The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide: Doctor Who: Novelisations: First Doctor: Season 1

First Doctor

Season 1

Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child
Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks
Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction
Doctor Who: Marco Polo
Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
Doctor Who: The Sensorites
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

The first three Doctor Who novelisations were published in the 1960s by Frederick Muller Ltd, but it wasn't until 1973, when Target Books picked up the reprint rights, that the range of Doctor Who books began to expand.

Beginning with Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, Target Books would go on to print books based on all but five of the television stories produced between 1963 and 1989, with numerous re-jacketed editions in between.

With the majority of stories novelised, the company, now owned by Virgin Publishing, went on to establish the enormously successful range of New Adventures novels.

The production of the 1996 TV movie, starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, saw BBC Books taking the decision to publish both a script book and novelisation of the story. Shortly afterwards, the decision was also taken that the time had come for Doctor Who fiction to be brought in-house, with Target/Virgin's twenty-four year association with the programme finally coming to an end in April 1997.

Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child

by Terrance Dicks

UK
Paperback
Target Books
October 1981
(Book Number: 68)

Other Editions
Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child

UK / Hardback / WH Allen / October 1981

Docteur Who: Entre en Scène

France / Paperback / Editions Garancière / March 1987 / 1

Docteur Who: Entre en Scène was one of eight Doctor Who novelisations to be released in France by Editions Garancière.

Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child

UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1990 / No.68

Doctor Who und das Kind von den Sternen

Germany / Paperback / Goldmann Verlag / 1990

Doctor Who und das Kind von den Sternen was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Germany in the late-1980s and early-1990s by Goldmann Verlag, and was the only one not to feature the Daleks. Rather bizarrely, this edition used the cover art from Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus.

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
FIRST PUBLICATION OF THE VERY FIRST DOCTOR WHO STORY

A strange girl who knows far more than she should about the past — and the future...

Two worried teachers whose curiosity leads them to a deserted junk yard, an extraordinary police box and a mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor...

A fantastic journey through Space and Time ending in a terrifying adventure at the dawn of history...

DOCTOR WHO AND AN UNEARTHLY CHILD

THE BEGINNING OF A LEGEND

Television Story
100,000 BC
Script Writer: Anthony Coburn

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC / Black and White

23/11/63 An Unearthly Child
30/11/63 The Cave of Skulls
07/12/63 The Forest of Fear
14/12/63 The Firemaker

DVD

All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child was released to tie in with the Five Faces of Doctor Who repeat season on BBC2 in 1981. It included the first complete UK broadcast of 100,000 BC since 1963, as well as screenings of The Krotons, Carnival of Monsters, The Three Doctors and Logopolis.
The scripts to 100,000 BC were released by Titan Books in 1988 under the title The Tribe of Gum. This was the only story produced for the television series to be written by Anthony Coburn, although he did write a complete six-part story which ultimately wasn't produced, eventually being replaced by Terry Nation's The Daleks. The complete scripts to The Masters of Luxor were eventually published by Titan Books in 1992 as part of their range of Doctor Who script books.
100,000 BC was the very first story of the television series, and the opening episode, An Unearthly Child, is now rightly recognized as an important piece of television in its own right. Although the series would never explore what had happened to the Doctor and Susan prior to this adventure, several of the original novels and novellas did deal with the subject.

Marc Platt's Lungbarrow, in 1997, saw the Seventh Doctor returning to Gallifrey and gave a possible explanation for the First Doctor and Susan fleeing the Time Lords in a TARDIS.

Kim Newman's Time and Relative, published as the first novella in the Telos Publishing series, was set on Earth in the months before the Doctor kidnapped Ian and Barbara, and while Susan was a pupil at Coal Hill School.

Tara Samm's Frayed, again published by Telos, was set in the gap between the TARDIS leaving Gallifrey and landing in 1960s London.

Also of note are several television stories which returned to the scene of the opening episode, with Remembrance of the Daleks seeing the Seventh Doctor and Ace encountering several warring Dalek factions in Coal Hill shortly after the First Doctor had hurriedly departed, and saw scenes set at both the famous junkyard in Totter's Lane and also Coal Hill School. 1985's Attack of the Cybermen also saw the TARDIS returning to the junkyard, although for no good reason. Lawrence Miles' two-part novel Interference also featured the junkyard, again for no sensible reason, but put a rather different spin on things, with particular emphasis on I.M. Foreman, who owned the junkyard.

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks

by David Whitaker

UK
Hardback
Frederick Muller Ltd
November 1964

Click here to see the second edition cover.

Other Editions
Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks

UK / Paperback / Armada Paperbacks / October 1965

The edition from Armada Paperbacks was the very first Doctor Who novelisation to be made available in paperback. The company are best known to tie-in collectors for producing original novels based on many of Gerry Anderson's 1960s Supermarionation series, such as Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Stingray and Thunderbirds.

USA / Paperback / Avon Books / July 1966

The Avon Books edition was released to tie in with the US release of the movie Dr. Who and the Daleks, the big-screen version of The Daleks, which starred Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey.

USA / Hardback / Soccer Books / 1966

Details of this edition are sketchy at best, although it is listed in the Library of Congress catalogue records. If anyone can provide further details, or even a cover scan, please get in contact via the email address at the top of the page.

Dr. Who en de Daleks

Holland / Hardback / U.-M 'West-Friesand' / 1967

Dr. Who en de Daleks was the only foreign language Doctor Who book to be released during the 1960s. A completely new translation of the novelisation was released in paperback in Holland during 1974 under the title Doctor Who en de Daleks.

Doctor Who and the Daleks

UK / Paperback / Target Books / May 1973 / (No.16)

UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / May 1973

Doctor Who and the Daleks was one of the first three releases by Allan Wingate and Target. The 1960s novelisations of Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders were also re-issued at the same time. Over the next twenty years they would go on to novelise all but five of the television stories.

UK / Hardback / White Lion / June 1975

Rather bizarrely, the cover of the White Lion edition shows Tom Baker, who was playing the Fourth Doctor on television at the time. The internal illustrations still show the First Doctor as played by William Hartnell.

Doctor Who en de Daleks

Holland / Paperback / Gooise Uitgeverij / 1974

Doctor Who en de Daleks was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Holland in the 1970s by Gooise Uitgeverij. The novelisation had previously been released in hardback in Holland during the 1960s under the title Dr. Who en de Daleks, although this was a completely new translation.

Doktor Kim: Ve Dalekler

Turkey / Paperback / Remzi Kitabevi / 1975

Doktor Kim: Ve Dalekler was one of seven translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Remzi Kitabevi in Turkey during the mid-1970s.

(Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks)

Japan / Paperback / Hayakawa Bunko / March 1980 / 1

The Japanese translation of Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks was one of five translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in the country during 1980 by Hayakawa Bunko.

Doutor Who e os Daleks

Portugal / Paperback / Editorial Presença / 1983 / 7

Doutor Who e os Daleks was one of ten translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Editorial Presença in Portugal.

Docteur Who: Les Daleks

France / Paperback / Editions Garancière / May 1987 / 3

Docteur Who: Les Daleks was one of eight Doctor Who novelisations to be released in France by Editions Garancière.

Doctor Who und die Invasion der Daleks

Germany / Paperback / Goldmann Verlag / 1989

Doctor Who und die Invasion der Daleks was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Germany in the late-1980s and early-1990s by Goldmann Verlag, with all but one being Dalek stories. Rather bizarrely, the cover art is taken from the Fourth Doctor novelisation Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks. To maintain the balance, the Goldmann Verlag edition of that book has the original Target cover art to Doctor Who and the Daleks!

Doctor Who: The Daleks

UK / Paperback / Target Books / January 1992 / No.16

The original Arnold Schwartzman illustrations were not included in this particular edition from Target.

Back Cover Blurb — Armada Paperbacks
The story from the beginning! Here is the exciting adventure of Dr. Who, Susan, Barbara and Ian, from the moment they meet one foggy autumn night on a lonely common beside a Police Box (Ah, but what a curious Police Box!) to the time they encounter the weird Daleks.

It is a thrilling story, and we know this book will be one of the most popular in the Armada series.

Can you wait any longer? Start reading!

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1974)
This is DOCTOR WHO's first exciting adventure — with the DALEKS! Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright travel with the mysterious DOCTOR WHO and his grand-daughter, Susan to the planet of Skaro in the space-time machine, Tardis. There they strive to save the peace-loving Thals from the evil intentions of the hideous DALEKS. Can they succeed? And what is more important, will they ever again see their native Earth?

Television Story
The Daleks
Script Writer: Terry Nation

7 × 25 Minutes / BBC / Black and White

21/12/63 The Dead Planet
28/12/63 The Survivors
04/01/64 The Escape
11/01/64 The Ambush
18/01/64 The Expedition
25/01/64 The Ordeal
01/02/64 The Rescue

DVD (TV)

DVD (Movie)

All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Daleks

Audio Book

UK
BBC Audiobooks
5 × CD / Download
5 hours 25 minutes
November 2005

An unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by William Russell who played Ian Chesterton in the television series, was released as an MP3-CD in March 2005. It was later re-issued as part of the Travels in Time and Space tin in November 2005, a standard CD collection which also contained complete readings of Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders. The three individual audiobooks are also available to download seperately from various online retailers.

Notes

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventures with the Daleks was the very first Doctor Who novelisation to be published, and was one of three to be released in hardback by Frederick Muller Ltd during the 1960s. Doctor Who and the Zarbi followed in October 1965, with Doctor Who and the Crusaders being published in March 1966.

Although it was no unusual thing for tie-in books based on television programmes to be released (as this web site should demonstrate!) the series from Frederick Muller was unusual in that they were based on existing television stories. With several notable exceptions, such as A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough, which were sold abroad as science fiction novels in their own right thanks to having Fred Hoyle's name attached, and several collections of Twilight Zone adaptations from Rod Serling, the trend at the time was very much for original novels, with the likes of The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the various Supermarionation series from Gerry Anderson all spawning series of original fiction.

By the time the main series of Doctor Who novelisations from Target began to be released in the mid-1970s, TV tie-ins were routinely based on pre-existing television episodes, with the original novels now lagging behind. It would be a further twenty years before original fiction started to dominate the TV tie-in marketplace once more.
Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventures with the Daleks was the first of two novelisations to be written by David Whitaker, who was the story editor on the television series from its inception in 1963 through to The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964. His second novelisation, Doctor Who and the Crusaders, was based on his own four-part story — one of seven he would write for the television series between 1964 and 1970.
The scripts to The Daleks were released by Titan Books in 1989 under the title The Daleks. The story was the first of eleven to be written for Doctor Who by Terry Nation, with all but two of them featuring the Daleks, the mechanical pepperpots from Skaro who made his name. The popularity of the creatures was such that, as well as invading toyshops throughout the UK, the first two Dalek stories were eventually transferred to the big screen in full colour, with Peter Cushing taking the lead role.
As the first Doctor Who novel to be published it was obviously decided that it would be best to introduce the characters properly by going back to the beginning of their adventures. However, instead of summarising the events of 100,000 BC, David Whitaker came up with a completely new start to the series in his novelisation, beginning with a car crash on a cold and foggy Barnes Common. This change in established continuity would be echoed in the 1970s when Malcolm Hulke novelised his scripts to Colony in Space as Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon and created a completely new introduction for Jo Grant who, in reality, had first appeared three stories earlier in Terror of the Autons. In the event, that story was to be novelised by Terrance Dicks just over twelve months later, in May 1975.
Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks was unusual in being one of the few Doctor Who books to be written in the first person, in this instance from Ian Chesterton's point of view.

Cover image of Doctor Who en de Daleks (1974) supplied by Anthony Forth

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

by Nigel Robinson

UK
Hardback
WH Allen
May 1988

Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1988 / No.132

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
In a final bid to regain control of the TARDIS's faulty control system the Doctor is driven to experiment with a dangerous untried combination.

With a violent explosion the TARDIS blacks out and the crew find themselves trapped inside.

A simple technical fault? Sabotage? Or something even more sinister? Tension mounts as the Doctor and his companions begin to suspect one another.

What has happened to the TARDIS? Slowly a terrifying suspicion dawns. Has the TARDIS become the prisoner of some powerful fifth intelligence which is even now haunting the time-machine's dark and gloomy corridors?

Television Story
Inside the Spaceship
Script Writer: David Whitaker

2 × 25 Minutes / BBC / Black and White

08/02/64 The Edge of Destruction
15/02/64 The Brink of Disaster

DVD

Both episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

The Edge of Destruction was the fourth and final Doctor Who novelisation to be written by Nigel Robinson. He went on to write Timewyrm: Apocalypse and Birthright for the New Adventures range of original Doctor Who novels, as well as novelising all five stories produced for the 1990s re-make of The Tomorrow People.
Inside the Spaceship was the first of seven stories to be written for the television series by David Whitaker.
The Edge of Destruction is the only novelisation to be set entirely in the TARDIS.

Doctor Who: Marco Polo

by John Lucarotti

UK
Hardback
WH Allen
December 1984

Other Editions
Doctor Who: Marco Polo

UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1985 / No.94

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
The young Venetian Marco Polo is on his way to the Emperor's court in Peking when he meets the intrepid time-travellers, for the TARDIS has landed on Earth in the Year 1298.

Marco Polo recognises in the TARDIS a means of winning favour with the Emperor. But in the end the Doctor has no one but himself to blame for the loss of his wondrous travelling machine — which he gambles away to Kublai Khan...

Television Story
Marco Polo
Script Writer: John Lucarotti

7 × 25 Minutes / BBC / Black and White

22/02/64 The Roof of the World
29/02/64 The Singing Sands
07/03/64 Five Hundred Eyes
14/03/64 The Wall of Lies
21/03/64 Rider from Shang-tu
28/03/64 Mighty Kublai Khan
04/04/64 Assassin at Peking

Audio Download (UK)

None of Marco Polo's seven episodes are currently known to exist. Luckily, off-air audio recordings were made by fans during the 1960s and were released on CD by BBC Worldwide in November 2003 with linking narration by William Russell.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

Marco Polo was the first of three stories to be written for the television series by John Lucarotti, all of them being historically based stories featuring the First Doctor. During the 1980s he was the first of the 1960s Doctor Who script-writers to return to novelise his own television stories as the Target range started to increasingly focus on the early years of the series, with The Aztecs being published some six months prior to Marco Polo, and The Massacre eventually being released in 1987. Other writers to return would include Gerry Davis (who had already novelised several stories for Target during the 1970s), Donald Cotton, William Emms, Ian Stuart Black and Paul Erickson.
Unfortunately for fans of the television series, Marco Polo is the first gap in the BBC archives, as none of the seven episodes are currently known to exist. As was then standard policy, after being copied to 16mm film for sales overseas, the original videotapes of Doctor Who were either destroyed or erased.

As the 1960s and 1970s progressed, the film copies themselves were then destroyed as the time period in which they were allowed to be sold expired. Fortunately, a number of the original 16mm negatives were retained by BBC Enterprises (who sold the series overseas) and prints of various other stories were recovered from overseas or from other sources.

As of April 2008, 108 of Doctor Who's 253 episodes from the 1960s are still missing from the archives — the final one to be recovered to date being Day of Armageddon, the second episode of the epic The Daleks' Master Plan, which was returned to the BBC in early 2003.

Fortunately, although the pictures may be lost forever, every single one of the missing episodes still exists in the form of off-air audio recordings made by fans of Doctor Who during the 1960s and early-1970s.

Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus

by Philip Hinchcliffe

UK
Paperback
Target Books
August 1980
(Book Number: 38)

Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus

UK / Hardback / WH Allen / August 1980

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
MARINUS
a remote force shielded island set in a sea of acid, governed by

THE CONSCIENCE
the ultimate computer which rules and balances the gentle life of Marinus, guarded by

ARBITAN THE KEEPER
ruthless protector of a peace-loving race threatened by

YARTEK
Warlord of the brutal sub-human Voords, sworn enemies of Arbitan and of Marinus, who has within his grasp

THE KEYS OF MARINUS
the Conscience's vital micro-circuits, the doors of good and evil. Can the Doctor find the hidden circuits in time? Arbitan's command was 'Find them, OR DIE!'

Television Story
The Keys of Marinus
Script Writer: Terry Nation

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC + BBC1 / Black and White

11/04/64 The Sea of Death
18/04/64 The Velvet Web
25/04/64 The Screaming Jungle
02/05/64 The Snows of Terror
09/05/64 Sentence of Death
16/05/64 The Keys of Marinus

DVD

All six episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings. The Keys of Marinus was released on Region 2 DVD in the UK in September 2009.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

The Keys Of Marinus was one of only two television stories by Terry Nation not to include the Daleks — the other being The Android Invasion.
David McAllister's cover art was originally intended for a novelisation of The Edge Of Destruction which David Whitaker was working on before his death. Rather bizarrely, it would later be used on the German edition of Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child.

Doctor Who: The Aztecs

by John Lucarotti

UK
Hardback
WH Allen
June 1984

Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Aztecs

UK / Paperback / Target Books / September 1984 / No.88

UK / Paperback / Target Books / September 1992 / No.88

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1984)
The TARDIS materialises in Mexico during the Aztec civilisation. The Doctor and his companions step outside to discover they are in a tomb — the tomb it turns out, of Yetaxa, once High Priest of the Aztecs.

Barbara is hailed as Yetaxa's reincarnation by Autloc, High Priest of Knowledge, and Tlotoxl, High Priest of Sacrifice, when they find her in the precincts of the tomb wearing the bracelet of the deceased Priest, now revered as a god.

And she takes advantage of her position of unaccustomed power to try and dissuade the Aztecs from practising human sacrifice...

Television Story
The Aztecs
Script Writer: John Lucarotti

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

23/05/64 The Temple of Evil
30/05/64 The Warriors of Death
06/06/64 The Bride of Sacrifice
13/06/64 The Day of Darkness

DVD

All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

The Aztecs was the second of John Lucarotti's three historical adventures for Doctor Who, although the subsequent 1984 novelisation was his first for WH Allen/Target.

Doctor Who: The Sensorites

by Nigel Robinson

UK
Hardback
WH Allen
February 1987

Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Sensorites

UK / Paperback / Target Books / July 1987 / No.118

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
The TARDIS materialises on board a dark and silent spaceship. As the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara penetrate the craft's eerie gloom they come across what appears to be the bodies of two dead astronauts.

But the astronauts are far from dead, and are living in mortal fear of the Sensorites, a race of telepathic creatures from the Sense-Sphere.

When the lock of the TARDIS is stolen the Doctor is forced into an uneasy alliance with the aliens. And when he arrives on the Sensorites' planet he discovers that it is not only the Humans who have cause to be afraid...

Television Story
The Sensorites
Script Writer: Peter R Newman

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

20/06/64 Strangers in Space
27/06/64 The Unwilling Warriors
11/07/64 Hidden Danger
18/07/64 A Race Against Death
25/07/64 Kidnap
01/08/64 A Desperate Venture

VHS

Audio Download (UK)

All episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on video in both the UK and United States. The complete soundtrack to the story, with linking narration by William Russell, was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in July 2008.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

The Sensorites was the first of four novelisationss to be written by Nigel Robinson, who would later be responsible for The Edge of Destruction, The Time Meddler and The Underwater Menace.
The Sensorites was the only story to be written for the television series by Philip R Newman.

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

by Ian Marter

UK
Hardback
WH Allen
March 1987

Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1987 / No.119

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
It is 1774 and the TARDIS materialises some distance from Paris during the French Revolution — the infamous Reign of Terror.

Soon the TARDIS crew find themselves caught up in the tangled web of historical events. Imprisoned in a dank dungeon, Ian is entrusted with delivering a message to master-spy James Stirling.

Who is James Stirling? What world-shattering events are being discussed in a deserted inn off the Calais road? And can the Doctor and his friends escape a violent and bloody death at the dreaded guillotine?

Television Story
The Reign of Terror
Script Writer: Dennis Spooner

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

08/08/64 A Land of Fear
15/08/64 Guests of Madame Guillotine
22/08/64 A Change of Identity
29/08/64 The Tyrant of France
05/09/64 A Bargain of Necessity
12/09/64 Prisoners of Conciergerie

VHS

The Tyrant of France and A Bargain of Necessity are both missing from the BBC archives, although the remaining four episodes all exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on video in both the UK and United States. Off-air audio recordings of all six episodes were released on CD by BBC Worldwide in 2006 with linking narration by Carole Anne Ford.

Regular Characters
First Doctor / Ian Chesterton / Barbara Wright / Susan Foreman

Notes

The Reign of Terror was the final Doctor Who novelisation to be 100% finished by Ian Marter before his death in 1987. Although he completed a first draft of The Rescue, it was subsequently given a final polish by series editor Nigel Robinson prior to publication.
The Reign of Terror neatly ended the first season of Doctor Who by sending the travellers back to the 18th Century and the French Revolution, a period in history which Susan has an interest in, having been handed a book on the subject by Barbara in the very first episode of the series.
The Reign of Terror was the first of three complete First Doctor stories to be written for Doctor Who by Dennis Spooner, who later went on to write The Romans and The Time Meddler. During 1965/6 he also co-wrote the twelve-part The Daleks' Master Plan with Terry Nation, with each man being responsible for six of the episodes. Spooner also worked on the television series as story editor during the majority of Season Two, replacing David Whitaker who had held the position during Season 1 and also for The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Planet of Giants, which were actually made along with Season 1 and then held over to the following season.

Away from Doctor Who, Dennis Spooner's name can be found on the credits of almost every notable telefantasy and action series produced for ITV during the 1960s, having contributed to the likes of Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and The Avengers. Series created, or co-created by Dennis Spooner, include Man in a Suitcase, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Department S and its spin-off Jason King. During the 1970s he worked primarily as a freelance script writer contributing to UFO, Doomwatch, Space: 1999 and The New Avengers.