Lance Parkin - Doctor Who

Parkin first became known in Doctor Who fan circles, writing both criticism and fan fiction. His most notable work was for Seventh Door Fanzines, including the novella Snare in the Odyssey series (which he edited for a period) and 1994's The Doctor Who Chronology, a detailed timeline of events in the Doctor Who universe. The Odyssey series later included novellas by Parkin's then-girlfriend Cassandra May and his later protégé Mark Clapham.

Parkin went professional with Just War, published in 1996, for Virgin's New Adventures series of original fiction Doctor Who novels. This was rapidly followed by A History of the Universe (a re-working of his Chronology) and a second novel, Cold Fusion, for Virgin's Missing Adventures series. Parkin proved immediately popular with his readership.

Virgin lost their licence to do Doctor Who fiction and Parkin landed the prestigious job of writing the last New Adventure to feature the character of the Doctor, 1997's The Dying Days. This was also the only Virgin novel to feature the eighth incarnation of the Doctor, played in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie by Paul McGann. The Virgin Who books went out of print with the loss of the Doctor Who licence and The Dying Days was one of a number of Virgin books that began to attract vastly inflated second-hand prices. Copies of The Dying Days went for over $100 and still regularly go for over £45. The New Adventures continued without the Doctor Who label and Parkin returned to the series with 1998's Beige Planet Mars, written with Mark Clapham.

Parkin continued writing official Doctor Who prose fiction for BBC Books, including a number of event books, including the 35th anniversary celebration The Infinity Doctors. The Dying Days became the first of several Virgin Doctor Who books to be re-worked as e-books for the BBC's Doctor Who website. He wrote the last in BBC series of eighth Doctor novel adventures, The Gallifrey Chronicles (2005). In 2006 he updated A History of the Universe for Mad Norwegian with AHistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe. In June, 2008 it was announced that he would write a New Series Adventures novel, The Eyeless, starring the Tenth Doctor alone for release on Boxing Day 2008.

A trademark of Parkin's Doctor Who novels is the inclusion of a character written as if played by Ian Richardson, beginning with Oscar Steinmann in Just War. Parkin has said "I’m sure there was a very good reason for that at one point, but if there is, I’ve forgotten it".