Three More Doctor Who Novels Coming

Previously its been reported by myself that three Doctor Who novels would be released soon, but another three novels have been announced by BBC Books for a December release, to coincide with Boxing Day, the day after Christmas (December 26^th) which is a holiday in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and other nations. One of these three novels focuses on adventures of The 10^th Doctor and Donna Noble, our primary characters from season four, the current season, of the hugely popular BBC television program. The second finds The Doctor all alone. The third novel focuses on Martha Jones, a former companion of The Doctor from season three.

The first novel, Beautiful Chaos, is written by Gary Russell, and finds Donna Noble (played on television by Catherine Tate) going home to London to spend time with her mother and grandfather. Wilfred Mott, Donna's grandfather (played on television by the magnificent Bernard Cribbins) has discovered a new star and is having it named after him. Wilfred is an avid telescope fan and heavenly bodies watcher. He takes The Doctor as his guest to the naming ceremony but The Doctor is suspicious and an ancient force from the Dark Times is changing the stars.

Lance Parkin writes the second novel; in fact Lance has a Blog site in which he talks about the work on the novel and the art of writing for Doctor Who. His blog can be seen at http://theeyeless.blogspot.com/. The Doctor finds himself on a war-torn planet, in the city of Arcopolis. At the heart of the city is the Fortress, a structure placed by one of the sides of an intergalactic war that is long over. Fifteen years previously a weapon deep inside The Fortress destroyed all life on the planet. The Doctor is determined to fight his way past all the defenses of The Fortress but The Doctor is not alone on the planet.

The third, and final, novel is written by Dan Abnett and is probably the most have for all Doctor Who fans. This novel, The Story of Martha, covers the year the character spent between episodes twelve and thirteen of last season. During that year, Martha Jones walked the Earth in her mission to save Earth and The Doctor from his rival Time Lord, The Master. As watchers of the television program know, The Master brings the mysterious Toclafane to Earth and obliterates a third of the population before subjugating mankind. The Doctor is a prisoner of The Master and helpless to defend the Earth. Captain Jack Harkness (played on screen by John Barrowman) is also a prisoner of The Master, as is Martha Jones' parents and sister. When viewers came back for the season finale in episode thirteen, Martha had been gone a year. During that year she had walked the Earth, telling everyone stories about The Doctor. She had told people how he had saved them and Earth countless times, without anyone knowing about it. This is the story of how Martha Jones survived and what she did during that year.

The novels are released by BBC Books, which has been producing books based on the Doctor Who line since 1996. The company is owned by Random House books with a minority of the stock in the company owned by BBC Worldwide, a subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Company. They have produced books that tied-in to the 8^th Doctor Who movie, which came out in 1996, and have followed the adventures of the 8^th Doctor before focusing on the newly revived series. They are also producing Torchwood novels, based on the spin-off series of Doctor Who which stars Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper and John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness.

The novels from BBC Books are all great additions to any home library that loves science fiction. For fans of the television series (old or new), these novels help whet the appetite for The Doctor and his companions while the show is between seasons. The release date of these novels is even more important, because the new season will be ending very soon and there will not be any new Doctor Who shows until Christmas Day, when the newest Christmas Special is broadcast. Doctor Who will also not be returning for a fifth season in 2009 but instead will broadcast four special hour-long episodes before returning for its fifth season in 2010. So, rush out on Boxing Day and pick up these three novels. They might just hold you over until the next Doctor Who special in 2009.