Although Doctor Who fans had been spoilt for choice when it came to novels and comic strips based on their favourite television series, it wasn't until 1994 that the first anthology of short stories actually arrived on shelves.
Edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, Decalog contained nine stories linked together by a tenth which was written by Walker himself. A follow-up was published in 1995, with Andy Lane and Justin Richards taking over for the third and final volume in 1996. Although Virgin had lost their licence to publish Doctor Who novels, two further volumes in the Decalog series were to appear in 1997. Re: Generations followed the exploits of former Doctor Who book companion Roz Forrester's family, while the largely standalone Wonders had only one connection to the world of Doctor Who in the form of Lawrence Miles' The Judgement of Solomon, which featured Bernice Summerfield.
The next Doctor Who release would come from BBC Books in 1999 with the release of Short Trips. Edited by Stephen Cole, the volume proved successful enough for a further two titles in the series to be released over the following two years. However, the time and cost involved in compiling an anthology led to the range being dropped after Short Trips and Side Steps.
Fans of short fiction weren't to be left hanging for too long, however, as Big Finish Productions acquired a licence to publish a series of hardback anthologies, beginning with Short Trips: Zodiac in December 2002.
With the runaway success of both the new television series and their New Series Adventures range of novels featuring the Ninth Doctor, the BBC's regular ranges of Doctor Who books were cancelled in 2005, leaving Big Finish as the sole publisher of stories based on the original television series. Their Short Trips anthologies finally came to an end in May 2009 with Re: Collections, a best-of release containing one story from each of their previous twenty-eight collections.
More recently, a volume collecting together a series of stories which had previously been published in the Files series of books has been announced for release by BBC Children's Books.
Edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, Decalog contained nine stories linked together by a tenth which was written by Walker himself. A follow-up was published in 1995, with Andy Lane and Justin Richards taking over for the third and final volume in 1996. Although Virgin had lost their licence to publish Doctor Who novels, two further volumes in the Decalog series were to appear in 1997. Re: Generations followed the exploits of former Doctor Who book companion Roz Forrester's family, while the largely standalone Wonders had only one connection to the world of Doctor Who in the form of Lawrence Miles' The Judgement of Solomon, which featured Bernice Summerfield.
The next Doctor Who release would come from BBC Books in 1999 with the release of Short Trips. Edited by Stephen Cole, the volume proved successful enough for a further two titles in the series to be released over the following two years. However, the time and cost involved in compiling an anthology led to the range being dropped after Short Trips and Side Steps.
Fans of short fiction weren't to be left hanging for too long, however, as Big Finish Productions acquired a licence to publish a series of hardback anthologies, beginning with Short Trips: Zodiac in December 2002.
With the runaway success of both the new television series and their New Series Adventures range of novels featuring the Ninth Doctor, the BBC's regular ranges of Doctor Who books were cancelled in 2005, leaving Big Finish as the sole publisher of stories based on the original television series. Their Short Trips anthologies finally came to an end in May 2009 with Re: Collections, a best-of release containing one story from each of their previous twenty-eight collections.
More recently, a volume collecting together a series of stories which had previously been published in the Files series of books has been announced for release by BBC Children's Books.
Doctor Who: Decalog
Edited by Mark Stammers & Stephen James Walker
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- March 1994
Back Cover Blurb
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — ONE ENIGMA
Los Angeles. The war's over, the GI's are home, Truman's in the White House and the mobsters are making a killing — as usual.
Into the office of a private investigator walks a mysterious little man with a story that's out of this world. He says he's lost his memory. He wants the PI to help him. When he turns out his pockets, he produces a pile of bizarre objects, each of which restores a memory and solves part of the puzzle.
And the memories seem to belong to seven different people.
DECALOG IS A NEW CONCEPT IN DOCTOR WHO FICTION: A CYCLE OF TEN LINKED STORIES.
The stories are written by authors who are well known to readers of the New Adventures or Doctor Who Magazines — Paul Cornell, Marc Platt, Vanessa Bishop, Jim Mortimore, Andy Lane — and have been brought together by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, who are part of the the team that researches and writes in-depth factual books about Doctor Who such as The Sixties and the Handbook series.
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — ONE ENIGMA
Los Angeles. The war's over, the GI's are home, Truman's in the White House and the mobsters are making a killing — as usual.
Into the office of a private investigator walks a mysterious little man with a story that's out of this world. He says he's lost his memory. He wants the PI to help him. When he turns out his pockets, he produces a pile of bizarre objects, each of which restores a memory and solves part of the puzzle.
And the memories seem to belong to seven different people.
DECALOG IS A NEW CONCEPT IN DOCTOR WHO FICTION: A CYCLE OF TEN LINKED STORIES.
The stories are written by authors who are well known to readers of the New Adventures or Doctor Who Magazines — Paul Cornell, Marc Platt, Vanessa Bishop, Jim Mortimore, Andy Lane — and have been brought together by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, who are part of the the team that researches and writes in-depth factual books about Doctor Who such as The Sixties and the Handbook series.
Short Stories
Playback (introduction) — Stephen James Walker
Fallen Angel — Andy Lane
The Duke of Dominoes — Marc Platt
The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back — Vanessa Bishop
Scarab of Death — Mark Stammers
The Book of Shadows — Jim Mortimore
Fascination — David J Howe
The Golden Door — David Auger
Prisoners of the Sun — Tim Robins
Lackaday Express — Paul Cornell
Playback (conclusion) — Stephen James Walker
Playback (introduction) — Stephen James Walker
Fallen Angel — Andy Lane
The Duke of Dominoes — Marc Platt
The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back — Vanessa Bishop
Scarab of Death — Mark Stammers
The Book of Shadows — Jim Mortimore
Fascination — David J Howe
The Golden Door — David Auger
Prisoners of the Sun — Tim Robins
Lackaday Express — Paul Cornell
Playback (conclusion) — Stephen James Walker
Notes
- Decalog was the first of three Doctor Who anthologies to be published by Virgin in the 1990s.
- Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker were, along with story contributor David J Howe, best known at the time for their series of non-fiction Doctor Who books, including the landmark Doctor Who: The Sixties, and the set of Handbooks which covered each Doctor's era.
More recently, Howe and Walker have set up their own publishing company, Telos Publishing, whose Doctor Who titles have included a range of officially licenced novellas, The Target Book which provided an in-depth and liberally illustrated guide to the Doctor Who novelisations from Target Books, and Howe's Transcendental Toybox, which aims to cover every single piece of Doctor Who merchandise from 1964 to the present day. - As with many of the anthologies published, Decalog included contributions from a number of new authors to professional Doctor Who fiction, although many were already well known in Doctor Who fandom for work on various fanzines. Andy Lane, Marc Platt, Jim Mortimore and Paul Cornell had all previously written novels for Virgin's ranges of New Adventures novels.
Doctor Who: Decalog 2 — Lost Property
Edited by Mark Stammers & Stephen James Walker
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- April 1995
Back Cover Blurb
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — NO FIXED ABODE
Imaginatively entitled DECALOG 2, this is the second collection of Doctor Who short fiction. And this time the theme is the Doctor's home inasmuch as a peripatetic Time Lord can be said to have a home.
As before, the editors have gathered a galaxy of star writers to illuminate the theme. Many of the contributors will be well known to readers of the New Adventure and Missing Adventure series of novels: Daniel Blythe, Paul Cornell, Andy Lane, David McIntee and Gareth Roberts are prolific Doctor Who authors. And as before this volume also contains contributions from many new authors.
In these stories, among many other unexpected occurrences, the Doctor meets a pretender to the English throne, Nyssa meets a ghost, Zoe gets lost in Time, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dismissed from UNIT, and K-9 is in electrifying form. And the Kandyman is on Tara in a verse play in iambic pentameters.
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — NO FIXED ABODE
Imaginatively entitled DECALOG 2, this is the second collection of Doctor Who short fiction. And this time the theme is the Doctor's home inasmuch as a peripatetic Time Lord can be said to have a home.
As before, the editors have gathered a galaxy of star writers to illuminate the theme. Many of the contributors will be well known to readers of the New Adventure and Missing Adventure series of novels: Daniel Blythe, Paul Cornell, Andy Lane, David McIntee and Gareth Roberts are prolific Doctor Who authors. And as before this volume also contains contributions from many new authors.
In these stories, among many other unexpected occurrences, the Doctor meets a pretender to the English throne, Nyssa meets a ghost, Zoe gets lost in Time, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dismissed from UNIT, and K-9 is in electrifying form. And the Kandyman is on Tara in a verse play in iambic pentameters.
Short Stories
Vortex of Fear — Gareth Roberts
The Crimson Dawn — Tim Robins
Where the Heart Is — Andy Lane
The Trials of Tara — Paul Cornell
Housewarming — David A McIntee
The Nine-Day Queen — Matthew Jones
Lonely Days — Daniel Blythe
People of the Trees — Pam Baddeley
Timeshare — Vanessa Bishop
Question Mark Pyjamas — Robert Perry & Mike Tucker
Vortex of Fear — Gareth Roberts
The Crimson Dawn — Tim Robins
Where the Heart Is — Andy Lane
The Trials of Tara — Paul Cornell
Housewarming — David A McIntee
The Nine-Day Queen — Matthew Jones
Lonely Days — Daniel Blythe
People of the Trees — Pam Baddeley
Timeshare — Vanessa Bishop
Question Mark Pyjamas — Robert Perry & Mike Tucker
Notes
- Newcomers to professionally published Doctor Who fiction this time around included Matthew Jones, Pam Baddeley, and Mike Tucker and Robert Perry.
The latter pairing would go on to write a series of Seventh Doctor novels for BBC Books' range of Previous Doctor Adventures between 1997 and 2003, beginning with the World War Two story Illegal Alien, which also featured Cybermen.
Matthew Jones' future would largely be in television, although prior to script-editing Russell T Davies' Queer as Folk for Channel 4 he would write Bad Therapy for the New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels, as well as Beyond the Sun for the spin-off range of Bernice Summerfield novels. In 2006 he wrote the two-part The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit for the revived Doctor Who television series and contributed Dead Man Walking to Season 2 of Torchwood in 2008.
Doctor Who: Decalog 3 — Consequences
Edited by Andy Lane & Justin Richards
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- July 1996
Back Cover Blurb
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — ONE CHAIN OF EVENTS
'The consequences of having the Doctor around our universe can be colossal... The Doctor is a time traveller. Never forget that, because it is central to an understanding of what makes him so terribly dangerous. Most of us, in our tiny, individual ways are involved in the writing of history. Only the Doctor is out there rewriting it.'
But even the Doctor may not see the threads that bind the universe together. Perhaps, instead, he cuts right through them. Who knows what events he sets in motion without even realizing? Who knows what consequences may come back — or forward — to haunt him?
Ten completely new tales from the universe of Doctor Who. Seven Doctors' lives, inexorably linked in a breathtaking chain of consequences.
As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from award-winning TV script writers to acclaimed New Adventures authors. And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers.
TEN STORIES — SEVEN DOCTORS — ONE CHAIN OF EVENTS
'The consequences of having the Doctor around our universe can be colossal... The Doctor is a time traveller. Never forget that, because it is central to an understanding of what makes him so terribly dangerous. Most of us, in our tiny, individual ways are involved in the writing of history. Only the Doctor is out there rewriting it.'
But even the Doctor may not see the threads that bind the universe together. Perhaps, instead, he cuts right through them. Who knows what events he sets in motion without even realizing? Who knows what consequences may come back — or forward — to haunt him?
Ten completely new tales from the universe of Doctor Who. Seven Doctors' lives, inexorably linked in a breathtaking chain of consequences.
As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from award-winning TV script writers to acclaimed New Adventures authors. And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers.
Short Stories
...And Eternity in an Hour — Stephen Bowkett
Moving On — Peter Anghelides
Tarnished Image — Guy Clapperton
Past Reckoning — Jackie Marshall
UNITed We Fall — Keith RA DeCandido
Aliens and Predators — Colin Brake
Fegovy — Gareth Roberts
Continuity Errors — Steven Moffat
Timevault — Ben Jeapes
Zeitgeist — Craig Hinton
...And Eternity in an Hour — Stephen Bowkett
Moving On — Peter Anghelides
Tarnished Image — Guy Clapperton
Past Reckoning — Jackie Marshall
UNITed We Fall — Keith RA DeCandido
Aliens and Predators — Colin Brake
Fegovy — Gareth Roberts
Continuity Errors — Steven Moffat
Timevault — Ben Jeapes
Zeitgeist — Craig Hinton
Notes
- A new editorial team for Consequences saw a larger emphasis on new writers to Doctor Who, with only Gareth Roberts and Craig Hinton having previously written for Virgin Publishing before.
Notable new faces were Colin Brake and Peter Anghelides who would go on to write numerous Doctor Who and/or Torchwood novels over the following decade for BBC Books. Brake had previously worked on BUGS, scripting or co-scripting no less than nine of its forty episodes.
Keith RA DeCandido would go on to be a leading light in the Star Trek publishing world with numerous volumes to his name, but in 2008 he returned to the world of Doctor Who when he edited Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership for Big Finish Productions, the twenty-fourth volume in their range of short story anthologies.
But the most notable new writer featured was Steven Moffat who, at the time, was best known for scripting the enormously popular and successful children's drama Press Gang for ITV and the sitcom Joking Apart for the BBC. Two years later he was to pen The Curse of Fatal Death, an affectionate send-up of Doctor Who for Comic Relief. But although he later created both Coupling and the criminally underrated Jekyll, both for the BBC, it was his work on the revived Doctor Who television series from 2005 which was to make his name with the public at large.
For Series 1 he contributed the creepy two-part story The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, before stepping up a gear and writing The Girl in the Fireplace in 2006 and the extraordinary Blink in 2007. All three of his contributions would earn him the Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead followed in 2008, before he was announced as the successor to Russell T Davies as Doctor Who's new showrunner for Series 5 in 2010.
Decalog 4 — Re: Generations
Edited by Andy Lane & Justin Richards
- UK
- Paperback
- Virgin Publishing
- May 1997
Back Cover Blurb
TEN STORIES — A THOUSAND YEARS — ONE FAMILY
Following in the tradition of three previous highly successful and acclaimed short story collections, DECALOG 4 pushes back the boundaries of the imagination with a new series of ten interlinked tales.
Here for the first time is the complete future history of a remarkable family, the Forresters. Each tale chronicles a different episode in the life of the clan — from their humble roots in twentieth-century South Africa, and all through their inexorable rise to control of the galaxy-spanning Earth Empire a millennium later.
As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from up-and-coming TV script writers to acclaimed science fiction authors. And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers.
TEN STORIES — A THOUSAND YEARS — ONE FAMILY
Following in the tradition of three previous highly successful and acclaimed short story collections, DECALOG 4 pushes back the boundaries of the imagination with a new series of ten interlinked tales.
Here for the first time is the complete future history of a remarkable family, the Forresters. Each tale chronicles a different episode in the life of the clan — from their humble roots in twentieth-century South Africa, and all through their inexorable rise to control of the galaxy-spanning Earth Empire a millennium later.
As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from up-and-coming TV script writers to acclaimed science fiction authors. And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers.
Short Stories
Second Chance — Alex Stewart
No One Goes to Halfway There — Kate Orman
Shopping for Eternity — Gus Smith
Heritage — Ben Jeapes
Burning Bright — Liz Holliday
C9H13NO3 — Peter Anghelides
Approximate Time of Death — Richard Salter
Secret of the Black Planet — Lance Parkin
Rescue Mission — Paul Leonard
Dependence Day — Andy Lane & Justin Richards
Second Chance — Alex Stewart
No One Goes to Halfway There — Kate Orman
Shopping for Eternity — Gus Smith
Heritage — Ben Jeapes
Burning Bright — Liz Holliday
C9H13NO3 — Peter Anghelides
Approximate Time of Death — Richard Salter
Secret of the Black Planet — Lance Parkin
Rescue Mission — Paul Leonard
Dependence Day — Andy Lane & Justin Richards
Notes
- Re: Generations was the first book released by Virgin Publishing after the end of their Doctor Who licence in May 1997. The ten stories contained within all feature members of the Forrester family, who had been represented in the Doctor Who novels between 1995 and 1997 by Roz Forrester, an Adjudicator from Twenty-Sixth century Earth.
Roz doesn't actually appear in the anthology, although her sister and niece (actually a genetic clone of Roz) do. Outside of short stories, the character was only to appear in a major way once more, in Dave Stone's Ship of Fools which included a younger version of the character. - Leabie Forrester and Thandiwe Forrester first appeared in So Vile a Sin, the book in which Roz is killed.
Decalog 5: Wonders
Edited by Paul Leonard & Jim Mortimore
- UK
- Paperback
- Virgin Publishing
- October 1997
Back Cover Blurb
TEN STORIES — A BILLION YEARS — AN INFINITE UNIVERSE
Following in the tradition of four previous highly successful and acclaimed short story collections, DECALOG 5 reveals all the strangeness and variety of human experiences from the near future all the way to the end of time itself, in ten stories about the Wonders of the Universe.
From big to small, beautiful to evil: a river that spans the universe — and is slowly destroying it; a gallery where every whisper echoes for a thousand years; an eighth-century robot that answers all questions; and an artist whose final work is death.
TEN STORIES — A BILLION YEARS — AN INFINITE UNIVERSE
Following in the tradition of four previous highly successful and acclaimed short story collections, DECALOG 5 reveals all the strangeness and variety of human experiences from the near future all the way to the end of time itself, in ten stories about the Wonders of the Universe.
From big to small, beautiful to evil: a river that spans the universe — and is slowly destroying it; a gallery where every whisper echoes for a thousand years; an eighth-century robot that answers all questions; and an artist whose final work is death.
Short Stories
The Place of All Places — based on an idea by Nakula Somana
Poyekhali 3201 — Stephen Baxter
King's Chamber — Dominic Green
City of Hammers — Neil Williamson
Painting the Age with Beauty of Our Days — Mike O'Driscoll
The Judgement of Solomon — Lawrence Miles
The Milk of Human Kindness — Liz Sourbut
Bibliophage — Stephen Marley
Negative Space — Jeanne Cavelos
Dome of Whispers — Ian Watson
The Place of All Places — based on an idea by Nakula Somana
Poyekhali 3201 — Stephen Baxter
King's Chamber — Dominic Green
City of Hammers — Neil Williamson
Painting the Age with Beauty of Our Days — Mike O'Driscoll
The Judgement of Solomon — Lawrence Miles
The Milk of Human Kindness — Liz Sourbut
Bibliophage — Stephen Marley
Negative Space — Jeanne Cavelos
Dome of Whispers — Ian Watson
Notes
- Wonders was the fifth and final title in the Decalog series and saw a major change of direction as it consisted of standalone short stories, of which only Lawrence Miles' The Judgement of Solomon, which featured Bernice Summerfield, was connected to the Doctor Who universe in any way.
Of the other authors, only Stephen Marley had previously written Doctor Who fiction for Virgin, contributing the Fourth Doctor tale Managra to the Missing Adventures range in 1995. Stephen Baxter could arguably be said to have had a narrow escape, however, as The Time Ships, his authorised sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine, had originally started life as an idea for a Doctor Who novel.
The previous year Jeanne Cavelos had written The Shadow Within for Dell's range of Babylon 5 novels, which had dealt with the awakening of the Shadows on Z'ha'dum, and later wrote the Passing of the Techo-Mages trilogy for Del-Rey. - The Judgement of Solomon was the only Benny short story to be published by Virgin, although Big Finish Productions would end up producing a number of anthologies when they picked up the rights to the character in 2000, beginning with Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries.
