The Dying Days

The Dying Days
AuthorLance Parkin
SeriesDoctor Who book:
Virgin New Adventures
Release number
61
SubjectFeaturing:
Eighth Doctor
Bernice, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Set inPeriod between
The television movie and
"The Night of the Doctor"
PublisherVirgin Books
Publication date
April 1997
ISBN0-426-20504-9
Preceded byDoctor Who (broadcast)
Lungbarrow (novel) 
Followed bySo Vile a Sin (publication)
Oh No It Isn't! (Bernice only NAs) 

The Dying Days is an original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was last of the New Adventures range to feature the Doctor and the only one of that range to feature Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor. Thereafter the series centred on the character of Bernice Summerfield. The Dying Days features the classic series monsters, the Ice Warriors and is strongly influenced by The War of the Worlds.

The Conservative MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Collins, was reported to have read the book in one sitting on the night of the 1997 General Election so that he could claim to have read the whole New Adventures series whilst the Conservatives were in government. (In the event, the postponed novel So Vile a Sin was finally published later that month, thus frustrating Collins' claim.)

The Dying Days is one of a number of the New Adventures which is hard to obtain and is often seen on auction websites such as eBay at prices many times the original cover price. When the book was originally published in April 1997, it sold out before its official release date and a reprint was not practical with Virgin losing the Doctor Who license, leading to this scarcity. A new version of The Dying Days with additional material, author's notes and an artwork gallery was presented as an e-book on the BBC website, and was available there from 2002 through 2010.