# Virgin Missing Adventures

The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and featured the First through Sixth Doctors. (The Seventh Doctor also appeared in one novel.) The Missing Adventures complemented the Virgin New Adventures range, which had proved successful.

## Publication history

Virgin had purchased the successful children's imprint Target Books in 1989, with Virgin's new fiction editor Peter Darvill-Evans taking over the range. Target's major output was novelisations of televised Doctor Who stories, and Darvill-Evans realised that there were few stories left to be novelised. He approached the BBC for permission to commission original stories written directly for print, but such a licence was initially refused. However, after the television series was cancelled at the end of 1989, Virgin were granted the licence to produce full-length original novels continuing the story from the point at which the series had concluded.
The first range covered only the continuing adventures of the Seventh Doctor, but when that proved successful, Virgin also created this range covering the previous Doctors, with new stories that fit in between the televised serials.
In addition to original novels, the Missing Adventures series also incorporated two novelisations: The Ghosts of N-Space, based upon a mid-1990s BBC audio play, and Downtime, which was based upon an independent video production featuring several characters from the Doctor Who series (the novelisation is one of the few Doctor Who novels in which the Doctor does not appear as a central character).
When the BBC decided in 1996 to do their own line of novels with the Eighth Doctor, they withdrew the license from Virgin to publish the Eighth Doctor Adventures. The adventures of the previous Doctors were taken up by the BBC in the Past Doctor Adventures line of books.

## Reprints

In 2014, both The Scales of Injustice and The Sands of Time were reprinted as part of BBC Books' The Monster Collection. These were followed with The English Way of Death, a part of The History Collection (2015).

## List

Including books featuring two of the Doctors, the total tallies are: First Doctor, 5 books; Second, 4 books; Third, 6 books; Fourth, 8 books; Fifth, 5 books; Sixth, 5 books; and Seventh, 1 book.
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Published |
| 1 | Goth Opera | Paul Cornell | Fifth | Tegan, Nyssa, Romana | July 1994 |
| 2 | Evolution | John Peel | Fourth | Sarah Jane | September 1994 |
| 3 | Venusian Lullaby | Paul Leonard | First | Ian, Barbara | October 1994 |
| 4 | The Crystal Bucephalus | Craig Hinton | Fifth | Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion, Dorothy | November 1994 |
| 5 | State of Change | Christopher Bulis | Sixth | Peri | December 1994 |
| 6 | The Romance of Crime | Gareth Roberts | Fourth | Romana II, K-9 | January 1995 |
| 7 | The Ghosts of N-Space | Barry Letts | Third | Sarah Jane, the Brigadier | February 1995 |
| 8 | Time of Your Life | Steve Lyons | Sixth | Grant Markham | March 1995 |
| 9 | Dancing the Code | Paul Leonard | Third | Jo, UNIT | April 1995 |
| 10 | The Menagerie | Martin Day | Second | Jamie, Zoe | May 1995 |
| 11 | System Shock | Justin Richards | Fourth | Sarah, Harry | June 1995 |
| 12 | The Sorcerer's Apprentice | Christopher Bulis | First | Ian, Barbara, Susan | July 1995 |
| 13 | Invasion of the Cat-People | Gary Russell | Second | Ben, Polly | August 1995 |
| 14 | Managra | Stephen Marley | Fourth | Sarah Jane | September 1995 |
| 15 | Millennial Rites | Craig Hinton | Sixth | Mel | October 1995 |
| 16 | The Empire of Glass | Andy Lane | First | Steven, Vicki; plus Irving Braxiatel | November 1995 |
| 17 | Lords of the Storm | David A. McIntee | Fifth | Turlough | December 1995 |
| 18 | Downtime | Marc Platt | none | The Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Victoria | January 1996 |
| 19 | The Man in the Velvet Mask | Daniel O'Mahony | First | Dodo | February 1996 |
| 20 | The English Way of Death | Gareth Roberts | Fourth | Romana II, K-9 | March 1996 |
| 21 | The Eye of the Giant | Christopher Bulis | Third | Liz Shaw, UNIT | April 1996 |
| 22 | The Sands of Time | Justin Richards | Fifth | Tegan, Nyssa | May 1996 |
| 23 | Killing Ground | Steve Lyons | Sixth | Grant Markham | June 1996 |
| 24 | The Scales of Injustice | Gary Russell | Third | Liz Shaw, UNIT | July 1996 |
| 25 | The Shadow of Weng-Chiang | David A. McIntee | Fourth | Romana I, K-9 | August 1996 |
| 26 | Twilight of the Gods | Christopher Bulis | Second | Jamie, Victoria | September 1996 |
| 27 | Speed of Flight | Paul Leonard | Third | Jo, Mike Yates | October 1996 |
| 28 | The Plotters | Gareth Roberts | First | Ian, Barbara, Vicki | November 1996 |
| 29 | Cold Fusion | Lance Parkin | Fifth and Seventh | Adric, Nyssa, Tegan; Roz, Chris | December 1996 |
| 30 | Burning Heart | Dave Stone | Sixth | Peri | January 1997 |
| 31 | A Device of Death | Christopher Bulis | Fourth | Sarah Jane, Harry | February 1997 |
| 32 | The Dark Path | David A. McIntee | Second | Jamie, Victoria | March 1997 |
| 33 | The Well-Mannered War | Gareth Roberts | Fourth | Romana II, K-9 | April 1997 |

## Continuity

Three of the Missing Adventures were sequels to televised serials, they were:
* The Sands of Time — Pyramids of Mars
* The Shadow of Weng-Chiang — The Talons of Weng-Chiang
* Twilight of the Gods — The Web Planet
Two of the Missing Adventures were novelisations:
* The Ghosts of N-Space — the BBC Radio audio drama The Ghosts of N-Space
* Downtime — the Reeltime Pictures direct-to-video spin-off Downtime, featuring the Great Intelligence and forming a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen (1967) and The Web of Fear (1968).
Many Missing Adventures featured old foes, including:
* Killing Ground — The Cybermen
* The Dark Path — The Master
* The Scales of Injustice — The Silurians
* Lords of the Storm — The Sontarans
* State of Change — The Rani
* Millennial Rites — The Valeyard
* The Well-Mannered War — The Black Guardian
* The Romance of Crime — The Ogrons
Speed of Flight is the only novel in the series that is a prequel; to Timelash.

## Who Killed Kennedy

In 1996, Virgin Books published Who Killed Kennedy, a Doctor Who novel by David Bishop. Although set during the time of the Third Doctor, Virgin published this book as a standalone work and not as part of the Missing Adventures series.