Doctor Who and the Visitation (novelisation)

Novelisation

This novelisation is based on the original television serial (DW): The Visitation which was and written by Eric Saward and shown from 15 February 1982.
The cover and information shown on the right is for the original Target novel. It featured a photographic cover. (See below for information on other editions published with different covers).
This was the first Fifth Doctor novelisation to be published.

Publisher's summary

1982 edition

Tegan, the young air hostess who quite unintentionally became a member of the TARDIS’s crew, wants to return to her own time, but when the Doctor tries to take her back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth century the TARDIS lands instead on the outskirts of seventeenth-century London.

1992 edition

"Call yourself a Time Lord?" Tegan shouted. "A broken clock keeps better time than you!" The Doctor tries to return Tegan to the Heathrow she left in 1981, but instead the TARDIS lands just outside London in 1666 - the year of the Great Plague. The Doctor and his companions receive a decidedly cool welcome - and it soon becomes clear that the sinister activities of other visitors from space and time have made the villagers extremely sensitive of outsiders. And as a result of the aliens' evil schemes, the Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a key role in a gruesome historical event. This is a novelization by Eric Saward of his own television story, first broadcast in 1982.

Illustrations

None

Deviations from televised story

To be added

Writing and publishing notes

The first book in the range to feature the use of a photographic cover.
There are two rumours around the reason for this; Firstly that Peter Davison’s agent rejected the proposed artwork by (David McAllister) on the grounds of it showing a poor likeness to his client, and secondly, that in an attempt to tie the range of novelisations more closely with a new season and a new Doctor on television, photographs were a way of revamping the range. The latter seems more likely, as a deliberate change of policy, bearing in mind that the decision to use photographs was extended to subsequent releases for a short time.
This was the first title to be referred to in the Target library as book number 74. The number appeared on the cover on a subsequent reprint.
Dedication: `For Paula, with fondest love’
Cover Flash reads`A BBC TV PROGRAMME WITH PETER DAVISON AS THE DOCTOR’

Additional cover images

1992 edition; Cover by Alister Pearson

British publication history

To be added

First Publication:

Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

Paperback

Target

Re-issues:

Editions published outside Britain