The Cushing Novelisations
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Obverse Books The Cushing Novelisations |
| Released | 2019 |
| Written by Alan Smithee |
| Synopsis: Novelisations of the two existing Cushing films and two imagined films. |
"How terribly exciting..." by Jack McLean 28/5/19
There are new novelisations of four films with Peter Cushing as Dr Who? You what now?
My first reaction was that there were only two Dr Who movies. Well, there were, but we'll come back to that. The films we know, Dr Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD, were adapted from TV serials that had been novelised already, so these films didn't need books of their own. On top of that, these new novelisations weren't official, being released to raise funds for Tommy Donbavand, the Doctor Who author who has been facing a brutal battle with cancer for the past few years and recently passed away. There had been two short story anthologies, A Target for Tommy and A Second Target for Tommy, from the same publisher, Obverse Books, and they had been of a very high quality, with contributions from names like Steven Moffatt and Paul Cornell, so I was intrigued by these new books. I was also interested that they were written by a professional Doctor Who writer who was writing anonymously under the name Alan Smithee, the pseudonym often used by movie directors trying to keep their identity secret. I weakened and bit the bullet, buying the set of four. If nothing else, I was going to be helping out somebody facing tough times.
The first thing you notice about the books is that they have a look. The covers are slightly pulpy, using very simple colours, silhouettes of the monster and background features, but they work. The second Dalek film and Dr Who and the Ice Men from Mars are particularly effective. They also have a lovely "Target for Tommy" logo on the back and a variation of a Target logo on the spine. The font on the spines apes the early Target novelisations, so while the books' covers don't look exactly like Targets, the spines do. They really do have a lovely series look.
The contents are presented in a far more familiar way. These are Target-style novelisations of the length of the early black-logo Targets. There are even nods to the Targets in chapter titles like "Escape to Danger" and "The Dead Planet" in Dr Who and the Daleks, while Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD rather cheekily has a chapter titled "At the Earth's Core?"
The books are really good fun. In keeping with the early Targets, they offer background to characters who were lacking development in the two films. In the first, Ian Chesterton benefits from being rounded out and given a backstory. He is clumsy and lacking confidence, but he's brave and not the buffoon who plays things solely for slapstick laughs. The cringeworthy last scene of the film showing oddly-sized back-projected Roman legions has been turned into something rather more serious. Similarly, in the novelisation of the second film, Bernard Cribbins' character, Tom, is not played for laughs. He is intelligent, ambitious and has a taste in music that comes to his aid when he is fighting off the Robotisation process. Dr Who and his family also get some lovely little character moments, but the real gold is in the backgrounding of the supporting characters. The second Dalek story is particularly rich in this, with Dortmun being given a lengthy backstory, which also explains how the Dalek attack and invasion unfolded. Wyler, too, gets a rich and quite heartbreaking history.
The two Dalek books zip along with a joyful pace, expanding on the scripts of the two movies. One of the flaws of the first film is that Dr Who actually does very little in it. That is somewhat corrected in the novelisation, often with simple additions to dialogue or explanations of motivation. He is a considerably more active participant in the second book, which is surprising given that Peter Cushing's illness during the making of the film resulted in some of his action being handed on to Bernard Cribbins. These first two books offer a delightful nostalgia but with a lovely fresh layer of added new material, which lifts the books.
The other two books in the series, Dr Who and the Ice Men from Mars and The Tenth Planet Invades the Moonbase, take us firmly into 'what if' territory. What if the films had continued? These production-based 'what ifs' are explored in long introduction pieces, presented as extracts from a book looking at the series of films. These are deliciously detailed examinations of how Aaru came to partner with Hammer Films on the Dr Who films following the two Dalek movies. The novelisations also carry cast lists for these films from a parallel Earth.
Dr Who and the Ice Men from Mars is a novelisation of the movie adaptation of the Patrick Troughton serial, The Ice Warriors. The story is, in broad strokes, fairly similar to the TV version, but it's in the deviations and details that the book really becomes its own creature. Clent, Penley, Arden and Jan Garrett are all present, but they're also different enough that this isn't a simple re-run of the TV show. It tells the story in a different way with very different characters. Peter Cushing's Dr Who is not the same as Patrick Troughton's Doctor. The companions - Dr Who's nephew, Jim (played on Earth-2 by Jim Dale) is likeable and shares Jamie's courage, but he is highly gifted in science and engineering. His girlfriend Vanessa (Valerie Leon) is possibly most akin to her TV counterpart Victoria. Both hail from the past and had scientist fathers killed in previous adventures. Vanessa, however, is a little older and considerably more courageous and capable than Victoria and hails from 1912 rather than Victoria's era of the mid nineteenth century. The two new companions are a couple, which certainly adds a spark to their interaction.
What the book does very successfully is merge the readers' memories of the TV serial with a very recognisable portrayal of Cushing's Dr Who and his films, meaning that you can almost remember seeing this film. After reading it, I was sure I had seen Jim and Penley escaping from a tiger through a blizzard on a makeshift sledge or that I had seen a force of Ice Warriors attacking Edinburgh Castle. In my head, I like to think I really did see it.
The Tenth Planet Invades the Moonbase is equally vivid and another film I'm sure I have seen several times. The story is more ambitious in scope than its predecessors, bringing together plots and plot strands from three or perhaps four of the early Cybermen stories. It is primarily The Tenth Planet and The Moonbase mashed together but with a bit of The Tomb of the Cybermen and maybe a hint of The Invasion. There are many familiar scenes from the TV versions, but they are expanded and altered, giving them a grandeur and scale beyond the TV budget. The two main plot strands running side by side for the last half of the story allows plenty of action for a larger 'regular' cast, which has Susan (now aged 15 or 16), Louise and Tom, who had cameos in the Ice Warrior film, join Dr Who, Vanessa and Jim in the evolving TARDIS. This story also features some really tense action scenes, allowing the Cybermen to be genuinely menacing.
Like its predecessor, the book evokes memories of a film I didn't see. When read together, as I read them, the four books bring a lovely warm sensation of having seen all of these films at some point in my childhood and of having watched the series evolve. They really got the feel of Cushing's Dr Who and his version of the universe just right.
I've no idea which author or authors Alan Smithee actually is, but they gave me a wonderfully nostalgic feeling, reading highly enjoyable Target novelisations that fell through from a parallel world. I hope we see more of Dr Who's adventures in TARDIS.