Development and writing
Though part of the sequence of stories that featured the fictional archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, this was released as something of a standalone, and she is not in it. The main character and narrator Christine Summerfield are not connected to her in any way. A former New Adventures Seventh Doctor companion, Chris Cwej, does appear. The Seventh Doctor briefly appears as "the Evil Renegade" in Chris's tampered memories.
Almost the entirety of the book is set within a bottle universe. This concept is most fully explored in Miles's two-book cycle Interference , and it is implied that this bottle universe is the one which appears in Interference.
Christine Summerfield reappears as Cousin Eliza in the Faction Paradox audio plays (also by Miles), voiced by Emma Kilbey.
A second edition of Dead Romance was published by Mad Norwegian Press in 2004. This contained some minor alterations which made the book more consistent with Miles's later Faction Paradox mythos.
The novel is partly an exploration of Miles's "bottle universe" concept that places Virgin Publishing's Virgin New Adventures series within a bottle universe inside the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures universe (and by extension these bottles are within a larger one containing all televised serials). This concept is most fully explored in Miles's two-book cycle Interference .
This idea was never followed up on in any future novels and was abandoned. The idea of the book series' being in bottle universes inside each other was retconned in the Mad Norwegian Press reprint edition, with Miles himself stating in a foreword that this was a bad idea and was rightfully ignored.
The Silurians and Sea Devils are two fictional related ancient species created by Malcolm Hulke for the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Silurians are a race of scientifically advanced reptilian humanoids from the dawn of man which first appeared in Doctor Who in Hulke's 1970 serial Doctor Who and the Silurians. The two species will foreground the plot of the upcoming Doctor Who spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea by Russell T Davies.
Faction Paradox is a series of novels, audio stories, short story anthologies, and comics set in and around a "War in Heaven", a history-spanning conflict between godlike "Great Houses" and their mysterious enemy. The series is named after a group originally created by author Lawrence Miles for BBC Books' Doctor Who novels.
Philip Purser-Hallard is a fantasy, science fiction and crime author described by the British Fantasy Society as "the best kept secret in British genre writing".
Of the City of the Saved... is an original novel by Philip Purser-Hallard set in the Faction Paradox universe. Laura Tobin, who first appeared in the BBC Doctor Who books, is a major character in the novel.
The Book of the War is a hypertext multi-author novel presented in the form of an encyclopedia of the first 50 years of the War in the Faction Paradox universe based on the Doctor Who universe. The book was edited by Lawrence Miles, and written by Miles, Simon Bucher-Jones, Daniel O'Mahony, Ian McIntire, Mags L. Halliday, Helen Fayle, Philip Purser-Hallard, Kelly Hale, Jonathan Dennis, and Mark Clapham.
The Virgin New Adventures are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989.
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox. He is also co-author of the About Time series of Doctor Who critiques.
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Lance Parkin is a British author. He is best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular Doctor Who and as a storyliner on Emmerdale.
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall.
Daniel O'Mahony is a half-British half-Irish author, born in Croydon. He is the oldest of five children, his siblings including Eoin O'Mahony of the band Hamfatter, and Madeleine O'Mahony, who has designed and made hats for Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Lungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Published in Virgin Books' New Adventures range, it was the last of that range to feature the Seventh Doctor.
The Ancestor Cell is a novel by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, based on the science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, Compassion, and Romana III, as well as a brief appearance of the Third Doctor in a ghost-like state due to the Faction's manipulation of the Doctor's timeline, and features the last appearance of Faction Paradox in the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
The Virgin Decalog books were collections of short stories published by Virgin Publishing based on the television series Doctor Who: they gained their name from the fact that each volume contained ten stories. Five volumes were published between 1994 and September 1997, although volumes 4 and 5 did not feature the Doctor or any other non-Virgin copyrighted characters. This is because the BBC decided not to renew Virgin's licence to produce original fiction featuring the Doctor or any characters featured in the TV series. Following this, the BBC began producing their own Doctor Who fiction, including short stories under the name Short Trips.
Cold Fusion is an original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Fifth Doctor, with Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan, immediately after Castrovalva. Also appearing is the Seventh Doctor, with Chris and Roz, from between the Virgin New Adventures novels Return of the Living Dad and The Death of Art. It was the only one of the Virgin Doctor Who novels to feature more than one Doctor.
The Voord are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. Both "Voord" and "Voords" have been used as the plural form. The Voord were conceived by science-fiction writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Keys of Marinus. They later appeared in Doctor Who stories in other formats. In one of those stories, written by Grant Morrison, the Voord are revealed to have evolved into the iconic Doctor Who villains the Cybermen.
Lists of books based on Doctor Who cover different types of book in the Doctor Who media franchise. These include novels, audiobooks, and short story anthologies. The lists are organized by publisher and imprint.
Mad Norwegian Press is an American publisher of science-fiction guides and novels. The company has worked with authors such as Harlan Ellison, Peter David, Diana Gabaldon, Tanya Huff, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Seanan McGuire, Barbara Hambly, Martha Wells, Juliet E. McKenna, Aliette de Bodard, Jody Lynn Nye, Catherynne M. Valente, Rachel Swirsky, Melissa Scott, Hal Duncan, Lee Mandelo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Nancy Holder, Sharon Shinn, Jeanne C. Stein, Colleen Doran, Jill Thompson, Jen Van Meter, Marjorie Liu, Sarah Monette, Mark Waid, Lyda Morehouse, Paul Magrs, Gary Russell, Robert Shearman, Lance Parkin, Andrew Cartmel, Steve Lyons, Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood.
Lars Pearson is an American writer, high school teacher, editor, and journalist. He is the owner/publisher of Mad Norwegian Press, a publishing company specializing in reference guides to television shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Doctor Who, plus the Faction Paradox range of novels and comic books. He is also co-author, with Lance Parkin, of "Ahistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe," which puts every Doctor Who-related story onto a single timeline from the beginning of the universe to its end.
