Doctor Who
Novelisations: Fourth Doctor: Season 14
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 Masque of Mandragora

Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora cover image
by Phiip Hinchcliffe
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • December 1977
  • (Book Number: 42)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Longbow/WH Allen / January 1978
Click for cover image USA / Paperback / Pinnacle Books / November 1979 / #8

Docteur Who: Le Masque de Mandragore
Click for cover image France / Paperback / Editions Garancière / August 1987 / No.6

Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / September 1991 / No.42
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1977)
Forced off course by the Mandragora Helix, the Tardis lands in the province of San Martino in fifteenth-century Italy. Here, the court astrologer, Hieronymous, has been taken over by the Mandragora energy-form — Hieronymous and the other members of his star-worshipping black magic cult will be used as a bridgehead, enabling the Mandragora Helix to conquer the Earth and rule it through their chosen servants.

The Doctor has to defeat not only the Mandragora energy, but the evil schemes of the murderous Count Frederico who plans to usurp the place of his nephew, the rightful ruler of the province.

Back Cover Blurb — Pinnacle Books
IN 1492, DOCTOR WHO CAME OUT OF THE BLUE

It is the Italian Renaissance during the corrupt reign of the powerful Medicis. Doctor Who, angry because he was forced to land on Earth by the incredible Mandragora Helix, walks right into a Machiavellian plot. The unscrupulous Count Frederico plans to usurp the rightful rule of his naive nephew. This, with the help of Hieronymous, influential court astrologer and secret cult member.

Intent on righting all wrongs, Doctor Who studies their political maneuvers. He uncovers a larger, even more malevolent plot — a plot to rule not only San Martino Province, but the entire world! Hieronymous has been taken over — both in mind and body — by the Mandragora energy ball, an alien, but all-powerful intelligence. Using Hieronymous and his cult members as a bridgehead, the Mandragora Helix intends to conquer Earth and dominate its people!

The question is, will Doctor Who prove a true Renaissance man? Will he be able to drain the Mandragora of its power and foil the Count as well?
Television Story
The Masque of Mandragora
Script Writer: Louis Marks

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

04/09/76 Part One
11/09/76 Part Two
18/09/76 Part Three
25/09/76 Part Four

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All episodes exist and have been released on video in the UK and United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Sarah Jane Smith
Notes
  • Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora was the second of Philip Hinchcliffe's three Doctor Who novelisations for Target Books, and like Doctor Who and the Seeds of Doom, it was also a story which he had produced for the television series. His final work for Target would be novelising the Season One story The Keys of Marinus in 1980.
  • The Masque of Mandragora was the last of Louis Marks' four stories for the television series, after Planet of Giants in 1964, Day of the Daleks in 1972 and Planet of Evil in 1975.

    Despite leaving the door open for a possible sequel set in the late twentieth century, the idea was never returned to in the television series, and it was left to Doctor Who Magazine to pick up the threads in 1991, when they published The Mark of Mandragora between issues 169 and 172. The previous two issues had featured prequels to the main story under the titles Darkness Falling and Distractions. All five parts were written by Dan Abnett (more recently seen writing the original Torchwood novel Border Princes) and were collected in April 1994, along with a number of other Seventh Doctor comic strips from the era, as The Mark of Mandragora (Virgin Publishing, ISBN: 0-426-203960-8).
Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear

Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • January 1979
  • (Book Number: 30)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / WH Allen / January 1979
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
The Tardis lands in England, and Sarah, the Doctor's companion, looks forward to going home.

A freak accident in a quarry leaves the unconscious Sarah clutching an enormous stone Hand.

The Hand is the only surviving remnant of Eldrad, an alien super-being expelled from his planet, Kastria — and it has the power to control the human mind. Using Sarah as its instrument, the Hand goes in search of the atomic energy it needs to regenerate Eldrad's body.

Eldrad is determined to return to Kastria and punish his enemies. The Doctor and Sarah are caught up in the terrifying conclusion of a drama of betrayal and revenge that began millions of years ago.
Television Story
The Hand of Fear
Script Writers: Bob Baker and Dave Martin

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

02/10/76 Part One
09/10/76 Part Two
16/10/76 Part Three
23/10/76 Part Four

All episodes exist and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Sarah Jane Smith
Notes
The Companions of Doctor Who: K9 and Company cover image

Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death cover image

Doctor Who: System Shock cover image

Doctor Who: Managra cover image

Doctor Who: Amorality Tale cover image

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Invasion of the Bane cover image
  • The Hand of Fear was the final regular story to feature popular companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), who was left behind at the conclusion of the story when the Doctor announced that he had to return to Gallifrey (see The Deadly Assassin).

    Unusually, Sarah was to be one of the few regular characters who was to reappear further down the line as, in 1981, plans were drawn up for a live-action spin-off from Doctor Who in the form of K9 and Company. Sadly only the disappointing pilot A Girl's Best Friend was recorded, and this saw Sarah returning home to Hazlebury Abbas where she discovered that the Doctor had left K-9 Mark III in her care, before they both took on the local witches' coven.

    The celebratory twentieth-anniversary Doctor Who story The Five Doctors, in 1983, saw Sarah returning to the main programme, although K-9 Mark III did also appear briefly before Sarah was transported off to the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

    With the apparent demise of the television series in 1989, the chances of the character ever appearing again on screen seeemed remote, but in 1995 Mark Platt's independently produced spin-off drama Downtime saw Elisabeth Sladen making a brief appearance as Sarah alongside the likes of the Yeti and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

    Prior to Downtime Elisabeth Sladen had taken the character into a new medium (ignoring the one-off The Pescatons) when the BBC had produced two new radio serials set during the latter days of the Third Doctor's era, and which had reunited Sladen with both Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney, better known as the Brigadier. Later audio appearances occurred in two seperate Sarah Jane Smith series for Big Finish productions, comprising nine plays in total, which were released in 2002 and 2006 respectively.

    In print, the character featured in four of the eight Missing Adventure novels from Virgin Publishing which had starred the Fourth Doctor, as well as in the novelisations of the Paradise of Death and Ghosts of N-Space radio serials.

    With BBC Books picking up the rights to publish new novels based on Doctor Who in 1997, the line-up of character pairings changed noticeably. Whereas the Missing Adventures had tended to feature either Sarah, or Romana II and K-9 Mark II, the BBC Books' offerings concentrated on the gaps between those eras, generally using Leela or the original incarnation of Romana.

    Amazingly, of the twelve Fourth Doctor books published in the series, Sarah featured in just one, the penultimate Fourth Doctor tale in the series, Wolfsbane. The character did fare slightly better in the Third Doctor books, appearing in both Amorality Tale and The Island of Death.

    In retrospect, given the enduring popularity of the character, it seems slightly perverse that in eight-and-a-half years Sarah would appear in just three out of the twenty-two books that she could have been used in. Rather ironically, the character did turn up in the two-book Interference for the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, as well as in David A McIntee's Seventh Doctor story Bullet Time in August 2001, which ended in a rather inclonclusive manner that suggested that Sarah was dead.

    Back on television, the runaway success of the revived Doctor Who series in spring 2005 soon saw plans being laid to bring back various elements from the series' past, and in August 2005 it was announced that Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 would be appearing alongside the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler in an episode of the second season. School Reunion was finally broadcast in April 2006 and proved that there was still life in both characters. To the surprise of precisely no one, August 2006 saw the announcement of The Sarah Jane Adventures, a spin-off children's drama intended for transmission the following year.

    Beginning with the hour-length Invasion of the Bane on New Years' Day 2007, The Sarah Jane Adventures showed, just like the parent drama, that there was a gaping hole in the BBC One schedules crying out for a well-made, sci-fi shaped programme. A full ten-part series, comprising five two-part stories, was broadcast from late September 2007 and managed to set new viewing records for the CBBC channel.

    A twelve-part second season is due to be shown shortly — a remarkable feat for a character originally created thirty-four years ago in 1974, and who is still played by the same actress.
  • The Hand of Fear ends with the Doctor apparently leaving Sarah in South Croydon. In School Reunion, in 2006, it was revealed that the TARDIS had strayed off course once again and had actually landed in Aberdeen!
Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin

Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • October 1977
  • (Book Number: 20)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate Ltd / October 1977

Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin was also included as part of Further Adventures of Doctor Who omnibus from Nelson Doubleday in the United States in 1986, and in May 1989 was also included in the Doctor Who Classics: The Seeds of Doom and The Deadly Assassin omnibus from Star Books.
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books
The Doctor is suddenly summoned to Gallifrey, the home of the Time Lords, where his ghastly hallucination of the President's assassination seems to turn into reality. When the Doctor is arrested for the murder, there is a hideous, dark, cowled figure gleefully watching in the shadows.

Faced with his old enemy, the Master, Doctor Who approaches defeat in a battle of minds in a nightmare world created by the Master's imagination. But the Master's evil intentions go much further — he has a Doomsday Plan. It is up to the Doctor to prevent him from destroying Gallifrey and taking over the Universe!
Television Story
The Deadly Assassin
Script Writer: Robert Holmes

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

30/10/76 Part One
06/11/76 Part Two
13/11/76 Part Three
20/11/76 Part Four

Search (VHS) Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com
All episodes exist and have been released on video in the UK and United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor

Familiar Faces
The Master / Cardinal Borusa
Notes
  • Eleven years after the series made its debut, viewers finally had a chance to get a proper look at the Doctor's homeworld of Gallifrey which had only previously been seen in brief glimpses in The War Games (1968/9), Colony in Space (1971) and The Three Doctors (1972/3).
  • The Deadly Assassin saw the first appearance of Cardinal Borusa, who would later re-appear in The Invasion of Time, Arc of Infinity and The Five Doctors, each time played by a different actor. The character's final two appearances would see him elevated to the position of President of the High Council of Tme Lords.
  • Re-appearing for the first time since 1973's Frontier in Space was the Doctor's Time Lord nemesis the Master.

    The character had been intended to make a final appearance after that story, but the untimely death of original actor Roger Delgado in a car accident in Turkey had prevented it from happening.

    The Deadly Assassin portrayed the Master as a decaying corpse-like being nearing the end of his final regeneration. The character would eventually re-appear in 1981's The Keeper of Traken before taking over the body of Tremas, Nyssa's father. Anthony Ainley would remain in the role until Survival, the very final story from the original television series.

    American actor Eric Roberts pcked up the mantle for the one-off 1996 Doctor Who television movie. The 2007 season on BBC One saw the aged Professor Yana exposed at the end of Utopia as the Master, before he swiftly regenerated once more with Life on Mars actor John Simm playing the part in The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.
Doctor Who and the Face of Evil

Doctor Who and the Face of Evil cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • January 1978
  • (Book Number: 25)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Longbow/WH Allen / January 1978

Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1993 / No.25

Doctor Who and the Face of Evil was also included as part of Further Adventures of Doctor Who omnibus from Nelson Doubleday in the United States in 1986, and in May 1989 was also included in the Doctor Who Classics: The Face of Evil and The Sunmakers omnibus from Star Books.
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1978)
Setting the controls for Earth, the Doctor is surprised when the Tardis lands in a primeval forest. Has the Tracer gone wrong or has some impulse deep in his unconscious mind directed him to this alien planet? In investigating the forest, the Doctor meets and assists Leela, a warrior banished from her tribe, the Sevateem. Through Leela, it gradually becomes apparent that the constant war between the Sevateem and the Tesh has been instigated by the god they both worship, Xoanon.

Xoanon, an all-powerful computer, is possessed by a desperate madness — a madness that is directly related to Doctor Who, that causes Xoanon to assume the voice and form of the Doctor, a madness that is partly caused by the Doctor and that only the Doctor himself can rectify!

The Doctor must not only do battle with Xoanon, but also must escape from the savage practices of the Sevateem, and the technically mind-controlling destructive impulses of the Tesh.
Television Story
The Face of Evil
Script Writer: Chris Boucher

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

01/01/77 Part One
08/01/77 Part Two
15/01/77 Part Three
22/01/77 Part Four

Search (VHS) Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com
All episodes exist and have been released on video in the UK and United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Leela
Notes
  • The Face of Evil was the first story to feature the character of Leela, played on television by Louise Jameson, who would continue to travel the Doctor until the end of The Invasion of Time the following season, when she elected to remain behind on Gallifrey to marry Andred.
Doctor Who and the Robots of Death

Doctor Who and the Robots of Death cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • May 1979
  • (Book Number: 53)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Robots of Death
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / WH Allen / May 1979

Doctor Who: The Robots of Death
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1994 / No.53

Doctor Who and the Robots of Death was also included as part of Further Adventures of Doctor Who omnibus from Nelson Doubleday in the United States in 1986.
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1979)
On a desert planet the giant sandminer crawls through the howling sandstorms, harvesting the valuable minerals in the sand.

Inside, the humans relax in luxury, while most of the work is done by the robots who serve them.

Then the Doctor and Leela arrive — and the mysterious deaths begin. First suspects, then hunted victims, Leela and the Doctor must find the hidden killer — or join the other victims of the Robots of Death.
Television Story
The Robots of Death
Script Writer: Chris Boucher

4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

29/01/77 Part One
05/02/77 Part Two
12/02/77 Part Three
19/02/77 Part Four

All episodes exist and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Leela
Notes
  • Corpse Marker, a sequel to The Robots of Death, was published by BBC Books in November 1999. A seperate series of spin-off audios featuring the concepts and characters from the two stories was also launched and went under the title Kaldor City.
Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang

Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang cover image
by Terrance Dicks
  • UK
  • Paperback
  • Target Books
  • November 1977
  • (Book Number: 61)
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang
Click for cover image UK / Hardback / Allan Wingate / November 1977
Click for cover image USA / Paperback / Pinnacle Books / September 1979 / #7

Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Click for cover image UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1994 / No.61
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1977)
Stepping out of the Tardis into Victorian London, Leela and the Doctor are confronted by menacing, diabolical horrors shrouded within the swirling London fog — a man's death cry, an attack by Chinese Tong hatchet men, giant rats roaming the sewers, young women mysteriously disappearing...

The hideously deformed Magnus Greel, conducting a desperate search for the lost Time Cabinet, is the instigator of all this evil. Posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang, Greel uses the crafty Chang, and the midget manikin, Mr Sin, to achieve his terrifying objectives.

The Doctor must use all his skill, energy and intelligence to escape the talons of Weng-Chiang.

Back Cover Blurb — Pinnacle Books (1979)
It's the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Shrouded in the swirling mists, Doctor Who confronts diabolical horrors as he unravels the mystery surrounding the disappearance of several young women.

Doctor Who learns a Chinese magician, the crafty Chang, and his weird midget manikin, Mr. Sin, are mere puppets in the hands of the hideously deformed Greel, posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang. It is Greel who steals the young women; it is Greel who grooms sewer rats to do his bidding — but there is even more, much more...

Will Doctor Who solve the Chinese puzzle in time to escape the terrifying talons of Weng-Chiang?
Television Story
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Script Writer: Robert Holmes

6 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour

26/02/77 Part One
05/03/77 Part Two
12/03/77 Part Three
19/03/77 Part Four
26/03/77 Part Five
02/04/77 Part Six

All episodes exist and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Fourth Doctor / Leela
Notes
The Shadows of Weng-Chiang cover image

The Talons of Weng-Chiang script book cover image
  • The Shadow of Weng-Chiang, a sequel to The Talons of Weng-Chiang written by David A McIntee, was published in 1996 and saw the return of Mr Sin and the introduction of Hsien-Ko, the daughter of Li H'sen Chang.
  • A script book based on The Talons of Weng-Chiang was published by Titan Books in November 1989, although it was one of a number which featured a transcript of the dialogue which was spoken on screen, rather than Robert Holmes' original script.
  • The character of Professor Litefoot would later turn up in in The Bodysnatchers from Mark Morris, the third novel in the then new series of Eighth Doctor Adventures, which saw the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones encountering Zygons in the foggy streets of Victorian London.
  • Simon A Forward's Emotional Chemistry, a book in the Eighth Doctor Adventures series published in October 2003, filled in some of the background details of the war from which the war criminal Magnus Greel had fled.