One of the joys of the Target Books has always been their cover art, from the earliest, in Frank Bellamy comic style, to the later, more photorealistic “blue spines”. Here are 10 of my favourites, sticking to no more than one per artist.

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Written by David Whitaker, based on his script for the 1965 TV serial.

The beautiful “story so far” prologue (covering Susan’s marriage to “David Cameron”, Vicki’s arrival and Ian and Barbara’s blossoming romance), presents this as a continuation of the story Whitaker began in Doctor Who and the Daleks. Whitaker expounds on his theory of Time as a force that prevents historical interference – a sort of precursor to RTD’s Fixed Points. He includes some wry script editorial asides (if Tardis‘ safety features worked perfectly “there would be no chronicles about Doctor Who”).

Characterisation is vivid, with El Akir in particular a sadistic pervert more loathsome than any of the alien monsters the time travellers have faced. The prose is evocative without being flowery, and the overall piece is more sophisticated and confident than Doctor Who and the Daleks, probably reflecting Whitaker’s own authorship of the original scripts. The main issue with the TV episodes remains here: the Doctor and Vicki’s plot is almost completely irrelevant to Barbara’s kidnap and Ian’s single-minded mission to recover her. What’s positioned as a battle of wits between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin entirely stops as soon as Richard’s sister Joanna dismisses the idea of a marriage pact. But the Ian and Barbara storyline is so compelling this barely matters. Grade 1.

Next Time: Doctor Who And… The Auton Invasion

Written by Bill Strutton, adapted from his scripts for the 1965 TV serial.

There are six chapters reflecting the six episodes. “Doctor Who” is used as his name, including in some dialogue. This is verbose, with a longer page count than later Target Books and far more descriptive passages. I guess this is necessary, given most of the aliens don’t speak English, but it is lacking in brisk conciseness (particularly in comparison to the forthcoming Terrance Dicks / Target house style), and a bit of a struggle to stick with. It’s an interesting choice for second novel, probably reflecting the massive audiences The Web Planet pulled in. I think it somewhat lacks the sense of astonishment of the TV version. Grade 5, I’m afraid.

Next Time: Doctor Who And… The Crusaders

Beginning my Pilgrimage through the Target novelisations in publication order with story editor David Whitaker’s novelisation of Terry Nation’s original 1963/64 Dalek serial…

The first three Target Books, released in May 1973, were actually reprints of novelisations published in the mid Sixties, and so the style of the subsequent novelisations of the early 1970s came from books already a decade old.

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