The latest instalment in the Black Archive series from Obverse Books looks at the 2013 docu-drama based on the creation of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time

In 1966, William Hartnell is about to record his final scenes as Doctor Who. Having helped establish the series as a smash hit for the BBC, he is not keen to go, but ill health means he simply can't continue.

Tracing the story of the series creation from Sydney Newman's first suggestion of a new science fiction series to Hartnell leaving the role behind, An Adventure in Time and Space is more than just a biopic of William Hartnell; it's the story of the creation of a television legend. 

David Rolinson is a lecturer at the University of Stirling. He teaches and writes on a wide range of topics but specialises in docudrama and terrorism. He wrote a guide to Alan Clarke and co-edited The Art of Invective, a collection of Dennis Potter’s non-fiction writing.

AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME is available now in paperback and electronic formats, direct from Obverse Books and from selected online retailers.

The latest release in the Black Archive series from Obverse Books looks at the first Doctor story The Daleks. 

The book is available from the Obverse Books website 

A 10% discount is available until the end of April using the code tenyearanniversary

BBC Audiobooks has announced the completion of the full sequence of audiobook novelisations covering every televised Doctor Who adventure from The Daleks (1964) to Rose (2005).

This landmark is celebrated with the release of Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, read by Jon Culshaw, an audio adaptation of  Terrance Dicks’s 1976 novelisation of the beloved Fourth Doctor story Terror of the  Zygons. 

This milestone marks the culmination of over 160 unabridged audiobook titles,  representing every televised Doctor Who story between the Daleks’ debut in late 1963 through to the revival of the series in 2005. 

What began with Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks by David  Whitaker in 1964 - later reissued as Doctor Who and the Daleks - has grown into an extraordinary legacy of storytelling. The Target Books range has ensured that each of those adventures, from the black-and-white classics to the dawn of the modern era, has been preserved and reimagined in sound. 

61 narrators have contributed their voices to this audio chronicle of the Doctor’s TV  adventures, including five on-screen Doctors (Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter  Davison, Colin Baker and Paul McGann).

This is in addition to numerous companions, allies and adversaries bringing each story to life, lending their talents to  both narrative and dialogue.

Their readings are accompanied by key special effects and the authentic voices of Daleks, Cybermen, and K9, courtesy of Nicholas Briggs  and John Leeson.

The latest release in the Black Archive series looks at the Fourth Doctor's swan song Logopolis. 

Logopolis (1981) is a mournful epic of cosmic destruction, obsolescence, and collapse, and marked the final serial in Tom Baker’s long run as the Doctor.

With a star unsure if he really wanted to leave, and a producer keen to explore new directions, Logopolis is a story set in the centre of a transitional space. This Black Archive investigates the changes before and behind the camera, explores the story’s themes of entropy and rebirth, and places it in the context of a specific moment in the history of both computing and Doctor Who.

The book is by Jonathan Hay the author of Science Fiction and Posthumanism in the Anthropocene. They lecture at the University of Chester.

BLACK ARCHIVE #76: LOGOPOLIS is available for pre-order now in paperback at a sale price of £5.99 and electronic formats, at a price of £3.99, direct from Obverse Books and from selected online retailers.

The latest publication in the Black Archive series looks at the Twelfth Doctor story Under the Lake / Before the Flood.

A base under siege, a time travel paradox, and ghosts! With these elements in place, Toby Whitehouse’s Under the Lake and Before the Flood (2015) tread familiar ground for fans of Doctor Who while also moving in bold new directions, both in terms of story-telling and character representation.

This two-part story sees Peter Capaldi’s 12th doctor break the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience. His lecture on “the bootstrap paradox” serves to set up the central puzzle of these episodes while insisting that it remain unsolved. Meanwhile, actress Sophie Stone’s portrayal of Cass challenges traditional representational tropes surrounding disabled people. Simultaneously, this character asks us to think further about how we understand disability in, and through, science fiction.

The book is written by Ryan C. Parrey, PhD is Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies and director of the Disability Studies program at Eastern Washington University near Spokane, Washington, USA. and Kevin S. Decker, PhD is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Washington University.

Under the Lake / Before the Flood is available now in paperback and electronic formats, direct from Obverse Books and from selected online retailers.

The latest special from Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who: Print the Legend, is now available.

This lavish, 116-page bookazine from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine is the essential guide to novelisations – hardback, paperback and audio adaptations of television stories.

Highlights include profiles of leading authors, a section on collecting rarities, a look at the recording of the audiobooks and a tribute to illustrator Chris Achilléos.

Exclusives include a previously unpublished extract from The Enemy of the World, the book that legendary Doctor Who writer David Whitaker was working on before his death in 1980.

Editor Marcus Hearn says

Each issue of Print the Legend comes with a free CD audiobook, randomly selected from the BBCAudiobooks Doctor Who range.

Doctor Who: Print the Legend is on sale now from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £11.99 (UK).

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £10.99.

BBC Books is to publish a Doctor Who murder mystery written by Bonnie Langford
 

The audiobook of Doctor Who: Death in the Stars, written and narrated by Bonnie Langford, is out on 22nd August 2024.

A new anthology of short stories set in Doctor Who’s Paradise Towers has been announced by Obverse books

Available for pre-order now. Publication date: 20 May 2024

BBC Books has announced that three new Doctor Who novels will be published this year, featuring Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. Each book is an original, stand-alone adventure and will be published simultaneously in hardback and audiobook. The books are:
 

Georgia Cook is an illustrator and writer from London. She has written for several sets in the Big Finish Doctor Who Audio range, including The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Gallifrey: War Room, and the Interludes. She has also contributed short stories to publications such as Baffling Magazine and Flame Tree Press, and is a frequent contributor to various horror anthology podcasts as a writer and voice over artist.

The audiobook edition of Doctor Who: Ruby Red will be narrated by Millie Gibson, who plays companion Ruby Sunday in the TV series

Una McCormack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has written many Doctor Who articles, scripts and novels, including The King's Dragon, The Way Through the Woods, Royal Blood, Molten Heart and Time Lord Victorious: All Flesh is Grass, all from BBC Books.

Abi Falase is a Black British writer and director, reimagining fundamental societal concepts in inventive new worlds. Creating what they like to call “feel-good social realism”, wrapping big discussions about everything from race and gender to capitalism in little pockets of humour – because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.

Ruby Red by Georgia Cook (BBC Books, £14.99) is out in hardback and audiobook on 13th June

Caged by Una McCormack (BBC Books, £14.99) is out in hardback and audiobook on 27th June

Eden Rebellion by Abi Falase (BBC Books, £14.99) is out in hardback and audiobook on 24th November

2024 will see the launch of Candy Jar’s UNIT range with a series of original novels.This new series of books now squarely focuses on UNIT and explores the fall-out from The Invasion, both on a personal and national level, and how the story would have been spun by the government and the press.

As the title suggests, the first book, The Vaughn Identity, looks into the background of Tobias Vaughn, picks up where the TV story The Invasion left off. It is written by the range editor, Tim Gambrell, who said:

But as well as looking back to The Invasion, The Vaughn Identity also looks forward to the series of books that will follow. Tim continued:

There will be another short Benton Files book, free with the hardback of The Vaughn Identity. More details of that will be available nearer the time.

The Vaughn Identity can be pre-ordered from the Candy Jar website.