The TV Movie Novelisation
BBC Books to publish a new Target novel collection in July 2020
Seven Doctors, seven unforgettable adventures. Meet the new Doctor Who classics.
BBC Books is delighted to announce that it will be expanding The Doctor Who Target range with seven new titles in Summer 2020 – some that fans have probably been expecting, and a few that should be a pleasant surprise.
After the successful hardback publication of Eric Saward’s long-awaited novelisations, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks, fans will finally be able to complete their Target collections with beautiful paperback editions. These will be accompanied by a Target edition of the Pirate Planet by James Goss, the first time this Douglas Adams story has been published in the Target range, and a reissue of the Gary Russell’s novelisation of the TV Movie. To complete the set, BBC Books will be publishing 3 new-era novelisations: The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson – the first Thirteenth Doctor adventure to be published on the Target list – Dalek by Robert Shearman, and the Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss.
For Doctor Who fans, the range of novelisations published by Target Books in the 1970s and 1980s hold a special place. There was a novel published for almost every Doctor Who serial between 1963 and 1989, with a very few (five, actually) notable exceptions, and BBC Books has been successfully reissuing a number of these classic paperbacks since 2012. In 2017, BBC Books expanded the range by publishing the first all-new batch of Target novels, filling in one of those classic-era gaps (City of Death), along with new-era novelisations from Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Paul Cornell and Jenny T Colgan – all five of them instant classics.
Joy Wilkinson said: “I’m thrilled to become part of the illustrious tradition of Target novels. It was so much fun dipping my toe back into prose with the Target Storybook so I’m now relishing the chance to return to the world of the Witchfinders and get fully immersed. 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.”
Robert Shearman said: “I’m still pinching myself that I was asked to write the first Dalek story of the new series – 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. It feels like a real honour now to go back in time and relive my script… and maybe reveal a few surprises that never made it to the screen…”
Mark Gatiss said: “Novelisations of the ‘new’ series are the final piece of this whole wonderful puzzle for me and to become a Target author after all this years is a complete delight! It’s been lovely to revisit one of my favourite scripts and flesh out the lurid residents of Sweetville in all their crimson finery.”
BBC Books will publish all seven Targets on 23rd July 2020, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
coming soon
