Mission to the Unknown
The Mutation of Time
Season Three
Season Three
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Mission to the Unknown The Mutation of Time Season Three |
Target Books Season Three |
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A Review by Richard Radcliffe 8/9/04
This would be the most books read covering a Season - 10 in all. There looks a nice mix of authors too, with most being the original scripter. The two comedy Donald Cotton books particularly stand out, and the epic 2-book Dalek Masterplan will be like reading a full-size novel too - that will be different!
There's a notable absentee here too - Terrance Dicks writes zero stories this season.
Galaxy Four
A quite dire TV serial is turned into a boredom-inducing book by its original author William Emms.
The plodding plot is emphasized even more in novel format. Only 4 chapters seem to make it even longer. I really didn't want to go back to read this on the train, and I have to confess to scan reading the last chapter or so - I just wanted to move on. I can find very little to recommend this story - but it's reasonably well written I suppose.
Welcome to the bargain basement of Who - too many wonders out there to spend much time on this drivel. 3/10
Looking forward to this one, I was. Voted amongst the best of the TARGET range in the latest DWM poll (2003), it's definitely one of the most unique books written about Doctor Who. The whole thing is a laugh-fest - written tongue in cheek, with dollops of irony. Not everybody can write humour - but Donald Cotton certainly can, brilliantly. It's often laugh out loud funny, as he takes on the persona of Homer - the scribe of the Trojan War.
In this book the ludicrous is hilarious. As Homer flits from key scene to the next, it could have got silly - but this contrivance becomes another laugh of the book as a whole. There were times I wanted to read this book aloud, because it felt like it should be - taking the established myths, and twisting them into a fun filled romp!
I was very sad to see this book come to an end - it had been so entertaining. I wanted Homer to join the TARDIS crew, but alas it wasn't to be. This really is one of the best. It's definitely the funniest. 9/10
The Daleks Masterplan (Mission to the Unknown & The Mutation of Time)
The longest TV story was novelized over 2 parts (joining with Mission to the Unknown). Thus the longest TV story becomes the longest TARGET novelization, and I will review it as 1 big book. After the deviations that the Myth Makers book gave us from the original (very welcome ones too), Dalek Masterplan stays true to the TV version - and so it should because it's an excellent story, that fully justifies its longer length.
Mission to the Unknown - the first book - starts things off very well. Mavic Chen (one of the greatest villains of Who) is given his due, and it's interesting to read the political machinations of the different leaders, with one eye firmly fixed on the Daleks.
The Mutation of Time - the second book - follows the lighter episodes of this epic. I had forgotten just how much the Christmas Episode was embraced by writer John Peel. It could have been easy for him to dismiss it completely, especially in the later 80s TARGET era of changing TV scripts drastically. But he actually seems to go the other way - and revels in the jollity. It comes perfectly - and provides a lovely interlude to the main story.
The Meddling Monk can't help but be quite a comedy character too. The Egyptian escapade is very much like The Chase - like that book, John Peel adapts it brilliantly.
Dalek Masterplan is first and foremost a wonderful space opera. It does feature comedy, history, science fiction and monsters - but where it is brilliant is the political machinations of all key players. The different delegates (made more mysterious by lack of visuals), the Dalek Taranium Core plan, Mavic Chen's pretensions of grandeur, Sara's allegiances.
I really enjoyed reading this again, and I would confidently place it amongst the very best TARGET has to offer. 9/10
The Massacre
We're happily in a very strong run of books at the moment, thanks to Donald Cotton, John Peel and now John Lucarotti. I wasn't too impressed with his two previous books - but he rectifies that very well with The Massacre.
The impending disaster that looms is all the tension that Lucarotti needs. An inevitable doom overlays the story, and the Doctor and Steven are helpless to stop it. This is more a Steven story than a Doctor story on TV, and the book is no different.
The grime of France back then is well presented, as is the angst of the participants in the drama.
A good read, nicely written, very good book. 8/10
The Ark
There was no way in the universe that the BBC Budget could realize this effectively. Thus I was hoping for a rather better book than what we saw on TV - because this is a rather fascinating story.
Paul Erickson, the original scripter, is the novelizer - and he does indeed enlarge and expand the imaginative scope that the story presents. He's also a decent writer, and the book moves nicely along.
The Ark seems like a truly wondrous place, and the urgency of mankind's fate is real and tense.
I always suspected there was a cracking story around all those mop-top Monoids - this book proves it very well. 8/10
The Celestial Toymaker
A highly visual story - which is very sedately written up by Alison Bingeman (I suspect Gerry Davis name is on there just to sell a few more copies). I just couldn't get excited about this one at all. The games came and went, and were instantly forgotten. The Toymaker could have been written more menacingly - but he's a bit of a wet fish villain here (and he certainly isn't elsewhere).
Very disappointing - but probably one of the most difficult to translate to prose. 5/10
I had high hopes for this one, recalling from my youth that it was a mickey-take of the Western genre. I hate Westerns, and they deserve to be lampooned at every opportunity. Donald Cotton writes up his own script, and the lightheartedness is there in abundance.
Again we have a narrator (like Homer in Myth Makers). His name is Buntline, and he's a very amusing chap. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments, and his sideways look at the world is unique. The story is all told in the Western jargon, which does tend to grate after a while. At 152 pages, this book is also one of the longest novelizations - Cotton must have been having so much fun with the subject matter.
The Gunfighters is very funny in places, but it also goes on a bit too long. Nonetheless a highly different Doctor Who book, and one I enjoyed for the most part. 7/10
The Savages
This nice little morality play is one of the forgotten stories of Who - yet it gives its message well. With original author Ian Stuart Black to expound a little his TV script (it didn't need that much tinkering), what we get is a good novelization of a good TV story.
The Doctor's wisdom has never been more vital to a story's resolution - and it is the Doctor's character who benefits most from this story. His companions wear less well. Dodo is possibly the most underused companion ever in her stories. Steven has been a great companion, but his departure seems tagged on. True, it's one of the most responsible exits in Who, but I never got the feel of him identifying with this race. Maybe we should go back one day, I think Steven is one of the only companions who we haven't visited in original book form.
The Savages is a good little read, I was impressed. 8/10
The War Machines
Same author as the last story - Ian Stuart Black. This book made me want to watch the TV version straightaway, more than any other novelization. That's probably just unfamiliarity with it though - let's hope for a DVD release soon.
The story relies on action far more than most stories. As such it doesn't lend itself as well to the printed page. There are only so many times you can describe the lumbering War Machines in battle. As we move from one warehouse to the next, from one action sequence to the next, I got a bit bogged down with it all.
The book starts off splendidly. The modern day setting (least it was then) is well presented, and the new Post Office Tower really seems like the ultra modern structure it once was. WOTAN is fascinating too, but as its influence spreads, so it's mystery is lessened.
Nonetheless an adequate and pretty good novelization. 7/10
Season 3 took a while for me to get through, not just because it contains the most novelizations (10). It's not my favourite run of stories, but I was still looking forward to reading less familiar material.
The quality is all over the place, strange as the original writers novelize their own story. The most enjoyable books were the Dalek Masterplan duo, but for laughs Myth Makers and Gunfighters are worth a read.
It is the general consensus that the Hartnell stories received the best treatment from the TARGET range. Most of them were released towards the end of the TARGET run, and the standard was better then apparently.
Coming to the end of the Hartnell era is therefore interesting. I have enjoyed the books generally very much. There's been a few bad ones, but most have been perfectly good novelizations of good stories.
I doubt I will read a greater variety of stories as I have with Season 3 - and that's probably the main thing I will take from the whole of the Hartnell era novelizatons.