BBC New Series Adventures

The BBC New Series Adventures is a banner under which the novels published by BBC Books featuring the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors have been collected since 2005. This line is the successor to BBC Books' earlier Doctor Who fiction lines, the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures.

Ninth Doctor
Launched in mid-2005, the New Series Adventures introduced a new format for Doctor Who fiction - paperback-sized hardcovers with smaller word count than the previous EDA and PDA lines. For a few months the "NSA" line coexisted with the EDA and PDA lines until they were retired at the end of 2005.

With this series of books, BBC Books also established a release pattern it has continued ever since, releasing the books in batches of three at least twice a year. The books are considered standalone and, thus, may be read in any order (at least among a particular set of three).

Unlike past fiction lines, there was some effort to tie the books more closely to television continuity. Notably the first-ever direct reference to a novel occurred in the episode Boom Town, in which Rose Tyler referenced a location she and the Doctor had visited in the novel The Monsters Inside. Supporting characters Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler also appeared in the novel Winner Takes All.

The novels tended to reflect changes in the cast. The first three books featured the Ninth Doctor travelling with Rose, while the second set feature Rose and Jack Harkness as companions. The first three novels probably take place between World War Three and The Empty Child, and the latter three between The Doctor Dances and Boom Town.

This line of novels continued to be issued following Christopher Eccleston's departure from the series until the end of 2005, after which the series continued, featuring the Tenth Doctor in 2006.

Cancelled novel

 * Rain of Terror by Mike Tucker was originally listed in the second batch of three novels, but was replaced by The Stealers of Dreams without explanation. The story was later released in Alien Adventures, and instead featured the Eleventh Doctor.

Tenth Doctor
With the coming of the Tenth Doctor era, BBC Books continued its New Series Adventures line in 2006, featuring the new incarnation. Again, the books were published more-or-less in connection with a particular cast line-up in the series, with the first six books featuring Rose Tyler, after which Martha Jones was featured in twelve consecutive novels, the most of any companion to date. Donna Noble was then featured in only four books, with most of the books released during her era actually featuring Martha. Wilfred Mott appears in the final novel featuring Donna, Beautiful Chaos.

Following the events of Journey's End, the books changed format somewhat. Beginning with The Eyeless, published in late 2008, the books featured the Doctor travelling alone, with no ongoing companions (in keeping with the format of the 2008-2010 specials). Also published was The Story of Martha, a short story collection that returned Martha Jones to the NSA line for one book. This was the first NSA book to be a direct tie-in with a televised episode (it takes place during the events of The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords). All NSA novels issued during 2009 featured returning alien races and villains from the TV series.

The final three Tenth Doctor novels were published in September 2009.

Two new spin-off lines were introduced during the 2006-2009 period. Quick Reads, an annual series of paperback novellas intended to promote literacy, was launched in 2006 with the novel I am a Dalek. This spin-off line featured the return of longtime Doctor Who novelist and scriptwriter Terrance Dicks to the world of Doctor Who fiction. A total of five Tenth Doctor novellas were published in this line, with the last issued in March 2010; the line continued with the Eleventh Doctor.

Also launched during this period, in conjunction with BBC Audio, was a series of original, made-for-audio stories performed by cast members of the series. The first of these, Pest Control, was issued in 2008,. A total of seven Tenth Doctor stories were published until 2010. David Tennant performed most of these, with Catherine Tate reading two and Michelle Ryan performing one. Again, the audios continued after the change of Doctor.

In 2009, the Tenth Doctor was featured in a year-long series of interconnected paperback novellas that formed a series called The Darksmith Legacy; the books tied in with online content. A series of "choose-your-own-adventure"-style novellas called Decide Your Destiny was also released.

All of the Tenth Doctor novels (except for the Quick Reads and Darksmith Legacy series) have been released as audio books. The first three were read by David Tennant. After that, other actors from the series replaced Tennant, who did not reappear as narrator until the made-for-audio stories. The other actors include Freema Agyeman, Georgia Moffett, Anthony Head and Adjoa Andoh. Most of these audio books are abridged, but some of the most recent novels have been released as unabridged audio books that are only available for download.

The Tenth Doctor also appeared in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, a release in the BBC The Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations line. Although the cover art matches the format of the NSA line, the book, published by Penguin Character Books, is not considered part of the New Series Adventures.

Eleventh Doctor
The New Series Adventures line continued into 2010 with novels featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The first set of three were released in April 2010, with more novels released later in the year.

The books had some design changes from past releases to incorporate the new Doctor Who logo introduced for the new era. The most noticeable change is that the books are taller than those published for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors (closer in height to the Torchwood novels). They also no longer include the Gallifreyan numerical symbols on the spines of the NSA books during the Eccleston and Tennant eras.

In October 2010 a special, standalone New Series Adventures release occurred with The Coming of the Terraphiles by noted fantasy author Michael Moorcock. The series resumed in 2011, with the release of three books in April and another three in June. As well as this, a new concept of 2 in 1 books was put into action. The stories in these books were shorter than those in normal books but there were two of them per book, set at some point after Series 5, written by two different authors. They are published in the tête-bêche format.

With 2012 the frequency of regular NSA releases was decreased, with the line focusing more on the standalone hardcover editions, which saw two additional releases, The Silent Stars Go By in 2011 and Dark Horizons in 2012. No "set of three" releases occurred in 2012; the next releases, scheduled for the spring of 2013, will see the format of the novels change to paperback-only releases.

Continuing on from the Tenth Doctor era, BBC Audio/AudioGO have continued to release original-to-audio stories read by various cast members including Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill. The Decide Your Destiny series also continued, as did the Quick Reads novellas after a year's hiatus.

Beginning in 2011, and for the first time since 2005, the NSA line has found itself competing with BBC Books releases featuring past Doctors, beginning with the start of a reprint series featuring Target novelisations, followed by the 2012 publication of the novelisation of Shada and the launch of a new series of standalone hardcover novels featuring past Doctors.

Twelfth Doctor
The New Series Adventures line returned in 2014 with new novels featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald.