Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation)

Attack of the Cybermen
Based on:	Attack of the Cybermen
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri
Main enemy:	Cybermen, Cyber Controller
Main setting:	London and Telos, 1985
Key crew
Publisher:	Target Books
Writer:	Eric Saward
Read by:	Colin Baker, David Banks
Cover by:	Colin Howard
Release details
Release number:	138
Release date:	20 April 1989
Format:	Paperback Book; 10 Chapters, 140 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20290-2
Publication Order
← Previous	Dragonfire
Next →	The Nightmare Fair
TV series order
← Previous	The Twin Dilemma
Next →	Vengeance on Varos

Attack of the Cybermen was a novelisation based on the 1985 television serial Attack of the Cybermen.

Publisher's summary

1989 Target Books edition

A diamond raid in modern-day London...a secret base hidden deep in the heart of the city's sewer system...a cold and desolate planet light years from Earth...and a daring plan to alter the entire course of interplanetary history...

On twentieth-century Earth it appears that the Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, has allied himself with the ruthless Cybermen. The Cybermen have devised a scheme which, if successful, could completely destroy the web of time and bring the human race to its knees.

When the Cyber-planet of Mondas was destroyed in 1986 the Cybermen were forced to retreat to the planet Telos. Now they have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world. And for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...

1992 Target Books edition

LYTTON STEPPED FORWARD AND BOWED TO ONE OF THE CREATURES. 'WE ARE YOUR PRISONERS, LEADER,'

On twentieth-century Earth, the Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, appears to have allied himself with the ruthless Cybermen, who have devised a scheme which, if successful, could completely destroy the web of time and bring the human race to its knees. For when the Cyberplanet Mondas was destroyed in 1986, the Cybermen were forced to retreat to the planet Telos. Now they have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world, and for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...

Eric Saward's novelisation is based on the original story by Paula Moore, which featured Colin Baker in the role of the Doctor.

Chapter titles

1. The Day Begins
2. The Perfect Crime
3. The Peripatetic Doctor
4. The Search Begins
5. A Close Encounter of a Very Nasty Kind
6. Telos
7. The Tombs of the Cybermen
8. The Great Escape
9. Caught
10. The Final Encounter

Deviations from televised story

• The novelisation deviates from the televised story structure considerably. Most notably, among several additions, includes:
  • The first two chapters focus on Lytton's gang and their first meeting with the Cybermen.
  • The following chapters reintroduce the Doctor and Peri, following their investigation on Lytton's distress signal.
  • The first scenes on Telos are moved to immediately prior the TARDIS's arrival in the tombs.
  • Several sequences are also streamlined or outright removed. The opening with sewer workers, Bill and David, is omitted. As is the cliffhanger to the end of "Part One" featuring Peri.
• Charles Windsor "Charlie" Griffiths was named after Prince Charles. He lacked a father and started shoplifting at a young age to help her out, being caught at the age of eleven due to his choice to repeatedly rob the same department store. He was labelled a recidivist by a criminal psychologist at the age of twenty-one and, by the age of thirty-two, had spent eight years and seven months in prison. He lived off of Social Security and loans from his mother, whom he lived with, before meeting Lytton, whose successful criminal adventures he began assisting with. Becoming rich meant that he was able to help his mother and also built his self-esteem.
• Further changes to names include Eregous Bates and Lintus Stratton, whose personalities are swapped for the novelisation. In addition, Bates is a native of Hatre Sedtry in the star system known as Repton's Cluster and Stratton is given the rank of Flight Leader.
• Lytton's contact among the Cryons, Threst, is renamed Thrust.
• Payne is given the first name Joe and Russell is given the first name of Vincent.
• Both Lytton and Griffiths are aware of Russell's role as an undercover policeman.
• Griffiths kills a Cyberman in the sewers with a machine gun, rather than a pistol.
• The Doctor's characterisation is softened further from his televised depiction. He reassures Peri at multiple points that he's aware of his instability, but won't let it cloud his judgement.
• The novelisation provides several new details about the Cybermen and their methods. The process of conversion is described as "cybernisation" and uses a silver metal known as arnickelton to replace limbs. Much like their Revenge of the Cybermen counterparts, the only organic component that remains is a processed brain.
• Payne is killed by his chain-smoking habit, which earned him the nickname "Coffin Nail Joe". When he bluffs that someone is following the gang in the tunnel, he secretly hides away to light up another cigarette. Alone, he is easily killed by a patrolling Cyberman.
• It's noted that the loot assembled from Lytton's robberies constructed a distress beacon capable of transmitting through "the gaps in the space/time continuum". Among the beacon's assembly is a stolen laser machine.
• Peri initially tries to bluff Russell with her stolen revolver. Seeing the knife at the Doctor's throat, she relents and drops the weapon.
• The Doctor's destruction of the patrolling Cyberman is the result of a miscalculation. Rather than deliberately engineering its demise, the sonic lance is set too high and causes a massive fire in its chest unit. Destroying it.
• Climbing the ladder from the sewer pit, the Doctor briefly remembers Adric.
• Russell is killed in an ambush, rather than directly. A Cyberman hiding behind the TARDIS's internal door breaks his neck. With Peri in tears, the Doctor blames himself for Russell's death.
• The first attack from the rogue Cyberman occurs far deeper in Telos's tombs -- and further away from the TARDIS -- than on television.
• The malfunctioning Cyberman's attack on Peri is significantly expanded. Peri is dying from hypothermia when a pair of arms from a sealed tomb-door seize around her. Her exhausted screams cause more of the cyborgs to activate, until the whole rotting gallery is reactivated. The Cyberman who breaks through the door on television is the last of these specimens. At the end of the scene, Peri is overcome by hypothermia rather than dragged away by the Cryons.
• Flast sings herself a Cryon death lament as she waits to die in the refrigeration unit
• The Cyber Controller does not appear in person until his encounter with Lytton.
• It's clarified that Lytton's torture forces him to tell the Cyber-Controller everything he knows of the planned heist for the time vessel. This includes how the vessel was to be stolen, where it would be diverted to, and how the Cryons encouraged the rebellion of Stratton and Bates to begin with.
• As he wanders a gallery of Cyber-corpses, the Doctor observes that the hibernation units have been poisoned by the Cryons en masse. With losses that large, the Cybermen are likely on the brink of extinction. Hence, the Cyber-Controller's urgency to change history and avert the destruction of Mondas.
• After Flast's death, the Cyber-Leader kills the Cyberman responsible for not searching the Doctor more thoroughly on his initial capture in the TARDIS.
• Rather than being caught in an unusual booby-trap, Bates is killed in the fiery explosion of the launch pad door. The Cyberman who kills Griffiths, Stratton and Bates is said to turn over Griffiths's body. Griffiths has a wry smile on his face from the near-successful capture of the time vessel.
• Unlike on television, Peri points out to the Doctor that Lytton had ample opportunity to tell the Doctor about his work for the Cryons. The Doctor suspects Lytton didn't tell him as thought he wouldn't believe him.
• The Cryons are explicitly depicted as having survived the explosion of Cyber Control. Eager to rebuild their world.

Writing and publishing notes

• One of the titles with the longest history is this title, originally discussed in June 1984 and finally published in 1989.
• In dedication to the memory of Bob, the father, And the splendour of the indigenous Peoples of the Americas.
• Back page includes un-illustrated Doctor Who Magazine advert.

Additional cover images

• 

  1992 edition.
  Cover by Alister Pearson

British publication history

First publication: Paperback (April 1989)

• Target / W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. One single paperback edition, estimated print run: 21,000, priced £1.99 (UK).

Re-issues: (October 1992)

• Target / Virgin Publishing, with a new cover by Alister Pearson priced £2.99 (UK).

Audiobook

In August 1995, BBC Audio released an abridged audio book version of the novel, read by Colin Baker.

It became part of the BBC MP3-CD Audio sampler Tales from the TARDIS Volume 1, "Ten hours on just one disc".

It was re-released on 1 February 2024 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio this time read by David Banks.

The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.

• 

  1995 audiobook cover

• 

  2024 audiobook cover

External links

• On Target a comprehensive guide to the Target novelisations by Tim Neal