Seven more Target books are to be released next summer, including three brand new Doctor Who novelizations
The books in the next wave of Target releases have been revealed, along with the identities of those writing them. The new range includes classic and recent titles being released in the Target style for the first time. But the highlight for many fans will be three brand new novelizations of the Doctor’s more recent adventures. Each book in the wave will have a new cover by Anthony Dry, the artist responsible for all the recent Target releases.
The three brand new books are:
- Dalek by Robert Shearman
- The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss
- The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson
Appearing for the first time in the Target style are:
- The Pirate Planet by Douglas Adams and James Goss
- Resurrection of the Daleks by Eric Saward
- Revelation of the Daleks by Eric Saward
- The TV Movie by Gary Russell
In the finest Target tradition, most of the titles are adapted by the original screen writer from their own work.
Mark Gatiss has written several TV episodes of Doctor Who. Among them is The Crimson Horror, starring the Eleventh Doctor, Clara and the Paternoster Gang. Gatiss is also a well established novelist, with books starring both the Doctor and his own creations. But he says that “becoming a Target author after all these years is a complete delight!”
Famously a lifelong fan, he views novelizations of the modern series as “the final piece of this whole wonderful puzzle.”
And readers should expect, as with the best novelizations, a slightly deeper telling of the story. “It’s been lovely to revisit one of my favourite scripts,” says Gatiss, “and flesh out the lurid residents of Sweetville in all their crimson finery.”
Robert Shearman, author of Dalek, suggests he’s taken a similar approach. He’s hinted that his novelization will “maybe reveal a few surprises that never made it to the screen…” Along with Gatiss, Shearman was one of the first writers to be recruited by Russell T Davies to help resurrect Doctor Who in 2005.
“I’m still pinching myself that I was asked to write the first Dalek story of the new series,” he explains, “and that was fifteen years ago! I didn’t dare dream that the show would become such a big hit, and that it would still be on air now, as big and as exciting as ever – there have been so many adventures since, and so many new Doctors, and, of course, so many more Daleks.” Like Gatiss, he also describes it as “a real honour to go back in time and relive [his] script” which saw the Ninth Doctor and Rose trapped in a bunker deep below the Utah desert. And trapped with them is a lone Dalek, driven to the edge of madness by years of torture.
Joy Wilkinson returns to the world of Target after the Target Storybook
Joy Wilkinson, meanwhile, is a relatively recent edition to the Doctor Who writing family. Her episode The Witchfinders placed the Thirteenth Doctor and her fam in the midst of the Pendel Hill witch trials. And King James and Mistress Savage may be determined to save the souls of the villagers, “even if it means killing them all,” but there are scarier things than them abroad in the gloomy woods. Wilkinson says she was “thrilled to become part of the illustrious tradition of Target novels.”
Having written the brilliant Gatecrashers for the Target Storybook, she found “it was so much fun dipping my toe back into prose with the Target Storybook. I’m now relishing the chance to return to the world of The Witchfinders and get fully immersed.”
As with her fellow authors, there’s a promise of throwing more light on hidden corners of the original episode. “It’s a great chance to spend more time with the Doctor and fam, hang with King James, and find out more about the mysteries of Bilehurst Cragg and the mighty, muddy Morax.”
