The Target novelisations continue with four new books featuring the Fourth, Tenth and Twelfth Doctors
BBC Books have released the covers by Anthony Dry for the newest additions the Doctor Who Target range. The four new titles come out on the 14th of July, and are available for pre-order now. Each is written by the original writers of the TV episodes. This new selection will help Target fans complete both their classic and modern-era collections. To date Target Books have novelised every 20th century, while these new books bring the number of Target editions based on the modern era to nine.
2008’s The Fires of Pompeii and 2017’s The Eaters of Light have been novelised for the first time by their respective writers, James Moran and Rona Munro. They’re accompanied by Target editions of two 1978 stories by David Fisher, The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara. These novelisations by Fisher have previously only been available in audiobook form and have been specially adapted for the Target format.
The previously announced fifth book in the 2022 wave, The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness, will now come out next year instead. However, the good news is that it’s part of a newly confirmed wave of new novelisations to mark Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary. Details of the other Target books in the 2023 collection are forthcoming.
The new wave of novelisations includes The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Fires of Pompeii, and The Eaters of Light
For Doctor Who fans, the range of novelisations published by Target Books in the 1970s and 1980s hold a special place in their hearts. Originally, Target published novelisations for almost every Doctor Who serial between 1963 and 1989, with a very few (five, actually) notable exceptions. Since 2012, BBC Books has been successfully reissuing these classic paperbacks and expanding the Target range to include all-new novelisations of modern-era Doctor Who episodes.
The Fires of Pompeii author James Moran is one of those who grew up with the Target books. “I’ve been watching Doctor Who and reading the Target books for as long as I can remember,” he says, “The books were an essential part of my childhood, examining the amazing cover art, and ‘seeing’ stories that aired before I was born. I loved learning new words from them, like ‘capacious,’ and am beyond thrilled to become part of this publishing legend!”
Meanwhile, The Eaters of Light’s Rona Munro spoke about the opportunity to expand on the original episode’s concepts. “It’s wonderful to have another chance to revisit the ideas of my last Doctor Who story,” she says, “They are ideas that have been with me for a very long time and Doctor Who, as always, proved to be the largest and most exciting world in which to realise them.’
Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood by David Fisher
The Doctor is delighted when his quest for the Key to Time leads him to his
favourite planet, Earth. But his friends are less enchanted: Romana is nearly lured
to her death by a sinister apparition, and K9 is all but destroyed by a belligerent
boulder with the power to move – and a thirst for blood.
An ancient stone circle becomes a battleground as the Doctor must outwit the
deadliest alien criminal this side of hyperspace – and her bloodthirsty silicon
servants…
Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara by David Fisher
The Doctor and Romana’s search for the fourth segment of the all-powerful Key
to Time leads them to the planet Tara, where courtly intrigue and romantic
pageantry employ the most sophisticated technology.
Within hours of arriving, Romana is mistaken for a powerful princess and the
Doctor forced to dally with robotic royalty – and both are quickly embroiled in
the scheming ambitions of the wicked Count Grendel. Finding the segment of the
Key is easy enough, but escaping with it in one piece will prove an altogether
more colourful affair…
Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii by James Moran
It is AD 79, and the TARDIS lands in Pompeii on the eve of the town’s
destruction. Mount Vesuvius is ready to erupt and bury its surroundings in
molten lava, just as history dictates. Or is it?
The Doctor and Donna find that Pompeii is home to impossible things: circuits
made of stone, soothsayers who read minds and fiery giants made of burning
rock. From a lair deep in the volcano, these creatures plot the end of humanity –
and the Doctor soon finds he has no way to win…
Doctor Who: The Eaters of Light by Rona Munro
The Doctor takes Bill and Nardole back to 2nd century Scotland to learn the
fate of the ‘lost’ Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman Army. 5,000 soldiers
vanished without explanation – how?
The search for the truth leads the Doctor and his friends into a deadly mystery.
Who is the Guardian of the Gate? What nightmare creature roams the
wildlands, darkening the sky and destroying all in its path? A threat from
another dimension has been unleashed on the Earth, and only a terrible
sacrifice can put things right…
