Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon (novelisation)

The evil MASTER has stolen the Time Lords' file on the horrifying DOOMSDAY WEAPON with which, when he finds it, he can blast whole planets out of existence and make himself ruler of the Galaxy!

The Time Lords direct DOCTOR WHO and Jo Grant in TARDIS to a bleak planet in the year 2471 where they find colonists from Earth under threat from mysterious, savage, monster lizards with frightful claws! And hidden upon this planet is the DOOMSDAY WEAPON for which the MASTER is intently searching ...

1979 edition

Despite security precautions, the Time Lords' secret file on the devastating Doomsday Weapon is stolen by the Master.

Realising that the Master will attempt to find the weapon and use it to blast whole planets out of existence and make himself ruler of the galaxy, the Time Lords decide to intervene by enlisting the help of the Doctor - whether he likes it or not.

The Doctor and Jo Grant find themselves in the year 2471 on a bleak planet where colonists from Earth are being terrorized by savage monster lizards with fearsome claws - and where the Master hopes to lay hands on the Doomsday Weapon...

Deviations from televised story

The Keeper of the Time Lord Files, distracted from a viewing of the first TARDIS's working papers, retells the story of TV: The War Games to an apprentice who will one day succeed his position, after the apprentice has asked the Keeper about the history between the Doctor and the Master.
Both Jo Grant and the Master are given new introductions, with Jo in particular described as joining the Doctor for the first time, despite several earlier stories featuring her. As one of the first releases in the Target Books series, there was no expectation that all stories would eventually be adapted. Once the earlier stories had been novelised, no attempt was made at revising The Doomsday Weapon, creating a continuity hiccough for those reading the novelisations in chronological order.
The various personal lives and backgrounds of Ashe's colonists and Interplanetary Mining Corporation personnel are greatly expanded in the novelisation. Dent, for instance, has a wife arranged by IMC's matchmaking computers and two children who are being educated in an IMC school.
The Earth that the colonists migrated from is elaborated upon in the novelisation. Metric units of measurement were adopted globally there some 6000 years ago and, in Dent's lifetime, it was fashionable to dye one's hair blue. On nonwork days, you could pay to journey up to experience sunshine on the concrete. Alternatively, you could invest in a Walk: a cubicle with a moving floor that took you through projected footage taken from the State Archives of historic greenery. Space travellers had well-developed legends surrounding the Daleks, Monoids, Drahvins and Earth's own mythology about the Silurians.
IMC's robot is a Class 3 Servo Robot, humanoid in shape, and nicknamed Charlie. The Doctor expects it to crush his arm in response to a jibe, but instead, the machine repeats his insult back to him on a recording (with the addition of metallic laughter).
The Doctor grapples with Morgan in the remnants of the Leesons' home, holding him in front of the robot's slashing claws in order to force its deactivation. In the televised version, the Doctor kicks the gun from the Morgan's grip and knocks him aside into a nearby locker, forcing him to stop the machine himself.
Fitting the unusual chronological rewrite, only the Doctor recognises the Master when he and Jo arrive at the tribunal being mediated between the colonists and IMC. Rather than being somewhat taken aback by the appearance of a fellow Time Lord, as on television, the Master instead smiles and holds the Doctor at arm's length. Nonetheless, despite this being Jo's first story, the Doctor still possesses the key he recovered from TV: Terror of the Autons. Here, it was found on a previous, unspecified adventure.
The Guardian is depicted as a doll-like creature that exists within the furnace of the atomic reactor used to power the Doomsday Weapon. Rather than the Doctor activating a self-destruct mechanism, it retreats and begins a meltdown of its own accord.
The ecological change in the planet is more immediately drastic at the end of the novelisation. Grass and shrubbery begin to sprout from the tilled soil around the dome in seconds, not long after a pleasant rainfall. The Doctor jokes that he and Jo should depart before the surrounding farmland turns into an impenetrable jungle.
The Doctor organises a funeral for the Leesons.
It is stated that the year is 2971, not 2471, in contradiction with the back cover blurb.
The real adjudicator that the Master impersonates is now named "Martin Jurgen" instead of "Martin Jurgens". The Doctor also assumes that he must have been killed

Writing and publishing notes

The 1979 edition by Pinnacle Books in the US included an introduction by Harlan Ellison.
The first edition Target cover was the first to feature the Master.
This novelisation was later released as part of The Master Collection.

Additional cover images

1979 edition; Cover by Jeff Cummins
1982 Hardback edition

British publication history

First publication:

Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

Paperback

Target

Re-issues:

70p

1979 Target Books with a new cover by Jeff Cummins priced 75p (UK)

Editions published outside Britain

Published in Turkey by Remzi Kitabevi in 1975 as a paperback edition, translated by Reha Pinar and published as Doktor Kim ve Gizli Silah, it was one of six Turkish novelisations.
Published in the Netherlands by Unieboek/De Gooise in about 1975/76 as a paperback edition, translated by Wim Hohage and published as Doctor Who en het Dodelijk Wapen, it was one of eight Dutch novelisations; despite the broadcaster TROS showing Seasons 12 and 13 at this time the cover still depicts the Third Doctor, however Chris Achilleos' image of the Fourth Doctor from The Doctor Who Monster Book does appear on the back cover.^[1]
Published in the USA by Pinnacle Books in 1979 as a paperback edition, it was one of ten American novelisations.
Published in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko in 1980 as a paperback edition, translated by Yukio Sekiguchi and published as Osoru Beki Saishyuu Heiki!, it was one of five Japanese novelisations.
Published in Portugal by Editorial Presença in 1983 as a paperback edition, translated by Conceição Fardim and Eduardo Nogueria and published as Doutor Who e a Arma Total, it was one of ten Portuguese novelisations.

Turkish edition
Dutch edition
US Pinnacle Books edition.
Cover by David Mann
Japanese edition.
Cover by Michiaki Sato
Portuguese edition.
Cover by Shanti

Audiobook

This Target book was released as an audiobook on 3 September 2007 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Geoffrey Beevers.

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.

Audiobook cover

External links

to be added

Footnotes

↑ Based on the Popular BBC Television Serial 3rd Edition.

[1] Based on the Popular BBC Television Serial 3rd Edition.

[1]