Doctor Who Target Novelisations

Books
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Yippie! I was already wondering if we had a Thread for those, anyway I haven’t read too many but here are the Thoughts I have of the ones which I have read:

Kerblam!: So much better than the TV Episode, it fleshes it out much better and is such an improvement over the original

TV Movie (The new one): Brilliant! I adore it, Russel knows what to add and what to flesh out. Getting more times in 7’s headspace is wonderful. Fleshing out Characters like Grace and Chang Lee was also lovely too! It really does the best Things that a Target Novel should aspire to do: Retell the original Story but expand it!

The Witchfinders: Already really liked the TV Episode, but this might be slightly better! Excellent Stuff!

Day of the Doctor: So good! One may even be surprised why Moffat doesn’t do more Prose, but this is just good! I love what it adds, I love how we get Night as well, I love how we switch Perspective. In many ways it’s just brilliant, more of what you love, more fun nods to the Past and that Saving Moment is even better here. Really shows how limitless Prose can be when telling a Story.

Twice Upon a Time: I am still very indifferent with this Story, but hey it has some nice Things to it and I probably like it more than the TV Episode itself. Still unsure about this one.

Android of Tara (Read the newer Version, but I am just going to assume it’s like a reprint from the Original Book from the early Days, so that’s marked). Well, well it’s still such a fun, delightful Story really!

City of Death: It’s City of Death, so of course it’s fun! Goss writes it really well and really enjoyed it overall.
(Fun fact: This was the ONLY Book I finished in a day with some breaks, I don’t even know how I did it, but I am proud of it, lol)

Time and the Rani: My most recent read and eh it’s okay. I like TaR more than the usual Person (since it does have a soft spot in my heart for being my first Who Story, despite remembering REALLY NOT liking it). But yeah that was a nice quick read, not much to say but nice to revisit this Story in this way!

Marco Polo Oh hey the only Target Book I wrote a Review for! :eyes:

The Five Doctors: It’s said Story, I remember it being a pleasant read but not much to say. I don’t think it expanded too much to it.

Meglos: Yeah, not much to say I remember reading it but don’t remember if it expanded much on the Original Story (and I do like it, even if casting Jaqueline as somebody so unremarkable was JNT’s biggest Crime as Producer.)

The Visitation I like the original Story, but this feels very much like a Transcript with some filled Gaps so it can be seen as a Book. Not a very good Target Book, really.

Leisure Hive: I like it. I do overall like the Original Story, but yeah I remember enjoying that one, really charming Cover as well!

Hand of Fear: I ADORE this Story, so this was one of the first Target Books I read and yeah I think it works. Doesn’t add much to this Story but it’s a fun Way revisiting this Story.

Three Doctors Kinda feeling the same about this as I do with the Five Doctors not much else to say.

Genesis of the Daleks Hmm I am not sure, it’s Genesis so of course a good read, but I don’t think it adds much to the Story, which is kinda the main appeal I would like of those Books.

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22

Read the novelization for The Giggle. It’s bonkers, told from the Toymaker’s perspective, and a lot of fun.

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23

Blockquote Android of Tara (Read the newer Version, but I am just going to assume it’s like a reprint from the Original Book from the early Days, so that’s marked). Well, well it’s still such a fun, delightful Story really!

The newer release was actually a new version written by David Fisher, who wrote the television script, as an audio book released 2012, but released in print as a target in 2022.
Terrence Dicks novelised it initially in the 80s as a Target, I’ve only read Fishers version thus far but they are different texts.

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24

Ah, thank you for correcting me on that :sweat_smile:
So like the Audio Adaption would basically be closer to the Version of that Story, right?

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25

Wrote a Review for the Target of “The Visitation”. Considering what purpose those Books had back then, I think it does its Job fairly well. Nowadays, it doesn’t have much going for it sadly

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Currently reading The Auton Invasion - It’s pretty good so far!
But, I wonder, which are the worst Target Novelisations?
I’ve read somewhere that Terrance Dicks’s novelisation of The Caves of Androzani is pretty bland. I also read that Eric Saward’s novelisations are some of the worst of the range.
But which ones are the worst, in your opinion(s)?

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27

I read that one just the other day. It’s really good.

The worst kind of Targets are the ones that add absolutely nothing to the story, but even those are still good fun to read.

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28

I agree with @DontBlink here that the worst are the ones that are pretty much word-for-word adaptations of the televised stories. The worst of these feel like reading a script, which is not what I want from a novel.

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29

And yet, in the early 1980s, those were considered the best kind. There’s an article in DWM 46 about Ian Marter and his Target novelizations where fans complained that they deviated too much. “Ian Marter’s style of writing differs from those of his Target contemporaries, such as Philip Hinchliffe and Terrance Dicks, in that he tends to “flesh out” the stories, often adding bits that were never seen on television! Questioned about this, Ian confirmed he had received many letters accusing him of heresy from die-hard fans but added in reply his belief that a book should do more than just replay the screen script in paragraph form!” I find it interesting how much Fandom has changed since then. That said, I understand the fan logic as home video didn’t exist yet so they wanted something as close to what aired as possible.

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From the ones I read so far The Visitation is up there. Yes, I do agree with @DontBlink and @MrColdStream on the matter that the worst are the ones which don’t add much. That said, there is a Point of some being just straightforward Adaptions, considering there was no Home Media back then. But looking at that Target Novel, even through I like the Story, its Prose is just so bland and uninspiring, and I think you can hardly argue that this isn’t a pretty big weak point for it. Even the Cover is pretty boring!

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Jubilee and The Chimes of Midnight Target covers revealed in the new DWM.

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32

Oh, I didn’t realise they were Target? I thought they were just something else entirely :sweat_smile:

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33

Yeah, I’ll wait until the Target paperbacks.

I’m not the biggest fan of these covers.

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34

I wonder if they’ll have audiobook for these…

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35

I wonder when would they be released?

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36

The covers look a bit… plain? Not the biggest fan!

They’ve been doing it for all the others, so my guess is yes. How weird it would be to listen to an audiobook version of an audio drama - it’s almost like listening to a remake of the audio drama!

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37

But are these Target books? I don’t see the Target logo on them. My guess is that they are something else.

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38

Proving again, not that anyone ever doubted, that Doctor Who fans have always been obnoxiously annoying

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39

Like the City of Death, Resurrection of the Daleks, and, for a more recent example, The Evil of the Daleks novelisations, they’ll be released in hardback, then published in paperback in the Target style.

So they are Targets.

(But don’t quote me on any of that)

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I thought that the Dalek ones were BBC novelisations?

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