Logopolis (novelisation)

Logopolis
Based on:	Logopolis
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Main enemy:	The Tremas Master
Main setting:	Pharos Project, Cambridge, 1981 Logopolis
Key crew
Publisher:	Target Books
Writer:	Christopher H. Bidmead
Read by:	Christopher H. Bidmead
Cover by:	Andrew Skilleter
Release details
Release number:	41 (given to later editions)
Release date:	21 October 1982
Format:	Hardcover and paperback editions; 12 Chapters, 127 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20149-3
Target novelisations
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Next →	Doctor Who and the Sunmakers
Target novelisation numbering
← Previous	Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
Next →	Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
TV series order
← Previous	Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken
Next →	Castrovalva

Logopolis was a novelisation based on the 1981 television serial Logopolis.

Publisher's summary

1982 Target Books edition

In theory the TARDIS should be able to change its appearance to blend in unobtrusively wherever it happens to materialise. In practice, however, because of a fault in the chameleon circuit, it always looks like a police box – a minor inconvenience the Doctor now hopes to correct.

Fixing the mechanism involves a visit to Earth and a trip to the planet Logopolis – normally a quiet little place that keeps itself to itself.

But on this occasion the meddling presence of the Doctor's archenemy, the Master, ensures the disruption of normality. And even the Master is horrified by the threat of total chaos he unintentionally precipitates – until he finds a way to turn the imminent destruction of the universe to his own advantage ...

1991 Target Books edition

TEGAN STARED IN BROAD-MINDED AUSTRALIAN DISBELIEF AT THE POLICE BOX THAT HAD MATERIALIZED IN FRONT OF HER EYES...

For as long as anyone can remember the chameleon circuit on the TARDIS has been broken - a minor inconvenience which the Doctor now finally gets around to correcting.

But fixing the mechanism involves a visit to Earth and to the planet Logopolis - a quiet little place that keeps itself to itself.

But on this occasion the meddling presence of the Doctor's arch enemy, the Master, ensures the disruption of normality. And even the Master is horrified by the threat of total chaos he unintentionally precipitates.

Logopolis was the final story to feature the fourth Doctor, as played by Tom Baker.

This is a novelization by Christopher H. Bidmead of his own original script.

Chapter titles

Titles are listed as "Chapter One" through "Chapter Twelve" in TOC, but actual chapter headings are simple numbers ("1"-"12")

Deviations from televised story

• The policeman in the opening scene is given the name of Police Constable Donald Seagrave. He has been sorting out a main water flooding in Burnley Street and is checking in with the Superintendent to see if he can go home for his tea.
• Aunt Vanessa's house is described as being a cottage house in a village-like street and less than 50 miles away from the police box.
• The location of the police box is clarified as the Barnet Bypass (although this was the production team's original idea for filming, it was not confirmed on-screen that this was still the actual setting until Mawdryn Undead).
• The TARDIS Cloisters, seen as a dark, gothic setting onscreen, is described as open and airy with a simulated sky.
• There is an added sequence of when the Doctor and Adric walk back from the Cloisters to the console room, they get temporarily lost down a corridor that leads to a small cupboard.
• The tyre puncture of Aunt Vanessa's car is caused by Tegan narrowly missing a lorry and hitting a kerb. It is also on the nearside tyre rather than, as on-screen, the offside.
• The Doctor inspects the main logic junction which is a mass of fibre optic-type wires located behind a translucent and heavy panel within a large oval arch set into a corridor wall.
• Adric spots Tegan on the scanner screen and gets a premonition-type feeling that he is going to get to know her.
• There are several instances where Adric's questions distract the Doctor.
• When going through the infinite regression of police boxes, Adric picks the locks with a coat hanger.
• Instead of pretending to have had a bike accident, Adric climbs on top of the TARDIS and throws the bicycle at the police car.
• While the Doctor receives a message from Traken about Tremas he gives Adric a volume of Paradise Lost by John Milton, which the boy starts to read.
• When the Doctor attempts to sink the TARDIS in the Thames, it lands on an abandoned wooden pontoon, instead of a ship.
• The Doctor provides the Monitor with a data block containing the exterior dimensions rather than a notebook.
• The Master's TCE leaves the smell of ozone.
• The Watcher is expanded upon.
• When chased by the Pharos Project security guards, the Doctor and Tegan run into some workmen on bicycles. The Master fires his TCE at them but misses before the Doctor disarms him.
• On returning to his TARDIS in the computer room, the Master uses the TCE on the waking technician. On-screen, the Master merely retrieves the cassette recorder from the still unconscious man.
• The Doctor's visions of various villains and companions is absent.
• Adric identifies that the Doctor is regenerating.
• The new Doctor has some dialogue: "Well, that's the end of that.... but it's probably the beginning of something completely different" (paraphrasing the Monty Python catchphrase, "and now for something completely different").

Additional cover images

• 

  1982 Hardback cover

• 

  1991 edition.
  Cover by Alister Pearson

British publication history

First publication:

• Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

• Paperback

Target

Audiobook

This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 4 February 2010 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by the author, Christopher H. Bidmead.

Produced by Dizzy Dalziel.

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.

It was later re-released as part of The Master Collection.

• 

  Audiobook cover

External links

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