Following the series' cancellation by the BBC, a large number of new stories continued to be produced by professionals and fans alike. This was not a new development however, as novelisations of the television stories had been appearing since the mid 1960s as had various annuals and yearbooks. Two radio plays had also been produced during the course of the show's initial twenty-six year run.
As with many television series and movies, Doctor Who has been released on both VHS video cassette, DVD and Blu-Ray formats almost since it left the screen at the end of the 1980s. Currently, the BBC together with the Restoration Team and 2entertain Video are releasing Doctor Who on DVD (and Blu-Ray) to a regular schedule. At the time of writing (13 March 2014), every surviving classic story has been released to the public on DVD in various states of completion.
In the 1990s, two audio adventures were broadcast on BBC radio, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. These stories featured old favourites of the series, Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Additionally, the BBC commissioned the audio adventure "Death Comes To Time" which was released initially on their web site as a "web-cast" and subsequently as a CD package.
In 2002, Big Finish Productions were licensed to produce a series of Doctor Who audio adventures starring the actors who played Doctors five to eight together with their companions. To date, over 180 Doctor Who audio adventures have been published by Big Finish, together with several "Universe of Doctor Who" spin-off series.
One of the most popular of these spin-offs was the "Dalek Empire" series which ran for a total of eighteen individual stories over four seasons. A number of the mainstream audio adventures also pit the Daleks against their nemesis, the Doctor. The Daleks also featured in the first two episodes of a radio series developed by Big Finish for the BBC. Broadcast on Radio 7, Paul McGann starred in a successful run of Doctor Who episodes.
While a few Doctor Who stories were novelised during the 1960s, it was childrens' publisher Target who really began putting the television series into prose form. The company published novelisations of a hundred and fifty-three Doctor Who television adventures from the show's original run. In 1991, Virgin Publishing wass licensed to publish a monthly range of Doctor Who "New Adventures" set after the final television season. The seventh Doctor, Ace and new companion Professor Bernice Summerfield adventured through sixty-one novels and a "Missing Adventures" range featuring previous Doctors was also published which ran for a total of thirty-three novels.
In 1996, following the TV Movie, BBC Publishing took over the license for new Doctor Who novels, and novels starring all eight Doctors followed. This range of novels still came to an end with the beginning of the new Doctor Who television series as all merchandise was then focussed on the new venture. Only two of these original novels have featured the Daleks as villains. This was mainly due to copyright issues with the Terry Nation Estate who own the rights to the creatures themselves.
Since the launch of the new television series in 2005, BBC Publishing have concentrated on novels featuring the current Doctor and companions only. Nine novels were published featuring the current Doctor of the television show. In addition, the company supports World Book Day by publishing Doctor Who novellas for the event's Quick Reads initiative. To date, the Daleks have featured in the Quick Read "I am a Dalek" and two of the main range of novels. Alongside these novels, Big Finish have been publishing short story anthologies under licence (including one anthology set during the events of the Dalek Empire series of audio plays) in addition to novels set in the Doctor Who universe, but starring other characters. Finally, Telos Publishing have published a series of Doctor Who novellas – including one which features the Daleks.
In addition to published novels, the Doctor has appeared in comic format in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine since its first issue back in 1974. These comic strips are currently being collected into trade paperbacks by Panini Comics. Doctor Who Annuals or Yearbooks have been published most years from 1964 onwards and these feature activities as well as short adventures for the Doctor and his companions. More recently, two magazines aimed at younger audiences have been published and these also contain comic strips and short tales. These are Doctor Who Adventures and Doctor Who: Battles in Time, the latter of which is a tie in with a Trading Card Game of the same title.
Over in the USA, comic Publisher IDW obtained the licence to publish an ongoing comic series based on the television show in 2007. That licence featured the current Doctor (initially David Tennant’s Tenth incarnation) and ran until 2013. The company produced some great stories – often penned by Tony Lee, a long time fan of the show. In 2014, Titan Comics were awarded the licence. Initially, two series have been detailed – one featuring the Tenth Doctor and the other, the Eleventh. Hopefully, the publisher will produce original comics featuring other Doctors as well. Not to be outdone, the BBC published two Dalek related graphic novels themselves.
For more information about the Doctor Who Audio series, refer to the Big Finish website..
For the various novels, and other media, please visit Doctor Who Guide website.
