Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date February 1975
Original Price 30p
ISBN 0426105753
Cover Artist Chris Achilleos
Illustrator Alan Willow
A novelisation of the 1967 television story The Moonbase, featuring the Second Doctor, Ben Jackson, Polly and Jamie McCrimmon.
The Cyberman depicted on the front cover is actually from the 1968 story The Invasion.
Back Cover Blurb
One by one, their limbs became diseased — they were replaced by plastic and steel.
Little by Little, their brains tired — computers worked just as well!
With metal limbs, they had the strength of ten men. They could live in the airless vacuum of space. They had no heart, no feelings, no emotions, and only one goal — power!
In the year 2070, a small blue planet caught their attention. They would land on its satellite and, from there, attack, ransack, destroy and finally abandon...
THE SATELLITE WAS THE MOON
THE HELPLESS PLANET — EARTH
THEIR NAMES? THE CYBERMEN!
Can the Doctor defeat the enemy whose threat is almost as great as that of the mighty Daleks?
Other Editions
Turkey | Paperback | Remzi Kitabevi | 1975
Doktor Kim: Ve Sibermenler was one of seven translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Remzi Kitabevi in Turkey during the mid-1970s. The book re-used the original Chris Achilleos cover artwork and was translated by Reha Pinar.
UK | Hardback | WH Allen | July 1981 | £4.50 | 0491029152
The first hardback edition, complete with new cover artwork by Bill Donohoe. Unfortunately, while the original Chris Achilleos art had featured a Cyberman from the 1968 story The Invasion, the new Donohoe piece failed to improve greatly on the situation, with the cover being based on a scene from Episode 6 of The Wheel in Space, also broadcast in 1968. The artwork was one of two pieces reproduced in David J Howe's large-format book Timeframe: An Illustrated History (Doctor Who Books, 1993) to represent Season 4 of the television series.
UK | Paperback | Target Books | 1981 | 95p | 0426114639 | (No.12)
The first paperback edition with the new Bill Donohoe cover artwork. Later reprints would be numbered No.12 in the Doctor Who Library.
A mystery virus is wreaking havoc among the crew of the Earth's weather control station on the moon.
While investigations are in progress International Space Headquarters Earth puts the entire Moon base into strict quarantine — the Doctor and his companions included!
To make matters worse, Moon base personnel inexplicably vanish and vital weather control equipment is sabotaged.
Who is responsible?
The Director of the base suspects the time-travellers. The Doctor fears that the ruthlessly evil Cybermen are at work...
UK | 4 × CD | BBC Audiobooks | March 2009 | £13.25 | 978-1408409916
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Anneke Wills who played Polly in the television series between 1966 and 1967. The release re-used the original Chris Achilleos cover artwork.
UK | Paperback | BBC Books | July 2011 | £4.99 | 978-1849901918
One of six classic Doctor Who novelisations re-released by BBC Books the same month, each of which was modelled after the first Target editions, with the original artwork and internal illustrations where necessary, in this case by Chris Achilleos and Alan Willow respectively. Each volume also contained a new background chapter about the characters and situations and an introduction — in the case of Doctor Who and the Cybermen the latter was by Gareth Roberts, who by that time had contributed four episodes to the television series, as well as writing a number of original Doctor Who novels. To round things off, all six books had the logo in gold foil.
eBook | BBC Digital | July 2011
Digital edition of the book re-released the same month in paperback by BBC Books.
In 2070, the Earth's weather is controlled from a base on the moon. But when the Doctor and his friends arrive, all is not well. They discover unexplained drops of air pressure, minor problems with the weather control systems, and an outbreak of a mysterious plague.
With Jamie injured, and members of the crew going missing, the Doctor realises that the moonbase is under attack. Some malevolent force is infecting the crew and sabotaging the systems as a prelude to an invasion of Earth. And the Doctor thinks he knows who is behind it: the Cybermen.
This novel is based on 'The Moonbase', a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 11 February-4 March 1967.
Featuring the Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton, and his companions Polly, Ben and Jamie.
Television Story
The Moonbase
4 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Black and White
11/02/67 Episode 1 Kit Pedler
18/02/67 Episode 2 Kit Pedler
25/02/67 Episode 3 Kit Pedler
04/03/67 Episode 4 Kit Pedler
Notes
- Doctor Who and the Cybermen was the first of five novelisations to be penned by Gerry Davis, and the first of three which he would write that featured the Cybermen. His novelisation of The Tenth Planet followed in 1976 with Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen completing the sequence in 1978.
- The Moonbase was the only script for Doctor Who to be solely written by Kit Pedler, who had co-written The Tenth Planet with Gerry Davis the previous year — the debut story for the Cybermen. They would later collaborate on The Tomb of the Cybermen, before going on to co-create Doomwatch for BBC1 in the 1970s and writing three original science fiction novels: Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters, The Dynostar Menace and Brainrack. Back on Doctor Who, Pedler also supplied the ideas which formed the basis for The War Machines, The Wheel in Space and The Invasion.
- The Moonbase was the second Doctor Who story to feature the Cybermen, and in many respects was a more polished re-working of their first adventure, The Tenth Planet. The era of the Second Doctor would become known for the number of monsters that were to crop up, and the Cybermen were by far the most popular, appearing a further three times over the following two years in The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Wheel in Space and The Invasion.
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