Target Books

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Target Books were a children's publishing imprint, significant for being the dominant publisher of Doctor Who prose fiction and non-fiction from the 1970s to the early 1990s. They were most famous for their line of novelisations of Doctor Who serials, in part because the novelisations were the principal route by which some fans could experience missing episodes (or existing episodes that had not yet been commercially released and were not recent enough to be taped on a VCR). Technically an imprint, and not an independent publisher, they were owned by several houses. However, the Doctor Who line is most associated with W.H. Allen & Co, who owned Target from 1977–1989, and Virgin Books, who bought them in 1990 and extended and reprinted the line until 1994. The imprint was revived in 2018 by Ebury Publishing with newly commissioned novelisations of episodes from after 2005 as well as reprints of novelised stories originally published by BBC Books (another Ebury imprint) from the 1990s to the 2010s and new-to-prose versions of AudioGo audio books (originally from the 2010s) also adapting TV stories.

Overview[[edit] | [edit source]]

Target Books was a publishing imprint set up in 1972 as a range of paperback fiction for readers of approximately 14 years of age. Although far from the only subject matter published by Target, it was for its long lived and highly successful range of Doctor Who novelisations that Target became best known. Target almost exclusively published paperbacks, but their novelisations did occasionally get first printings in hardback by related publishers Allan Wingate and W.H. Allen & Co. Many of the hardcovers are considered rare, given that they received far smaller distribution than the paperbacks (especially outside the UK). On occasion the hardcovers followed the paperback editions by several years.

The Target imprint changed hands many times over its history but retained its distinctive, brightly-coloured logo. By 1994, Target had novelised almost every Doctor Who television story aired by then and adapted every one of the First, Second, Third and Seventh Doctors' on-screen adventures. By 2021, Target editions had been published of every televised story of the 1963-1996 period,[nb 1] and by 2023, three new-to-prose versions of Fourth Doctor adventures that had already been novelised in the 1980s were published.[nb 2] As of April 2024, 17 stories from the 2005-present revival were adapted into 16 novels, including every full-length Fourteenth Doctor story.

The importance of the Doctor Who novelisations to maintaining interest and knowledge in the franchise cannot be overestimated. Before the 1980s, it was usually impossible to obtain recordings of previously aired stories as commercial home video had not yet been established. Reruns were rare and sporadic (particularly for U.K. viewers), and many episodes from the 1960s were destroyed and believed lost forever. The novelisations were (and in some cases remain) the only venues for reliving past stories or catching up on stories never seen before by fans. They also provided opportunities for many stories to be presented in a form unhampered by TV budgets, special effects technology limitations, and occasional content limitations imposed by the BBC.

The 1970s[[edit] | [edit source]]

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Crusaders, adapted by David Whitaker, and Doctor Who and the Zarbi, adapted by Bill Strutton, saw publication as hardbacks by Frederick Muller in the mid-1960s. In 1973, Target began its run of Doctor Who novelisations by reprinting these three titles. For the Target edition, the Daleks novel had its title shortened to Doctor Who and the Daleks. All had new covers by Chris Achilleos, who would illustrate the first wave of Target Doctor Who books. It was originally considered by Target Books' editor Richard Henwood to have the Third Doctor replace the First Doctor in the revised illustrations for the novels, but this ultimately didn't happen.[1]

An original publication, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion by Terrance Dicks, would follow in 1974. Over the years, "Uncle Terry", as fans nicknamed him, would write more Target novelisations and have a closer association with them in the minds of fans than any other writer. He also wrote a short-lived series of simplified Junior Doctor Who novelisations for younger readers. (Dicks also wrote other works for Target in the 1970s, including a series of novels based on the adventures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.)

Linking some early Target novelisations to their television counterparts was a challenge at times, as for the first few years Target occasionally published novelisations under titles that differed from the TV originals. This practice actually pre-dated Target, with Doctor Who and the Zarbi having been based upon The Web Planet. Under Target, for example, Spearhead from Space became Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion. When the decision was made to keep the original title, the prefix Doctor Who and... was usually added. There were a few exceptions, such as the release of The Three Doctors. Also, there were occasional exceptions for first-edition hardcover publications, such as the novelisation of Revenge of the Cybermen, which was first published as The Revenge of the Cybermen in hardcover, and Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen in paperback.

An even greater challenge is posed for those reading the books in televised order. When the Target line (and, indeed, the earlier Muller trilogy) were launched, the publishers had no inkling of the comprehensive nature the book series would take in the decades to come. As a result, several novelisations ignore and sometimes even contradict the events of previous stories, creating continuity issues. For example, Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, based upon the Season 8 story Colony in Space, includes introductions for Jo Grant and the Master, with Grant meeting the Doctor for the first time. In reality both characters were introduced in Terror of the Autons, which wasn't novelised until some time later, and that book once again introduced the two characters. Similarly, Doctor Who and the Daleks ignores the events of An Unearthly Child and therefore creates a continuity hiccup for those who first read the novelisation of An Unearthly Child, which wasn't published until the early 1980s. (This situation is not confined to 1970s issues: in the 1980s, the novelisation of Mindwarp contained an epilogue that contradicted the ending of a later novelisation, The Ultimate Foe.)

A separate continuity issue is faced by anyone reading the books in numerical order: in the late 1970s, Target began numbering its releases, but (likely due to there being significant gaps in stories yet to be adapted), the numbering was based initially on alphabetical order (with Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, a Second Doctor story, being arbitrarily No. 1, despite it being preceded both in order of broadcast and publication by a number of other books); the numbering reflected publication order in later releases, which again did not reflect order of broadcast, jumping between eras.

The Muller reprints were not the last books by another publisher to be reissued by Target, as the company also published a new edition of The Making of Doctor Who, a book previously issued by Piccolo Books.

Beginning in the second half of the 1970s, W.H. Allen and/or related publishers began issuing hardcover editions of the novels. In some cases, these predated the paperback editions by months. Often they were published simultaneously, and in the case of a few of the 1974–75 books hardcover editions weren't published for nearly a decade.

The 1980s[[edit] | [edit source]]

During the 1980s, experimentally, Target published two original novels featuring further adventures of the Doctor's companions, Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma by Tony Attwood and Harry Sullivan's War by Ian Marter, who had played Harry Sullivan on television. Target also took up three scripts from the "lost" version of Season 23 which, due to the delay and re-thinking of Season 23 by the then-current production team of Doctor Who, never made their way onto screen (the Companions books, and the Missing Episodes stories, were the first full-length Doctor Who novels not to be based on televised storylines). Target also began to look beyond the televised series for source material by novelising the radio play Slipback, the spin-off special K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend, and the mid-1970s audio drama Doctor Who and the Pescatons.

Beginning in 1981, Target began making a concerted effort to enlist the original script writers in writing the novelisations based upon their stories (a practice actually dating back to Strutton's Zarbi novel, but only occasionally employed during the 1970s, such as Dicks and Malcolm Hulke adapting their own scripts). They were successful in commissioning novelisations even from writers who had last worked on the series in the 1960s. Where the original author was unavailable, unwilling, or deceased, the range turned to one of its staff writers, such as Marter or Dicks. The practice of having the original scriptwriters write the books when possible would continue for the remainder of the line (and into the late-2010s/early-2020s revival). The two most significant writers whom Target was unable to commission for novelisations were Terry Nation and Douglas Adams. Marter had the unique distinction of adapting several stories in which he himself had performed as Harry Sullivan; he died in 1986 and several of his novelisations were published posthumously. One of Marter's books, Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World, was controversial for incorporating adult concepts and language — issues that would later resurface when original Doctor Who novels began to appear in the 1990s.

Towards the late 1980s and into the 1990s, however, Target loosened the policy of only commissioning writers with past connections to Doctor Who on TV, beginning with the novelisation of The Celestial Toymaker, which was co-authored by Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman, a writer with no Doctor Who connection. Later, Nigel Robinson, the line's editor, who otherwise had no Doctor Who TV connection, wrote four books. In the 1990s, John Peel (an author with experience writing books for several franchises) wrote the final five Dalek novelisations before the 2018 revival of the Target Books line.

In 1982, Target phased out the practice of adding Doctor Who and... to its novelisation titles. In 1988, the practice of publishing hardcover editions was abandoned following publication of The Smugglers, much to the stated chagrin of fans collecting the novelisations in that format, resulting in the final run of books being available in paperback editions only.

The Virgin years[[edit] | [edit source]]

During the 1990s the company was acquired by Virgin Publishing. The only titles still held by Target were the Doctor Who stories. Many of the titles were reissued with new covers, but to many readers they were still affectionately regarded as "Target Books". Indeed, Virgin itself branded the later titles as part of "the Target Library", continuing the series numbering except for the last couple of releases.

The end and return of Target Books[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the later years of the run, Target was successful in negotiating with Terry Nation's estate the rights to adapt four of his Daleks storylines, most notably The Chase and The Daleks' Master Plan; the latter (one of the longest storylines at 12 episodes) had to be published in two volumes.

Target eventually outlasted the original run of Doctor Who itself, which ended with Season 26 in 1989. The Target line continued in the "short paperback" form until the release of Doctor Who - The Pescatons in 1991 — an adaptation of an audio play, as virtually all available televised stories had been adapted by this time. Between 1990 and 1994 Target republished many of its older releases with new cover art; a subsidiary, Star Books, also published omnibus paperback editions combining two books at a time. The 1990–1994 reissues were straight reprints, rather than new editions that corrected typographical and other errors, with cover designs that sometimes corresponded with VHS video releases of the stories. The Star Books editions combined the interiors of remaindered individual book stock, glued together with new covers.

After 1991, several additional releases were published in longer-format paperbacks by the owner of Target, Virgin Publishing, beginning with the adaptations of The Evil of the Daleks and The Power of the Daleks, two David Whitaker scripts that, like the Nation stories, had previously eluded adaptation. The 1994 release The Paradise of Death, based upon a radio play, was the 156th and last release (until 2018) to be branded as part of the Target series.

By the time the 1973-94 run of the Target Books line had ended, almost every Doctor Who story aired on television, along with several audio dramas, had appeared under the Target imprint. The few from the 1963-89 version of the show that had not appeared were later included under the revived imprint from 2018-2021. Additionally, in 2022, Target printed prose versions of the AudioGo audiobooks of The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara by David Fisher, distinct from Terrance Dicks's adaptations of Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood and Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara from 1980. In 2023, this was followed by a printed version of Warriors' Gate and Beyond, containing, among other stories, Warriors' Gate an AudioGo story by Stephen Gallagher expanding Gallagher's 1982 Target book, Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate. Within a few years of the final Virgin-era release, the Target Books line had fallen out of print, with many of the books, particularly the scarce hardback editions, becoming collectors' items. Virgin continued to publish a few more novelisations, but under its New Adventures and Missing Adventures lines, and none based upon televised episodes of the original series.

When Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, it was announced that no novelisations would be published, in part due to the expectation that the episodes would be easily available on DVD in due course. Nonetheless, Penguin Character Books revived the novelisation format by releasing adaptations of episodes from the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures; appropriately, the first of these books was written by Terrance Dicks. One novelisation, adapting The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, featured the Doctor appearing in a TV novelisation for the first time since the novelisation of the 1996 TV movie. In 2018, the Target imprint, now owned by Ebury Publishing, released four new novelisations of stories aired since 2005, with 16 adaptations of 17 stories released in total as of April 2024.

The "lost" novelisations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Before the line's 2018 revival, Target Books was unable to come to agreement with Douglas Adams or Eric Saward on the adaptation of several serials. In 2012, BBC Books published a novelisation of Adams's Shada by Gareth Roberts, the first new Doctor Who novelisation in 16 years (albeit based upon a story that was never broadcast due to being abandoned due to a strike); an adaptation of the Adams-co-authored City of Death by James Goss was published in May 2015 and an adaptation of Adams's The Pirate Planet, also by Goss, was published in January 2017. In 2019, Saward adapted his own scripts for Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks for BBC Books.

In 2018, City of Death was republished as a paperback under the Target Books imprint, followed by Target reprints of The Pirate Planet, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, and The TV Movie in 2021. These were not, however, simply paperback reissues of the hardcover editions, as all (including the TV Movie novel) were revised to more closely conform with the televised versions of the stories, effectively resulting in these stories being adapted twice. In 2022, Target published new editions of Fourth Doctor-era novelisations originally written by Dicks, but now rewritten by original script writer David Fisher.

In addition, Terrance Dicks intended to novelise his stage play, The Ultimate Adventure for Target at one point, but the project was cancelled.

Audiobook adaptations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: Audiobooks of novelisations

In the early 1980s, several audio book adaptations of Target novels were released, read by Tom Baker. In 2007 BBC Audio began a new series of complete and unabridged releases of the Target novelisations, giving new life to these old (and out of print) stories. In most cases, the books are read by actors who had appeared in the original stories. This series has continued into 2018.

Special distribution[[edit] | [edit source]]

In July 2008, backstock of 27 Target novelisations (and a few Target-published spin-off works) were distributed at random with copies of Doctor Who Magazine #397. These were not reprints, but original back-stock copies, some dating back more than 25 years.

BBC Books reprints[[edit] | [edit source]]

In 7 July 2011, BBC Books reprinted six Target novelisations with original cover art by Chris Achilleos and new introductions by prominent writers affiliated with Doctor Who or who are fans of the series. Six more reprints followed in May 2012. Seven more followed in April 2016. These were in the same format as the 2018-2021 Target editions.

In 2013, Remembrance of the Daleks was republished in a new trade paperback edition by BBC Books as part of a series of 50th anniversary reprints; it was the only TV novelisation featured in the set and was reissued instead of republishing any of the many original Seventh Doctor novels (the line otherwise featured original novels).

Illustrations[[edit] | [edit source]]

A number of early Target novelisations had original illustrations.

Title Illustrator # of illustrations
Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks Arnold Schwartzman (1964) 12
Peter Archer (1965) 6
Herson (Netherlands) to be added
Michiaki Sato (Japan) 11
Robert Hack (2022) to be added
Doctor Who and the Zarbi John Wood 15
Doctor Who and the Crusaders Henry Fox (1966) 15
uncredited (1967) 6
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion Chris Achilleos 11
Michiaki Sato (Japan) to be added
Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters Chris Achilleos 11
Michiaki Sato (Japan) to be added
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon Chris Achilleos 11
Michiaki Sato (Japan) to be added
Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks Chris Achilleos 10
Michiaki Sato (Japan) 16
Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Herbert Horn (Germany) to be added
Doctor Who and the Dæmons Alan Willow 6
Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils to be added
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen 6
Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon 6
Doctor Who and the Cybermen 8
Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons 6
Doctor Who and the Green Death 6
Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot Peter Edwards to be added
Junior Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius

Doctor Who-related Target titles[[edit] | [edit source]]

Fiction[[edit] | [edit source]]

Novelisations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: Target novelisation

The Missing Episodes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: Target Missing Episodes

From 1989 through 1990, as "The Missing Episodes", Target published a short series which adapted scripts which were to have aired during season 23, before the hiatus put on Doctor Who by Michael Grade. A few scripts which the production team intended to have aired during this version of the season remained unnovelised.

The Companions of Doctor Who[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: The Companions of Doctor Who

The Companions of Doctor Who consisted of novels about the Doctor's companions after they had stopped travelling with him. The novels were published under the titles: K9 and Company, Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma and Harry Sullivan's War. Although intended to showcase original fiction, the sub-series also included a novelisation, K9 and Company.

Junior Doctor Who[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the early 1980s, Target published two adaptations by Terrance Dicks of earlier novelisations in abridged and illustrated form, written for younger readers.

Doctor Who Discovers[[edit] | [edit source]]

Main article: Doctor Who Discovers (series)

A series of illustrated educational novels starring the Fourth Doctor. Although the series was intended to run to 24 titles, only five titles were released. A sixth (Doctor Who Discovers Pirates) was written but left unreleased by Target, only being published posthumously by Panini Comics in 2022.

Other[[edit] | [edit source]]

Non-fiction[[edit] | [edit source]]

Target Books also published numerous reference and behind-the-scenes books based upon Doctor Who, as well as activity and general knowledge books featuring the Doctor.

General reference[[edit] | [edit source]]

Activity / puzzle books[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Dr Who Gallery This gallery only site shows all TV novelisations (Armada, Dragon, Target, Virgin and BBC) in order of publication date.

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Citations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ "In November 1972, when Richard Henwood, the editor of Target Books was arranging contracts to republish the original three Frederick Muller novelisations, the original thought was to replace the illustrations of William Hartnell with those of Jon Pertwee." - Richard Bignell (@NothingLane)

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ This includes revised versions of adaptations originally published in hardback for BBC Books, namely City of Death in 2018, and Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, and The TV Movie in 2021.
  2. ↑ The newer AudioGo versions of The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara (published in print in 2022) were by a different author than Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood and Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, while Warriors' Gate, as part of Target's Warriors' Gate and Beyond (published in print in 2023), was an expanded version of Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate written by the same author.
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