He is best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular Doctor Who (and spin-offs including the Virgin New Adventures and Faction Paradox) and as a storyliner on Emmerdale.
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.
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.
[2] 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.
[3] Around 1999, Parkin joined Virgin alumni Rebecca Levene and Gareth Roberts to work on the production team of television soap Emmerdale.
[4] Though he never scripted episodes for television, he later wrote both non-fiction (including 30 Years of Emmerdale) and fiction (Mandy's Secret Diary, Their Finest Hour) connected to the series.