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 and the Auton Invasion
by Terrance Dicks
Audio Book
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Caroline John who played Liz Shaw in the television series.
- UK
- Paperback
- Target Books
- January 1974
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / January 1974
Doktor Kim: Ve Otonlar
Turkey / Paperback / Remzi Kitabevi / 1975
Tohtori Kuka: Ja Autonien Hyökkäys
Finland / Hardback / Weilin + Göös / 1976
Doctor Who en de Invasie van de Autonen
Holland / Paperback / Gooise Uitgeverij / 1977
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Hardback / WH Allen / November 1981
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1982 / (No.6)
(Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion)
Japan / Paperback / Hayakawa Bunko / April 1980 / 2
Doutor Who e a Invasao dos Autones
Portugal / Paperback / Editorial Presença / 1982 / 1
Doctor Who: The Auton Invasion
UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1991 / No.6
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / January 1974Doktor Kim: Ve Otonlar
Turkey / Paperback / Remzi Kitabevi / 1975
Doktor Kim: Ve Otonlar Karadamlari was one of seven translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Remzi Kitabevi in Turkey during the mid-1970s.
Tohtori Kuka: Ja Autonien Hyökkäys
Finland / Hardback / Weilin + Göös / 1976
Tohtori Kuka: Ja Autonien Hyökkäys was one of two translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Weilin + Göös in Finland during the 1970s.
Doctor Who en de Invasie van de Autonen
Holland / Paperback / Gooise Uitgeverij / 1977
Doctor Who en de Invasie van de Autonen was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Holland in the 1970s by Gooise Uitgeverij.
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Hardback / WH Allen / November 1981Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
UK / Paperback / Target Books / 1982 / (No.6)(Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion)
Japan / Paperback / Hayakawa Bunko / April 1980 / 2The Japanese translation of Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion was one of five translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in the country during 1980 by Hayakawa Bunko.
Doutor Who e a Invasao dos Autones
Portugal / Paperback / Editorial Presença / 1982 / 1Doutor Who e a Invasao dos Autones was one of ten translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Editorial Presença in Portugal.
Doctor Who: The Auton Invasion
UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1991 / No.6
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1974)
In this, the first adventure of his third 'incarnation', DOCTOR WHO, Liz Shaw and the Brigadier grapple with the nightmarish invasion of the AUTONS — living, giant-sized, plastic-modelled 'humans' with no hair and sightless eyes; waxwork replicas and tailors' dummies whose murderous behavior is directed by the NESTENE CONSCIOUSNESS — a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportins and indescribably hideous appearance.
'This DOCTOR WHO adventure (televised as Spearhead from Space) wins my vote as the best in the lifetime of the series so far.'
Matthew Coady, The Daily Mirror
'DOCTOR WHO, the children's own programme which adults adore...'
Gerard Garrett, The Daily Sketch
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1982)
A mysterious shower of meteorites lands in Essex, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT has reason to believe that they have been deliberately aimed at the Earth's surface.
The Doctor joins forces with the Brigadier and Liz Shaw in a desperate bid to prevent the nightmarish invasion of the sinister Autons. Living models of human beings — their murderous behavior is controlled and directed by the Nestene Consciousness, a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportions and indescribably hideous appearance.
In this, the first adventure of his third 'incarnation', DOCTOR WHO, Liz Shaw and the Brigadier grapple with the nightmarish invasion of the AUTONS — living, giant-sized, plastic-modelled 'humans' with no hair and sightless eyes; waxwork replicas and tailors' dummies whose murderous behavior is directed by the NESTENE CONSCIOUSNESS — a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportins and indescribably hideous appearance.
'This DOCTOR WHO adventure (televised as Spearhead from Space) wins my vote as the best in the lifetime of the series so far.'
Matthew Coady, The Daily Mirror
'DOCTOR WHO, the children's own programme which adults adore...'
Gerard Garrett, The Daily Sketch
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1982)
A mysterious shower of meteorites lands in Essex, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT has reason to believe that they have been deliberately aimed at the Earth's surface.
The Doctor joins forces with the Brigadier and Liz Shaw in a desperate bid to prevent the nightmarish invasion of the sinister Autons. Living models of human beings — their murderous behavior is controlled and directed by the Nestene Consciousness, a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportions and indescribably hideous appearance.
Television Story
Spearhead from Space
Script Writer: Robert Holmes
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
03/01/70 Episode 1
12/01/70 Episode 2
19/01/70 Episode 3
26/01/70 Episode 4
Spearhead from Space
Script Writer: Robert Holmes
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
03/01/70 Episode 1
12/01/70 Episode 2
19/01/70 Episode 3
26/01/70 Episode 4
DVD
All four episodes exist in their original format and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Nestene Consciousness / The Autons
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Nestene Consciousness / The Autons
Audio Book- UK
- BBC Audiobooks
- 4 × CD / Download
- 4 hours 58 minutes
- June 2008
Notes
- Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion was the first new novelisation to be released by Target Books after their reprinting of the three 1960s titles (The Daleks, The Zarbi and The Crusaders) a year earlier. It was released simultaneously with Malcolm Hulke's novelisation of the following story, Doctor Who and the Silurians.
- Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion was the very first Doctor Who novelisation to be written by Terrance Dicks who, at the time of publication, was script editor on the television series. Over the next thirteen years he would go on to novelise a further sixty-two Doctor Who stories for Target, before becoming a regular contributor to the various ranges of original Doctor Who novels which were published between 1991 and 2008. He also wrote, or co-wrote, six stories for the television series between 1969 and 1983.
- Spearhead from Space was the very first story to feature the Third Doctor, who had been sentenced to exile on Earth by the Time Lords for interfering in the affairs of other worlds (see The War Games). To prevent him leaving the planet, his TARDIS had been immobilised and his memories of how to operate it were also blocked.
The story also reintroduced UNIT, the military organisation which had first appeared in the 1968 story The Invasion, and also Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart who had appeared in that story and had first been introduced in 1967's The Web of Fear.
Making her debut was Dr Liz Shaw, an expert in meteorites and physics who would be present throughout Season Seven as the Doctor's assistant.
The story also introduced the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons who would return the following year in Terror of the Autons. The Autons were famously in the form of shop mannequins whose hands would drop away to reveal a gun. They were to return in the television series on one further occasion, in Rose, the debut episode of the revived Doctor Who series in 2005.
Needless to say, the original Doctor Who novels have occasionally featured both the Nestene Consciousness and the Autins, most notably in Gary Russell's Business Unusual in 1997, and Craig Hinton's 2004 Sixth Doctor novel SynthespiansTM. - The early part of the story features the arrival on Earth of a shower of meterorites, one of a number that have all fallen in the same area. The meteorites are all hollow and apparently contained an organism of some kind.
In this particular case they are transporting parts of the Nestene Consciousness, but BBC1 viewers in 1970 could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a re-make of the 1955 serial Quatermass II which also included showers of hollow meteorites falling to Earth in England and which were being tracked by the military.
By a strange coincidence this idea was also used in the 1966 science fiction movie Invasion, based on a storyline by one Robert Holmes...
Cover image of Doctor Who en de Invasie van de Autonen supplied by Anthony Forth
Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters
by Malcolm Hulke
Audio Book
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Caroline John who played Liz Shaw in the television series.
- UK
- Paperback
- Target Books
- January 1974
- (Book Number: No.9)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters
UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / January 1974
Tohtori Kuka: Ja Luolahirviöt
Finland / Hardback / Weilin + Göös / 1976
Doctor Who en de Holen-Monsters
Holland / Paperback / Gooise Uitgeverij / 1976
(Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters)
Japan / Paperback / Hayakawa Bunko / May 1980 / 3
Doutor Who e os Monstros das Cavernas
Portugal / Paperback / Editorial Presença / 1983 / 2
Doctor Who: The Silurians
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1992 / No.9
Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters
UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / January 1974Tohtori Kuka: Ja Luolahirviöt
Finland / Hardback / Weilin + Göös / 1976
Tohtori Kuka: Ja Luolahirviöt was one of two translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Weilin + Göös in Finland during the 1970s.
Doctor Who en de Holen-Monsters
Holland / Paperback / Gooise Uitgeverij / 1976
Doctor Who en de Holen-Monsters was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Holland in the 1970s by Gooise Uitgeverij.
(Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters)
Japan / Paperback / Hayakawa Bunko / May 1980 / 3The Japanese translation of Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters was one of five translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in the country during 1980 by Hayakawa Bunko.
Doutor Who e os Monstros das Cavernas
Portugal / Paperback / Editorial Presença / 1983 / 2Doutor Who e os Monstros das Cavernas was one of ten translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Editorial Presença in Portugal.
Doctor Who: The Silurians
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1992 / No.9
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1974)
All is not well at the Wenley Moor underground atomic research station: there are unnacoutable losses of power-output; nervous breakdowns amongst the staff; and then — a death! UNIT is called in and the Brigadier is soon joined by DOCTOR WHO and Liz Shaw in a tense and exciting adventure with subterranean reptile men — SILURIANS — and a 40 ft. high Tyrannosaurus rex, the biggest, most savage mammal which ever trod the earth!
All is not well at the Wenley Moor underground atomic research station: there are unnacoutable losses of power-output; nervous breakdowns amongst the staff; and then — a death! UNIT is called in and the Brigadier is soon joined by DOCTOR WHO and Liz Shaw in a tense and exciting adventure with subterranean reptile men — SILURIANS — and a 40 ft. high Tyrannosaurus rex, the biggest, most savage mammal which ever trod the earth!
Television Story
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Script Writer: Malcolm Hulke
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
31/01/70 Episode 1
07/02/70 Episode 2
14/02/70 Episode 3
21/02/70 Episode 4
28/02/70 Episode 5
07/03/70 Episode 6
14/03/70 Episode 7
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Script Writer: Malcolm Hulke
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
31/01/70 Episode 1
07/02/70 Episode 2
14/02/70 Episode 3
21/02/70 Episode 4
28/02/70 Episode 5
07/03/70 Episode 6
14/03/70 Episode 7
DVD
CD
Audio Download (UK)
Sadly, none of the seven episodes exists in their original 625-line colour videotape format, instead being held in the form of 16mm black and white telerecordings. Luckily, an off-air domestic video recording of Doctor Who and the Silurians was made in the United States when it was first aired, and the colour signal was used to re-colourise the story for its video release in the 1990s. A fully restored version has been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK as part of the Beneath the Surface box set, which also contained The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. The set was released on Region 1 DVD in the United States in June 2008. The complete soundtrack to the story was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in January 2008, with linking narration by Caroline John.
Regular Characters
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Silurians
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Silurians
Audio Book- UK
- BBC Audiobooks
- 4 × CD / Download
- 5 hours 13 minutes
- September 2007
Notes
- Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters was the one of the first two novelisation to be released by Target Books after their reprinting of the three 1960s titles (The Daleks, The Zarbi and The Crusaders) a year earlier. It was released simultaneously with Terrance Dicks' novelisation of the preceding story, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion.
Malocolm Hulke would go on to novelise a further six Doctor Who stories, with all but Doctor Who and the Green Death being based on his own scripts. Other notable successes include Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon and Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion. - Doctor Who and the Silurians, oddly enough, was the first story to feature the prehistoric Silurians who had ruled the Earth before man. A semi-sequel in the form of The Sea Devils followed in 1973, which introduced their aquatic cousins. Warriors of the Deep in 1984 brought back both species to face the Fifth Doctor.
- Blood Heat, published in 1993 as part of the New Adventures range of books, was a sequel to Doctor Who and the Silurians and was set in a parallel universe in which the Third Doctor had died at the hands of the Silurians.
The only other book to feature the Silurians in a major way was Gary Russell's The Scales of Injustice, a Third Doctor Missing Adventure published in 1996.
Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death
by Terrance Dicks
- UK
- Hardback
- Target Books
- May 1987
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death
UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1987 / No.121
UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1991 / No.121
Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death
UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1987 / No.121 UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1991 / No.121
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1987)
Seven months after it left Mars there has still been no radio communications with the Probe Seven spacecraft or the astronauts inside it. Back on Earth concern is mounting and eventually a recovery capsule is sent up to rescue the astronauts.
But when the capsule returns to Earth it is found to be empty. As the Doctor and Liz Shaw investigate, they discover that the interior of the capsule is radioactive: if anyone was inside they would now surely be dead.
Have the astronauts indeed returned to Earth? And if not, who are the sinister space-suited figures who stalk the countryside and whose very touch means instant death.
Seven months after it left Mars there has still been no radio communications with the Probe Seven spacecraft or the astronauts inside it. Back on Earth concern is mounting and eventually a recovery capsule is sent up to rescue the astronauts.
But when the capsule returns to Earth it is found to be empty. As the Doctor and Liz Shaw investigate, they discover that the interior of the capsule is radioactive: if anyone was inside they would now surely be dead.
Have the astronauts indeed returned to Earth? And if not, who are the sinister space-suited figures who stalk the countryside and whose very touch means instant death.
Television Story
The Ambassadors of Death
Script Writers: David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke (uncredited) and Trevor Ray (uncredited)
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
21/03/70 Episode 1
28/03/70 Episode 2
04/04/70 Episode 3
11/04/70 Episode 4
18/04/70 Episode 5
25/04/70 Episode 6
02/05/70 Episode 7
The Ambassadors of Death
Script Writers: David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke (uncredited) and Trevor Ray (uncredited)
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
21/03/70 Episode 1
28/03/70 Episode 2
04/04/70 Episode 3
11/04/70 Episode 4
18/04/70 Episode 5
25/04/70 Episode 6
02/05/70 Episode 7
VHS
CD
Only Episode 1 exists in colour in its original 625-line format. The remaining six are all in the form of 16mm black and white telerecordings. Luckily, a poor quality off-air domestic video recording of The Ambassadors of Death was made in the United States when it was first aired, and the colour signal has been used to re-colourise Episode 5 and parts of the others. The partially re-colourised version has been released on video in the UK and the United States. The complete soundtrack to the story was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in August 2009.
Regular Characters
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Notes
- The Ambassadors of Death was the final Third Doctor story to be novelised, making this era of the programme the first to be completely available in book form. Sadly, the complications surrounding Eric Saward's two 1980s Dalek stories, and the three Fourth Doctor scripts written by Douglas Adams, meant that only the First, Second and Seventh Doctor's eras would also be completed.
- The Ambassadors of Death was to be the final story for Doctor Who to be written by David Whitaker, who had been the series' first story editor between 1963 and 1964. He went on to write three stories for each of the first two Doctors, and also wrote two of the three Doctor Who novelisations published in the 1960s — Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, which was based on Terry Nation's first Dalek story, and Doctor Who and the Crusaders which was based on his own scripts.
Doctor Who: Inferno
by Terrance Dicks
- UK
- Hardback
- Target Books
- July 1984
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Inferno
UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1984 / No.89
Doctor Who: Inferno
UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1984 / No.89
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
Inferno is the name of a top-secret drilling project to penetrate the Earth's crust and release a major new energy source.
A crisis develops when a noxious liquid leaks out as drilling progresses — the green poison has a grotesquely debilitating effect on human beings.
As the Earth's plight worsens, the Doctor is trapped in a parallel world, unable to rescue the planet and its inhabitants from the destructive force of Inferno...
Inferno is the name of a top-secret drilling project to penetrate the Earth's crust and release a major new energy source.
A crisis develops when a noxious liquid leaks out as drilling progresses — the green poison has a grotesquely debilitating effect on human beings.
As the Earth's plight worsens, the Doctor is trapped in a parallel world, unable to rescue the planet and its inhabitants from the destructive force of Inferno...
Television Story
Inferno
Script Writer: Don Houghton
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
09/05/70 Episode 1
16/05/70 Episode 2
23/05/70 Episode 3
30/05/70 Episode 4
06/06/70 Episode 5
13/06/70 Episode 6
20/06/70 Episode 7
Inferno
Script Writer: Don Houghton
7 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
09/05/70 Episode 1
16/05/70 Episode 2
23/05/70 Episode 3
30/05/70 Episode 4
06/06/70 Episode 5
13/06/70 Episode 6
20/06/70 Episode 7
DVD
All seven episodes exist as colour 525-line NTSC conversions which were recovered from overseas. The complete story has been been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart / Sergeant Benton
Third Doctor / Liz Shaw / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart / Sergeant Benton
Notes
- Inferno was one of only two stories to be written for the television series by Don Houghton, with The Mind of Evil being produced the following season.
- Inferno was the final regular story to feature the character of Liz Shaw, who was written out between seasons, to be replaced in Terror of the Autons by Jo Grant (Katy Manning). She would later make a cameo appearance in the twentieth-anniversary story The Five Doctors, before starring in the four P.R.O.B.E. stories released on video by Reeltime Pictures in the 1990s.
Needless to say, several original novels featured the character, including The Eye of the Giant, The Devil Goblins from Neptune and Gary Russell's The Scales of Injustice, which sees Liz leave UNIT. The character would turn up for several further adventures including David A McIntee's Rasputin story The Wages of Sin, before finally being killed off in Jim Mortimore's Seventh Doctor tale Eternity Weeps. - But while Liz Shaw was leaving the series, Sergeant Benton (John Levene) was making his first appearance as a regular, having first been introduced in the Second Doctor story The Invasion, when he was just a lowly Corporal. The character would remain associated with the show until UNIT ceased to appear on a regular basis. His final appearance was in the The Android Invasion in 1975.
- Strangely, prior to 2006, Inferno was the only television Doctor Who story which featured a parallel universe. It wasn't until Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel, some thirty-six years later, that the subject was returned to.
