Doctor Who
Novelisations: Second Doctor: Season 5
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 the Tomb of the Cybermen

Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen cover image
by Gerry Davis
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • May 1978
  • (Book Number: 66)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Longbow/WH Allen / 1978

Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1992 / No.66
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1978)
The Cybermen — silver, indestructible monsters whose only goal is power — seem to have disappeared from their planet Telos. Whan a party of archaeologists, joined by the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria, land on the Cybermen's barren, deserted planet, they uncover what appears to be their tomb.

But once inside it becomes clear that the Cybermen are not dead, and some in the group of archaeologists desperately want to re-activate these monsters! How can the Doctor defeat these ruthless, power-seeking humans and the Cybermen?
Television Story
The Tomb of the Cybermen
Script Writers: Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

02/09/67 Episode 1
09/09/67 Episode 2
16/09/67 Episode 3
23/09/67 Episode 4

All four episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings and have been released on DVD in both the UK and United States. The complete soundtrack to the story, with linking narration by Frazer Hines, was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in May 2006.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen / Cybermats
Notes
  • Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen was the last of three novelisations to be written by Gerry Davis which featured the Cybermen. Doctor Who and the Cybermen, a novelisation of The Moonbase, had been published in 1975 with the Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet being published the following year.

    One final Gerry Davis story featuring the Cybermen would be published, although not until 1992. Return of the Cybermen was a four-part story written by Davis for Season 12 of Doctor Who in 1975, but before it was produced it underwent extensive re-writing by series script editor Robert Holmes, eventually being re-titled The Revenge of the Cybermen for transmission. Davis' original scripts for the story were eventually published in Issue 97 of the DWB fanzine in January 1992, before being reprinted a year later in The DWB Compendium: The Best of the First 100 Issues (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com).
  • The scripts to this story were released by Titan Books in 1989 as Doctor Who The Scripts: The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • The planet Telos would be revisited in the 1985 story Attack of the Cybermen, which was a continuity-heavy story that picked up threads from both this story and The Tenth Planet which had aired in 1966.
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen

Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • November 1974
Other Editions
Doktor Kim: Ve Korkunç Karadamlari
Click for cover image Turkey / Paperback / Remzi Kitabevi / 1975

Doktor Kim: Ve Korkunç Karadamlari 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 Abominable Snowmen
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1983 / No.1
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / WH Allen / January 1985

Doutor Who e os Abomináveis Homens das Neves
Click for cover image Portugal / Paperback / Presença / 1983 / 9

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


Docteur Who: L'Abominable Hommes des Neige
Click for cover image France / Paperback / Editions Garancière / August 1987 / 7 (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com)

Docteur Who: L'Abominable Hommes des Neige was one of eight Doctor Who novelisations to be released in France by Editions Garancière.

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1974)
A single blow from the giant, hairy paw smashes the explorer to the ground. Terrified, he flees from the monster's glowing eyes and savage fangs...

Why are the peaceful Yeti now spreading death and destruction? And what is the secret behind the glowing cave on the mountain?

When DOCTOR WHO discovers that a long-dead friend is still alive, he knows why his visit to the lonely Himalayan monastery has led to a struggle to save the Earth!

'DOCTOR WHO, the children's own programme which adults adore...'
Gerard Garrett, The Daily Sketch

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
The Tibetan monks at the monastery of Det-sen are worried, frightened men. Many of their companions have been killed — and it seems the Yeti are the cause of all their troubles.

But normally the Yeti, giant man-like creatures living in the remotest peaks of the Himalayas, are seen only very rarely and are notoriously timid.

What is the explanation for their apparent transformation into ferocious brutes, monsters with glowing eyes and savage fangs who are spreading death and destruction in the valley of peace?

When the Doctor arrives at the monastery, his first visit for three hundred years, he expects to be wellcomed with open arms. But because of the mysterious killings the reception that awaits him is anything but friendly...
Television Story
The Abominable Snowmen
Script Writers: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

30/09/67 Episode 1
07/10/67 Episode 2
14/10/67 Episode 3
21/10/67 Episode 4
28/10/67 Episode 5
04/11/67 Episode 6

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 July 2001 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
Professor Travers / The Great Intelligence / Yeti
Notes
  • Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen was the first Second Doctor novelisation to be published by Target Books.
  • The Abominable Snowmen was the first television story to feature the Great Intelligence, the Yeti, and Professor Travers. It proved so popular that a sequel in the form of The Web of Fear was quickly commissioned. A third story, set in the Highlands of Scotland, was considered for Season Six but ultimately wasn't produced.
  • Downtime, an unofficial spin-off drama produced in 1995, saw Victoria once again encountering the Great Intelligence, the Yeti and Professor Travers. A novelisation of the story was published by Virgin Publishing as part of their Missing Adventures range in 1996.

    The Great Intelligence also made a significant appearance in Millennial Rites, an original Sixth Doctor novel published in October 1995. This saw the return of Professor Traver's daughter, Anne, who had first appeared in The Web of Fear.
Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors

Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors cover image
by Brian Hayles
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • March 1976
  • (Book Number: 33)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / March 1976
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
The world is in the grip of a second Ice Age, and faces total destruction from the rapidly advancing glaciers.

DOCTOR WHO, with Victoria and Jamie, lands at a top scientific base in England, where they have just unearthed an ancient ICE WARRIOR. Aliens from Mars, preserved in the ice for centuries and now revitalised, the Ice Warriors feel ready to take over...

Can the Doctor overcome these warlike Martians and halt the relentless approach of the ice glaciers...?
Television Story
The Ice Warriors
Script Writer: Brian Hayles

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

11/11/67 ONE
18/11/67 TWO
25/11/67 THREE
02/12/67 FOUR
09/12/67 FIVE
16/12/67 SIX

TWO and THREE are currently not known to exist, although the remaining four episodes are all held as 16mm telerecording and have been released on video in both the UK and United States. The video was accompanied by a CD containing off-air recordings of the two missing episodes, although without any linking narration to explain what was happening. The complete story was released on CD by BBC Worldwide in August 2005 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Ice Warriors
Notes
  • Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors was the second and final Doctor Who book to be written by Brian Hayles, whose novelisation of The Curse of Peladon in 1974 had completed the first year of brand new novelisations from Target. Although it was to be reprinted on a number of occasions, Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors was to be one of the few books from the early years of Target's Doctor Who range which was never to be re-issued with new cover art.
  • The Ice Warriors, strangely enough, was the first story to feature the Ice Warriors! They would return to the television series on three further occasions in The Seeds of Death, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon, as well as playing a major role in the unproduced Season Twenty-Three story Mission to Magnus.

    During the 1990s, the Ice Warriors were brought back on several occasion in the New Adventures novels, most notably in Legacy (a sequel to the earlier Peladon stories) and GodEngine.
Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World

Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World cover image
by Ian Marter
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • April 1981
  • (Book Number: 24)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / WH Allen / April 1981

Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / May 1993 / No.24
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1981)
In the year 2030 only one man seems to know what action to take when the world is hit by a series of terrible natural disasters. Salamander's success in handling these monumental problems has brought him enormous power.

From the moment the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land on an Australian beach, they are caught up in a struggle for world domination — a struggle in which the Doctor's startling resemblance to Salamander's plays a vital role.
Television Story
The Enemy of the World
Script Writer: David Whitaker

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

23/12/67 Episode 1
30/12/67 Episode 2
06/01/68 Episode 3
13/01/68 Episode 4
20/01/68 Episode 5
27/01/68 Episode 6

Episode 3 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 2002 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield
Notes
  • Rather unsually, Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World was one of only four new Doctor Who novelisations to be published in 1981 due to a writers strike. Although this gave WH Allen an opportunity to publish a number of the earliest books in hardback for the first time, it would be a further five months before another "new" title was released — Terrance Dicks' novelisation of his own scripts to The State of Decay.
  • And if the sudden decrease in the number of books being published wasn't shocking enough, Ian Marter's use of "bastard" in his novelisation certainly raised a few eyebrows.

    Several years later, a Doctor Who Monthly reader named Howard Leatherbarrow would write in to the regular Matrix Data Bank column (Issue 75, April 1983) to enquire whether the word had actually been used in the original television production.

    And DWM's reply?
    "No, it was not used in the programme. With today's standards of life having lapsed considerably one supposes that in this contemporary novelisation the use of "bastard" was in keeping with the times and would not offend."
    Quite what the DWM writer's reaction to the use of words beginning with "S", "W" and even "F" would have been with the advent of the New Adventures novels in the early 1990s is something that we'll just have to wonder about...
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear

Doctor Who and the Web of Fear cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • August 1976
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / August 1976
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1983 / No.72

Doctor Who: The Web of Fear
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / December 1993 / No.72

Doctor Who and the Web of fear was also included as part of the The Doctor Who Omnibus from Book Club Associates in 1977.
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1976)
Forty years the Yeti had been quiet. A collector's item in a museum. Then without warning it awoke — and savagely murdered.

At about the same time patches of mist began to appear in Central London. People who lingered anytime in the mist were found dead, their faces covered in cobwebs. The cobweb seeped down, penetrating the Underground System. Slowly it spread...

Then the Yeti reappeared, not just one but hordes, roaming the misty streets and cobwebbed tunnels, killing everyone in their path. Central London was gripped tight in a Web of Fear...

Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
Forty years the Yeti had been quiet — Collector's item in a museum. Then without warning it awoke — and savagely murdered.

At about the same time patches of mist began to appear in Central London. People who lingered anytime in the mist were found dead, their faces smothered in cobwebs. The cobweb seeped down, penetrating the Underground System. Slowly it spread...

Then the Yeti reappeared, not just one but hordes, roaming the misty streets and cobwebbed tunnels, killing everyone in their path. Central London was gripped tight in a Web of Fear...
Television Story
The Web of Fear
Script Writers: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

03/02/68 Episode 1
10/02/68 Episode 2
17/02/68 Episode 3
24/02/68 Episode 4
02/03/68 Episode 5
09/03/68 Episode 6

Episode 1 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 March 2000 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
Professor Travers / The Great Intelligence / Yeti / Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart / Anne Travers
Notes
  • The Web of Fear is a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen, which had been shown earlier in 1967. A third story, set in the Highlands of Scotland, was considered for Season Six but ultimately wasn't produced after Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln had a major falling out with the BBC.
  • Downtime, an unofficial spin-off drama produced in 1995, saw Victoria once again encountering the Great Intelligence, the Yeti and Professor Travers. A novelisation of the story was published by Virgin Publishing as part of their Missing Adventures range in 1996.

    The Great Intelligence also made a significant appearance in Millennial Rites, an original Sixth Doctor novel published in October 1995. This saw the return of Professor Traver's daughter, Anne, whose only television appearance had been in The Web of Fear.
  • One major point of interest about The Web of Fear is that it introduced the character of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), who would return to the programme just five months later in The Invasion, the eight-part Cyberman epic in which UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) were unveiled for the first time, under the command of the newly promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

    As well as laying the foundations for the Third Doctor's era, which would consist mainly of earth-bound adventures for its first years, The Invasion also introduced Corporal Benton who, along with the Brigadier, would be one of the regular characters in the coming years. Lethbridge-Stewart himself would continue to appear regularly up until Terror of the Zygons in 1975, by which time UNIT's days in the sun were effectively over, with a new production team in charge of the series. Despite this, the Brigadier would make several further appearances in the television series during the 1980s, beginning with Mawdryn Undead, where it is revealed he has retired from UNIT and become a maths teacher! The Five Doctors saw him once more paired up with the Second Doctor and battling a lone Yeti in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. His final on-screen appearnce to date (apart from a role in the Downtime video) was in Battlefield in 1989, in which he is called out of retirement to assist the Seventh Doctor.

    Unsurprisingly, the character would turn up in numerous original novels from Virgin Publishing and BBC Books in the 1990s and 2000s, including the alternate-history story Blood Heat, No Future, Happy Endings, The Dying Days and The Shadows of Avalon, as well as various titles set during the Third Doctor's exile on Earth when he worked as UNIT's scientific advisor.
Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep

Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep cover image
by Victor Pemberton
  • UK
  • Hardback
  • WH Allen
  • May 1986
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Fury from the Deep
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1986 / No.110
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
In the dark uncharted depths of the North Sea it has lurked, growing in stregth, growing in size, and striking terror into the hearts of mariners down the untold centuries.

Landing near a North Sea gas refinery off the east coast of England, the TARDIS crew are immediately accused of sabotage. Several rig crews have mysteriously vanished, strange pressure build-ups have been detected, and in the refinery's pipelines the Doctor can hear the steady, rhythmic beat of — what?

Soon the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria will find themselves at the unrelenting mercy of the deadliest and most terrifying foe they have ever encountered.
Television Story
Fury from the Deep
Script Writer: Victor Pemberton

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

16/03/68 Episode 1
23/03/68 Episode 2
30/03/68 Episode 3
06/04/68 Episode 4
13/04/68 Episode 5
20/04/68 Episode 6

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 February 2004 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Victoria Waterfield
Notes
  • Fury from the Deep was the final television story to feature Victoria, who stayed behind with the Harris family at the conclusion of the story. The character did return, however, in the unofficial spin-off video Downtime in 1994, which was novelised as part of the Missing Adventures range in January 1996.
  • Fury from the Deep was the only story to be written for the television series by Victor Pemberton, although he had previously appeared on screen in the series as an unnamed character in The Moonbase and had served as story editor on The Tomb of the Cybermen. Away from Doctor Who, he would go on to write The Day of the Clone and the final episode of The Year of the Burn-Up for Timeslip, and The Power of Atep and Sisters Deadly for Season Three of Ace of Wands.

    In 1976 he renewed his acquaintance with Doctor Who when he scripted the forty-five minute audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pescatons, which featured the Fourth Doctor and Sarah and which was released on 12" record and cassette.

    Fury from the Deep was finally novelised in 1986, with Victor Pemberton adapting his own scripts. And as the flash on the front cover said, it was definitely a "bumper volume" — at the time being the longest Doctor Who novelisation yet published, something which necessitated a one-off price rise.

    By 1991, all but a handful of the television Doctor Who stories had been novelised and the decision had been made to launch a series of wholly original novels. Launched in June 1991 with Timewyrm: Genesys, the New Adventures began just two months before Victor Pemberton's adaptation of Doctor Who and the Pescatons became the very final entry in the Target Books range of novelisations.
Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Hardback
  • WH Allen
  • March 1988
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1988 / No.130
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
When the TARDIS rematerialises inside a rocket the Doctor and Jamie are alarmed by the presence of a hostile Servo-Robot. They discover that the rocket is drifting in the orbit of a giant space station — the Wheel in Space.

Once inside this magnificent space ship they are bewildered by its complexity and sheer size. The technicians and programmers are highly trained, but who are they working for?

Suspecting the worst, the Doctor is still horrified to find the deadly Cybermen in control. What evil plans are they plotting? Who or what are the Cybermats? Can the Doctor trust anyone on board to help him stop the Wheel as it spins relentlessly through space?
Television Story
The Wheel in Space
Script Writer: David Whitaker, from a story by Kit Pedler

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White

27/04/68 Episode 1
04/05/68 Episode 2
11/05/68 Episode 3
18/05/68 Episode 4
25/05/68 Episode 5
01/06/68 Episode 6

Episode 3 and Episode 6 exist as 16mm and 35mm telerecordings respectively 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 May 2004 with linking narration by Wendy Padbury.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Zoe Heriot

Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen / Cybermats
Notes
  • The Wheel in Space was the first television story to feature Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury).
  • As in the previous Cyberman adventure, The Tomb of the Cybermen, the rodent-like Cybermats make an appearance, this time with an apparent taste for the bernalium which powers the wheel's x-ray laser. The creatures would make their third and final appearance some seven years later in Revenge of the Cybermen.