible and sales were insufficient to see the range continue. The audios, which are little better, did continue and the books were re-launched in hardback (higher profit margin, you see). These have continued, mainly as anthologies, but with the occasional novel, and BF have since branched out further with an anthology based on the BBC Doctor Who book character Iris (created by Paul Magrs). Crucially, BF never inherited the full fictional world of the NAs. Rather, they separately negotiated with Paul Cornell, Dave Stone and Justin Richards for the use of the characters of Benny, her ex-husband Jason and her robotic companion Joseph respectively. The People, the Gods, Emile and so on were to have no future. The Novel Rankings again largely agree with me, considering "Dead Romance", "Tears of the Oracle" and "Where Angels Fear" as the best, but the poll puts "Twilight of the Gods" well down as the worst of the final run of NAs. For a long-time, "Dead Romance" (at 89) was the highest scoring Who or Who-related book of them all, although on the final Rankings, it was pipped to the post by "Fear Itself". PRICE GUIDE: As above. Uniquely, "Dead Romance" was re-issued by Mad Norwegian Press (the people behind the Faction Paradox novels; see below). With two short stories and two essays by Miles, it's a better package, distinguishable by its crimson cover, and generally only slightly more expensive.

Amazon.com (USA)	Other Virgin (not-quite) spin-offs	Amazon.co.uk (UK)
	Another spin-off of sorts from the success of the NAs was the Virgin Worlds series. This was not a shared-universe series, but a label for Virgin to release original science fiction and fantasy novels. Short-lived, only 4 titles were released if I remember correctly. I've only tried two and would only really recommend one, "The Wise", by NA and TV Who author Andrew Cartmel. It reads very like his NA "War*" trilogy, so if you liked those, give this a try too. Who authos and editors were involved with various other Virgin publications, from Cracker novelisations and Judge Dredd stories to Virgin's very successful erotica lines. I've not read it myself, but Gareth Roberts' gay erotica novel "The Velvet Web" (written under the pseudonym Christopher Summerisle) gets good reviews. (Warning: it is highly pornographic.) It doesn't belong in this section, but Jon Blum & Rupert Booth's "The Prisoner's Dilemma" (a novel spin-off from The Prisoner) is excellent too. ["The Prisoner's Dilemma" review] PRICE GUIDE: Prices vary, but generally comparable to the Benny New Adventures.

Amazon.com (USA)	Faction Paradox	Amazon.co.uk (UK)
	The BBC had reclaimed the right to publish original Doctor Who fiction from Virgin, but a new TV series had failed to materialise. After briefly trying to re-invent the Who books, the BBC soon reverted to the same basic format as Virgin with largely the same authors. At best, the resulting 8th Doctor Adventures (8DAs) and Past Doctor Adventures (PDAs) were as good as the NAs/MAs, at worst a pale imitation. Lawrence Miles was one of the authors to transfer from Virgin to BBC and in his BBC books he expanded on an idea briefly introduced in his Virgin output, the Faction Paradox. A voodoo time-travelling cult, the Faction Paradox proved an interesting but controversial set of ideas in the often drab 8DAs. Miles was not happy with how BBC Books developed Faction Paradox without him and started developing the Faction Paradox world as a separate entity. Teaming up with Mad Norwegian Press, who had previously done the "I, Who" series of guides to Who books, the FP series was born: novels, comics and audios followed. The Faction Paradox novels are fantastic: just buy them all. While all are based in a shared fictional universe (or universes, to be technical), they largely stand alone from each other and the other Faction output. If you're only going to get a few of them, then get "Warlords of Utopia" and "Of the City of the Saved...". "Warlords of Utopia" is an epic novel, perhaps Lance Parkin's best, featuring a clash of civilisations on a monumental scale but through a strong central character, Marcus Americanius Scriptor. ["Warlords of Utopia" review] "Of the City of the Saved..." is set at the end of time in an impossible afterlife in which every human who has ever lived breathes again. It is dazzlingly full of ideas: there were more in the first 5 pages than in all the Who books for that year. If the ending doesn't quite live up to the rest of the book, "Of the City of the Saved..." is easily forgiven for being so thematically rich. The final FP novel, "Erasing Sherlock", is yet to be published, but it is actually a re-working of a previously published (well, e-published) novel called "Erasing Sherlock Holmes". That, I've read and it's fantastic: Sherlock Holmes meets time travel, but author Kelly Hale manages to do both Holmes and SF well in an absorbing story. All the FP novels scored well in the Novel Rankings, although some on only few votes. "The Book of the War" scored worst, although its 78.9 still puts it way above the average of most ranges. "Warring States" is the second best scoring book (albeit on just 5 votes), but "Warlords of Utopia" comes out ahead with an astounding 96 (but on just 6 votes). In terms of books achieving at least 10 votes (the Rankings' standard criterion), "Of the City of the Saved..." got 87.1, making it the fifth best Who or Who-related book of all time. ["Warring States" review] PRICE GUIDE: These are available directly from Mad Norwegian for around $16. You can occasionally find them cheaper second-hand.

Amazon.com (USA)	Time Hunter	Amazon.co.uk (UK)
	Telos are a small press publisher involving long-established non-fiction Who writer David Howe. They managed to secure a license from the BBC to publish original fiction, hardback, Doctor Who novellas. After a period, they lost the license and you can guess what happened. Telos' novellas were all standalone pieces, mostly slotting between old TV stories. They had not established the same volume of fictional universe that the NAs or even Faction Paradox had, but one novella stood out and offered a way forward. Daniel O'Mahoney's "The Cabinet of Light" had introduced the characters of Honore Lechasseur and Emily. It's one of the best Who novellas Telos did (and they did several which were very good), so find a copy if you can. While never intended to launch a spin-off, Telos took these two characters from "The Cabinet of Light" and gave us the Time Hunter series. ["The Cabinet of Light" review] The first Time Hunter book, Lance Parkin's "The Winning Side", set the parameters for how the duo travel through time and the series works. ["The Winning Side" review] The Time Hunter series is still ongoing, but an end has been announced. There is an over-arching back story to the series, but what we have seen so far has been one of the weaker elements for me. For now, if you want to be selective, I'd suggest forgetting the arc and just picking out some of the better stories. Three are very much worth tracking down: "Kitsune", "The Clockwork Woman" and "Peculiar Lives". "Kitsune" gives you action as a future Japan clashes with its mythological past. A sort of Dr Who-ish manga of a story. ["Kitsune" review] "The Clockwork Woman" is a clash between Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. It's a story with a message, but one that works very well. ["The Clockwork Woman" review] "Peculiar Lives" draws heavily on famous science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon's work, including his eschatological themes, but author Purser-Hallard argues back against Stapledon's view of eugenics. As we've come to expect from Purser-Hallard's work, it's both clever and beautifully written. The Time Hunter novellas got little attention on the Novel Rankings, although "The Clockwork Woman" did get a very high 85 (but that's only on 6 votes). PRICE GUIDE: These retail around £8 from Telos, but look out for their discounts on multiple purchases. Many of them are considerably cheaper second hand. The original Who novella "The Cabinet of Light" is out of print and much more in demand: expect high prices.