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: Castrovalva
by Christopher H Bidmead
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- March 1983
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Castrovalva
UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1983 / (No. 76)
UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1991 / No. 76
Doctor Who: Castrovalva
UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1983 / (No. 76) UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1991 / No. 76
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
Still weak and confused after his fourth regeneration, the Doctor retreats to Castrovalva to recuperate.
But Castrovalva is not the haven of peace and tranquillity the Doctor and his companions are seeking. Far from being able to rest quietly, the unsuspecting time-travellers are caught up once again in the evil machinations of the Master.
Only an act of supreme self-sacrifice will enable them to escape the maniacal lunacy of the renegade Time Lord.
Still weak and confused after his fourth regeneration, the Doctor retreats to Castrovalva to recuperate.
But Castrovalva is not the haven of peace and tranquillity the Doctor and his companions are seeking. Far from being able to rest quietly, the unsuspecting time-travellers are caught up once again in the evil machinations of the Master.
Only an act of supreme self-sacrifice will enable them to escape the maniacal lunacy of the renegade Time Lord.
Television Story
Castrovalva
Script Writer: Christopher H Bidmead
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
04/01/82 Part One
05/01/82 Part Two
11/01/82 Part Three
12/01/82 Part Four
Castrovalva
Script Writer: Christopher H Bidmead
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
04/01/82 Part One
05/01/82 Part Two
11/01/82 Part Three
12/01/82 Part Four
DVD 
All episodes exist and have been released as part of the New Beginnings box set on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and on Region 1 DVD in the United States.
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Master
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Master
Notes
- Castrovalva was the first story of the Fifth Doctor's era and was written by Christopher H Bidmead who had been the script editor on the previous season of the television series. The story was his second for the series, after writing the season-ending Logopolis which wrote out the Fourth Doctor the previous year. He would return to the Doctor Who universe on just one further occasion, writing (and later novelising) Frontios for Season Twenty-One in 1984.
- Castrovalva was the final story in a loosely linked trilogy which had begun the previous season with The Keeper of Traken and had continued with Logopolis.
The Keeper of Traken had introduced new companion Nyssa as well as bringing back the Doctor's arch enemy the Master for the first time since The Deadly Assassin in 1976, giving him a new body along the way.
Australian air hostess Tegan Jovanka was introduced in Logopolis as a third companion, the first time this had happened in the series since Ian and Barbara had departed in 1965. Logopolis, as most people know, also saw the departure of Tom Baker from the series, after an unprecedented seven years in the lead role. Replacing him as the new Fifth Doctor was actor Peter Davison, best known at the time for playing vet Tristan Farnon in the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small.
Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
by Terrance Dicks
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- April 1983
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
UK / Paperback / Target Books / July 1983 / (No. 77)
UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1991 / No. 77
Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
UK / Paperback / Target Books / July 1983 / (No. 77) UK / Paperback / Target Books / June 1991 / No. 77
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
When the TARDIS happens to materialise on an alien space craft the commander of the ship, the reptilian Monarch, invites the Doctor and his companions to continue their journey to Earth in his company.
Monarch's hospitality even extends to a generous offer to liberate the time-travellers from the shortcomings of their bodies and replicate them as androids — so much more practical.
Although Adric finds this proposal extremely attractive, the Doctor has good reason to be suspicious of Monarch's motives...
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1991)
'HEAVEN. HE SAYS WE'RE ALL GOING TO HEAVEN.'
On its way to Earth the TARDIS unexpectedly materializes on an alien spaceship. The occupants invite the Doctor and his companions to accompany them to Earth; but their hospitality is not all it seems...
On board are people from all eras of Earth's history and the aim of the Urbankans and their reptilian leader, Monarch, is to colonize Earth. Three billion minds are aboard the ship, three billion memories awaiting new, android bodies that will enable them to escape their own dead planet and live forever...
When the TARDIS happens to materialise on an alien space craft the commander of the ship, the reptilian Monarch, invites the Doctor and his companions to continue their journey to Earth in his company.
Monarch's hospitality even extends to a generous offer to liberate the time-travellers from the shortcomings of their bodies and replicate them as androids — so much more practical.
Although Adric finds this proposal extremely attractive, the Doctor has good reason to be suspicious of Monarch's motives...
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1991)
'HEAVEN. HE SAYS WE'RE ALL GOING TO HEAVEN.'
On its way to Earth the TARDIS unexpectedly materializes on an alien spaceship. The occupants invite the Doctor and his companions to accompany them to Earth; but their hospitality is not all it seems...
On board are people from all eras of Earth's history and the aim of the Urbankans and their reptilian leader, Monarch, is to colonize Earth. Three billion minds are aboard the ship, three billion memories awaiting new, android bodies that will enable them to escape their own dead planet and live forever...
Television Story
Four to Doomsday
Script Writer: Terence Dudley
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
18/01/82 Part One
19/01/82 Part Two
25/01/82 Part Three
26/01/82 Part Four
Four to Doomsday
Script Writer: Terence Dudley
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
18/01/82 Part One
19/01/82 Part Two
25/01/82 Part Three
26/01/82 Part Four
DVD
All episodes exist. Four to Doomsday has been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK, and is due to be released on Region 1 DVD in the United States in January 2009.
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Notes
- Four to Doomsday was the only one of Terence Dudley's three scripts to the series which he didn't novelise himself. Black Orchid, broadcast in March 1982 was published in hardback by WH Allen in September 1986, while his novelisation of The King's Demons had appeared in February 1986. His novelisation of his own script to the unsuccessful pilot of the K9 and Company spin-off was published by Target Books in October 1987.
Doctor Who: Kinda
by Terrance Dicks
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- December 1983
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Kinda
UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1984 / No. 83
UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1992 / No. 83
Doctor Who: Kinda
UK / Paperback / Target Books / March 1984 / No. 83 UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1992 / No. 83
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1984)
Nothing could disturb the serene peace of the planet Deva Loka — or could it? An expeditionary force from Earth is dangerously out of control — and it's not only the peaceful race of the Kinda who are at risk...
A gentle stroll in the lush jungle leads the Doctor and Adric to an unexpected confrontation — and puts them at the mercy of a maniac...
But it is Tegan, lulled to sleep by mysterious wind-chimes, who comes closest to the real danger that threatens not only her sanity but the existence of the whole planet...
Nothing could disturb the serene peace of the planet Deva Loka — or could it? An expeditionary force from Earth is dangerously out of control — and it's not only the peaceful race of the Kinda who are at risk...
A gentle stroll in the lush jungle leads the Doctor and Adric to an unexpected confrontation — and puts them at the mercy of a maniac...
But it is Tegan, lulled to sleep by mysterious wind-chimes, who comes closest to the real danger that threatens not only her sanity but the existence of the whole planet...
Television Story
Kinda
Script Writer: Christopher Bailey
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
01/02/82 Part One
02/02/82 Part Two
08/02/82 Part Three
09/02/82 Part Four
Kinda
Script Writer: Christopher Bailey
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
01/02/82 Part One
02/02/82 Part Two
08/02/82 Part Three
09/02/82 Part Four
VHS
All episodes exist and have been released on video in the UK and United States.
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Mara
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Mara
Notes
- Kinda was one of only two stories to be written for the television series by Christopher Bailey, whose sequel, Snakedance, was produced a year later for Season Twenty. Unsurprisingly, the story once again saw the Doctor encountering the Mara.
- Kinda was the final one of the Fifth Doctor novelisations to be released with a wholly photographic cover.
- Nyssa is missing for large parts of the story as Sarah Sutton was only contracted to appear in twenty-four of Season 19's twenty-six episodes.
Doctor Who and the Visitation
by Eric Saward
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- August 1982
Other Editions
Doctor Who and the Visitation
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1982 / (No. 69)
Doctor Who: The Visitation
UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1992 / No. 69
Doctor Who and the Visitation
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1982 / (No. 69)Doctor Who: The Visitation
UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1992 / No. 69
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1982)
Tegan, the young air hostess who quite unintentionally became a member of the TARDIS's crew, wants to return to her own time, but when the Doctor tries to take her back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth century the TARDIS lands instead on the outskirts of seventeenth-century London.
The Doctor and his companions receive a decidedly unfriendly welcome — but it soon becomes clear that the sinister activities of other visitors from time and space have made the villagers extremely suspicious of outsiders.
And as a result of the aliens' evil schemes, the Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a key role in a gruesome historical event...
Tegan, the young air hostess who quite unintentionally became a member of the TARDIS's crew, wants to return to her own time, but when the Doctor tries to take her back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth century the TARDIS lands instead on the outskirts of seventeenth-century London.
The Doctor and his companions receive a decidedly unfriendly welcome — but it soon becomes clear that the sinister activities of other visitors from time and space have made the villagers extremely suspicious of outsiders.
And as a result of the aliens' evil schemes, the Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a key role in a gruesome historical event...
Television Story
The Visitation
Script Writer: Eric Saward
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
15/02/82 Part One
16/02/82 Part Two
22/02/82 Part Three
23/02/82 Part Four
The Visitation
Script Writer: Eric Saward
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
15/02/82 Part One
16/02/82 Part Two
22/02/82 Part Three
23/02/82 Part Four
DVD
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
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Notes
- The Visitation was the first story to be written for the television series by Eric Saward who, at the time, was sharing script editing duties with Anthony Root. Earthshock followed later in the season with Resurection of the Daleks being produced the following year. His final script for the television series was Revelation of the Daleks for Season Twenty-Two in 1985.
Of the four stories Eric Saward wrote for the television series, The Visitation was the only one which he novelised himself. Earthshock was novelised by Ian Marter, and, due to disagreements with the agents of Dalek creator Terry Nation, Resurrection and Revelation of the Daleks were never released in book form at all. Aside from several short stories and novelisations of other people's scripts, Saward's only other Doctor Who fiction was a novelisation of the radio story Slipback, which he wrote for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1985.
Saward stayed as script-editor on Doctor Who until part way through through production of Season Twenty-Three, at which point his working relationship between producer John Nathan-Turner broke down in spectacular fashion, causing Saward to withdraw his script to the final episode, which he had been writing due to the death of Robert Holmes. - Doctor Who and the Visitation was the very first novelisation to be released which was based on a Fifth Doctor television story. It also marked the first time that a photographic cover had been used — a rather unsatisfactory state of affairs which afflicted the Fifth Doctor novelisations until the release of The Five Doctors the following year, and which resulted in possibly the drabest set of book covers in publishing history...
- The character of Richard Mace was originally created by Saward for three radio plays which were broadcast in the 1970s.
Doctor Who: Black Orchid
by Terence Dudley
Audio Book
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Michael Cochrane who played Lord Cranleigh in the television story.
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- September 1986
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Black Orchid
UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1987 / No. 113
Doctor Who: Black Orchid
UK / Paperback / Target Books / February 1987 / No. 113
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1987)
On a lazy June afternoon in 1925 the TARDIS materialises at the tiny railway station of Cranleigh Halt. Warmly welcomed by the local gentry, the time-travellers look forward to a well-deserved rest from their adventures.
After a stunning performance at a friendly cricket match, the Doctor, together with Tegan, Adric and Nyssa, is invited to a splendid masked ball by Lady Cranleigh and her son, Charles.
But a dark menace haunts the secret corridors of Cranleigh Hall. And before the ball is over, the quiet summer will be shattered by the shocking discovery of a brutal murder...
On a lazy June afternoon in 1925 the TARDIS materialises at the tiny railway station of Cranleigh Halt. Warmly welcomed by the local gentry, the time-travellers look forward to a well-deserved rest from their adventures.
After a stunning performance at a friendly cricket match, the Doctor, together with Tegan, Adric and Nyssa, is invited to a splendid masked ball by Lady Cranleigh and her son, Charles.
But a dark menace haunts the secret corridors of Cranleigh Hall. And before the ball is over, the quiet summer will be shattered by the shocking discovery of a brutal murder...
Television Story
Black Orchid
Script Writer: Terence Dudley
2 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
01/03/82 Part One
02/03/82 Part Two
Black Orchid
Script Writer: Terence Dudley
2 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
01/03/82 Part One
02/03/82 Part Two
DVD
All episodes exist and have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK. The story is due to be released on Region 1 DVD in the United States in August 2008.
Regular Characters
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Audio Book- UK
- BBC Audiobooks
- 4 × CD / Download
- 5 hours 12 minutes
- June 2008
Notes
- Black Orchid was the second of Terence Dudley's three television stories, and was his second and final Doctor Who novelisation based on his own stories (Four to Doomsday was novelised by Terrance Dicks).
- Black Orchid was the final novelisation based on a Fifth Doctor story to be released, leaving Resurrection of the Daleks as the only one of the twenty stories never to be novelised.
Doctor Who: Earthshock
by Ian Marter
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- May 1983
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Earthshock
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1983 / No. 78
UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1992 / No. 78
Doctor Who: Earthshock
UK / Paperback / Target Books / August 1983 / No. 78 UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1992 / No. 78
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
A group of palaeontologists have been savagely attacked while carrying out a study of fossilised dinosaur remains in an underground cave system on twenty-fifth-century Earth.
A party of troopers and Professor Kyle, the only survivor of the attack, are investigating the deaths of her colleagues when they discover the Doctor and his companions at the site of the massacre. The time-travellers are immediately suspected.
In trying to establish their innocence and find out who — or what — was responsible for the killings, the Doctor is confronted by an old enemy...
A group of palaeontologists have been savagely attacked while carrying out a study of fossilised dinosaur remains in an underground cave system on twenty-fifth-century Earth.
A party of troopers and Professor Kyle, the only survivor of the attack, are investigating the deaths of her colleagues when they discover the Doctor and his companions at the site of the massacre. The time-travellers are immediately suspected.
In trying to establish their innocence and find out who — or what — was responsible for the killings, the Doctor is confronted by an old enemy...
Television Story
Earthshock
Script Writer: Eric Saward
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
08/03/82 Part One
09/02/82 Part Two
15/03/82 Part Three
16/02/82 Part Four
Earthshock
Script Writer: Eric Saward
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
08/03/82 Part One
09/02/82 Part Two
15/03/82 Part Three
16/02/82 Part Four
DVD
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
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen
Fifth Doctor / Adric / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen
Notes
- Earthshock was the only Fifth Doctor novelisation to be penned by Ian Marter.
- After a gap of some eight years, Earthshock saw the re-appearance of perennial favourites the Cybermen, re-designed for a new decade and unveiled to a completely unsuspecting audience at the end of Part One. Amazingly, John Nathan-Turner had turned down the offer of a Radio Times front cover in order to keep the reveal a secret — something which Russell T Davies would have done well to think of in 2007 when the surprise ending to Daleks in Manhattan was completely blown in advance by, you've guessed it, a competely inappropriate Radio Times front cover...
- Earthshock is notable for being one of the few television Doctor Who stories in which a regular character was killed off. Unexpectedly, the final scenes saw the space freighter crashing into prehistoric Earth with Adric still on board — the implication being that this is the event that wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Uniquely, the story finished with completely silent credits, superimposed over a picture of Adric's badge for mathematical excellence.
The only other story of note for such a shocking end to a character was The Daleks' Master Plan, which saw the demise of Katarina, who had been introduced in the previous story The Myth Makers, and also, in its closing scenes, the death of Sara Kingdom.
The spin-off books have seen far more regulars die including, in no particular order, Ace (Loving the Alien), Dodo Chaplet (Who Killed Kennedy), Liz Shaw (Eternity Weeps), Melanie Bush (Heritage), book-only character Roz Forrester (So Vile a Sin), and possibly Sarah Jane Smith (Bullet Time).
Doctor Who: Time-Flight
by Peter Grimwade
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- January 1983
Other Editions
Doctor Who: Time-Flight
UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1983 / No. 74
Doctor Who: Time-Flight
UK / Paperback / Target Books / April 1983 / No. 74
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1983)
The Doctor and his companions arrive on Tegan's home planet at a moment of crisis: a Concorde aeroplane has inexplicably vanished while in flight.
The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, together with the TARDIS, join the crew of a second Concorde that sets out to simulate the fateful journey of the missing supersonic jet...
Coming back to Earth is not the return to normality that the rescue team might reasonably have expected. Seeing is believing, people say. The Doctor and his friends begin to realise that it just isn't as simple as that...
The Doctor and his companions arrive on Tegan's home planet at a moment of crisis: a Concorde aeroplane has inexplicably vanished while in flight.
The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, together with the TARDIS, join the crew of a second Concorde that sets out to simulate the fateful journey of the missing supersonic jet...
Coming back to Earth is not the return to normality that the rescue team might reasonably have expected. Seeing is believing, people say. The Doctor and his friends begin to realise that it just isn't as simple as that...
Television Story
Time-Flight
Script Writer: Peter Grimwade
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
22/03/82 Part One
23/03/82 Part Two
29/03/82 Part Three
30/03/82 Part Four
Time-Flight
Script Writer: Peter Grimwade
4 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
22/03/82 Part One
23/03/82 Part Two
29/03/82 Part Three
30/03/82 Part Four
DVD
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
Fifth Doctor / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Master
Fifth Doctor / Nyssa / Tegan Jovanka
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Master
Notes
- Time-Flight was the first of Peter Grimwade's three stories for Doctor Who — all of which featured the Fifth Doctor — and he went on to novelise all of them himself. He had previously worked on the television series as a director, being responsible for overseeing Full Circle, Logopolis, Kinda and Earthshock.
- Time-Flight saw the first return for the Master since the opening story of the season, Castrovalva.
The story was notable for writing out the character of Tegan at the end, who was finally left at Heathrow Airport — her intended destination before stumbling upon the TARDIS in her very first story, Logopolis. The character wasn't to be missing from the series for long, however, as a contrived meeting in Arc of Infinity, the first story of the following season, saw her re-joining the Doctor and Nyssa aboard the TARDIS.
