Dr. Who

[dem]

Terrance Dicks - Dr. Who And The State Of Decay (Target, 1982)

Blurb:
The Doctor, Romana and K9 - and a young stowaway called Adric - are trapped in the alternative universe of E-Space.
Seeking help, they land on an unknown planet - and find a nightmare world where oppressed peasants toil for the Lords who live in the Tower, and where all learning is forbidden - a society in a state of decay.

What is the terrifying secret of the Three Who Rule? What monstrous creature stirs beneath the Tower, waking from its thousand-year sleep?
The Doctor discovers that the oldest and deadliest enemy of the Time Lords is about to spring into horrifying action.

"Zargo smiled
He plucked the bloody dagger out of his body and tossed it away.
Claw-like hands outstretched, the vampires moved in to the attack."

Not so long ago, the Doctor Who paperbacks were charity shop perennials but now they seem to have been ruthlessly rounded up along with the similarly once abundant Wheatley, Cartland, James Hadley Chase and Confessions ... paperbacks, consigned to landfill Hell. Perhaps someone will tell us exactly how many Dr. Who adventures were/ are still being (?) adapted because the insanely prolific Terrance Dicks alone seems to have been responsible for bloody hundreds of the things. So, which are the ones to look out for? Any particularly interesting horror/ black magic titles? Who do you reckon was the best author? And so on.

[glodfinger]

The early stuff (THE AUTON INVASION/THE DOOMSDAY WEAPON/DAY OF THE DALEKS/THE THREE DOCTORS/TERROR OF THE AUTONS/THE GIANT ROBOT/PLANET OF THE SPIDERS/THE CYBERMEN) is always worth a look. After that--

LOGOPOLIS/CASTROVALVA/FRONTIOS by Christopher H Bidmead.

THE LEISURE HIVE/CREATURE FROM THE PIT by David Fisher.

THE ROMANS/THE GUNFIGHTERS/THE MYTH MAKERS by Donald Cotton (If you don't read any of the others, try to track these three down. They are genuinely funny, and the author seems to have looked at the original scripts, chucked them away, and started again).

[stuyoung]

I had a soft spot for The Crusaders by David Whitaker. Nice little historical adventure.

[lemming13]

I'm voting for Malcolm Hulke; he mostly novelised his own stories, so he could put back in what time and budget constraints took out, and when he worked on other people's material he always gave it an intelligent and thoughtful treatment. Favourite one has to be The Doomsday Weapon (I understand it was Target who imposed the bloody awful title changes - this one used to be Colony In Space).

[valdemar]

Ian Marter's novelisations were always worth reading - he did so much more than just 'He said/She said'. His books are far more grown-up in content than the other books, save possibly Malcolm Hulke's. Ian Marter [who played the early Tom Baker companion Harry Sullivan, RN] wrote the novelisation of 'The Ark In Space', in which a character called Noah is infected by larvae of the alien lifeform the Wirrn. On the TV, Noah is seen briefly, as he metamorphoses, agonizingly, into a mature Wirrn. [at one point, he begs another crewmember to kill him, but this scene was cut due to the director feeling it too horrific]. In the book, each disgusting detail of Noah's change is detailed, and the effect is nightmarish. He also wrote the novelisations for: 'The Ribos Operation'; 'The Enemy Of The World'; 'Earthshock'; The Dominators'; The Invasion'; 'The Reign Of Terror', and 'The Rescue'. Sadly, he died in 1986 at the far too young age of 42.

[kooshmeister]

So far the only Dr. Who novel I own is The Seeds of Doom by Philip Hinchcliffe. Although City of Death was the first Tom Baker serial I sat through and enjoyed, it was Seeds of Doom which cemented my love of classic Who and the first serial I bought on DVD.

Loving it as much as I did, I, of course, sought out the novelization of it. I found it to be a bit on the lean side, and it read like what we call a "junior novelization" here in the US; that is, a simplified and toned-down book aimed at adolescents and children.

Still, it was a fun read and it did answer some questions I had about Harrison Chase, specifically why he always wore gloves (my theory that he simply hated touching people was proven correct), and what, specifically, the Krynoid did to him when he encounters it. As envisioned by Hinchcliffe it seems as though the thing basically molests Chase!

[killercrab]

Well since Dr Who was primarily a childrens programme back in the 1970's - it's hardly surprising that the novelisation was aimed at the junior range is it? Some Dr Who novelisations include more material than others , more back story depending on the writer! It's part of the charm of those books. It wasn't until the 1990s and the advent of the New Adventures range that things took a more adult turn which led indirectly to the new series as fans took over the creatorship.

KC

[valdemar]

Doctor Who has been a bit of an obsession of mine since sometime in 1968, when I watched, and thoroughly enjoyed a story called 'The Krotons'. It is now regarded as one of the lesser stories, but an important one nonetheless, as it marked the debut of the writer Robert Holmes, who would later be responsible for some of the best Dr Who stories ever. I had seen Doctor Who before - when I was three, and, not knowing what it was, taking a violent and immediate dislike to the figures on the screen that had no proper faces and handles for ears. Yes, Mk.1 Cybermen from 'The Tenth Planet'. My fear of these lasted for many years, not helped by the fact that 'TV Comic' [which was one of my favourites as a child] only ever used this Cyberman in their stories. Strangely, the later, more metallic variants bothered me not one jot. Many years later, I was given some books as a Christmas present, and amongst them, one particular book stood out, simply because of the quite astonishingly cool cover. 'Doctor Who And The Tenth Planet', and underneath: 'The First Cyberman Adventure!' But it was the illustration by Chris Achilleos that did it for me. Faceless, Handle-eared monsters! The cold chill returned briefly. And then I read the thing, and was hooked. From then on, there was no turning back; I had to get them all. And I did, even the rarer ones, like 'Fury From The Deep' 'The Invasion', and 'The Wheel In Space'. The only holes in the collection are for the stories written by the [way too early] late and very great Douglas Adams, namely 'The Pirate Planet', and 'City Of Death'. 'Shada' which was never shown, due to industrial action, has recently been published, finished by another writer. For my own part, I don't consider 'Shada' part of the official 'Dr Who' canon, simply because Adams later reworked great swathes of it into his first 'Dirk Gently' novel, even using some of the same character names. More Dirk than Doc, methinks.
The Doctor Who novelisations are great fun, and a great many furnish more information than the TV shows do. For example, in 'Doctor Who And The Planet Of The Spiders', the Third Doctor [in his last adventure] and the Brigadier go to a theatre, so that the Doctor can observe a man he believes to be a genuine psychic who performs a mind-reading act. Later, The Doctor gets the psychic to do a psychometric reading of the Brigadier's watch. The psychic sees Brighton... and a lady called 'Doris', at which point, the Brigadier snatches his watch back, embarassed. So, the very staid Brigadier, on a 'dirty weekend' with Doris - who appears in the Seventh Doctor story 'Battlefield' as his wife. And who would have ever guessed that tough, stolid Sergeant Benton went Ballroom dancing in his free time?
If you've never read any of the Target novelisations, 12 have recently been republished, with guest introductions, and notes on the stories by BBC Publishing. Grab one, and enjoy! Another essential book for fans of this series of books, is 'The Target Book' by David J Howe. Everything you need to know, and chock full of mouthwatering artwork, some used, some not.
The Target Doctor Who series was one of the great successes of UK publishing, and the only way to enjoy all the classic 'Who' that the Beeb had slung into skips over the years, possibly never to be found again. ;D

[Johnlprobert]

I started buying the Target books early on - my Dad bought me the reprints of Daleks, Zarbi & Crusaders and then I got the first printings of the paperbacks of Cave Monsters and Auton Invasion. I bought them all up to the Sontaran Experiment, when I was obviously 'growing up' a bit as it was a toss up between that and Guy N Smith's Locusts, which won, and there ended my collection of the Target series!

Wonderful books, and wonderful covers. I drew Lady P's attention to the reprint line in Forbidden Planet this week. Because Chris Achillleos always signed his work (or the signature was kept in, if you see what I mean) he became the first fantasy artist I'd ever heard of.

[valdemar]

The artwork by Chris Achilleos is superb - always dynamic, sometimes startling ['Doctor Who And The Dinosaur Invasion's Pterodactyl with the ''KKLAK'' sound effect], revealing ['Genesis Of The Daleks', with it's superb picture of Davros, letting you see just how hideous he really looked], and simply beautiful ['Doctor Who And The Daleks' is a great piece of artwork, especially the stars and planets on the blackness of the Doctor's jacket]. However, for my money, Alister Pearson's work on the late 80's and early 90's editions and reprints raise the quality bar so high, you'd have a serious job bettering them. [saying that, there are two that I think should have been vetted a bit - 'Silver Nemesis', and 'The Curse Of Fenric'. both of which feature swastikas. Yes, both stories feature war or Nazis, but I do think it was a bit insensitive]. Getting off my high horse, Pearson's work on the reprints is stunning. Look at 'An Unearthly Child', 'The Face Of Evil' [which puts Leela centre stage here, quite beautifully], and, best of all, 'The Enemy Of The World', with it's wonderful study of Patrick Troughton - not as the Doctor, but his evil doppelganger, the mad despot Salamander. I very often go into my loft and unseal the box in which all my Target novelisations live, just to enjoy the covers. It's dangerous though; I've never managed to do it without having to read one!

[ripper]

Crusaders and Zarbi were in our library at Junior school, which is when I first read a Dr. Who book. My favourite books are Auton Invasion and Day of the Daleks.

Just as an aside, does anyone remember a one-off magazine that was published around 1974, possibly by the BBC, about the Dr. Who series? There were articles, interviews with past actors from the series, details on each serial up to that time, a dalek text story and instructions on how to build your own full-size dalek. I think Jon Pertwee was on the cover being menaced by a dalek, cyberman and possibly a sea devil.

[killercrab]

It was the Tenth Anniversary Dr Who special published by the Radio Times. Pertwee is on the cover being pursued by a host of monsters. Inside are various articles on Dr Who , the Dalek story you mention plus build a dalek. Best of all ( back then) was a chronology of all the Dr Who stories with images which we thought lost in time!

KC

[ripper]

Thanks very much, KC, that's the one :-D. The chronology was great and I think it ended just after Elizabeth Sladen replaced Katy Manning as the companion. I wonder if anyone actually followed those instructions and built their own dalek?

[killercrab]

The BBC reprinted it in total about 5 years back. I never had the original ( but a friend did) so I snatched up the reproduction copy.

[ripper]

I had that magazine knocking around for decades, but now have no idea whether it is languishing in a box in our attic or if it was thrown out. I didn't know that it had been re-printed a few years ago.