Doctor Who has had a long-lived history as the longest science-fiction shows ever, so it's no surprise that some of that time wasn't exactly great for the franchise. Doctor Who has had periods off-air, during which there were consecutive years of no new TV episodes. This didn't mean the franchise died, however, with a massive range of stories and audio dramas to keep the fans tided over until the start of New Who in 2005.

Fans call this period the "Wilderness Years," and luckily, most of them look back on them fondly. It's a testament to all the writers involved throughout this period, as well as those that made the TV Movie, that fans can look back on this period in the show's history positively.

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Doctor Who Gets Cancelled

Doctor Who had been struggling as a show for quite a long time during the 80s, with the downhill beginning around the time Tom Baker left in 1982. Eventually, Doctor Who was put under an 18-month hiatus by Michael Grade during Colin Baker's run. It managed to fight past that, and had another season with Colin's Sixth Doctor and three seasons with Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor. However, it was eventually put onto indefinite hiatus in 1989. This was the one time that the Doctor lost with Doctor Who.

For fans at the time, many had seen this cancellation coming from a mile off. And so the series faded into the background with a whisper rather than a bang, but there remained a loyal fanbase desperate for more Doctor Who stories.

Virgin Adventures Books

Virgin Publishing managed to secure the license to write Doctor Who books, and from 1991 to 1996 they produced a lot of novels through their New Adventures and Missing Adventures ranges. The Missing Adventures covered the First through to the Sixth Doctors, with one novel featuring the Seventh Doctor. These stories took place in-between the televised serials that already aired, building upon continuity while also setting up new plots and points of lore. In total, there were 33 Virgin Missing Adventures books published.

The New Adventures carried on the story from the final Classic Series serial. All of them, save one, featured the Seventh Doctor, while introducing new characters and moving to larger, broader storytelling. The final story featured the Eighth Doctor as played by Paul McGann and finished the series book range. In total, there were 61 Virgin New Adventures books published. This line even spawned a spin-off series of books based on the Seventh Doctor companion Bernice Summerfield, a Doctor Who supporting character that could have her own video game.

By 1997, the Eighth Doctor had debuted in his TV movie, but the possible series reboot was not to be (at least, not yet). The BBC chose not to renew the license to Virgin Publishing, and instead began printing their own books based on Doctor Who.

The BBC Doctor Who Adventures

Having seen how popular the Virgin Doctor Who books had been, the BBC wasted no time in getting to work on their own content. They launched the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the Past Doctor Adventures book ranges. These books were generally well received, with some of them having the best Doctor Who enemies that only appeared once. The Past Doctor Adventures essentially replaced the Virgin Missing Adventures entirely, featuring the First through to Seventh Doctors with varying numbers of books for each Doctor. 76 books were published between 1997-2005.

The Eighth Doctor Adventures told the story of the Eighth Doctor, beginning after the TV movie. Throughout these adventures, the Eighth Doctor had many companions never seen before on TV. There were 73 stories published between 1997-2005 in this book range.

In 2005, Doctor Who was rebooted on television, and its first series aired with Christopher Eccleston in the title role as the Ninth Doctor. At this time, BBC Books chose to stop the Past Doctor Adventures and Eighth Doctor Adventures in favor of producing books related to the incumbent Ninth Doctor. These books are informally referred to as the New Series Adventures, and are still ongoing.

Big Finish Audios

Virgin Publishing and BBC Books weren't the only companies keeping the Doctor Who universe alive. Big Finish were doing its part producing audiobooks based on the show regularly from 1999 onwards. Throughout the Wilderness Years, Big Finish published:

• The Monthly Adventures (1999-2021): Comprised of Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctor adventures.
• The Special Releases (2001-Present): Featuring spin-off characters and multiple Doctors.
• The Seventh Doctor Adventures (2001-Present): Featuring the Seventh Doctor with TV and new companions.
• The Sixth Doctor Adventures (2002-Present): Featuring the Sixth Doctor with TV and new companions, well-received for doing expansive character development on the Sixth Doctor.
• The Fifth Doctor Adventures (2003-Present): Featuring the Fifth Doctor with TV and new companions.
• Unbound (2003-Present): Reminiscent of Marvel's What If...? but for Doctor Who.

Fans were clearly spoiled for choice during the Wilderness Years on Doctor Who content, even if there were no new TV series episodes to enjoy. Big Finish even does audios on Blake's 7, which is another fantastic British sci-fi series to watch for Doctor Who fans.

Doctor Who Can Always Survive

Even if the TV series of Doctor Who stops producing new content, the franchise has shown over a 16-year hiatus and even a failed reboot that it can keep going as a franchise, even if that means moving over to books and audio plays. Fans can rest assured that the Doctor Who universe will always live on, even if its popularity wanes from time to time.

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