The Mutation of Time (novelisation)
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The Mutation of Time was a novelisation based on episodes 7-12 of the 1965 television serial The Daleks' Master Plan.
Publisher's summary
1989 edition
The Daleks’ Masterplan is well under way. With the Time Destroyer, the most deadly machine ever devised, they will conquer the Universe. Only one person stands in their way - the First Doctor. For he has stolen the precious Taranium core which is vital to activate the machine.
Travelling through Time and Space, the Doctor and his companions are forever on the move in case the Daleks track them down.
But after several months, to their horror, the TARDIS indicates that they are being followed…
Deviations from televised story
- Author John Peel intentionally established an interval of some time between the two volumes to allow future writers the flexibility to tell stories featuring Sara Kingdom as a companion.
- Much like its preceding volume, and among many other Target Novelisations, the wording of the dialogue is altered in many places.
- The farce in the film studio culminates in a pie fight initiated by the Doctor. With the crew on the Charlie Chaplin film unable to come up with a suitable ending, the Doctor slaps a pie in Steven's face. Steven retaliated but the Doctor ducks and the clown on set it hit instead. Arriving in the midst of the chaos, Sara is hit with a pie too. No such fight took place on TV.
- As they use taranium to power their time machines, (PROSE: The Chase) the Daleks reveal that they do in fact have some supplies of taranium in their possession, gathered without Mavic Chen's help. However, it is explained that the amount needed to power the Time Destructor is greater than that needed for the time machines, hence why they needed Chen's help in the first place.
- A Red Dalek is placed in charge of the time machine sent to Kembel, while the TV Dalek is clearly the same colour as the rest of the standard units. Peel would give more information about Red Daleks in his War of the Daleks novel but one would not appear on TV until The Stolen Earth/Journey's End with the Supreme Dalek and they would eventually become the initial standard drones of the Daleks in the following Dalek story, in the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's eras respectively.
- Similar to the battle between the Daleks and the Visians on Mira in the previous volume, the Daleks do suffer some casualties to the Egyptians, losing the Red Dalek of all Daleks, where originally there were no on-screen Dalek deaths until the story's climax.
- After appearing in The Chase novelisation and being mentioned in the previous volume, the Dalek Prime makes its second ever appearance, waiting on Skaro.
- The scene in which the Monk swears revenge on the Doctor for stealing his TARDIS' directional unit is moved to the very end of the story.
Writing and publishing notes
- The cover for the original Target edition featured the artwork of Alister Pearson.
Additional cover images
To be added
British publication history
First publication: Paperback (October 1989)
- Target / W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. One single paperback edition, estimated print run: 22,000, priced £1.99 (UK).
Re-issues: (October 1990)
- Target / W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd., estimated print run: 5,000, priced £2.50 (UK).
Editions published outside Britain
To be added
