Book #196 of 2025: Doctor Who: Transit by Ben Aaronovitch (Virgin New Adventures #10) This cyberpunk / cosmic horror mashup is big on worldbuilding texture but light on plot and character work. The worst thing about it, though, stems from its place in the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures series, as the first installment with …
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Book #174 of 2025: Doctor Who: Love and War by Paul Cornell (Virgin New Adventures #9) The New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels, put out by Virgin Publishing after the TV show went off the air in 1989, has until now played somewhat safe with its core premise. The Seventh Doctor and Ace were …
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Book #152 of 2025: Doctor Who: Nightshade by Mark Gatiss (Virgin New Adventures #8) Mark Gatiss is a true Doctor Who multihyphenate, having written nine scripts for the revived post-2005 series and appeared as an actor in another five episodes (with one overlap, in the uncredited cameo role of a spitfire pilot in his own …
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Book #130 of 2025: Doctor Who: Cat’s Cradle: Witch Mark by Andrew Hunt (Virgin New Adventures #7) A continuation (and end) of the Cat’s Cradle arc solely in that the TARDIS remains largely out of commission while it finishes its repairs, thereby stranding Ace and the Seventh Doctor in modern rural Wales. There they proceed …
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Book #108 of 2025: Doctor Who: Cat’s Cradle: Warhead by Andrew Cartmel (Virgin New Adventures #6) Andrew Cartmel served as the script editor for the last three seasons of Classic Doctor Who (1987-1989), which were also the years that produced the final protagonist team of the Seventh Doctor and his companion Ace. The author thus …
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Book #86 of 2025: Doctor Who: Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible by Marc Platt (Virgin New Adventures #5) The first four books in this sequel series to Classic Doctor Who formed a loose quartet, and this next one purportedly starts a new trilogy. It’s pretty standalone, however, and ultimately one of those stories that I think …
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Book #64 of 2025: Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell (Virgin New Adventures #4) The year is 1991, and the newly-canceled Doctor Who — what we now call “Classic” Who, to distinguish it from the post-2005 version — has been limping on in the form of these licensed novels continuing the story of the …
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Book #53 of 2025: Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson (Virgin New Adventures #3) This volume doesn’t quite deserve its reputation as a series low point — it’s far better than Lungbarrow, for instance — but it’s an early indication of the limitations of the concept here. Classic Doctor Who wasn’t exactly a consistently …
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Book #42 of 2025: Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance Dicks (Virgin New Adventures #2) Categorically an improvement over the John Peel title that launched this series, thank goodness. We’re still traveling with final Classic Who TV heroes the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but the writing this time feels more sure of itself, with less …
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Book #31 of 2025: Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel (Virgin New Adventures #1) When Classic Doctor Who was canceled after its 26th season in 1989 — not that it was called Classic at the time — there was no expectation that the series would ever pick back up again on-screen. Virgin Publishing, running …
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