Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Target Book Line: History

Between 1973 and 1991, Target Books published almost every Doctor Who television serial as a novelisation, starting with new editions of the Frederick Muller Ltd. books. When Target was taken over by Virgin in 1991, three further serials The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks by John Peel and the radio serial The Paradise of Death by Barry Letts were added to the range.

The only serials never to have been officially novelised are The Pirate Planet, City of Death, Shada, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks, due to licensing issues with the original scriptwriters. (Unofficial fan novelisations were published by the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club between 1989 and 2000) The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time and the Comic Relief spoof Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death have also not been novelised.

In addition to the television serials, three scripts from the cancelled Season 23 were novelised, The Nightmare Fair, The Ultimate Evil and Mission to Magnus (details below). Also a short series entitled The Companions of Doctor Who was published — this comprised the novelisation of the pilot of K-9 and Company, and the original works Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma and Harry Sullivan's War.

Besides Paradise of Death, Target also novelised two additional non-televised stories: the radio play Slipback and the audio story The Pescatons.

source: wikipedia

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