The Moonbase was the basis for the first ever Cyberman novelisation which is why the book, when published by Target in paperback in February 1975, was simply titled Doctor Who and the Cybermen. As the first one, author Gerry Davis took the opportunity to include a "Creation of the Cybermen" foreward, and made a few changes whilst he was at it. Having introduced the Cyber-Leader in his recent TV submission - Revenge of the Cybermen - Davis includes one here, with black helmet markings. He caused no end of problems by claiming that the creatures originated on Telos - leading to many letters by confused readers to DWM's "Data Matrix Bank" back in the 1980's.
He does then go on to mention the destruction of Mondas, and places it in 1986 which is what it said on screen. However, when he later novelised The Tenth Planet he set it in 2000...
Artist Chris Achilleos was given the wrong reference images and so used a striking portrait of the wrong type of Cyberman. This one is from The Invasion. It's a case of serendipity for me, as this is probably my favourite Target novelisation cover.
The Troughton portrait originates from the Radio Times photoshoot for The Three Doctors.
The novelisation had 8 internal illustrations by Alan Willow.
This particular cover was reused for a reprint in 2011, but an earlier reissue was given a new cover by Bill Donohoe:
This was published in July 1981. Donohoe gives us more accurate Cybermen but... There's something not quite right about their faces. Like Willow he takes the baggy costume look too far. They were more streamlined than this.
More rather odd looking Cybermen, in the foreground at least, on the BBC audio soundtrack which was issued in April 2001. The Doctor / companion images actually derive from the story - a photograph of them in the TARDIS from the first episode. This does mean that we see Ben and Polly in outfits which they only wore for a single scene of The Moonbase. Frazer Hines provides the narration, despite only really featuring in two of the episodes and missing out on the cover.
The surviving episodes 2 and 4 appeared on the Cybermen: The Early Years VHS compilation in July 1992 and later on the Lost In Time DVD set.
The missing episodes were animated in 2014 for a DVD release of its own. The cover art is by Lee Binding. The Cyberman derives from a photoshoot for DWM. Unlike more recent efforts, the animation was very faithful to the broadcast material, making use of telesnaps.
Achilleos' cover was used for the audiobook of Davis' novelisation, read by Anneke Wills.
Finally, Alister Pearson took the opportunity to correct the Cyberman design for a version of Achilleos' cover. This was in the Autumn of 2023 for a DWAS event at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, where three of the four episodes were originally recorded. This was the third "Time & Riverside" event and featured the two surviving episodes with guest Q&A panels in between.
Technically, Pearson is just as wrong as his predecessor, in that he's taken an image from a later Cyberman story. However, this one is from Tomb of the Cybermen, which at least used a nearly identical design.
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