Victor Pemberton was quite insistent that he be the only one to novelise his story, and managed to convince Target to allow him to do so with an increased page count, usually only 127 or so pages. Range editor Nigel Robinson worked with Pemberton to try to reduce it but found this impossible, so it went out as a "Bumper Volume" with 189 pages - but at a higher price.
Pemberton gave some of the characters first names - such as Harris being Frank, Van Lutyens being Pieter and Price being David. Background motivation is added for Robson - his wife died in a car crash whilst he was at the wheel some 20 years beforehand. Blaming himself, he has thrown himself into his work to the point of obsession.
Interestingly, despite Pemberton's claims to have invented it, the sonic screwdriver does not appear in the opening beach scene with the pipeline inspection hatch.
The cover is a rather low-key affair by artist David McAllister, depicting a conventional drilling platform far out at sea, with tendrils of seaweed rising in the foreground. Perhaps more ominous weather conditions might have given the cover more atmosphere.
Paul Mark Tams had put forward an art concept following his commission to provide the cover for the novelisation of Doctor Who radio drama Slipback, but this was not taken up as it featured a Doctor other than the current one. (Tams, who was also involved in the music industry, had previously contributed artwork for the Doctor Who and Dalek annuals, and would go on to be one of those responsible for the single "Doctor In Distress". He later championed attempts to get K-9 back on screen, collaborating with Bob Baker).
The novel was published in 1986. A reprint was scheduled for June 1994, but the reprint range was discontinued before this could happen.
The soundtrack was first released as part of the BBC Audio Collection in cassette format, featuring a photomontage cover depicting images from the location filming of the opening episode - Troughton wearing his distinctive woolly hat.
The narrative was linked by Tom Baker, in character as the Fourth Doctor recalling this adventure.
This was released in October 1993.
February 2004 saw the soundtrack re-released on CD, this time with narration by Frazer Hines. The colourful cover montage once again relied on location images from Episode One, but also found room for Mr Quill from the recovered Australian censor clips, as well as an entirely made-up gas rig design.
Those censor clips had featured on the Lost In Time DVD set, released in 2004. This also included film trims from Episode 6 as well as some colour home movie footage of the climactic scenes.
The story was animated and released on DVD / Blu-ray in September 2020 on Region 2, though US fans had to wait until the following March for the Region 1 version. (Australia only had to wait two months).
The novelisation was released as an audiobook in July 2011, read by David Troughton, and using the McAllister artwork.
And finally, another photomontage piece of artwork used to illustrate the story on the moviedb website prior to the animation being released. This actually uses the correct sea fort locations used for the rigs as filmed by Hugh David.
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