Doctor Who: Novelisations: Third Doctor: Season 8

Novelisations: Third Doctor

Season 7

Season 8
Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
Doctor Who and the Daemons

Archive Status / DVD Releases

Episodes One and Four of The Claws of Axos and Episode Four of The Daemons are the only ones from Season 8 which still exist as colour 625-line PAL recordings. Colony in Space and Episodes Two and Three of The Claws of Axos exist as colour NTSC conversions from the original PAL videotapes. All of the other episodes from Season 8 are held by the BBC as 16mm black and white telerecordings.

Fortunately, Terror of the Autons and The Daemons were both recorded onto domestic videotape by a US viewer when they were broadcast in America during the 1970s. Although the original NTSC conversions used for those broadcasts are no longer in existence, the colour signal from the off-air recordings has been used to create re-colourised versions of both stories and it is these which were released on video and later DVD.

Terror of the Autons has been released in the UK as part of the Mannequin Mania box set, which also contains a newly-restored copy of Spearhead from Space. The story has been released individually in the United States. The Claws of Axos has been released twice in both countries, most recently featuring a completely new restoration which has seen the colour signal from the two NTSC episodes being used in a similar manner to the domestic recordings of Terror of the Autons and The Daemons.

The Mind of Evil is due to be released on DVD in June 2013 and will be available in colour for the very first time, having undergone the colour recovery process to extract the original colour signal from the black and white telerecordings. Unfortunately this wasn't possible for the first episode, so the episode has been meticulously re-coloured by hand.

Mannequin Mania / Terror of the Autons
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The Claws of Axos: Special Edition
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Colony in Space
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The Mind of Evil
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The Daemons
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Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons

by
Terrance Dicks

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UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK
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Front Cover Back Cover

Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date May 1975
Original Price 35p
ISBN 0426106393
Cover Artist Peter Brookes
Illustrator Allan Willow

A novelisation of the 1971 television story Terror of the Autons, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Back Cover Blurb
The evil Master leered at the Doctor, and triumphantly pointed out of the cabin window. The many-tentacled Nestene monster — spearhead of the second Auton invasion of Earth — crouched beside the radio tower!

Part crab, part spider, part octopus, its single huge eye blazed with alien intelligence and deadly hatred...

Can the Doctor outwit his rival Time Lord, the Master, and save the Earth from the Nestene horror?

Other Editions

Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
UK | Paperback | Target Books | January 1979 | 60p | 0426115007 | (No.63)
A new edition of the novelisation, with new front cover artwork by Alun Hood, although it retained the original Alan Willow illustrations. Later Target reprints would be numbered No.63 in the Doctor Who Library. The back cover blurb was exactly the same as for the original 1975 edition.

Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
UK | 4 × CD | BBC Audiobooks | July 2010 | £13.25 | 978-1408466759
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Geoffrey Beevers, who played the Master in the 1981 story The Keeper of Traken. The audiobook re-used the original Peter Brookes cover art from the 1975 Target Books edition.

Television Story
Terror of the Autons
4 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour

02/01/71 Episode One Robert Holmes
09/01/71 Episode Two Robert Holmes
16/01/71 Episode Three Robert Holmes
23/01/71 Episode Four Robert Holmes

Notes

Cover image: Doctor Who, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, Target Books (1974)

Cover image: Doctor Who, The Shooting Scripts, BBC Books (2005)

Cover image: Doctor Who, Synthespians, BBC Books (2004)

Cover image: Doctor Who, Autonomy, BBC Books (2009)

Terror of the Autons is a sequel to the previous season's Spearhead from Space. The next appearance of the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness was to have been in the 1986 story Yellow Fever and How to Cure It, but this was never produced due to the postponement of Season 23. A novelisation of the story outline was mooted at one point in the early 1990s, but ultimately wasn't written. More recently, the Autons and Nestene Consciousness have appeared on television in Rose, the opening story of the Ninth Doctor's reign.
In the books, the Autons and Nestene Consciousness have figured most prominently in the Sixth Doctor novels Business Unusual and Synthespians™, and the Tenth Doctor novel Autonomy. Several Auton characters created in Gary Russell's The Scales of Injustice did later turn up in Instruments of Darkness.
Terror of the Autons was the introductory story for three new regular characters.

Jo Grant, played by Katy Manning, was a new UNIT agent who became the Doctor's assistant, and who remained on the series right through to the end of The Green Death in 1973, when she left to marry environmentalist Clifford Jones.

Captain Mike Yates, played by Richard Franklin, was introduced as a new deputy for the Brigadier, as Sergeant Benton was thought to be too low in the ranks to be a credible right-hand man.

And finally, Terror of the Autons saw the introduction of one of the Doctor's greatest and most deadly foes — the Master, played between Seasons 8 and 10 by Roger Delgado. The rogue Time Lord would actually feature in all five stories of Season 8, returning over the next two years in a further three stories. A final encounter with the Third Doctor would have seen the character killed off, but actor Roger Delgado tragically died in a car accident before firm plans could be laid.

Unsurprisingly, being a Time Lord, the Master would eventually re-appear in a rather decayed form in The Deadly Assassin before finally taking on a new body at the conclusion of The Keeper of Traken. Anthony Ainley would then play the role (generally about once a season) until the series was cancelled in 1989.

With a big name villain needed, the Master was brought back once more in the one-off Doctor Who TV movie in 1996, before the latest television incarnation was unveiled in 2007 when Sir Derek Jacobi's Professor Yana regenerated into John Simm at the conclusion of Utopia. Despite the character apparently dying two episodes later, he was to return in 2009/10 for the epic End of Time two-parter in which the Tenth Doctor was forced to regenerate.
Although Terror of the Autons was the first story to feature Jo Grant, its novelisation wasn't the first time that readers of the Target books had been introduced to the character. Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, published in 1974, was the first novelisation to be written that featured the character, and as such, Malcolm Hulke re-wrote the start to make it appear that it was Jo's very first adventure with the Doctor.

Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil

by
Terrance Dicks

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Country UK
Format Hardback
Publisher WH Allen
Publication Date March 1985
Original Price £5.95
ISBN 0491033338
Cover Artist Andrew Skilleter

A novelisation of the 1971 television story The Mind of Evil, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Other Editions

Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil
UK | Paperback | Target Books | July 1985 | £1.50 | 0426201663 | No.96

Eminent scientist Emil Keller has developed a revolutionary new process for the treatment of hardened criminals. His invention, the Keller Machine, is being heralded as a major scientific breakthrough.

But Professor Keller is in truth the Master and the Keller Machine is much more than a mere machine. Soon the Doctor is involved in a bitter struggle with his deadliest enemy, an alien mind parasite, and a diabolical scheme to plunge the world into a Third World War...

The Mind of Evil was also included in the Doctor Who Classics: The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos omnibus from Star Books in March 1989.

Television Story
The Mind of Evil
6 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour

30/01/71 Episode One Don Houghton
06/02/71 Episode Two Don Houghton
13/02/71 Episode Three Don Houghton
20/02/71 Episode Four Don Houghton
27/02/71 Episode Five Don Houghton
06/03/71 Episode Six Don Houghton

Notes

The Mind of Evil was the second of five stories in Season 8, all of which were to feature the Master — the only time in which a single adversary was to trouble the Doctor throughout an entire season.

Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos

by
Terrance Dicks

Buy a Copy... NOTE: Target Books would routinely re-use the old ISBN when the Doctor Who novelisations were re-released with new cover art, so anyone using the Amazon links below should bear this in mind when ordering a second-hand copy.

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Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date April 1977
Original Price 50p
ISBN 0426117034
Cover Artist Chris Achilleos

A novelisation of the 1971 television story The Claws of Axos, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Back Cover Blurb
'Axos calling Earth, Axos calling Earth...'

The creatures stood before them, beautiful golden humanoids, offering friendship and their priceless Axonite, in return for — what?

Only DOCTOR WHO remains suspicious. What is the real reason for the Axons' sudden arrival on Earth? And why is the evil Master on their spaceship? He very soon finds out...

Other Editions

Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos
UK | Paperback | Target Books | 1979 | 60p | 0426117034 | (No.10)
A new edition of the novelisation, with new front cover artwork by John Geary. Later Target reprints would be numbered No.10 in the Doctor Who Library. John Geary's cover art 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 8 of the television series. The back cover blurb was exactly the same as for the original 1977 edition.
Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos was also included in the Doctor Who Classics: The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos omnibus from Star Books in March 1989.

Television Story
The Claws of Axos
4 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour

13/03/71 Episode One Dave Martin and Bob Baker
20/03/71 Episode Two Dave Martin and Bob Baker
27/03/71 Episode Three Dave Martin and Bob Baker
03/04/71 Episode Four Dave Martin and Bob Baker

Notes

The Claws of Axos was the third of five stories in Season 8, all of which were to feature the Master — the only time in which a single adversary was to trouble the Doctor throughout an entire season.
The Claws of Axos was the very first Doctor Who story to be scripted by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Over the following eight years they would go on to contribute a further seven stories together, with Bob Baker also writing Nightmare of Eden by himself.

In later years, Dave Martin would write Search for the Doctor and The Garden of Evil, two of the six Make Your Own Adventure books from Severn House, while Bob Baker would go on to write the scripts to the Oscar-winning adventures of Wallace & Gromit.

Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon

by
Malcolm Hulke

Buy a Copy... NOTE: Target Books would routinely re-use the old ISBN when the Doctor Who novelisations were re-released with new cover art, so anyone using the Amazon links below should bear this in mind when ordering a second-hand copy.

HARDBACK
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UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK
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Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date April 1974
Original Price 30p
ISBN 0426103726
Cover Artist Chris Achilleos
Illustrator Chris Achilleos

A novelisation of the 1971 television story Colony in Space, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Back Cover Blurb
The evil MASTER has stolen the Time Lords' file on the horrifying DOOMSDAY WEAPON with which, when he finds it, he can blast whole planets out of existence and make himself ruler of the Galaxy! The Time Lords direct DOCTOR WHO and Jo Grant in their TARDIS to a bleak planet in the year 2471 where they find colonists from Earth under threat from mysterious, savage, monster lizards with frightful claws! And hidden upon this planet is the DOOMSDAY WEAPON for which the MASTER is intently searching...

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

Other Editions

Doktor Kim: Ve Gizli Silah

Turkey | Paperback | Remzi Kitabevi | 1975 Doktor Kim: Ve Gizli Silah was one of seven translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Remzi Kitabevi in Turkey during the mid-1970s. The book was translated by Reha Pinar and used the Chris Achilleos artwork from the original Target Books edition.

Doctor Who en het Dodelijke Wapen

Holland | Paperback | Gooise Uitgeverij | 1976 | 9026981074 Doctor Who en het Dodelijke Wapen was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Holland in the 1970s by Gooise Uitgeverij. The book was translated by Wim Hohage and used the Chris Achilleos artwork from the 1974 Target Books edition.

Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon

UK | Paperback | Target Books | August 1979 | 70p | 0426103726 | (No.23)
A new edition of the novelisation, with new front cover artwork by Jeff Cummins, although it retained the original Chris Achilleos illustrations. Later Target reprints would be numbered No.23 in the Doctor Who Library. Jeff Cummins' cover art 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 8 of the television series.

The evil MASTER has stolen the Time Lords' file on the horrifying DOOMSDAY WEAPON with which, when he finds it, he can blast whole planets out of existence and make himself ruler of the galaxy! The Time Lords direct DOCTOR WHO and Jo Grant in their TARDIS to a bleak planet in the year 2471 where they find colonists from Earth under threat from mysterious, savage, monster lizards with frightful claws! And hidden upon the planet is the DOOMSDAY WEAPON for which the MASTER is intently searching...

Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon

United States | Paperback | Pinnacle Books | April 1979 | $1.75 | 0523405669 | #2
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon was one of ten novelisations to be reprinted in the United States by Pinnacle Books between 1979 and 1980. All ten books would feature new cover artwork by David Mann and were accompanied by an introduction from US science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.

TERRORIZER OF THE UNIVERSE

While Doctor Who was exiled on Earth and restricted to the Twentieth Century, the charming but hypnotically evil Master, whose one ambition is to destroy Doctor Who, walked off with the Doomsday Weapon file.

Doctor Who, commanded by the Time Lords to stop the Master — at any cost — is directed to a bleak planet in the year 2471. Hidden somewhere on that planet is the Doomsday Machine — lurking somewhere in that Time Zone is the Master!

Will Doctor Who, hampered by alien monsters, locate and dismantle the Doomsday Weapon before the Master triggers it? It's a terrifying countdown affecting all mankind — past, present and forever!

(Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon)
Japan | Paperback | Hayakawa Bunko | July 1980 | 4
The fourth of of five translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Japan during 1980 by Hayakawa Bunko. The book was translated by Yukio Sekiguchi with the cover by Michiaki Sato.

Doutor Who e a Arma Total
Portugal | Paperback | Editorial Presença | 1982 | 4
Doutor Who e a Arma Total was one of ten translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Editorial Presença in Portugal. The book was translated by Conceicao Jardim and Eduardo Nogueira, with cover artwork by Rui Ligeiro.

Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
UK | 4 × CD | BBC Audiobooks | September 2007 | £13.25 | 978-1405677950
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Geoffrey Beevers. The audiobook re-used the Jeff Cummins cover art from the 1979 Target Books edition.

Geoffrey Beevers reads this thrilling novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure

The evil Master has stolen the Time Lords' file on the horrifying Doomsday Weapon with which, when he finds it, he can blast whole planets out of existence and make himself ruler of the Galaxy!

The Time Lords direct Doctor Who and Jo Grant in their TARDIS to a bleak planet in the year 2471 where they find colonists from Earth under threat from mysterious, savage, monster lizards with frightful claws!

And hidden upon this planet is the Doomsday Weapon for which the Master is intently searching...

Geoffrey Beevers, who played an incarnation of the Master in the classic BBC TV series Doctor Who, reads Malcolm Hulke's complete and unabridged novelisation, based on the TV adventure Colony in Space and first published by Target Books in 1974.

'They're well-written books — adventure stories of course, but with some thought... the creation of the character of the Doctor had a touch of genius about it.'
Westminster Press

Television Story
Colony in Space
6 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour

10/04/71 Episode One Malcolm Hulke
17/04/71 Episode Two Malcolm Hulke
24/04/71 Episode Three Malcolm Hulke
01/05/71 Episode Four Malcolm Hulke
08/05/71 Episode Five Malcolm Hulke
15/05/71 Episode Six Malcolm Hulke

Notes

Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon was the first novelisation to be published by Target Books which featured Jo Grant. As such, the start of the story was re-written so as to make it appear that it was actually Jo's first adventure with the Doctor. The character was subsequently introduced for a second time in 1975 with the novelisation of Terror of the Autons, the story that genuinely had introduced the character to the series!
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon was the second of Malcolm Hulke's seven Doctor Who novelisations for Target Books to be published and, like Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters earlier in 1974, was based on his own television story.

Cover image of Doctor Who en het Dodelijke Wapen supplied by Anthony Forth

Doctor Who and the Daemons

by
Barry Letts

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UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK
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Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date October 1974
Original Price 30p
ISBN 0426104447
Cover Artist Chris Achilleos
Illustrator Alan Willow A novelisation of the 1971 television story The Daemons, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Back Cover Blurb
DOCTOR WHO is strangely concerned about Professor Horner's plan to cut open an ancient barrow near the peaceful English village of Devil's End; equally worried is Miss Hawthorne, the local white witch, who fortells a terrible disaster if he goes ahead; determined that the Professor should is Mr. Magister, the new vicar (in truth the MASTER) whose secret ceremonies are designed to conjure up from out of the barrow a horribly powerful being from a far-off planet... The Brigadier and Jo Grant assist DOCTOR WHO in this exciting confrontation with the forces of black magic!

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

Other Editions

Doctor Who en de Demonen
Holland | Paperback | Gooise Uitgeverij | 1977 | 9026981090 Doctor Who en de Demonen was one of eight translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released in Holland in the 1970s by Gooise Uitgeverij. The book was translated by Wim Hohage and used the Chris Achilleos artwork from the 1974 Target Books edition.

Doctor Who and the Daemons
UK | Paperback | Target Books | January 1980 | 75p | 0426113322 | (No.15)
A new edition of the novelisation, with new front cover artwork by Andrew Skilleter, although it retained the original Alan Willow illustrations. Later Target reprints would be numbered No.15 in the Doctor Who Library. Andrew Skilleter's cover art was reproduced in the large-format book Blacklight: The Art of Andrew Skilleter (Doctor Who Books, 1995).

Doctor Who is strangely concerned about Professor Horner's plan to cut open an ancient barrow near the peaceful village of Devil's End.

Equally worried is Miss Hawthorne, the local white witch, who foretells a terrible disaster if he goes ahead.

The only person who wants the Professor to open the barrow is the new vicar (in truth THE MASTER) whose secret ceremonies are designed to conjure up from out of the barrow a horribly powerful being...

Doutor Who e os Demonios
Portugal | Paperback | Editorial Presença | 1983 | 3
Doutor Who e os Demonios was one of ten translations of Doctor Who novelisations to be released by Editorial Presença in Portugal. The book was translated by Conceicao Jardim and Eduardo Nogueira, with cover artwork by Rui Ligeiro.

Barry Letts reads his own gripping novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure

Doctor Who is strangely concerned about Professor Horner's plan to cut open an ancient barrow near the peaceful English village of Devil's End; equally worried is Miss Hawthorne, the local white witch, who foretells a terrible disaster if he goes ahead.

Determined that the Professor should is Mr Magister, the new vicar (in truth the Master) ,whose secret ceremonies are designed to conjure up from out of the barrow a horribly powerful being from another planet...

The Brigadier and Jo Grant assist Doctor Who in this exciting confrontation with the forces of black magic!

Barry Letts, producer of Doctor Who from 1969 to 1974, reads his own complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1974.

'BBC Audiobooks has chosen well with its books and has taken the right approach with its readers... they benefit from new music and sound effects'
Doctor Who Magazine

Doctor Who and the Daemons was also included in the Doctor Who Classics: The Daemons and The Time Monster omnibus from Star Books in March 1989.

Television Story
The Daemons
5 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour

22/05/71 Episode One Guy Leopold
29/05/71 Episode Two Guy Leopold
05/06/71 Episode Three Guy Leopold
12/06/71 Episode Four Guy Leopold
19/06/71 Episode Five Guy Leopold

Guy Leopold was a pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts.

Notes

Cover image: Doctor Who, Doctor Who The Scripts: The Daemons, Titan Books (1992)

Cover image: Doctor Who, The Paradise of Death, Doctor Who Books (1994)

Cover image: Doctor Who, The Ghosts of N-Space, BBC Books (1995)

The scripts to The Daemons were released by Titan Books in 1992 as Doctor Who The Scripts: The Daemons.
Although he actually co-wrote four television stories with Robert Sloman, The Daemons was to be the only one which Barry Letts would novelise himself for Target Books — Terrance Dicks was responsible for The Time Monster and Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders, with Malcolm Hulke writing Doctor Who and the Green Death.

Doctor Who and the Daemons wasn't to be Letts' only published Doctor Who work, however, as in the 1990s he wrote two original Doctor Who radio plays (The Paradise of Death / The Ghosts of N-Space), both of which he subsequently novelised for Virgin Publishing. The following decade he co-wrote the original novel Deadly Reunion with Terrance Dicks, before following it up in 2005 with the solo novel The Island of Death. All four titles featured the Third Doctor.

Away from published works, Letts' most significant contribution to Doctor Who was as producer of the television series between Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and Robot (1975). Other work behind the camera included directing The Enemy of the World, Terror of the Autons, Carnival of Monsters, Planet of the Spiders and The Android Invasion, as well as returning as executive producer for Season 18, John Nathan-Turner's first as producer.
The Daemons was the fifth of five stories in Season 8, all of which featured the Master. Although captured by UNIT at the conclusion of the story, the character would later return in The Sea Devils, The Time Monster and Frontier in Space.
Surprisingly, Azal's race wouldn't re-appear in any of the ranges of original Doctor Who novels, although the rights were negotiated for them to be used in the 2003 spin-off drama Daemos Rising, written by David J Howe and released on DVD by Reeltime Pictures. Howe would also later use them in Child of Time, the final book in the range of Time Hunter novellas, which he co-wrote with George Mann.