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.
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: The Power of the Daleks
by John Peel
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- July 1993
- Book Number: 154
Back Cover Blurb
THE STRANGER DREW HIMSELF UP TO HIS FULL HEIGHT. 'I AM THE DOCTOR,' HE ANNOUNCED.
Disoriented after his regeneration, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Earth Colony Vulcan. Ben and Polly are disturbed — the Doctor isn't the man he used to be.
The Doctor too is worried. The colonists have found the remains of two Daleks — which they plan to revive.
Once revived, the Daleks claim they are content to serve humanity. Can it really be true? Or do they have their own, more sinister plans?
THE STRANGER DREW HIMSELF UP TO HIS FULL HEIGHT. 'I AM THE DOCTOR,' HE ANNOUNCED.
Disoriented after his regeneration, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to the Earth Colony Vulcan. Ben and Polly are disturbed — the Doctor isn't the man he used to be.
The Doctor too is worried. The colonists have found the remains of two Daleks — which they plan to revive.
Once revived, the Daleks claim they are content to serve humanity. Can it really be true? Or do they have their own, more sinister plans?
Television Story
The Power of the Daleks
Script Writer: David Whitaker
6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
05/11/66 Episode One
12/11/66 Episode Two
19/12/66 Episode Three
26/12/66 Episode Four
03/12/66 Episode Five
10/12/66 Episode Six
The Power of the Daleks
Script Writer: David Whitaker
6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
05/11/66 Episode One
12/11/66 Episode Two
19/12/66 Episode Three
26/12/66 Episode Four
03/12/66 Episode Five
10/12/66 Episode Six
CD 
Audio Download (UK) 
None of the episodes are known to exist, but off-air audio recordings of all six episodes were released on CD by BBC Wordwide in August 2004 with linking narration by Anneke Wills.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Daleks
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Daleks
Notes
- Some two years after the publication of Battlefield by Marc Platt, The Power of the Daleks became the penultimate novelisation based on a television Doctor Who story to be published by Virgin Publishing. However, unlike the previous 153 titles, it wasn't to be published by Target Books. With the start of the New Adventures range of original Doctor Who novels in June 1991, Virgin had set up the new Doctor Who Books imprint, and the novelisations of The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks and the radio story The Paradise of Death would all be part of the new range. In a nod to the previous series, all three titles would feature the Target logo inside and were numbered to fit in with the existing novelisations. Unlike the Target novelisations, however, the lengths of these three books would be considerably longer, and roughly equivalent to the original Doctor Who novels then being published.
- John Peel's first work on the Doctor Who books was a novelisation of Terry Nation's third Dalek story, The Chase, in July 1989. This was rapidly followed by a two-part novelisation of The Daleks' Master Plan, published under the titles Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time. Between these and his two Second Doctor novelisation, Peel also contributed Timewym: Genesys to the New Adventures range of novels, the first book in the series. He would later go on to write Evolution, a Fourth Doctor and Sarah tale for the Missing Adventures range, before bowing out with War of the Daleks and Legacy of the Daleks for BBC Books' range of Eighth Doctor Adventures in the late nineties.
- The original scripts to The Power of the Daleks were released by Titan Books in March 1993 as Doctor Who The Scripts: The Power of the Daleks.
- The Power of the Daleks was the first television story to feature the Second Doctor. It was also the first complete story featuring the Daleks that wasn't partly written by their creator, Terry Nation.
Doctor Who: The Highlanders
by Gerry Davis
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- August 1984
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Highlanders
UK / Paperback / Target Books / November 1984 / No.90
Doctor Who: The Highlanders
UK / Paperback / Target Books / November 1984 / No.90
Back Cover Blurb
History books don't always tell the whole story. Certainly there is no record of an episode that occurred when the Scots, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746...
And the presence at the time of a blue police box on the Scottish moors seems to have escaped the notice of most eye-witnesses...
THE HIGHLANDERS sets the record straight. And while the incidents described may not be of great interest to historians, for Jamie McCrimmon they mark the beginning of a series of extraordinary adventures.
History books don't always tell the whole story. Certainly there is no record of an episode that occurred when the Scots, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746...
And the presence at the time of a blue police box on the Scottish moors seems to have escaped the notice of most eye-witnesses...
THE HIGHLANDERS sets the record straight. And while the incidents described may not be of great interest to historians, for Jamie McCrimmon they mark the beginning of a series of extraordinary adventures.
Television Story
The Highlanders
Script Writers: Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
17/12/66 Episode 1
24/12/66 Episode 2
31/12/66 Episode 3
07/01/67 Episode 4
The Highlanders
Script Writers: Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
17/12/66 Episode 1
24/12/66 Episode 2
31/12/66 Episode 3
07/01/67 Episode 4
CD
Audio Download (UK)
None of the episodes are known to exist, but off-air audio recordings of all four episodes were released on CD by BBC Wordwide in August 2000 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Notes
- The Highlanders marked the introduction to the television series of Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), who would remain as part of the TARDIS crew right the way through the Second Doctor's era. The character was to appear twice more in the television series, however. Firstly as a ghostly apparition in the twentieth-anniversary story The Five Doctors and lastly in the 1985 story The Two Doctors, which saw the Sixth and Second Doctors teaming up to defeat the Sontarans.
- Despite the original remit for Doctor Who calling for a mix of science fiction and so-called "historical" stories, by 1966 it had become apparent that the space age tales were significantly more popular with the viewing public. With this in mind, The Highlanders became the final such story of the black and white era and it would be a further sixteen years before Black Orchid became the next Doctor Who story to have a period setting without any sci-fi trappings.
- Despite the writing credit, Elwyn Jones didn't actually contribute to the writing of the original scripts in any way.
Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace
by Nigel Robinson
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- February 1988
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace
UK / Paperback / Target Books / July 1988 / No.129
Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace
UK / Paperback / Target Books / July 1988 / No.129
Back Cover Blurb
When the TARDIS lands on a deserted volcanic island the Doctor and his companions find themselves kidnapped by primitive sea-people. Taken into the bowels of the earth they discover they are in the lost kingdom of Atlantis.
Offered as sacrifices to the fish-goddess, Amdo, the Doctor and his companions are rescued from the jaws of death by the famous scientist, Zaroff.
But they are still not safe and nor are the people of Atlantis. For Zaroff has a plan, a plan that will make him the greatest scientist of all time — he will raise Atlantis above the waves — even if it means destroying the world.
When the TARDIS lands on a deserted volcanic island the Doctor and his companions find themselves kidnapped by primitive sea-people. Taken into the bowels of the earth they discover they are in the lost kingdom of Atlantis.
Offered as sacrifices to the fish-goddess, Amdo, the Doctor and his companions are rescued from the jaws of death by the famous scientist, Zaroff.
But they are still not safe and nor are the people of Atlantis. For Zaroff has a plan, a plan that will make him the greatest scientist of all time — he will raise Atlantis above the waves — even if it means destroying the world.
Television Story
The Underwater Menace
Script Writer: Geoffrey Orme
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
14/01/67 Episode 1
21/01/67 Episode 2
28/01/67 Episode 3
04/02/67 Episode 4
The Underwater Menace
Script Writer: Geoffrey Orme
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
14/01/67 Episode 1
21/01/67 Episode 2
28/01/67 Episode 3
04/02/67 Episode 4
DVD
CD
Audio Download (UK)
Episode 2 exists as a 16mm telerecording and has been released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time box set in both the UK and United States. Off-air audio recordings exist of all the missing episodes and the complete story was released on CD by BBC Worldwide in February 2005 with linking narration by Anneke Wills.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Notes
- The Underwater Menace was the third of Nigel Robinson's four Doctor Who novelisations for WH Allen/Target to be published.
- In an extraordinary turn of events — and people with any sense will stop reading right now...this is desperately sad! — the paperback edition of The Underwater Menace had the book number on the spine highlighted by a white block of colour behind it, making it stand out like a sore thumb from every other Target novelisation. Not since the Dr. Who and the Mutants fiasco had such a heinous publishing crime been committed...
- The Underwater Menace was the only story to be written for Doctor Who by Geoffrey Orme.
Doctor Who and the Cybermen
by Gerry Davis
Audio Book
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Anneke Wills.
- UK
- Paperback
- Target Books
- February 1975
Other Editions
Doktor Kim: Ve Sibermenler
Turkey / Paperback / Remzi Kitabevi / 1975
Doctor Who and the Cybermen
UK / Hardback / WH Allen / July 1981
UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1981 / (No.12)
Doktor Kim: Ve Sibermenler
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.
Doctor Who and the Cybermen
UK / Hardback / WH Allen / July 1981 UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1981 / (No.12)
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1975)
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?
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1981)
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...
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?
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1981)
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...
Television Story
The Moonbase
Script Writer: Kit Pedler
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
11/02/67 Episode 1
18/02/67 Episode 2
25/02/67 Episode 3
04/03/67 Episode 4
The Moonbase
Script Writer: Kit Pedler
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
11/02/67 Episode 1
18/02/67 Episode 2
25/02/67 Episode 3
04/03/67 Episode 4
DVD
CD 
Audio Download (UK)
Episode 2 and Episode 4 both exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time box set in both the UK and United States. Off-air audio recordings exist of both the missing episodes and the complete story was released on CD by BBC Worldwide in April 2001 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen
Audio Book- UK
- BBC Audiobooks
- 4 × CD / Download
- 4 hours 16 minutes
- March 2009
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.
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror
by Ian Stuart Black
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- July 1987
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror
UK / Paperback / Target Books / December 1987 / No.123
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror
UK / Paperback / Target Books / December 1987 / No.123
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
In the far future a group of humans is living an idyllic existence on a distant planet. Their colony is run like a gigantic holiday camp and nothing seems to trouble their carefree existence.
When one of them claims that the colony is being invaded by hideous monsters, no one takes him seriously. But the Doctor's suspicions are immediately aroused.
What is the terrible menace that lurks at the heart of this apparent paradise? Why are the colonists unaware of the danger that lies before their very eyes? And what is the Macra Terror?
In the far future a group of humans is living an idyllic existence on a distant planet. Their colony is run like a gigantic holiday camp and nothing seems to trouble their carefree existence.
When one of them claims that the colony is being invaded by hideous monsters, no one takes him seriously. But the Doctor's suspicions are immediately aroused.
What is the terrible menace that lurks at the heart of this apparent paradise? Why are the colonists unaware of the danger that lies before their very eyes? And what is the Macra Terror?
Television Story
The Macra Terror
Script Writer: Ian Stuart Black
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
11/03/67 Episode 1
18/03/67 Episode 2
25/03/67 Episode 3
01/04/67 Episode 4
The Macra Terror
Script Writer: Ian Stuart Black
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
11/03/67 Episode 1
18/03/67 Episode 2
25/03/67 Episode 3
01/04/67 Episode 4
CD
Audio Download (UK)
None of the episodes are known to exist, but off-air audio recordings of all four episodes were released on CD by BBC Wordwide in October 1999 with linking narration by Colin Baker.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Macra
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Macra
Notes
- The Macra Terror was to be the last of Ian Stuart Black's three stories for the Doctor Who television series, although it was the second he novelised for WH Allen/Target — The War Machines would complete the set in February 1989. Despite being regarding as something of a middling story, the Macra made a completely unexpected return in Russell T Davies' Gridlock, in 2007.
Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones
by Terrance Dicks
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- December 1986
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones
UK / Paperback / Target Books / May 1987 / No.116
Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones
UK / Paperback / Target Books / May 1987 / No.116
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
In the summer of 1966, thousands of young people are taking their holidays with Chameleon Tours. And not one of them is coming back.
When the TARDIS lands at Gatwick Airport the Doctor is drawn into a web of intrigue and deception. To add to his troubles, Polly mysteriously vanishes.
Or does she? The girl at the Chameleon Tours desk looks just like Polly and even sounds like her, but she claims she comes from Zurich.
Who is she really? Who is behind these abductions? And for what sinister purpose? Soon the Doctor and Jamie must face a desperate group of faceless aliens — the deadly Chameleons...
In the summer of 1966, thousands of young people are taking their holidays with Chameleon Tours. And not one of them is coming back.
When the TARDIS lands at Gatwick Airport the Doctor is drawn into a web of intrigue and deception. To add to his troubles, Polly mysteriously vanishes.
Or does she? The girl at the Chameleon Tours desk looks just like Polly and even sounds like her, but she claims she comes from Zurich.
Who is she really? Who is behind these abductions? And for what sinister purpose? Soon the Doctor and Jamie must face a desperate group of faceless aliens — the deadly Chameleons...
Television Story
The Faceless Ones
Script Writers: David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke
6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
08/04/67 Episode 1
15/04/67 Episode 2
22/04/67 Episode 3
29/04/67 Episode 4
06/05/67 Episode 5
13/05/67 Episode 6
The Faceless Ones
Script Writers: David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke
6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
08/04/67 Episode 1
15/04/67 Episode 2
22/04/67 Episode 3
29/04/67 Episode 4
06/05/67 Episode 5
13/05/67 Episode 6
DVD
CD
Audio Download (UK)
Episode 1 and Episode 3 both exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time box set in both the UK and United States. Off-air audio recordings exist of all the missing episodes and the complete story was released on CD by BBC Worldwide in February 2002 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Second Doctor / Ben Jackson / Polly / Jamie McCrimmon
Notes
- The Faceless Ones was the final television story to feature Ben and Polly, who returned to their everyday lives at the conclusion of the story.
- The Faceless Ones marks the earliest work on the television series by Malcolm Hulke. He would later co-write The War Games with Terrance Dicks (with whom he had already worked on The Avengers, co-writing The
Mauritius Penny, Intercrime and Concerto as well as four others on his own) and would go on to be one of the main contributors to the Third Doctor's era, scripting no less than five complete stories and providing an extreme re-write to David Whitaker's The Ambassadors of Death.
Along with Dicks, Hulke would go on to be the other major writer for Target's range of Doctor Who novelisations during the mid-1970s, in the process novelising all of his own work apart from The Faceless Ones and The Ambassadors of Death, and also being called upon to novelise Robert Sloman's The Green Death. Notable successes include Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters, Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion and the aforementioned novelisation of The Green Death, which all showed the range at their very best.
The Faceless Ones was to be David Ellis' only work for the television series.
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks
by John Peel
- UK
- Paperback
- Doctor Who Books
- August 1993
- Book Number: 155
Back Cover Blurb
THE DALEKS TELL ME I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING FOR THEM — SOMETHING I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN DO.
Stranded in Victorian London, seperated from his TARDIS and forced to cooperate with the Daleks, it seems that the Doctor's luck has finally run out.
The Daleks are searching for the elusive Human Factor, and want the Doctor to help them find it. With Victoria and Jamie held captive, the Doctor has no choice.
An army of Daleks stands poised to conquer the universe. Will the Human Factor be their ultimate weapon?
THE DALEKS TELL ME I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING FOR THEM — SOMETHING I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN DO.
Stranded in Victorian London, seperated from his TARDIS and forced to cooperate with the Daleks, it seems that the Doctor's luck has finally run out.
The Daleks are searching for the elusive Human Factor, and want the Doctor to help them find it. With Victoria and Jamie held captive, the Doctor has no choice.
An army of Daleks stands poised to conquer the universe. Will the Human Factor be their ultimate weapon?
Television Story
The Evil of the Daleks
Script Writer: David Whitaker
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
20/05/67 Episode 1
27/05/67 Episode 2
03/06/67 Episode 3
10/06/67 Episode 4
17/06/67 Episode 5
24/06/67 Episode 6
01/07/67 Episode 7
The Evil of the Daleks
Script Writer: David Whitaker
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
20/05/67 Episode 1
27/05/67 Episode 2
03/06/67 Episode 3
10/06/67 Episode 4
17/06/67 Episode 5
24/06/67 Episode 6
01/07/67 Episode 7
DVD
CD
Audio Download (UK)
Episode 2 exists as a 16mm telerecording and has been released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time box set in both the UK and United States. Off-air audio recordings exist of all the missing episodes and the complete story was released on CD by BBC Worldwide in August 2004 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Daleks
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Daleks
Notes
- The Evil of the Daleks was the final novelisation based on a television Doctor Who story to be published by Virgin, leaving just The Pirate Planet, City of Death, Shada, Resurrecton of the Daleks an Revelation of the Daleks un-novelised. Despite rumours over the following few years suggesting that agreement had had been reached with script writer Eric Saward to novelise the two outstanding Dalek stories, nothing ever saw print. Like the novelisation of The Power of the Daleks from the previous month, The Evil of the Daleks was published under the Doctor Who Books imprint, but was numbered as part of the original Target Books range.
As well as being the final novelisation to be published which was based on the original 1963-1989 television series, The Evil of the Daleks also managed to wrap up the Second Doctor's era, with the first title published being Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen way back in 1974. The only other eras to have novelisations released based on every single television story were those for the First, Third and Seventh Doctors. - The Evil of the Daleks was John Peel's fifth and final final Doctor Who novelisation, wrapping up all of the previously un-novelised Dalek stories from the 1960s. He would later go on to write Evolution for the Missing Adventures range, before bowing out with War of the Daleks and Legacy of the Daleks for BBC Books' range of Eighth Doctor Adventures in the late nineties.
Away from Doctor Who he has written novels based on numerous telefantasy series including: The Avengers, Eerie Indiana, The Outer Limits, Quantum Leap, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. - The Evil of the Daleks was the first television story to feature Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling). It was also to mark the beginning of a five years absence from the series by the Daleks, who wouldn't return until The Day of the Daleks in 1972.
- The Evil of the Daleks was the first television Dalek story in which the concept of an Emperor Dalek was used — something which wasn't to the liking of Terry Nation. The story concluded with a civil war on the Dalek's home world of Skaro, and the apparent destruction of the most feared beings in the universe.
