The Chase (novelisation)

The Chase
Doctor:	[[doctor::First Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Vicki, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton, Steven Taylor
Main enemy:	Daleks, Mechanoids, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster
Main setting:	Earth, Empire State Building, Marie Celeste, Aridius, Mechanus
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Target Books, W.H. Allen & Co]]
Writer:	John Peel
Release details
Release number:	140
Release date:	July 1989
Format:	Paperback Book, --- Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20336-4

Novelisation

• This novelisation is based on the original television serial generally referred to as DW: The Chase which included individual episode titles and was shown from 22nd May 1965 and written by Terry Nation.
• The cover and information shown on the right is for the original Target novel and featured the artwork of Alister Pearson. (See below for information on other UK and international editions which published with a different cover).

Publisher's Cover Blurb

Through a Space-Time Visualiser the Doctor and his companions are horrified to see an execution squad of Daleks about to leave Skaro on a mission to find the TARDIS and exterminate the time travellers.
Eluding the Daleks on the barren planet Aridius the Doctor and his friends escape in the TARDIS. But this is only the beginning of an epic journey.
As they travel through space and time, they try to shake off their pursuers by making a series of random landings-but the Daleks don’t give up easily. This is a chase to the death…

Illustrations

None

Deviations from the Televised Story

To be added

Author, Writing and Publishing Notes

• Alister Pearson’s original cover design was much simplified, with several elements of the story removed.
• According to the novelisation, the Dalek time craft (or DARDIS according to the scripts) was powered by an ultra-rare taranium core (a reference made in the sequel story The Daleks' Master Plan).
• In the novelisation, Morton Dill is nicknamed Dill-the-Pill (“being hard to take”) and later becomes a permenant resident of the "Newman Rehabilitation Clinic" (presumably named after Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman).
• Albert C. Richardson in the novelisation unlashes the lifeboat, but it rolls over and sinks.
• In the novelisation, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Grey Lady are all clearly identified as robots (unlike in the television story).
• John Peel's author’s note at the beginning of this book states that it is “not strictly speaking an adaptation of the televised version of The Chase.” Instead the author choose to base the story on Terry Nation's original script (unearthed by Terry’s wife Kate) and included some of the rewritten material (presumably by then-story editor Dennis Spooner) used in the televised version. The Mary Celeste sequence was also changed using known facts about the incidents as sourced from Mystery Ship by George S. Bryan, and published by Lippincott in 1942.
• The novel is dedicated to Terry Nation’s wife Kate and the author’s wife Nan.

Associated Images

• 2Chase.jpg

  Cover by Alister Pearson

Publishing History (UK)

To be added

First Publication:

• Hardback

W.H.Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

• Paperback

Target

Re-issues:

None

International Editions

To be added

External Sources

• The Target Book by David J Howe (Telos Publishing 2007)
• a comprehensive guide to the Target novelisations by Tim Neal