BBC Books has announced that it will be expanding the Doctor Who Target range with five new titles in Summer 2022, all published on 14th July 2021, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
Penned by the original scriptwriter the late David Fisher and adapted from his new 2011 and 2014 audio novelisations, The Stones of Blood, and The Androids of Tara are now being released as two Target books. The original Target versions, published in the 1970s, were written by former Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks.
These will be accompanied by a Target edition of The Fires of Pompeii by James Moran, as well as The Eaters of Light by Rona Munro and The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness.
For Doctor Who fans, the range of novelisations published by Target Books in the 1970s and 1980s holds a special place. There was a novel published for almost every Doctor Who serial between 1963 and 1989, with five 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. These latest additions to the collection, all by the original writers of the TV episodes, will help Target fans complete their classic and modern-era collections.
- The Stones of Blood by David Fisher - An ancient stone circle becomes a battleground as the Fourth Doctor must outwit the deadliest alien criminal this side of hyperspace.
- The Androids of Tara by David Fisher - The Fourth Doctor and Romana’s search for the fourth segment of the all-powerful Key to Time leads them to the planet Tara.
- The Fires of Pompeii by James Moran - It is AD 79, and the Tenth Doctor and Donna arrive 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 Eaters of Light by Rona Munro - The Twelfth 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 Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness - It took three Doctors to broker a fragile peace between Zygons and Humans. Now the Twelfth Doctor must face the fallout alone. With his allies compromised and his companion believed dead, can he stop the world from plunging into war?
James Moran said:
I’ve been watching Doctor Who and reading the Target books for as long as I can remember. 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!
Rona Munro said:
It’s wonderful to have another chance to revisit the ideas of my last Doctor Who story, Eaters of Light, 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.
Peter Harness said:
Like many, many others, I learned to read and to love books by reading Target novelisations. The Saturday afternoon journey to Garland’s bookshop in Bridlington to see if any new Doctor Who stories had materialised on their shelves. Scouring markets and second-hand shops in hope of finding an old copy of Doctor Who and the Sea Devils. Desperately pestering my poor cousin until he finally lent me his copy of Doctor Who and The Doomsday Weapon. Making my Grandad read me The Enemy of the World when he would’ve much preferred to fall asleep with the newspaper. There is a sense of magic and excitement about Target books which has stayed with me my whole life. And I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to be writing my own Target book of one of my own Doctor Who stories.
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