{{Short description|Series of Doctor Who-based novels (1994–1997)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{italic title}} [[File:Doctor Who Missing Adventures.jpg|200px|right]] The '''''Virgin Missing Adventures''''' were a series of novels from [[Virgin Publishing]] based on the British [[Science fiction on television|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 Doctor|First]] through [[Sixth Doctor]]s. (The [[Seventh Doctor]] also appeared in one novel.) The ''Missing Adventures'' complemented the ''[[Virgin New Adventures]]'' range, which had proved successful.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://blog.lovarzi.co.uk/doctor-who-the-virgin-new-adventures/|title=Doctor Who: Should you read the Virgin New Adventures?|last=Skerratt|first=Alex|date=14 April 2021|work=Lovarzi|quote=According to [[Peter Darvill-Evans|Darvill-Evans]], 25,000 copies of each book were printed, and all of them were sold. Indeed, today they are seen as collectors’ items, and can usually only be found in the darkest corners of eBay.|access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref>
==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.<ref name="Bookwyrm">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Anthony |last2=Smith? |first2=Robert |title=Bookwyrm: An Unauthorized & Unconventional Guide to the Doctor Who Novels |date=2019 |publisher=ATB Publishing |location=Maryland |isbn=978-0-9882210-6-2 |page=10}}</ref>
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.<ref> https://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv39/missingadventures.html</ref>
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 (Doctor Who)|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. {| class="wikitable sortable" ! # ! Title ! Author ! Doctor ! Featuring ! class=unsortable| Published |- |1 || ''[[Goth Opera]]''||[[Paul Cornell]]||[[Fifth Doctor|Fifth]]||[[Tegan Jovanka|Tegan]], [[Nyssa (Doctor Who)|Nyssa]], Romana||July 1994 |- |2 || ''Evolution''||[[John Peel (writer)|John Peel]]||[[Fourth Doctor|Fourth]]||[[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah Jane]]||September 1994 |- |3 || ''[[Venusian Lullaby]]''||[[Paul Leonard (writer)|Paul Leonard]]||[[First Doctor|First]]||[[Ian Chesterton|Ian]], [[Barbara Wright (Doctor Who)|Barbara]]||October 1994 |- |4 || ''[[The Crystal Bucephalus]]''||[[Craig Hinton]]||Fifth||Tegan, [[Vislor Turlough|Turlough]], [[Kamelion]], [[Ace (Doctor Who)|Dorothy]]||November 1994 |- |5 || ''[[State of Change]]''||[[Christopher Bulis]]||[[Sixth Doctor|Sixth]]||[[Peri Brown|Peri]]||December 1994 |- |6 || ''The Romance of Crime''||[[Gareth Roberts (writer)|Gareth Roberts]]||Fourth||[[Romana II]], [[K-9 (Doctor Who)|K-9]]||January 1995 |- |7 || ''[[The Ghosts of N-Space]]''||[[Barry Letts]]||[[Third Doctor|Third]]||Sarah Jane, [[Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart|the Brigadier]]||February 1995 |- |8 || ''[[Time of Your Life (novel)|Time of Your Life]]''||[[Steve Lyons (writer)|Steve Lyons]]||Sixth||[[Grant Markham]]||March 1995 |- |9 || ''[[Dancing the Code]]''||Paul Leonard||Third||[[Jo Grant|Jo]], [[United Nations Intelligence Taskforce|UNIT]]||April 1995 |- |10 || ''[[The Menagerie (novel)|The Menagerie]]''||[[Martin Day (writer)|Martin Day]]||[[Second Doctor|Second]]||[[Jamie McCrimmon|Jamie]], [[Zoe Heriot|Zoe]]||May 1995 |- |11 || ''[[System Shock (novel)|System Shock]]''||[[Justin Richards]]||Fourth||Sarah, [[Harry Sullivan (Doctor Who)|Harry]]||June 1995 |- |12 || ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Bulis novel)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]''||Christopher Bulis||First||Ian, Barbara, [[Susan Foreman|Susan]]||July 1995 |- |13 || ''Invasion of the Cat-People''||[[Gary Russell]]||Second||[[Ben Jackson (Doctor Who)|Ben]], [[Polly (Doctor Who)|Polly]]||August 1995 |- |14 || ''Managra''||[[Stephen Marley (writer)|Stephen Marley]]||Fourth||Sarah Jane||September 1995 |- |15 || ''Millennial Rites''||Craig Hinton||Sixth||[[Melanie Bush|Mel]]||October 1995 |- |16 || ''The Empire of Glass''||[[Andy Lane]]||First||[[Steven Taylor (Doctor Who)|Steven]], [[Vicki (Doctor Who)|Vicki]]; plus [[Irving Braxiatel]]||November 1995 |- |17 || ''Lords of the Storm''||[[David A. McIntee]]||Fifth||Turlough||December 1995 |- |18 || ''[[Downtime (Doctor Who)#Novelisation|Downtime]]''||[[Marc Platt (writer)|Marc Platt]]||none||The Brigadier, Sarah Jane, [[Victoria Waterfield|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 (Richards novel)|The Sands of Time]]''||Justin Richards||Fifth||Tegan, Nyssa||May 1996 |- |23 || ''[[Killing Ground (novel)|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 (Bulis novel)|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 (Doctor Who)|Vicki]]||November 1996 |- |29 || ''[[Cold Fusion (novel)|Cold Fusion]]''||[[Lance Parkin]]||Fifth and [[Seventh Doctor|Seventh]]||[[Adric]], Nyssa, Tegan; Roz, [[Chris Cwej|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 (McIntee novel)|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 [[List of Doctor Who episodes (1963–1989)|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 (Doctor Who)|Downtime]]'', featuring the [[Great Intelligence]] and forming a sequel to ''[[The Abominable Snowmen (Doctor Who)|The Abominable Snowmen]]'' (1967) and ''[[The Web of Fear]]'' (1968).
Many ''Missing Adventures'' featured old foes, including: *''Killing Ground'' — The [[Cyberman|Cybermen]] *''The Dark Path'' — The [[Master (Doctor Who)|Master]] *''The Scales of Injustice'' — The [[Silurian (Doctor Who)|Silurians]] *''Lords of the Storm'' — The [[Sontaran]]s *''State of Change'' — The [[Rani (Doctor Who)|Rani]] *''[[Millennial Rites]]'' — The [[Valeyard]] *''The Well-Mannered War'' — The [[Black Guardian]] *''The Romance of Crime'' — The [[Ogron]]s
''Speed of Flight'' is the only novel in the series that is a prequel; to [[Timelash]].
==''Burning Heart''==
''Burning Heart'' was originally planned to feature [[Judge Dredd]] and was going to be set in [[Mega-City One]]. Virgin Books held the rights to the ''Judge Dredd'' novels at the time, and author Dave Stone had already written ''Judge Dredd'' novels for Virgin. This plan was scrapped after the release of the 1995 film based on that character.<ref>[http://www.pagefillers.com/dwrg/burn.htm Doctor Who Ratings Guide]</ref> The book was re-written, and the character of Dredd was replaced by one Adjudicator Joseph Craator.
==''Who Killed Kennedy''== {{main|Who Killed Kennedy}}
In 1996, Virgin Books published ''[[Who Killed Kennedy]]'', a ''Doctor Who'' novel by [[David Bishop (writer)|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.
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20091027132822/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/6600/bwld.html The ''Doctor Who'' Bewildering Reference Guide] – a guide to continuity references in selected ''Doctor Who'' original novels. *[http://magnetopia.org/cloisterlibrary/ The Cloister Library] – commentaries on selected ''Doctor Who'' original novels, named and modeled after ''[[The Discontinuity Guide]]'' by [[Paul Cornell|Cornell]], [[Martin Day (writer)|Day]] and [[Keith Topping|Topping]] *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211055113/http://www.whoniverse.org/discontinuity/ |date=February 11, 2011 |title=The Discontinuity Guide }} – a guide to ''Doctor Who'' original novels. *[https://www.timelash.com/tardis/list.asp?ma ''The TARDIS Library'''s listing of Missing Adventures]
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Doctor Who}} {{Doctor Who books|selected=Missing Adventures}}
[[Category:Virgin Missing Adventures| ]] [[Category:Book series introduced in 1994]]