Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
With the upcoming ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelizations on their way this month, I’ve checked out the sampler book ‘Doctor Who and the Library of Time’. This was featured in issue #561 of ‘Doctor Who Magazine’. I’m glad I’ve checked this book out to get an idea what the new Target books will be like.
‘Doctor Who and the Library of Time’ features extracts of the upcoming Target novelizations including ‘The Pirate Planet’, ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’, ‘Revelation of the Daleks’, ‘The TV Movie’, ‘Dalek’, ‘The Crimson Horror’ and ‘The Witchfinders’. I’m all buzzed to check out these new books. 🙂
Some of the new Target novelizations will also have new audiobooks accompanying them, which I’ve already pre-ordered from Audible. I also have hardback versions of these novelizations already. Let me share what the new Target books will be like from reading ‘Doctor Who and the Library of Time’.
The book starts off with an exclusive introduction by Jonathan Morris. I like how Jonny Morris writes the introduction with the TARDIS as the main character. She explains how her library keeps changing with updating new prose versions of the adventures the Doctor has had in his/her many lifetimes. 🙂
We then go to ‘The Pirate Planet’ of ‘The Key to Time’ series. The new book is by ‘Douglas Adams and James Goss’. Like ‘City of Death’, this is like a junior novelization of ‘The Pirate Planet’. I don’t know why the need was there to do a ‘junior novelization’ of ‘The Pirate Planet’ when we already have a bigger, more fleshed-out novelization. 😐
There’s no audiobook to accompany the ‘junior novelization’ of ‘The Pirate Planet’, just like there was no audiobook to accompany the ‘junior novelization’ of ‘City of Death’. The extract features two chapters from the junior novelization and the story itself features the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K-9. 🙂
Next there are extracts from the novelizations of ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri by Eric Saward. I don’t know why Target versions of these novelizations needed to be made since they are same novelizations as they were originally published back in July and November 2019.
Maybe it’s policy to have paperback versions of these novelizations as well as hardback versions. I like the covers for the Target versions of the novelizations mind. I read the extracts with the audiobooks read by Terry Molloy, though the extracts don’t have complete chapters from the books.
The first ‘new’ Target novelization to look forward to is on ‘The TV Movie’ by Gary Russell, featuring the Seventh and Eighth Doctors. There was an original ‘novel of the film’ by Gary Russell published in 1996. I don’t think the ‘new’ version of ‘The TV Movie’ novelization is the same as the original 1996 book since there are some updates to it.
This includes the mention of Ace being of A Charitable Earth. The extract features two chapters (I think) featuring the Seventh Doctor collecting the remains of his dead enemy of the Master before his TARDIS is attacked. I look forward to reading the book with the audiobook read by Dan Starkey. 🙂
Of the new TV series, there’s the Target novelization of ‘Dalek’ by Robert Shearman, featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose, to look forward to. I’m looking forward to checking out the book of that TV episode since ‘Dalek’ was the first ‘Doctor Who’ story I ever saw in 2005. The audiobook will be read by Dalek master Nicholas Briggs. 🙂
The extract features a prologue and the first two chapters from the book. I’m not sure how the book will match exactly to the TV story. I’m saying this because some of the lines of dialogue in the Target novelization don’t match to the dialogue in the TV story so far. I know the TV story ‘Dalek’ off by heart. 😀
Next is the Target novelization of ‘The Crimson Horror’ by Mark Gatiss, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Clara. This is an interesting choice from the Eleventh Doctor era to be a Target novelization. I don’t mind ‘The Crimson Horror’ as a story. So far from reading the extract, it will not be as confusing as ‘The Day of the Doctor’ novelization.
The audiobook will be read by Catrin Stewart playing Jenny Flint with Dan Starkey playing Strax. The extract features a letter from Jonas Thursday, a prologue and the first chapter. I will need to watch ‘The Crimson Horror’ again to refresh my memory of it. The novelization seems different compared to the TV tale.
And finally we have a sample of ‘The Witchfinders’ Target novelization by Joy Wilkinson, featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz. I’m looking forward to reading this Target novelization as it’ll have an audiobook read by Sophie Aldred. It’s also the first story of the Thirteenth Doctor era to be novelized as a Target book which is really exciting. 🙂
The extract features the first four chapters of the Target novelization. The first chapter is one page whilst the second chapter features the backstory of the Morax ending up on Earth, I believe. The third and fourth chapters feature the opening scenes as in the TV story, which lead up to the witch trial.
I’m all geared up to check out the new Target novelizations of ‘Doctor Who’ including ‘The Pirate Planet’, ‘The TV Movie’, ‘Dalek’, ‘The Crimson Horror’ and ‘The Witchfinders’ when they become available on the 11th of March 2021. They’ll be different compared to seeing the stories on the TV. 🙂
I’m glad I’ve read ‘Doctor Who and the Library of Time’ to get an idea of what the new Target novelizations will be like. I’ll be reading/hearing them gradually before I review them on my blog. Stay tuned for my upcoming reviews on these exciting Target novelization coming soon in March. 😀
I leave you now with a YouTube preview of the Target audiobooks for ‘The TV Movie’, ‘Dalek’, ‘The Crimson Horror’ and ‘The Witchfinders’.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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