Doctor Who: What Are 'The Wilderness Years'?

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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 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 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