BBC Books

BBC Books is the book publishing arm of BBC Worldwide. Over the past 13 years it has become known for publishing books related to Doctor Who (a production of sister company BBC), and original fiction featuring all incarnations of the Doctor.

BBC Books' association with Doctor Who begain in 1996 when it obtained the rights to publish a novelisation of the 1996 TV movie. At this time, however, Virgin Publishing had the licence to publish original and adapted Doctor Who fiction, a licence it inherited when it took over Target Books in the 1980s. Following the publication of the telefilm novelisation, however, it was announced that Virgin's licence to publish Doctor Who fiction would end in 1997. (Virgin continued to publish Doctor Who-related works for several more years, although its writers could only use concepts created for the novels, not for television).

In 1997, BBC Books launched two lines of books: the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDA), featuring new adventures with the Eighth Doctor (the equivalent of Virgin's New Adventures line, which in turn switched to focusing on the character of Bernice Summerfield), and a second line, the Past Doctor Adventures (PDA), which chronicled the adventures of the first seven incarnations of the Doctor, much as Virgin's now-defunct Missing Adventures line had.

The first EDA to be published by BBC Books was Terrance Dicks' The Eight Doctors, whilst the first PDA was Keith Topping and Martin Day's The Devil Goblins from Neptune. Many authors who had contributed to Virgin's novels continued to write for BBC Books; initially the NA and MA continuities were discounted, but over time the lines became blurred in that regard.

BBC Books subsequently adapted another Virgin concept when it launched Short Trips, a series of short story collections featuring all eight Doctors, akin to Virgin's Decalog line. Only three volumes of Short Trips were published before BBC Books ceded the line to Big Finish Productions.

Between 1997 and 2005 more than 100 original novels were published by BBC Books under the EDA and PDA range. Also published during this time was a novelisation of the webcast Scream of the Shalka. BBC Books also began publishing non-fiction books based upon the franchise, such as a collection of scripts from the Tom Baker era.

With the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, BBC Books decided to retire the EDA and PDA lines and move into a new venue of publishing: hardcover publications with shorter word counts, based upon the adventures of the new Ninth Doctor. The BBC Ninth Doctor Adventures line debuted several months before the EDA and PDA series published their last. In 2006, BBC Books segued into the Tenth Doctor Adventures line, as well as launching an annual series of paperback novellas, Quick Reads, and original novels based upon Torchwood. In 2008 BBC Books partnered with BBC Audio to release original stories for audio, read and performed by series cast members. The first of these was Pest Control

Throughout 2009, the TDA, Quick Reads and Torchwood lines continued, with The Darksmith Legacy series of 10 books (and the interactive content) being released over consecutive months over the year. It is anticipated that a new line of novels based upon the Eleventh Doctor will be launched in 2010, and there is recurring speculation of the PDA line being revived (perhaps in the NDA/TDA/Torchwood format), but as of early 2009 neither has been confirmed.

BBC Books also continues to publish non-fiction and reference works based upon the series, including a collection of shooting scripts from the 2005 series, and in 2008 it published Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a massive (512-page) collection of production-related e-mails by series executive producer Russell T. Davies.

BBC Books Doctor Who fiction lines

 * BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures
 * BBC Past Doctor Adventures
 * Short Trips
 * BBC Ninth Doctor Adventures
 * BBC Tenth Doctor Adventures
 * Quick Reads
 * The Darksmith Legacy
 * BBC Torchwood novels