BBC Doctor Who novels

Beginning after the acquisition of the rights from Virgin Books in 1996, BBC Books published a number of original Doctor Who novels.

Background
Since 1973, Target Books had been the sole publisher of novel-length Doctor Who fiction. Its line of Target novelisations adapted every television episode in the "Classic" run of Doctor Who; it also published several short-lived series based on Doctor Who, including the Missing Episodes, Companions of Doctor Who, and Doctor Who Discovers. In 1986, during the lengthy gap between Doctor Who seasons 22 and 23, Virgin Books began its aquisition of Target, and this completed in late 1987. Two years later, television Doctor Who was cancelled.

Whereas Virgin kept publishing novelisations of TV episodes under the Target imprint through 1994, in 1991 they began releasing original novels continuing the adventures of the Seventh Doctor and Ace. This monthly Virgin New Adventures series met success and spawned two spinoff series: the Missing Adventures, which depicted new adventures of earlier Doctors; and Decalog, a series of short story anthologies.

In 1996, taking note of Virgin's success and expecting the TV Movie to attract new fans, the BBC chose not to renew Virgin's license to publish Doctor Who fiction. Instead, the rights reverted to BBC Books. Although Virgin would continue its New Adventures and Decalog series without the license by focusing on the series' original characters, the last Virgin Doctor Who novel, Lungbarrow, was released in March 1997. While Virgin was concluding its series, BBC Books released a novelisation of the TV movie.

Initial run
For its first five years of output, BBC Books continued the precedent set by Virgin's New Adventures and Missing Adventures lines by releasing two novels each month, one continuing an ongoing Eighth Doctor storyline and the other concerning a more standalone adventure of a previous Doctor. These are often divided by fans into "Eighth Doctor Adventures" and "Past Doctor Adventures".

Halving the output
Beginning in September 2002, instead of releasing two novels each month, BBC Books began publishing one a month. The books alternated between releases in the ongoing Eighth Doctor storyline and standalone stories about past Doctors, with the notable exception of Scream of the Shalka, which featured a Ninth Doctor and was published between an Eighth Doctor novel and a Fifth Doctor novel. The series took a break from March to June 2005 while series 1 was airing; in May, the first three of the BBC New Series Adventures featuring Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler were released. Following this, the monthly series returned without the alternating Eighth Doctor novel pattern, as the Eighth Doctor was now a "past Doctor". The series concluded with BBC Books' first December release.

The new series
With the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, BBC Books began a new format for releases. These new books were oriented toward a younger audience and published in sets of three, a pattern that BBC Books would later reuse for the Torchwood novels. The series eventually settled into a spring-fall-winter release schedule of nine books a year. The novel release schedule took a six-month break during the showrunner transition from Russell T Davies to Steven Moffat.