The Three Doctors (novelisation): Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Story | {{Infobox Story SMW | ||
|novelisation of=The Three Doctors (TV story) | |novelisation of = The Three Doctors (TV story) | ||
|image=Doctor Who The Three Doctors.jpg | |image=<gallery>Doctor Who The Three Doctors.jpg|1975 edition | ||
CumminsThreeDoctors.jpg|1978 edition | |||
PearsonThreeDoctors.jpg|1991 edition | |||
</gallery> | |||
|number= 64 (given to later editions) | |number= 64 (given to later editions) | ||
|doctor=Third Doctor | |doctor = Third Doctor | ||
|companions=[[Jo Grant|Jo]] | |companions=[[Jo Grant|Jo]] | ||
|enemy= [[Omega]], [[Gell guard]]s | |enemy= [[Omega]], [[Gell guard]]s | ||
Line 13: | Line 16: | ||
|featuring4= John Benton | |featuring4= John Benton | ||
|setting= [[Earth]], circa [[1970s]] | |setting= [[Earth]], circa [[1970s]] | ||
|writer= | |writer= Terrance Dicks | ||
|read by=[[Gabriel Woolf]], [[Katy Manning]] | |read by = [[Gabriel Woolf]], [[Katy Manning]] | ||
|cover= [[Chris Achilleos]] | |cover= [[Chris Achilleos]] | ||
|publisher= Target Books | |publisher= Target Books | ||
|publisher2= W.H. Allen | |publisher2= W.H. Allen | ||
|release date= | |release date= 20 November 1975 | ||
|format= Hardcover and paperback editions; 127 pages | |format= Hardcover and paperback editions; 127 pages | ||
|isbn= ISBN 0-426-11578-3 | |isbn= ISBN 0-426-11578-3 | ||
|series = | |series = [[Target novelisation]]s | ||
|prev = Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders (novelisation) | |prev = Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders (novelisation) | ||
|next = Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (novelisation) | |next = Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (novelisation) | ||
Line 29: | Line 32: | ||
|series3 = [[List of Doctor Who television stories|TV series order]] | |series3 = [[List of Doctor Who television stories|TV series order]] | ||
|prev3 = The Time Monster (novelisation) | |prev3 = The Time Monster (novelisation) | ||
|next3 = Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters | |next3 = Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters (novelisation) | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was a novelisation based on the 1972 television serial ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]''. | '''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was a novelisation based on the 1972 television serial ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]''. | ||
Line 44: | Line 47: | ||
'I FORBID IT. YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE DOCTOR TO CROSS HIS OWN TIME STREAM AND MEET HIS EARLIER SELF. THE FIRST LAW EXPRESSLEY FORBIDS IT.' | 'I FORBID IT. YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE DOCTOR TO CROSS HIS OWN TIME STREAM AND MEET HIS EARLIER SELF. THE FIRST LAW EXPRESSLEY FORBIDS IT.' | ||
Exiled from his own world, trapped for millennia in a universe of [[ | Exiled from his own world, trapped for millennia in a universe of [[anti-matter]], Omega has planned his revenge on his own race, the Time Lords, and on the entire universe... | ||
In order to prevent an unthinkable catastrophe, the Time Lords break the [[First Law of Time]] and send the Doctor's previous selves to help... | In order to prevent an unthinkable catastrophe, the Time Lords break the [[First Law of Time]] and send the Doctor's previous selves to help... | ||
Doctor Who - ''The Three Doctors'' was first broadcast in [[1972 (releases)|1972]] and featured [[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]] and [[Jon Pertwee]] in the role of the Doctor. This adventure marked the end of the Doctor's [[Earth | Doctor Who - ''The Three Doctors'' was first broadcast in [[1972 (releases)|1972]] and featured [[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]] and [[Jon Pertwee]] in the role of the Doctor. This adventure marked the end of the Doctor's [[Earth]]bound adventures and was written by [[Bob Baker]] and [[Dave Martin]]. This novelization was written by [[Terrance Dicks]] who was the [[Script editor]] of the series at the time that The Three Doctors was broadcast. | ||
=== 2012 BBC Books edition === | === 2012 BBC Books edition === | ||
[[ | [[Pandad IV|The President]] of the Time Lords turned triumphantly to [[Socra|the Chancellor]]. "You see, my Lord? We cannot help the Doctor, but perhaps he can help himself!" | ||
A mysterious [[black hole]] is draining away power from the Universe. Even the Time Lords are threatened. The Doctor is also in trouble. Creatures from the black hole besiege [[UNIT HQ|UNIT Headquarters]]. The only person who can help the Doctor is... himself. | A mysterious [[black hole]] is draining away power from the Universe. Even the Time Lords are threatened. The Doctor is also in trouble. Creatures from the black hole besiege [[UNIT HQ|UNIT Headquarters]]. The only person who can help the Doctor is... himself. | ||
Line 65: | Line 68: | ||
== Deviations from televised story == | == Deviations from televised story == | ||
* Jo is given greater respect from the First Doctor than in the television story. | * Jo is given greater respect from the First Doctor than in the television story. | ||
* To distinguish between incarnations in the novel, Terrance Dicks has Jo think of the second Doctor as “Doctor Two”. | |||
* The Second Doctor does not criticise the Third Doctor’s “redecorated” TARDIS control room. | |||
* The Second Doctor speaks to the man from the ministry in person rather than on videophone. | * The Second Doctor speaks to the man from the ministry in person rather than on videophone. | ||
* An original sequence features the Brigadier, Jo and Benton fruitlessly trying to fortify UNIT. | * An original sequence features the Brigadier, Jo and Benton fruitlessly trying to fortify UNIT. | ||
Line 71: | Line 76: | ||
* The Gel guards are named as Blob men. | * The Gel guards are named as Blob men. | ||
* The Blob men, as Terrance Dicks described them, appear to have arms and legs and a sort of head. This is different from the TV story, as in the TV story, they are blobs of jelly with a claw. | * The Blob men, as Terrance Dicks described them, appear to have arms and legs and a sort of head. This is different from the TV story, as in the TV story, they are blobs of jelly with a claw. | ||
* The blob men are more advanced in the novel. An example is when Benton blows one apart, the legs keep running before finally, | * The landscapes of Omega’s world are far more expansive than those shown on television. For example, the Third Doctor’s battle with the “Will of Omega” takes place in a massive Roman-styled arena under a purple sky; the Point of Singularity, meantime, is visualised as “an enormous pillar of fire”. | ||
* The blob men are more advanced in the novel. An example is when Benton blows one apart, the legs keep running before finally, they fall down. | |||
* Mrs. Ollis (Hollis in this novel) has the first name of Mary. | * Mrs. Ollis (Hollis in this novel) has the first name of Mary. | ||
* | * The [[TARDIS force field|force field generator]] is described as a plastic casket. | ||
* Rather than [[Omega]] knocking the [[TARDIS force field|force field generator]] from the [[Second Doctor]]'s hand, he takes the device and his touching of the [[The Doctor's recorder|recorder]] is what destroys his realm, with the two Doctors running to the [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] to escape. | |||
* An additional scene is added in which the [[Time Lord]]s congratulate the [[First Doctor]], before deciding to grant the [[Third Doctor]] his freedom from exile on Earth. It is suggested that the President had himself presided over the Second Doctor’s [[The War Games (TV story)|trial]], presumably in an earlier incarnation. | |||
* Terrance Dicks makes it clear that the Third Doctor now considers his life on Earth with Jo, the Brigadier and UNIT as “something that could be called home, and he didn’t want to give it up”. However, he still remains keen to undertake “one or two trips from time to time”. | |||
* Unlike on television, the Doctor suggests to Jo they take “a little trip” to “[[Metebelis III|Metebelis]], the famous blue planet of the [[Acteon Galaxy|Acteon galaxy]]”. | |||
== Writing and publishing notes == | == Writing and publishing notes == | ||
* Title page includes: “THE CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO: The cover illustration portrays the first, second and third | * Title page includes: “THE CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO: The cover illustration portrays the first, second and third Doctors.” | ||
* This was the first novelisation to be published without using the form "Doctor Who and ..." | * The main title page of the original edition refer to script writers “[[Bob Baker|Robert Baker]]” (rather than “Bob Baker”) and [[Dave Martin]]”. | ||
* A few years after this book was published, Target Books began numbering its ''Doctor Who'' novelisations. Rather than number the stories in order of broadcast, or original publication, Target initially | * This was the first novelisation to be published without using the form "Doctor Who and ..." Ironically, the 1978 reprint (at least on the cover) renamed the book “Doctor Who and The Three Doctors”. | ||
* A few years after this book was published, Target Books began numbering its ''Doctor Who'' novelisations. Rather than number the stories in order of broadcast, or original publication, Target opted to initially number the books alphabetically. Coincidentally, ''The Three Doctors'', numbered as No. 64 in the Target series, was also the sixty-fourth story to be broadcast (if one does not consider the single-episode [[TV]]: ''[[Mission to the Unknown (TV story)|Mission to the Unknown]]'' as a standalone story). | |||
* This novelisation was later released as part of ''[[The UNIT Collection]]''. | * This novelisation was later released as part of ''[[The UNIT Collection]]''. | ||
* There is a reference in Chapter 7 to {{Delgado}} being the only other Time Lord the Doctor has faced as an enemy before Omega. However, on television, he had previously faced [[the Monk]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]],'' TV: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks’ Master Plan]]'') and [[the War Chief]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The War Games (TV story)|The War Games]]''). This appears to imply that these "three" Time Lords are in fact one. This is not made clear either way in any televised story, but was the opinion of many writers, particularly of the Target novelisations, in this era. However, ever since the dawn of the so-called "Wilderness Years", expanded media has moved away from this notion, aside from the occasional allusion, with [[The Monk|Mortimus]] becoming an arch-enemy of the Doctor’s in his own right. | |||
== Worldbuilding == | |||
* Jo thinks of the Second Doctor as [[Doctor Two]]. | |||
* The Second Doctor's coin is identified as a double-headed [[Martian Crown]] | |||
== | == Cover Art == | ||
[[File:10D_2.17_Cover_E.jpg|thumb|The cover for [[10DY2 17|the final issue of the second year]] of ''[[Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor]]'']] | [[File:10D_2.17_Cover_E.jpg|thumb|The cover for [[10DY2 17|the final issue of the second year]] of ''[[Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor]]'']] | ||
The cover to ''The Three Doctors'' is | The cover to ''The Three Doctors'' is based on the cover of Marvel's {{iw|marvel|Fantastic Four Vol 1 49|''Fantastic Four'' #49}}. Despite this, the art is arguably more iconic in ''Who'' circles than in those of Marvel, and several other franchise stories have plaid homage to it: | ||
The cover | * ''[[Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor]]'', [[10DY2 17|year 2 issue 17]] | ||
* ''[[Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor]]'', [[4D 4|issue 4]] Doctor Who Comics Day cover | |||
* ''[[Night of the Intelligence (novel)|Night of the Intelligence]]'' | |||
== Additional cover images == | == Additional cover images == | ||
Line 107: | Line 124: | ||
== Editions published outside Britain == | == Editions published outside Britain == | ||
* Published in Poland by Empire Books in 1994 as a paperback edition, translated by Juliusz Garztecki and published as ''Doctor Who - | * Published in Poland by Empire Books in 1994 as a paperback edition, translated by Juliusz Garztecki and published as ''Doctor Who - Władcy Czasu'', it was one of three Polish novelisations. | ||
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true"> | <gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true"> | ||
File:The Three Doctors Polish cover.jpg|Polish cover | File:The Three Doctors Polish cover.jpg|Polish cover | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
== | == Audiobook == | ||
An unabridged audiobook of the story was recorded by [[Gabriel Woolf]] for the RNIB in [[1978]], alongside ''[[Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (novelisation)|The Loch Ness Monster]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters (novelisation)|Carnival of Monsters]]''. It was only available to the registered blind. More recently this story was released on [[8 April (releases)|8 April]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]] complete and unabridged by [[BBC Audio]] and read by [[Katy Manning]]. | An unabridged audiobook of the story was recorded by [[Gabriel Woolf]] for the RNIB in [[1978]], alongside ''[[Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (novelisation)|The Loch Ness Monster]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters (novelisation)|Carnival of Monsters]]''. It was only available to the registered blind. More recently this story was released on [[8 April (releases)|8 April]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]] complete and unabridged by [[BBC Audio]] and read by [[Katy Manning]]. | ||
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]]. | 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]]. | ||
The 2010 audiobook was reissued on [[5 April (releases)|5 April]] [[2018 (releases)|2018]] as part of ''[[The UNIT Collection]]''. | |||
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true"> | <gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true"> | ||
File:Bbcaudio104.jpg|Audiobook cover | File:Bbcaudio104.jpg|Audiobook cover | ||
The UNIT Collection.jpg|The UNIT Collection | |||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
Line 126: | Line 146: | ||
{{DWN}} | {{DWN}} | ||
{{TitleSort}} | {{TitleSort}} | ||
[[Category:The UNIT Collection novels]] | [[Category:The UNIT Collection novels]] | ||
[[Category:1975 novels]] | [[Category:1975 novels]] | ||
[[Category:Second Doctor novelisations]] | [[Category:Second Doctor novelisations]] | ||
[[Category:Target novelisations]] | |||
[[Category:First Doctor novelisations]] | [[Category:First Doctor novelisations]] | ||
[[Category:Time Lord novels]] | [[Category:Time Lord novels]] | ||
Line 140: | Line 162: | ||
[[Category:Novels in which the Doctor is on a mission for the Time Lords]] | [[Category:Novels in which the Doctor is on a mission for the Time Lords]] | ||
[[Category:E-books]] | [[Category:E-books]] | ||
Latest revision as of 20:51, 3 November 2024
The Three Doctors was a novelisation based on the 1972 television serial The Three Doctors.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
1975 Target Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]
Jo glanced up at the Doctor. 'Things must be pretty serious then.' 'They are, Jo. Very serious indeed. The whole of the Universe is in danger!'
The most amazing WHO adventure, in which Doctors One, Two and Three cross time and space and come together to fight a ruthlessly dangerous enemy – OMEGA. Once a Time Lord, now exiled to a black hole in space, Omega is seeking a bitter and deadly revenge against the whole Universe...
DOCTOR WHO scripts — awarded the 1974 Writers' Guild Award for the best British children's original drama script.
1991 Target Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]
'I FORBID IT. YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE DOCTOR TO CROSS HIS OWN TIME STREAM AND MEET HIS EARLIER SELF. THE FIRST LAW EXPRESSLEY FORBIDS IT.'
Exiled from his own world, trapped for millennia in a universe of anti-matter, Omega has planned his revenge on his own race, the Time Lords, and on the entire universe...
In order to prevent an unthinkable catastrophe, the Time Lords break the First Law of Time and send the Doctor's previous selves to help...
Doctor Who - The Three Doctors was first broadcast in 1972 and featured William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee in the role of the Doctor. This adventure marked the end of the Doctor's Earthbound adventures and was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This novelization was written by Terrance Dicks who was the Script editor of the series at the time that The Three Doctors was broadcast.
2012 BBC Books edition[[edit] | [edit source]]
The President of the Time Lords turned triumphantly to the Chancellor. "You see, my Lord? We cannot help the Doctor, but perhaps he can help himself!"
A mysterious black hole is draining away power from the Universe. Even the Time Lords are threatened. The Doctor is also in trouble. Creatures from the black hole besiege UNIT Headquarters. The only person who can help the Doctor is... himself.
The Time Lords bring together the first three incarnations of the Doctor to discover the truth about the black hole and stop the energy drain. The Doctors and their companions travel through the black hole itself, into a universe of anti-matter. Here they meet one of the very first Time Lords - Omega, who gave his race the power to travel through time.
Trapped for aeons in the black hole, he now plans to escape - whatever the cost.
This novel is based on a Doctor Who story originally broadcast from 30 December 1972 to 20 January 1973.
Featuring the first three Doctors as played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, together with Jo Grant and the UNIT organisation commanded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
Deviations from televised story[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Jo is given greater respect from the First Doctor than in the television story.
- To distinguish between incarnations in the novel, Terrance Dicks has Jo think of the second Doctor as “Doctor Two”.
- The Second Doctor does not criticise the Third Doctor’s “redecorated” TARDIS control room.
- The Second Doctor speaks to the man from the ministry in person rather than on videophone.
- An original sequence features the Brigadier, Jo and Benton fruitlessly trying to fortify UNIT.
- The last name of Arthur Ollis is changed to Arthur Hollis.
- There is a Young Time Lord in the novel who was not present in the TV story.
- The Gel guards are named as Blob men.
- The Blob men, as Terrance Dicks described them, appear to have arms and legs and a sort of head. This is different from the TV story, as in the TV story, they are blobs of jelly with a claw.
- The landscapes of Omega’s world are far more expansive than those shown on television. For example, the Third Doctor’s battle with the “Will of Omega” takes place in a massive Roman-styled arena under a purple sky; the Point of Singularity, meantime, is visualised as “an enormous pillar of fire”.
- The blob men are more advanced in the novel. An example is when Benton blows one apart, the legs keep running before finally, they fall down.
- Mrs. Ollis (Hollis in this novel) has the first name of Mary.
- The force field generator is described as a plastic casket.
- Rather than Omega knocking the force field generator from the Second Doctor's hand, he takes the device and his touching of the recorder is what destroys his realm, with the two Doctors running to the TARDIS to escape.
- An additional scene is added in which the Time Lords congratulate the First Doctor, before deciding to grant the Third Doctor his freedom from exile on Earth. It is suggested that the President had himself presided over the Second Doctor’s trial, presumably in an earlier incarnation.
- Terrance Dicks makes it clear that the Third Doctor now considers his life on Earth with Jo, the Brigadier and UNIT as “something that could be called home, and he didn’t want to give it up”. However, he still remains keen to undertake “one or two trips from time to time”.
- Unlike on television, the Doctor suggests to Jo they take “a little trip” to “Metebelis, the famous blue planet of the Acteon galaxy”.
Writing and publishing notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Title page includes: “THE CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO: The cover illustration portrays the first, second and third Doctors.”
- The main title page of the original edition refer to script writers “Robert Baker” (rather than “Bob Baker”) and Dave Martin”.
- This was the first novelisation to be published without using the form "Doctor Who and ..." Ironically, the 1978 reprint (at least on the cover) renamed the book “Doctor Who and The Three Doctors”.
- A few years after this book was published, Target Books began numbering its Doctor Who novelisations. Rather than number the stories in order of broadcast, or original publication, Target opted to initially number the books alphabetically. Coincidentally, The Three Doctors, numbered as No. 64 in the Target series, was also the sixty-fourth story to be broadcast (if one does not consider the single-episode TV: Mission to the Unknown as a standalone story).
- This novelisation was later released as part of The UNIT Collection.
- There is a reference in Chapter 7 to the Master being the only other Time Lord the Doctor has faced as an enemy before Omega. However, on television, he had previously faced the Monk (TV: The Time Meddler, TV: The Daleks’ Master Plan) and the War Chief (TV: The War Games). This appears to imply that these "three" Time Lords are in fact one. This is not made clear either way in any televised story, but was the opinion of many writers, particularly of the Target novelisations, in this era. However, ever since the dawn of the so-called "Wilderness Years", expanded media has moved away from this notion, aside from the occasional allusion, with Mortimus becoming an arch-enemy of the Doctor’s in his own right.
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Jo thinks of the Second Doctor as Doctor Two.
- The Second Doctor's coin is identified as a double-headed Martian Crown
Cover Art[[edit] | [edit source]]
The cover to The Three Doctors is based on the cover of Marvel's Fantastic Four #49. Despite this, the art is arguably more iconic in Who circles than in those of Marvel, and several other franchise stories have plaid homage to it:
- Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, year 2 issue 17
- Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor, issue 4 Doctor Who Comics Day cover
- Night of the Intelligence
Additional cover images[[edit] | [edit source]]
1978 edition.
Cover by Jeff Cummins1991 edition.
Cover by Alister Pearson
British publication history[[edit] | [edit source]]
First publication:
- Hardback
- W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK
- Paperback
- Target
Re-issues:
- 60p (UK)
- 1976 reissue with new cover by Jeff Cummins
- 1991 Virgin Publishing with a new cover by Alister Pearson priced £2.50 (UK)
Editions published outside Britain[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Published in Poland by Empire Books in 1994 as a paperback edition, translated by Juliusz Garztecki and published as Doctor Who - Władcy Czasu, it was one of three Polish novelisations.
Audiobook[[edit] | [edit source]]
An unabridged audiobook of the story was recorded by Gabriel Woolf for the RNIB in 1978, alongside The Loch Ness Monster and Carnival of Monsters. It was only available to the registered blind. More recently this story was released on 8 April 2010 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Katy Manning.
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.
The 2010 audiobook was reissued on 5 April 2018 as part of The UNIT Collection.
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added