The Eighth Doctor Adventures (sometimes abbreviated as EDA or referred to as the EDAs) are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall.
Publication history Between 1991 and 1997, Virgin Publishing had been producing a successful series of spin off novels under the New Adventures and Missing Adventures ranges. However, following the Doctor Who television movie which introduced the Eighth Doctor in 1996, the BBC did not renew Virgin Publishing's license to continue publishing Doctor Who material, instead opting to publish their own range. Virgin's last New Adventures novel, The Dying Days by Lance Parkin, featured the Eighth Doctor.
The Eighth Doctor Adventures began in 1997 with The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks and continued until 2005. These novels all feature the Eighth Doctor, as portrayed in the 1996 television movie by Paul McGann. It is unclear if the BBC line was originally intended to be a continuation of the continuity established in the New Adventures. However, as many of the writers for the Eighth Doctor Adventures had also written for the Virgin series, many elements from the New Adventures began to appear in both the EDAs and the Past Doctor Adventures (which replaced the Missing Adventures), and such continuity has been broadly maintained.
Virgin had distinguished the New and Missing Adventures with different cover designs. BBC Books, however, did not differentiate their novels featuring the current and past Doctors in this way, although they were listed separately within the books. Fans continued to distinguish the ongoing story of the Eighth Doctor from the more stand-alone adventures of past Doctors, although some plot elements did cross over both ranges.
With the revival of the television series, BBC Books ceased the regular Eighth Doctor Adventures in favour of a new range (the New Series Adventures), featuring characters from the new series. One further novel featuring the Eighth Doctor (Fear Itself) was published under the Past Doctor Adventures line before it too ceased publication.
In addition to the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the Past Doctor Adventures, the BBC also published three short story collections under the title of Short Trips which feature all eight (at the time of publication) Doctors. These were also inherited from Virgin, a version of their Decalog short story collections, and when the BBC ceased publishing them, a licence to continue was sought by Big Finish Productions, who published some for a while. They now continue to publish their own range of Short Trips collections as audios.
Crossover In 2018, officially licensed elements of the series were used in a crossover story with the 10,000 Dawns series, titled White Canvas, alongside elements of Faction Paradox. This was later published in print form in the anthology, 10,000 Dawns: The Outer Universe Collection.
List of Eighth Doctor Adventures # Title Author Featuring Published1 The Eight DoctorsTerrance Dicks Sam, cameos from many others June 19972 Vampire ScienceKate Orman and Jonathan Blum Sam July 19973 The BodysnatchersMark Morris August 19974 GenocidePaul Leonard Sam, Jo Grant, UNIT September 19975 War of the DaleksJohn Peel Sam October 19976 Alien BodiesLawrence Miles November 19977 KursaalPeter Anghelides January 19988 Option LockJustin Richards February 19989 Longest DayMichael Collier March 199810 Legacy of the DaleksJohn Peel Susan April 199811 Dreamstone MoonPaul Leonard None May 199812 Seeing IKate Orman and Jonathan Blum Sam June 199813 Placebo EffectGary Russell Sam, Stacy, Ssard July 199814 Vanderdeken's ChildrenChristopher Bulis Sam August 199815 The Scarlet EmpressPaul Magrs Sam, Iris Wildthyme September 199816 The Janus ConjunctionTrevor Baxendale Sam October 199817 BeltempestJim Mortimore November 199818 The Face-EaterSimon Messingham January 199919 The Taint (also called Doctor Who and the Taint)Michael Collier Sam, Fitz February 199920 DemontageJustin Richards March 199921 Revolution ManPaul Leonard April 199922 DominionNick Walters May 199923 Unnatural HistoryKate Orman and Jonathan Blum June 199924 Autumn MistDavid A. McIntee July 199925 Interference – Book One: Shock TacticLawrence Miles Sam, Fitz, Compassion; the Third Doctor, Sarah Jane and K-9 August 199926 Interference – Book Two: The Hour of the Geek Sam, Fitz, Compassion; the Third Doctor, Sarah Jane and K-9 27 The Blue AngelPaul Magrs and Jeremy Hoad Fitz, Compassion, Iris Wildthyme September 199928 The Taking of Planet 5Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham Fitz, Compassion October 199929 Frontier WorldsPeter Anghelides November 199930 Parallel 59Stephen Cole and Natalie Dallaire January 200031 The Shadows of AvalonPaul Cornell Fitz, Compassion, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Romana III February 200032 The Fall of YquatineNick Walters Fitz, Compassion March 200033 ColdheartTrevor Baxendale April 200034 The Space AgeSteve Lyons May 200035 The Banquo LegacyAndy Lane and Justin Richards June 200036 The Ancestor CellPeter Anghelides and Stephen Cole Fitz, Compassion, Romana III July 200037 The BurningJustin Richards none August 200038 Casualties of WarSteve Emmerson September 200039 The Turing TestPaul Leonard October 200040 EndgameTerrance Dicks November 200041 Father TimeLance Parkin Debbie Castle, Miranda January 200142 Escape VelocityColin Brake Fitz, Anji Kapoor February 200143 EarthWorldJacqueline Rayner March 200144 Vanishing PointStephen Cole April 200145 Eater of WaspsTrevor Baxendale May 200146 The Year of Intelligent TigersKate Orman June 200147 The Slow EmpireDave Stone Fitz, Anji Sabbath (cameo) July 200148 Dark ProgenySteve Emmerson Fitz, Anji August 200149 The City of the DeadLloyd Rose September 200150 Grimm RealitySimon Bucher-Jones and Kelly Hale October 200151 The Adventuress of Henrietta StreetLawrence Miles Fitz, Anji, Sabbath November 200152 Mad Dogs and EnglishmenPaul Magrs Fitz, Anji, Iris Wildthyme January 200253 HopeMark Clapham Fitz, Anji February 200254 AnachrophobiaJonathan Morris Fitz, Anji, Sabbath March 200255 Trading FuturesLance Parkin Fitz, Anji April 200256 The Book of the StillPaul Ebbs May 200257 The Crooked WorldSteve Lyons June 200258 History 101Mags L Halliday Fitz, Anji, Sabbath July 200259 Camera ObscuraLloyd Rose Fitz, Anji, Sabbath, George Williamson August 200260 Time ZeroJustin Richards Fitz, Anji, Trix, Sabbath, George Williamson September 200261 The Infinity RaceSimon Messingham Fitz, Anji, Sabbath November 200262 The Domino EffectDavid Bishop Fitz, Anji, Trix, Sabbath February 200363 Reckless EngineeringNick Walters April 200364 The Last ResortPaul Leonard June 200365 TimelessStephen Cole August 200366 Emotional ChemistrySimon A. Forward Fitz, Trix October 200367 Sometime Never...Justin Richards Fitz, Trix, Miranda, Sabbath January 200468 HalflifeMark Michalowski Fitz, Trix April 200469 The Tomorrow WindowsJonathan Morris June 200470 The Sleep of ReasonMartin Day August 200471 The Deadstone MemorialTrevor Baxendale October 200472 To the SlaughterStephen Cole January 200573 The Gallifrey ChroniclesLance Parkin Fitz and Trix with cameos by Compassion, Anji, Miranda, Romana III and K-9 June 2005
Plot overview Following the events of the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, the Eighth Doctor picks up a British teenager from 1997, Samantha "Sam" Jones, and later a disaffected drifter in his late twenties named Fitz Kreiner from 1963.The Taint During their adventures, the threesome tangle with the Faction Paradox, a renegade voodoo cult of time travellers who believed in creating time paradoxes and altering history. They also meet the Doctor's old friend Iris Wildthyme, a Time Lady from Gallifrey who travels in a TARDIS shaped like a London double-decker bus.
When Sam leaves the TARDIS, the Doctor and Fitz are joined by Compassion, a member of a once-human race called the Remote who slowly begins a conversion process into a living TARDIS.Interference: Book Two The Time Lords, led by his old companion Romana, now President of the High Council, anxious to get their hands on this new TARDIS technology, pursue the Doctor, who loses his own TARDIS and continues to travel using Compassion.The Shadows of Avalon The conflict with Faction Paradox comes to a climax on Gallifrey,The Ancestor Cell where the Doctor discovers his TARDIS in orbit around the planet, transformed into a giant structure of living bone by the Faction. The Doctor, faced with an impossible decision, destroys the Faction and causes major damage to the timeline by apparently wiping his homeworld and his people from history.
Much later, it is revealed that four Time Lords had survived the catastrophe: The Doctor, the Master,The Adventuress of Henrietta Street Iris WildthymeFather TimeMad Dogs and Englishmen and Marnal.The Gallifrey Chronicles
Meanwhile, having rescued the Doctor from near-death, Compassion leaves the now-amnesiac Doctor on Earth in the late 19th century while she drops Fitz off in 2001 to await the long process of the Doctor's — and the now-embryonic TARDIS's — recovery. She then departs for parts unknown. The Doctor spends the next hundred years travelling the world and living through its history, eventually adopting Miranda, a young girl with two hearts. Miranda leaves the Doctor to face her own destiny in the far future, and the Doctor goes on to meet Fitz as arranged, thanks to a note Compassion slipped into his pocket a century before. Following that, the two are joined by Anji Kapoor, a London stock trader and the three leave Earth in the TARDIS.Escape Velocity
Much later, while on Earth in the eighteenth century, the Doctor, Fitz and Anji encounter Sabbath, a Secret Service operative who is aware of time travel and becomes the Doctor's personal nemesis. The Doctor loses his second heart, which was slowly killing him as it was his only link to his now-forgotten homeworld. Sabbath takes the heart and implants it in his own body, tying him and the Doctor together. Through several more adventures, the Doctor and his companions encounter Sabbath again and Trix MacMillan stows away aboard the TARDIS.Time Zero
Sabbath subsequently loses the Doctor's time-sensitive heart and the Doctor grows a new one.Camera Obscura The Doctor also begins to recover fragments of his memory, and discovers that Sabbath is working for a group called the Council of Eight. The Council wants to collapse the alternate timelines of the multiverse into one, manageable timeline. To them, the Doctor is a rogue element that needs to be controlled or eliminated. They also begin to eliminate his previous companions from time. Trix comes out of hiding, joining the crew, and Anji leaves the TARDIS.Timeless Sabbath eventually realises that the council is not human and turns on his masters. Miranda, now a grown woman with a daughter, also returns to help her adopted father defeat the council, but both she and Sabbath die in the process.Sometime Never...
Eventually, the Doctor returns to Earth in 2005 and discovers that another Time Lord, Marnal, has also survived the destruction of Gallifrey. Marnal, who also claims to be the original owner of the Doctor's TARDIS, blames the Doctor for the cataclysm, and takes him and the TARDIS captive while the insectoid alien Vore invade the Earth. After a cold fusion explosion guts the interior of the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that K-9 Mark II had been aboard all along, with orders from Lady President Romana of Gallifrey to kill him. However, K-9 pauses once it scans the Doctor's mind and discovers the reason why the Doctor has lost his memory.