Virgin Decalog

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 (although the last collection contains eleven). 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 (Virgin transitioned to featuring characters created for literature over which the BBC had no rights). Following this, the BBC began producing their own Doctor Who fiction, including short stories under the name Short Trips.

The Books

Decalog

The first volume of stories published was Decalog (Virgin, 17 March 1994), edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. It contained the following stories:

Title	Author	Doctor/Companion
Playback	Stephen James Walker	Seventh Doctor
Fallen Angel	Andy Lane	Second Doctor, Jamie & Zoe
The Duke of Dominoes	Marc Platt	Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith
The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back	Vanessa Bishop	Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, UNIT
Scarab of Death	Mark Stammers	Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith
The Book of Shadows	Jim Mortimore	First Doctor, Ian & Barbara
Fascination	David J. Howe	Fifth Doctor, Peri
The Golden Door	David Auger	First Doctor, Dodo, Steven and the Sixth Doctor
Prisoners of the Sun	Tim Robins	Third Doctor, Liz Shaw and UNIT
Lackaday Express	Paul Cornell	Fifth Doctor, Nyssa & Tegan

The Story Playback by Stephen James Walker was a short linking piece that recurred between the other stories, detailing the story of an amnesiac claiming to be the Doctor having his memories restored by going through the items in his pockets: each item relates to one of the stories.

Decalog 2: Lost Property

The next volume was Decalog 2: Lost Property (Virgin Publishing, 20 July 1995), again edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker. This volume abandoned the linking story concept used in Decalog, and instead concentrated on having all its stories written on the same theme – a property that the Doctor owns somewhere or when in the universe. It contained the stories:

Title	Author	Doctor/Companion
Vortex of Fear	Gareth Roberts	Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe
Crimson Dawn	Tim Robins	Fourth Doctor, Leela & K-9
Where the Heart Is	Andy Lane	Third Doctor, Jo & UNIT
The Trials of Tara	Paul Cornell	Seventh Doctor, Bernice,
Housewarming	David A. McIntee	Sarah Jane Smith, Mike Yates & K9
The Nine Day Queen	Matthew Jones	First Doctor, Ian & Barbara
Lonely Days	Daniel Blythe	Fifth Doctor, Nyssa
People of the Trees	Pam Baddeley	Fourth Doctor, Leela
Timeshare	Vanessa Bishop	Sixth Doctor, Peri
Question Mark Pyjamas	Mike Tucker and Robert Perry	Seventh Doctor, Ace & Bernice

Decalog 3: Consequences

The final Decalog collection before Virgin lost their licence to use The Doctor and characters from the 1963–89 series was called Decalog 3: Consequences (Virgin Publishing, 18 July 1996), and was joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. It introduced a new idea for linking the stories whereby each story would contain an element from the previous and subsequent stories, and the first contained an element from the last and vice versa. It contained the following stories:

Title	Author	Doctor/Companion
. . . And Eternity in an Hour	Stephen Bowkett	Third Doctor, Jo
Moving On	Peter Anghelides	Sarah Jane Smith, K9
Tarnished Image	Guy Clapperton	First Doctor, Dodo
Past Reckoning	Jackie Marshall	Fifth Doctor, Nyssa
UNITed We Fall	Keith R. A. DeCandido	Fourth Doctor, the Brigadier
Aliens and Predators	Colin Brake	Second Doctor, Jamie & Zoe
Fegovy	Gareth Roberts	Sixth Doctor, Mel
Continuity Errors	Steven Moffat[1]	Seventh Doctor, Bernice
Timevault	Ben Jeapes	Fourth Doctor, K9
Zeitgeist	Craig Hinton	Fifth Doctor, Turlough

This was Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who work. He later went on to write for the 2005 revival of the television series, and would become head writer for the series from the 2010 season onwards. Jackie Marshall was an established writer of Doctor Who fan fiction at the time. DeCandido went on to write novels for the Star Trek franchise. Moffat would later use many plot elements from Continuity Errors as the basis for the 2010 Christmas Special, as well as for River Song's backstory in "Let's Kill Hitler".

Decalog 4: Re-Generations

The first Decalog collection after Virgin lost their licence to use Doctor Who TV characters was called Decalog 4: Re-Generations (Virgin Publishing, 15 May 1997), and was again joint edited by Justin Richards and Andy Lane. In order to try to keep the audience of previous Decalogs even though the Doctor could no longer appear in the stories, it was decided to theme the collection around the family history of one of the Doctor's companion Roz Forrester. As this companion had been created by co-editor Andy Lane for the Virgin New Adventures, there were no copyright issues in including her. It contained the following stories:

Title	Author
Second Chances	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	Justin Richards and Andy Lane

Decalog 5: Wonders

The final Decalog collection was called Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing, 18 September 1997), and was jointly edited by Paul Leonard and Jim Mortimore. This time, all but one story were free-standing science fiction pieces on the theme of "the Ten Wonders of the Universe", without direct connection to the Doctor Who universe. One story, The Judgement of Solomon by Lawrence Miles, however features former New Adventures companion, Bernice Summerfield. The collection contained the following stories:

Title	Author
The Place of All Places	Nakula Somana
Poyekhali 3201	Stephen Baxter
King's Chambers	Dominic Green
City of Hammers	Neil Williamson
Painting the Age with the 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
Waters of Starlight	Stephen Marley

Following the publication of this book, Virgin produced no further Decalog collections.

References

1. Powers, Tom (1 November 2016). Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television: An Analysis of Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf and Torchwood. McFarland. p. 245. ISBN 978-1-4766-6552-8.

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