TheVirgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels fromVirgin Publishing based on the Britishscience-fiction television seriesDoctor 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 theFirst throughSixth Doctors. (TheSeventh Doctor also appeared in one novel.) TheMissing Adventures complemented theVirgin New Adventures range, which had proved successful.^{[citation needed]}

Virgin had purchased the successful children's imprintTarget Books in 1989, with Virgin's new fiction editorPeter Darvill-Evans taking over the range. Target's major output was novelisations of televisedDoctor Who stories, and Darvill-Evans realised that there were few stories left to be novelised. He approached theBBC 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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, andDowntime, which was based upon an independent video production featuring several characters from theDoctor Who series (the novelisation is one of the fewDoctor 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 theEighth Doctor, they withdrew the license from Virgin to publish theEighth Doctor Adventures. The adventures of the previous Doctors were taken up by the BBC in thePast Doctor Adventures line of books.

In 2014, bothThe Scales of Injustice andThe Sands of Time were reprinted as part ofBBC Books'The Monster Collection. These were followed withThe English Way of Death, a part ofThe History Collection (2015).

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.

Three of theMissing Adventures were sequels totelevised 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 theMissing Adventures were novelisations:

• The Ghosts of N-Space — theBBC Radio audio dramaThe Ghosts of N-Space
• Downtime — theReeltime Pictures direct-to-video spin-offDowntime, featuring theGreat Intelligence and forming a sequel toThe Abominable Snowmen (1967) andThe Web of Fear (1968).

ManyMissing Adventures featured old foes, including:

• Killing Ground — TheCybermen
• The Dark Path — TheMaster
• The Scales of Injustice — TheSilurians
• Lords of the Storm — TheSontarans
• State of Change — TheRani
• Millennial Rites — TheValeyard
• The Well-Mannered War — TheBlack Guardian
• The Romance of Crime — TheOgrons

Speed of Flight is the only novel in the series that is a prequel; toTimelash.

Burning Heart was originally planned to featureJudge Dredd and was going to be set inMega-City One. Virgin Books held the rights to theJudge Dredd novels at the time, and author Dave Stone had already writtenJudge Dredd novels for Virgin. This plan was scrapped after the release of the 1995 film based on that character.^[3] The book was re-written, and the character of Dredd was replaced by one Adjudicator Joseph Craator.

In 1996, Virgin Books publishedWho Killed Kennedy, aDoctor Who novel byDavid 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.

• TheDoctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide – a guide to continuity references in selectedDoctor Who original novels.
• The Cloister Library – commentaries on selectedDoctor Who original novels, named and modeled afterThe Discontinuity Guide byCornell,Day andTopping
• The Discontinuity Guide at theWayback Machine (archived February 11, 2011) – a guide toDoctor Who original novels.
• The TARDIS Library's listing of Missing Adventures

• Virgin Missing Adventures
• Book series introduced in 1994

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