I was talking in issue 3 of Infinity about the fact that Virgin Publishing are losing the license to produce Doctor Who fiction in June 1997. From that time, the books will be published by BBC Consumer Publishing and they have just announced the initial details of the range.

There will be two series of books: one featuring the eighth Doctor (as played by Paul McGann in the TV movie) and the other featuring past Doctors. The first eighth Doctor novel is to be written by series veteran Terrance Dicks and is called The Eight Doctors. The press release describes the plot as 'a compelling storyline, The Eight Doctors finds the newly regenerated Doctor booby-trapped by the Master so that his memory is erased and he has to retrace his steps through time and space ... where he meets seven strangely familiar figures.'

After a little initial apprehension over the idea of yet another The Two/Three/Five Doctors type story, on reflection I think that this is a great way to start off the new range of books. By kicking off with a book which features all eight Doctors, the BBC immediately puts the reader back in touch with the TV series we all know and love and with Doctors that we remember. With Terrance Dicks at the helm, hopefully the story will feel like 'real' television Doctor Who, and that this will set the scene for further adventures with the eighth Doctor.

One of the big problems that I have with Virgin's range of New Adventures is that they all seem to be written and devised as an ongoing series, with the result that, with few exceptions, if you haven't read the last three or four books, you don't really stand a chance of following certain aspects of them. This approach does, I am told, encourage reader loyalty and, I suppose, satisfaction, for those dedicated enough to buy and read every title. They also have occasional Babylon 5-type story arcs which extend over several books, the latest of which is to do with psi-powers.

The BBC's writers' guidelines state that their novels must stand alone independently of each other and that the reader 'needn't have read all previous books to understand the nuances of the plot'. This is, I think, a very sensible approach. What is interesting is that in Virgin's original writers' guidelines, the following statement was made: 'each book to stand sufficiently alone to be read out of sequence from the group; but with enough references to the other books in the group to encourage the reader to buy them.' The 'group' being referred to was the initial idea for the Virgin range that the books would fall into grouped 'seasons' each of which would have a running theme. In a later set of guidelines it said: 'written on the understanding that the reader will have no pre-knowledge of the story, and might have no knowledge about Doctor Who.' It remains to be seen whether the BBC range will adhere to their initial concept or whether, like the Virgin series, they will veer away depending on the authors and the circumstances.

Lined up as the first 'other Doctor' novel is the very strangely titled The Devil Goblins from Neptune by Martin Day and Keith Topping. The press release describes it as follows: 'it sees the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier desperately trying to stave off an alien invasion, despite unhelpful intervention from the CIA.' The Doctor in question is the third incarnation, played by Jon Pertwee on screen. Hopefully the novel won't be as cringe-worthy as the title, which wins my vote as the title most likely to be found in one of the old Doctor Who annuals.

The BBC have also announced a slew of other projects which make up an impressive package to launch BBC Worldwide's interest and commitment to Doctor Who. First up there is a book of postcard pictures from the 1996 TV movie, an audio-book of Gary Russell's novelisation of said TV movie read by none other than Paul McGann and a collection of short stories about which there is apparently no further information at present. This makes for a bumper bundle of material to launch the new range. There may also be another video release, although the video schedules have not as yet been confirmed as far forward as June. Things are certainly shaping up, though, and hopefully 1997 will see further resurgence of interest in all things Who.

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I mentioned last issue that I was looking forward to reading Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who New Adventure, called Damaged Goods. Now I have and it was pretty good. The plot concerns an alien sentience which is 'hidden' in a supply of cocaine. Anyone who takes this batch of the drug is left with a small lesion within their brain through which the sentience can manifest when the time is right. The action is all centred around a typical run-down housing estate and the characters are a great mix of the seedy, the evil and the tragic. It's almost not a Doctor Who novel at all, with the regular companions given sub-plots of their own to keep them out of the way and the Doctor being reduced to a state of almost helplessness against the force which is running amok. The only doutbtful element is that the book contains strong themes of drug abuse and homosexuality, neither of which were so blatantly featured in the Doctor Who that I remember watching on television.

Recently I heard a fan rumour - believe at your own peril - that Davies had sold the story as a TV Drama presentation, but without the Doctor Who elements. If this is true, then I can't wait. Perhaps this is the new future of Doctor Who on television: Doctor Who stories without the Doctor. We have already had the independently produced video dramas Downtime and Shakedown and Davies did something very similar with his absolutely superb children's serials Dark Season (in which a character called Marcie has lines and motivation worthy of the Doctor) and Century Falls. I've no idea whether Davies' stories had their origins in Doctor Who fiction, but it would not surprise me one bit.