When I wrote a blog post in the Winter of 2020/ 21, giving my 10 top and 10 bottom Target novel covers, one of the reasons for consigning some to the bottom was their failure to match what was seen on screen. There was one exception, however. Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth has a cover by Chris Achilleos - and he has used imagery from the Aaru movie version of this story instead of the original TV version. The Dalek itself derives from the famous photo of the Daleks crossing Westminster Bridge, but the spaceship and aspects of the uniform of the Roboman come from the film (especially the helmet and mirrored goggles).
It's just such an exciting image - guaranteed to lure the casual browser.
The original publication was in March 1977, whilst a reissue in 1980 saw the logo turn from orange to blue.
When the novel first came out, for most people it was the movie which was uppermost in their minds anyway. Within the text, Dicks describes the Slyther as being octopus-like. This was because he had been given photo reference material of the Mire Beast from The Chase.
The book was reprinted in 1990, adopting the cover by Alister Pearson which had been used for the VHS release of May that year (see below). It's a rather subdued affair, with portraits of the Doctor and Susan (apt for her final story), with a Dalek and Big Ben. The Dalek image derives from the publicity shots taken at Trafalgar Square. A nice piece of art but, compared with the Achilleos cover, it is a very sedate image, lacking any of the former's dynamism. A few action elements might have helped.
When it came to foreign covers for the novel, action was very much the order of the day. The French adaptation (Les Daleks Envahissent La Terre) was once again promoted by the Franco-Russian twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, who presented episodes on French TV. This cover features a more recent version of the Dalek - in the dark grey colour scheme and with the vertical slats - whilst the Doctor has his back to us. He has Hartnell's white hair - and the Fourth Doctor's long scarf - who features on all these French editions. St Paul's and a burning red double-decker set the scene. The artist is Jean-Francois Penichoux.
One of the best book covers of all is a German version of this story - Dr. Who Kampf um die Erde. A fantastic atmospheric piece of art, using many of the same elements as Achilleos but with a totally different effect. Published in 1981, the title translates as "Battle for Earth". The artist is David Hardy.
A later German version from 1989 - Doctor Who Und Das Komplott Der Daleks - simply utilised the Chris Achilleos artwork but cut it down slightly and placed it within a stark monochrome cover. This one translates as "The Plot of the Daleks".
As mentioned above, the VHS cover was painted by Alister Pearson and was released in May 1990. As was common with the earliest video releases, six-parters were split over two tapes, which you often had to buy separately. The two volumes are identical save for the background colour behind the title. I recall buying the two tapes together one Friday near my work and watching them that evening - only to find that in the Tape 2 box was a duplicate of Tape 1. I had to wait until I went back to work on the Monday to get the replacement and see the second half of the story.
The Region 2 DVD cover (June 2003) depicts a Dalek from the Westminster Bridge publicity, with a number of saucers in the sky above. These ships have been taken from the optional CGI effects on the disc, rather than the tinny cookie-cutter models seen in the broadcast episodes. This was the second DVD to offer optional CGI effects, after The Ark in Space.
The fairly basic cover shows that this was one of the oldest DVDs, never updated with a later Special Edition re-release. (Another way of telling the older releases was by their plain silver discs, whilst later ones had images printed on them).
The US cover is one of those infrequent ones which does not simply copy the UK release. We have a portrait of the Doctor prominently displayed, backed by one of the Westminster Bridge filming photographs (the one used in the BBC Ariel magazine and in the Radio Times). One of the Daleks looks like it is shooting Big Ben with its sucker arm.
This was released in October 2003.
The Australian version was the same as the UK one, save for a wider text panel at the bottom (as Australian releases stressed the parental guidance details more) and it used the red and blue 40th Anniversary logo (where the HO of WHO form a stylised "40".
The audiobook was issued in November 2009, with the Chris Achilleos cover. The narrator is William Russell. I'm not a fan of using new actors to provide the monster voices on classic stories. The Daleks in this story simply didn't sound like Briggs. It's as if he is trying to overwrite the work of people like Peter Hawkins, David Graham and Roy Skelton. (To be honest, I don't like the audiobooks full-stop - preferring to read the original novels). The Doctor Who logo unfortunately obscures the famous movie saucer.
The Dalek and Roboman were isolated from this image and used against a neutral orange background on an audiobook collection of Dalek stories, whilst the Roboman on his own was reused as the focal point for a collection of Earth invasion stories.
Whilst researching these artworks I came across a TV and movie database website (themoviedb.org), with each story illustrated by a DVD cover. For the most part these are the UK / Region 2 covers, but occasionally there is a new photomontage image, such as the one above. I will include these where they differ from the DVD covers - especially as some of them are far superior to the official release.
No comments:
Post a Comment