Doctor Who: The Library of Carsus discussion

So in June 2008 I began the mammoth task of reading all the Target Novelizations in order. I though I might start to bore you with some brief thoughts on the books as I read them.

I've just finished the Brain of Morbius which was a really enjoyable read. Basically the Who-verses take on the Frankenstein legend. My only complaint was that Sarah Jane had very little to do and spent most of the story 'incapacitated' by blindness.

I fondly remember many of these, especially from before many episodes were available on video and, of course, for the sadly lost episodes.

One thing that always fascinated me was the differences, digressions, and expansions the novelisations took.

I found a lot of the hartnell stories really interesting as they were written later and had a ot of expansion. Although sometimes the divergences are a bit strange 2 starts for Ian and Barbara in an unearthly child and the dales. You kind of have to ignore these inconsistencies considering the books were written out of order over 20 years apart,,

Dave wrote: "So in June 2008 I began the mammoth task of reading all the Target Novelizations in order. I though I might start to bore you with some brief thoughts on the books as I read them.

I've been doing the same, in story order. It's been quite an interesting ride! I'm at "Planet of Evil," should get to Brain of Morbius soonish. I tend to go back and forth between the Who books and other reading, else I probably would have been further along by now.

Your not far behind then stormhawk - how are you enjoying Planet of Evil?

Not sure about this new Doctor can't see him lasting long :-) LOL

Love the Targets.
Back in the dark ages, they were the only way to experience pre-Tom Baker stories.
The first two I bought were both of Troughton's Yeti stories.

The first one I owned was The Aztecs - it was a present from my Gran when I was off school with an ear infection.

I forget which Pre-Tom Baker Target book I got. One of the Hartnells I really enjoyed was Planet of Giants would have loved to have seen that one back in the day, it was one of the "lost" stories. It would be fun to compare that episode to the TV series "Land of The Giants".

Sorry to go off-topic slightly but Planet of Giants isn't lost. In fact it's coming out on DVD quite soon I believe. So you might get your chance to compare it after all!

Back on topic I've just finished 'The Auton Invasion' (AKA Spearhead from Space) and I'd forgotten just how good it was. The sequence depicting the invasion itself is particularly good, expanding greatly on what we saw on TV. You genuinely get the sense of how major a threat the Autons and Nestenes are which didn't come across quite as well on screen thanks to the limited budget.

I have read all the Target novelizations; and re-read most of them.

They were certainly welcome in the early days of my Dr. Who fandom--1982! Everything was on tape; no DVD's; few of the older episodes were avaialable.

And of course, the novelizations are all that we have for the lost episodes.
I really enjoyed most of them and am very glad they did the novelizations.

Mary JL wrote: "I have read all the Target novelizations; and re-read most of them.

They were certainly welcome in the early days of my Dr. Who fandom--1982! Everything was on tape; no DVD's; few of the older eepisodes were avaialable.

And of course, the novelizations are all that we have for the lost episodes.
I really enjoyed most of them and am very glad they did the novelizations."

I don't have ALL the Target Novelizations but I do have quite a few. They make up a good portion of my 100whatever Doctor Who Novels, next to the "New Adventures" books (those also I don't have ALL of them). I have read most of what I have a few I'm not sure if I've read them or not. Quite often when I read a Doctor Who book I have had for a while I realize that I am actually re-reading it. As I had read it when I first got it. Sometimes the very day I got it.

Need to find some time to re-read a few.

Sort of Off Topic but whoelse has the 10 Pinnacle Novelizations? They were US published starting late 70s, and republished in early 80s. Features Doctors 3 and 4. Here is a gallery of the covers.

http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleri...
Note there are some variations of the color of the Doctor Who Logo on the cover, this maybe just a variation from the originals to the reprints. I'm not 100% sure I just know for book #1 "Day of The Daleks" I have two copies each with a different color for the DW Logo.

Sci-Fi Writer Harlon Ellison wrote a forward that is repeated for each book in the series.

Kirk wrote: "Sort of Off Topic but whoelse has the 10 Pinnacle Novelizations? They were US published starting late 70s, and republished in early 80s. Features Doctors 3 and 4. Here is a gallery of the covers."

I have those.

I cherish them.

No, I'm not willing to sell them.

I hoard them.

My precious.

(It was the Harlan Ellison forward that sold me on them, even though the same one is repeated in each of the books. I still remember that line about the SF-con fan boys dressing up in their brother's cast-off karate gis ...)

I have a few of the Pinnacle novelisations - I know I have Genesis of the Daleks and Masque of Mandragora, and I think Revenge of the Cybermen. For sheer reasons of space in a small flat, though, I never tried to collect the full set, as I already have all the Target books.

All apart from The Crusaders, for which I have the 1967 Green Dragon edition. That's my precious.

I also have a few of the Find Your Fate books, including a really mental one which teams up "you" (as Sarah Jane's heir), K9, Drax, and the Doctor against Omega.

I had a very generous work colleague who moved to New Zealand leaving me his complete collection of Targets New Adventures and EDA's.

The plan is to read through everything from start to finish but at the rate I'm going this could be a long time :)

On the offchance that you hit the EDA's before the heat death of the entire universe, you could probably stand to skip a few. Opinions vary, as with everything, but I'd probably rather eat one of my own kidneys than read Option Lock again.

I read most of the EDA's at the time to the extent that McGann remains my Doctor.

Option Lock was ok it's the Longest Day I'd prefer to never read again :-)

Yes, that was another very bad one, to be fair.

i have a couple of those pinnacle editions. That intro from Harlan was brilliant.
Nice cover art too.

The EDA, like the NA are very hit or miss and had a great many 'interesting ideas, bad writing; books.
Interesting look at the 'what if' of what the Eighth Doctor's TV run might have been.
Liked most of his companions.

I began reading the Target novelizations (in story order) around Thanksgiving 2010. Next in my list is the 6th Doctor story "The Mark of the Rani." Once I'm done with the TV novelizations, I'll be hitting the 7th Doctor New Adventures followed, of course, by the 8th Doctor Adventures and then the Missing Adventures/Past Doctor Adventures (It is within those that I'll be reading the newly released SHADA by Gareth Roberts).

My goal is to have all of those read within the next 10 years.

Kevin your way ahead of me - clearly I'm reading far to slowly.

Just started the Seeds of Doom - thoughts on that tomorrow when I've finished it.

I read Abominable Snowmen and Android Invasion back when I started the target reading project, before I decided to read in story order ... I'm a compulsive alphabetizer and that's how they came out of the storage box. So, from Pyramids of Mars I'm moving straight on to Brain of Morbius.

Dave wrote: "Kevin your way ahead of me - clearly I'm reading far to slowly.

Just started the Seeds of Doom - thoughts on that tomorrow when I've finished it."

I just read at every opportunity, even if it's only for 4 or 5 minutes. Times like that, coupled with all the times I read for an hour or two, adds up. I've read 73 total books so far in 2012.

Seeds of Doom
This starts of as Dr Who meets the thing as mysterious pods are found in Antarctica. this give us a typical Dr Who isolated base story for the first few chapters which I was really enjoying.

Then the action bizarrely switches to an English manor house, and I didn't feel that the motivation of the lead villain was very well thought out. The first of these is the result of being a novelisation and the low budget of TV. The second I'd have expected to be fixed within the novel.

Despite the issues above I gave the novel 4 starts as it was a well written tale (nice to get way from T dicks for a change), and it was an an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon

Just finished rereading Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen. Gave it four stars. I thought he did the characters well and it was fun and exciting to read :) I'm trying to get my hands on all of the stories involving the second Doctor, so far I have The Web of Fear, Abominable Snowmen, Doctor Who and the Cybermen and Dreams of Empire. I've still probably got a long way to go.
The first Doctor Who episodes I watched were of the ninth Doctor, as I wasn't even born when the series was cancelled, and it was only a few years ago that I started watching past Doctor episodes. I wish some more lost episodes could be found, but I'm glad the Target books were written so younger fans could enjoy these stories.

Kitty-Lydia wrote: "Just finished rereading Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen. Gave it four stars. I thought he did the characters well and it was fun and exciting to read :) I'm trying to get my hands on all of t..."

Love both Yeti stories! Some of my favorite Troughton stories.
The Target books are great. They were my first introduction to the first three Doctors and they are what helped get me through the 'wilderness years'.

I've managed to get nearly all of them.
Think I'm just missing three.

Travis wrote: "Kitty-Lydia wrote: "Just finished rereading Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen. Gave it four stars. I thought he did the characters well and it was fun and exciting to read :) I'm trying to get ..."

Which ones? I'm planning on getting either the book or audio of The Space Pirates soon.

I'm missing:
Wheel in Space
Shada
Colin Baker's ( Doctor #6) Dalek story ( Revelation?)

Think I'm also missing a 5th Doctor story, but I'm blanking on which one.

The Targets are great, especially the later ones when the authors began to break out of the formula and add little neat things into the story. My one great regret though is that Doctor Who and the Mutants doesn't have the Third Doctor's speech about "Unbecoming Unpeople Untogether", one of my favorites.

Personal favorites, still after all these years: The Mind Robber and Remembrance of the Daleks.

Funnily enough, last night I was reading an old article in one of my DWMs, which was an interview with the author, Gareth Roberts, about how many different versions of the scripts there were.

Good luck with finding the other books. I've been looking up Wheel in Space on Amazon, and the price! :O I think BBC are missing out not rereleasing these books on kindle or as large collections.

There are some amazing illustrations on the Target novels as well. My Abominable Snowmen has a cover by Chris Achilleos and I just love it.

Yeah, Wheel in space is absurdly pricey.
Most likely as it was the last Target they published.

I'll keep hunting. Took me forever to find copies of Dalek Masterplan but the hunt paid off, so I remain optimistic.

Ever looked on ABE Books? Doctor Who Targets

[edited to add] Whistling over the price on Wheel In Space. For a Target! >O.o

Lori S. wrote: "Ever looked on ABE Books? Doctor Who Targets"

Thanks for the link.
They do have a cheap copy of Shada, but the going price for Wheel in space is your immortal soul

Travis wrote: "Lori S. wrote: "Ever looked on ABE Books? Doctor Who Targets"

Thanks for the link.
They do have a cheap copy of Shada, but the going price for Wheel in space is your immortal soul"

You're welcome.

I'm currently trying to work through all the books - novels and novelisations - in internal chronological order. Can normally blast through a Target one in an afternoon. It's nice to finally get to know the lost TV stories; similarly, I'm enjoying the MAs and PDAs in context of their eras (although I'm aware there are certain elements that play out better in original release order). Some of the novelisations are excellent, really fleshing out the stories to make them more interesting. The Edge of Destruction was particularly excellent! Most of them are pretty cheap to pick up online too - although I have to admit there are a few I may have to acquire through less conventional means - I'm not paying £100 for a battered Wheel in Space!

I think the story about Wheel in Space is that a lot of copies were destroyed in a warehouse fire and thus it was immediately a rarity.

I seem to remember hearing about that fire. Would make a lot of sense.

I have been a fan of DW for 35 years. I still remember the first episode I saw (Destiny of the Daleks) on PBS. I was enthralled by the quirkiness of it. The next week they aired City of Death and I was hooked. For my birthday that year, I asked for a complete set of the Target Novelizations. (Everything published through 1983). I've added some more to it later, but basically stopped in 1986. Still, I have quite a decent collection of over 100 (somewhere along the line I lost Doctor Who and the Time Warrior)

Well, I've read some, but most just sat on my bookshelf. Now I am creating a challenge for my self in the coming year to read or re-read each one in order.

My biggest problem with the books two fold:

1. The books just do not capture the unique character and charm of the show. Sure, they can tell the plot, and even clear things up (think of Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate) But let's face it, Doctor Who is a very visual show.

2. Too often the writers take too many liberties with dialogue and plot. I mean, why do they ignore the script of the show and think they can make better dialogue than the original writers?

I am going to start a new thread for my Target Reading Challenge

Cool.
Thanks to netflix, I've been doing a huge rewatch, starting with 'Unearthly child.
Almost done with Pertwee.