Two Envelopes And A Phone’s Reviews > The Who Adventures: The Art and History of Virgin Publishing's Doctor Who Fiction > Status Update

I would say my fave cover artist for Virgin Doctor Who was Jon Sullivan; I love the cover for The Death of Art, and apparently he does too - early greatness! I already mentioned that I have a crush on Bernice Summerfield, thanks to the Dry Pilgrimage cover - but I actually love the whole cover. Beyond this artist, I like the Sky Pirates! cover, Christmas on a Rational Planet, The Room with No Doors, First Frontier...

I always felt - from the novels Death and Diplomacy through to Eternity Weeps - that the Bernice/Jason Kane subplot was strangely rushed. They meet in Death and Diplomacy, get married in the next book, appear intermittently, and are divorced in Eternity Weeps. It all seemed too fast, or not fleshed out so as to make sense. The 50th book made the marriage a big deal, and they seemed to be breaking up the next day.

The Dec. 2004 issue of Enlightment (Dr Who fanzine) picked 20 Essential Doctor Who books, just as the TV show was about to return in 2005. Virgin books that got picked were: Timewyrm: Revelation, Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible, Nightshade, Transit, Iceberg, Set Piece, Human Nature, The Man in the Velvet Mask, The English Way of Death, Damaged Goods, and The Dying Days. I would swap out a few, but these are cool picks.

If I choose to re-read some of the Virgin novels soon, I would like to go back to near the start - but I think I'd do the Cat's Cradle books instead of Timewyrm. Or there's that thing that goes from Blood Heat through to No Future, which I had a great time with, especially No Future. The Virgin Dr Who books did help solidify the 7th Doctor as my favourite, though Patrick Troughton had been tops with me for years.

All of the Virgin Doctor Who Novels’ covers are represented in here - looking even better without the titles and text obscuring anything. I am a huge fan of the cover art for Dry Pilgrimage, which is in here; it’s actually a book from a spin-off series starring Bernice Summerfield…and her face is gorgeous on that cover. (Looks best when not blurry…) The McCoy Doctor is my favourite Doctor, by the way.