The Twin Dilemma (novelisation): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Story

|image=Twin Dilemma novel.jpg

|series=Publication Order

|number= 103  

|doctor=Sixth Doctor  

|companions= [[Peri Brown|Peri]]

|enemy= [[Gastropod]]s, [[Jacondan]]s, [[Mestor]]  

|setting= [[Earth]], [[Titan III]] and [[Jaconda]], [[2310]]

|writer= [[Eric Saward]]

|read by=[[Colin Baker]]

|publisher= Target Books

|publisher2= W.H. Allen

|novelisation of= The Twin Dilemma (TV story)

|release date= [[13 March (releases)|13 March]] [[1986 (releases)|1986]]

|format= Hardcover and paperback editions; 10 Chapters, 138 Pages

|isbn= ISBN 0-426-20155-8

|prev= The Time Monster (novelisation)

|next= Galaxy Four (novelisation)

|series2 = [[List of Doctor Who television stories|TV series order]]

|prev2=The Caves of Androzani (novelisation)

|next2=Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)

Sacrificing his fifth persona to save Peri's life, the Doctor has regenerated again. But this time his regeneration is by no means smooth, for the new Doctor is strangely disturbed and unsettled in his personality.  

* Saward adds a detailed description of how [[regeneration]] works, detail not supported by other novels or televised stories. However, Saward's creation of [[lindos]], the hormone which kickstarts the regenerative process, ''is'' significant to the plot of [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Unregenerate! (audio story)|Unregenerate! (audio story)]]''

* [[Azmael]]'s departure from Gallifrey is said to have attracted the attention of the High Council who considered him too knowledgeable to be allowed free passage in the wider cosmos. To that end, they dispatch an assassination squad of Seedle warriors to execute him. The warriors track him down to Vitrol Minor where he had been hiding and massacred the population in search of the missing Time Lord. However, by the time that they had realised his absence, he'd escaped and returned to Gallifrey. Enraged and grief-stricken, he attempted to get the President and the High Council indited, but both escaped charge. Azmael is forced to gun down the politicians, but disgusted by the act, declares himself an outcast and condemns himself to exile beyond Gallifrey. There is no mention of this in the televised story. He expresses regrets about leaving Gallifrey and becoming a renegade. In the televised story, his only regret is not being able to stay on [[Jaconda]].

* The acid in the vials is referred to as Mosten acid, which doesn't burn or corrode, but ages whatever is immersed in it by a unique process of dehydration.

* Professor [[Sylvest]] is given the first name "Archie" and his wife named as Nimo. There is much back story added about how he dreams of killing the twins and has spent much time with his colleague Vestal Smith until he is threatened by her "Neanderthal" husband.

* Several mentions are made of an alcoholic drink called Voxnic.

* It is stated that the corrupt Time Lord High Council sent sadistic [[Seedle Warrior]]s after Azmael who wiped out the population of Vitrol Minor.

* There are several stories about characters tangentially related to the plot: Counciller [[Verne]] (a Time Lord who rose to high office after regenerating into a handsome man, took multiple regenerations to recover his good looks and ended up deformed), a group of scientists from Maston Viva who set up the base on [[Titan III|Titan Three]] (the atmosphere so depressed them that they missed a radiation pulse that wiped out their planet), Professor James Zarn (the inventor of the revitaliser who cured a space plague that made people too honest but was turned into a giant glass of Voxnic by a revitaliser accident and drunk by his guests) and Professor Vinny Mosten (who discovered the acid that was named after him when he exposed an attempt to artificially age supposed archaeological relics and died when it was spilled on him).

* The characters of [[Fabian (The Twin Dilemma)|Fabian]] and [[Elena]] and the sequences at police headquarters are omitted, as is the scene of Mestor executing a Jacondan [[Prisoner (The Twin Dilemma)|prisoner]].

* When [[Colin Baker]]'s agent questioned the payment arrangement for using the actor's likeness on the cover, it was wrongly assumed by the publishers that the usual fee was being questioned. Rather than get into another complicated discussion regarding payments for using likenesses, the decision was taken not to feature the Sixth Doctor on the cover novelisation of his debut story, instead commissioning another piece of artwork.

Twin dilemma 1993 target.jpg|1993 edition< br/>Cover by [[Andrew Skilleter]]

==  Audiobook ==

This Target Book was released on [[5 January (releases)|5 January]] [[2012 (releases)|2012]] complete and unabridged by [[BBC Audio]] and read by [[Colin Baker]].

[[Category:Target novelisations with audiobook readings]]