50 Years of Target

It was on 2nd May, 1973, that Target books - a new imprint from Universal-Tandem - first published its trio of Doctor Who novelisations. These had previously been published in hardback by Frederick Muller in 1966.

All three were adaptations of William Hartnell stories, two of which came from their original writers.

Doctor Who and the Daleks was by one-time story editor David Whitaker. It was retitled from the original - and hugely unwieldy - Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With The Daleks.

As the very first book, with the notion of a complete range far in the future, Whitaker opted to make this an origins story of sorts - creating an entirely new introduction into the TARDIS for Ian and Barbara, following a car crash on Barnes Common.

Whitaker also provided Doctor Who and the Crusaders - an adaptation of his own The Crusade.

This would prove to be the only historical story novelised by Target for eight years - Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child coming out in 1981 to tie in with the Five Faces of Doctor Who set of repeats.

The third book was Doctor Who and the Zarbi - the adaptation of The Web Planet by its original writer Bill Strutton.

All three volumes had cover art by the late, great Chris Achilleos.

Half a century later, Target is still going strong - slowly releasing adaptations of more recent Doctor Who stories from the revived series.

The Final On This Day - 11th September

I started this series of posts on 12th September, 2021, so today's brings us full circle. I was able to do this run as I have been off work following my health issues of last year, but I'm now looking to get back into work and expect my time to be more limited. It is also pointless to start the year all over again as I would simply be repeating myself. There's a post for every day of the year on the blog, and I started tagging the last few week's so that you can work backwards from them if you're new here.

Today we have the beginning of Season 3 in 1965, with Four Hundred Dawns - the first instalment of Galaxy 4.

In 1976 The Masque of Mandragora had moved onto its second episode.

Finally, in 2015, the Prologue to The Magician's Apprentice appeared on BBC i-Player.

Today we remember actor / director Hugh David, who died in 1987 aged 62.

He directed The Highlanders, which introduced Jamie, and Fury From The Deep, which saw the exit of Victoria. 

Before all that, he was asked to play the Doctor by Rex Tucker, the series' caretaker producer in 1963. His idea was obviously to have a younger actor play an older character, as an older actor might struggle with a lengthy, punishing schedule (which is exactly what happened).

David declined the offer. He had just finished his series Knight Errant and hated the increased public profile it had brought him. Nor did he want to commit to another long-running role.

On This Day... 10th September

 

Season 4 is a very odd season to modern eyes. It ends like one of the revived series, with a big epic that concludes with a civil war and the suggested final end of the Daleks. However, it gets off the ground with a very low key historical story - a genre already being phased out. The Doctor then regenerates for the first time after his initial encounter with the Cybermen in the second story, making the new Doctor's first outing the third story. 

It is even harder to judge the fourth season as it is particularly hard hit by gaps in the archives. The Smugglers, which began today in 1966, is missing in its entirety save for a couple of very brief clips. There are no complete Season 4 stories. The best we have is 3 of 4 instalments of The Tenth Planet. Apart from those, there are only another seven episodes for the whole season.

Luckily this season has been blessed with the majority of animations, unlike poor old Season 3.

Also today, in 1977, Horror of Fang Rock delivered its second instalment, and Amy Pond was The Girl Who Waited in 2011.

In 2010, a longer (90 min) version of the Doctor Who Prom was broadcast on BBC Three.

Peter Capaldi's second series got underway with a cinema release of The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar in 2015.

On This Day... 9th September

 

The second instalment of Tomb of the Cybermen, broadcast today in 1967, introduced the Cyber-Controller. Michael Kilgarriff was a little annoyed that he was selected purely for his physical presence, and the voice was going to be provided by someone else (Peter Hawkins).

In 1978 The Ribos Operation was also on its second episode.

Today we wish Janet Fielding a very happy 69th birthday. 

Real name Janet Claire Mahoney, she played Bolshie Australian / Mouth On Legs Tegan Jovanka from Logopolis through to Resurrection of the Daleks. She is due to reprise the role in the Centenary Special in October.

Apart from appearing in the series, she has had other connections with Doctor Who. Like Sylvester McCoy she was a member of the Ken Campbell Roadshow troupe. Ken was also in the running for the Seventh Doctor. She was called in by JNT to act opposite the potential Seventh Doctor actors at their auditions.

She later became an agent, numbering Paul McGann amongst her clients at the time he was made the Eighth Doctor.

She shares her birthday with Goran Visnjic, who played Nikola Tesla in the Series 12 story which bore his name. He is 50 today.

Hugh Grant, often mooted as a potential Doctor and who did play the role briefly in The Curse of Fatal Death, is 62. Julia Sawalha, who played opposite Grant in that Comic Relief skit, is 54.

Richard Gauntlett - Tetrap leader Urak in Time and the Rani - is 59.

Gretchen Egolf, who played Norlander in The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion, is 49.

On This Day... 8th September

 

After a four year absence, Davros made his return today in 1979, in the second episode of Destiny of the Daleks. With Michael Wisher unavailable, David Gooderson stepped in (or, rather, sat down) to portray the evil Kaled scientist.

In 2012 the Doctor and his companions encountered Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. This set the Silurians up as a space-going race - which totally undermined the whole point of their having to hibernate on Earth, as established by their creator Malcolm Hulke.

Torchwood: Miracle Day was nearing its conclusion today in 2011. Its penultimate episode was entitled The Gathering.

Today we remember actor Ray Barrett, who played Bennett / Koquillion in The Rescue. He died in 2009 aged 82. Among his other genre roles were numerous voices for Gerry Anderson series - including Commander Shore and King Titan in Stingray, and John Tracey and the Hood in Thunderbirds. He was also the male lead in one of my favourite Hammer films -  The Reptile.

On This Day... 7th September

The Sylvester McCoy era got underway today in 1987 in truly deplorable fashion. Time and the Rani really was terrible - especially today's first episode. From having him wearing a Harpo Marx type wig pretending to be Colin Baker, to the unfunny pratfalls and spoon-playing to Kate O'Mara having to pretend to be Bonnie Langford, it was painful to watch at the time (and still is on Blu-ray today). 

Luckily Andrew Cartmel had just joined the series, and things would eventually get better.

Back in 1968 The Dominators reached its conclusion with its fifth instalment, after having been edited down from being a six-parter at the scripting stage.

Today we wish Toby Jones a happy 56th birthday. Son of actor Freddie Jones, he portrayed the Dream Lord in Amy's Choice, who proved to be a representation of the Doctor's darker side (so not like the Valeyard at all then).

He shares his birthday with Christopher Villiers who featured in The King's Demons and, more recently, in Mummy on the Orient Express. He is 62.

Rona Munro - writer of Survival and Eaters of Light - is 63.

Reginald Tsiboe, who played bus passenger Lou in Planet of the Dead, is 67.

On This Day... 6th September

Moffat and Chibnall weren't all that original in having a reveal of a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor. John Nathan Turner, Eric Saward and Robert Holmes were doing it decades ago.

Today in 1986 Season 23 got underway - a season comprising a single story. Trial of a Time Lord Parts 1 - 4 are usually known as The Mysterious Planet for convenience sake. We wouldn't discover the Valeyard's true nature - a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor - until Part 13.

In 1989 the final season of the classic era began with the opening episode of Battlefield. 

Back in 1975 Terror of the Zygons moved on to its second instalment, as did The Leisure Hive in 1980.

The Twelfth Doctor was discovering that there really was a Robin Hood today in 2014, in Robot of Sherwood.

Finally, in 2011, the Doctor Who Prom was shown on BBC Three.

On This Day... 5th September

In later years, seasons would just be getting underway around now, but back in 1964 the first season still hadn't finished yet. A Bargain of Necessity was the penultimate episode of The Reign of Terror - and the penultimate episode of the season.

Today we remember Tony Selby on the first anniversary of his death. He was 83.

He played galactic conman Sabalom Glitz in Trial of a Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet and The Ultimate Foe), and returned the following season for Dragonfire. A different mercenary character had been planned for the latter story - a man named Razorback - but producer JNT asked that this be changed to Glitz.

On This Day... 4th September

Season 14 launched today in 1976, with the first episode of The Masque of Mandragora. 

I watched this in a hotel in Blackpool with a friend from school who was on holiday with my family. I love this story now but at the time was disappointed at the lack of monsters. Naturally, we visited the exhibition that weekend - twice.

Today we wish Kai Owen a happy 47th birthday. He played Gwen Cooper's boyfriend / husband Rhys in all four series of Torchwood.

We also wish Edward de Souza a happy 90th. He was space special agent Marc Cory in Mission to the Unknown.

Today also saw the death of Iain Cuthbertson, who gave us the memorable character of Garron in The Ribos Operation. The Scots actor was one of only a handful of guest artists who could more than hold their own opposite Tom Baker. He passed away in 2009, aged 79.

On This Day... 3rd September

Season 15 got underway with the opening episode of Horror of Fang Rock today in 1977. We should have been getting something else. Graham Williams wanted to do the Key to Time but the season was already too far advanced in development, so it had to wait until the following year. Instead, Terrance Dicks had a vampire story - but that got pulled due to conflict with a big new adaptation of Dracula which was planned. For the first time ever, studio production moved way from London to Birmingham, due to lack of studio space in the capital.

In 2011 Mark Gatiss delivered Night Terrors.

Back in 1993, the Third Doctor audio adventure The Paradise of Death moved on to its second instalment on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Today we wish Pauline Collins a happy 82nd birthday. She appeared in The Faceless Ones as Samantha Briggs, and the production team attempted to talk her into staying on as the new female companion. She declined, preferring to pursue an Oscar-winning film career, but they tried again when Debbie Watling left the series. She did eventually make a return in 2006, playing Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw. A portrait of her as Victoria featured in 2017's Empress of Mars.

We also remember Jacqueline Pearce, who played Chessene in The Two Doctors. Best known for her role as Servalan in Blake's 7, she passed away today in 2018 aged 74.

On This Day... 2nd September

You can tell that summer is pretty much over as the various seasons and series of Doctor Who are all getting underway around now.

Today it's the turn of Seasons 5 and 16 - AKA the Monster season and the Key to Time season.

The Tomb of the Cybermen began today in 1967, and The Ribos Operation got underway in 1978.

Among today's birthdays we have Gai Smith, who played Gallifreyan outsider Presta in The Invasion of Time. She is 68.

Sean Gallagher, who played Chip in New Earth, is 57; and Kay Patrick - the Empress Poppaea in The Romans, and Flower in The Savages, turns 81.

The cinematic Ian Chesterton, Roy Castle, passed away on this date in 1994, aged 62.

Derek Seaton, who played Chancellery Guard Captain Hilred in The Deadly Assassin, was only 35 when he died in 1979.

On This Day... 1st September

Destiny of the Daleks Part One launched Season 17 today in 1979. 

It was the final story to be written by Terry Nation, and began Graham Williams' final season as producer. It also introduced Lalla Ward as the regenerated Romana, and marked the start of Douglas Adams' brief tenure as script editor. K9 was voiced by Roy Skelton for the one and only time, as John Leeson had left the series and it wasn't worth getting David Brierley in just for a single croak.

Another series got underway with another Dalek story today in 2012. The first half of Series 7 launched with Asylum of the Daleks. 

The much hyped Daleks-from-every-era turned out to be waste of time as you couldn't see any of them other than the RTD bronze ones. First appearance by Jenna Coleman, and the last time we had to put up with the colour-coded recycle bin New Paradigm.

In 2011 Torchwood: Miracle Day had reached the End of the Road.

Today we wish a happy birthday to Torchwood's Burn Gorman, who turns 48. He played Dr Owen Harper in the first two series, leaving before it actually got quite good.

Debbie Chazen, who is 51 today, turned down a role as a Slitheen in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the hope of a role in Doctor Who proper. She got the part of Foon van Hoff, opposite Kylie Minogue, in The Voyage of the Damned - still the most watched episode of the revived series - so it was a smart move on her part.

It is also the birthday of Steve Pemberton, of The League of Gentlemen / Inside No.9, who featured as Strackman Lux in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead. He is 55.

On This Day... 31st August

The fourth episode of The Dominators was shown today in 1968. It was the penultimate instalment of the story - though that hadn't been the plan originally. The six part version was reduced to five by script editor Derrick Sherwin, much to the annoyance of the writers.

Today we remember a pair of key figures - one behind the scenes and one on screen. 

The latter actor is Michael Sheard, who appeared in the series on six occasions. He died today in 2005, aged 67.

His first role was as medic Rhos in The Ark in 1966. He skipped the Troughton era and was next seen as another doctor - Summers, in The Mind of Evil during Pertwee's tenure.

The third appearance is the one he's best remembered for - the doomed Laurence Scarman in Pyramids of Mars. A second Tom Baker role was as Supervisor Lowe of Titan Base in The Invisible Enemy.

In Peter Davison's first story he was a medic again - Castrovalva's apothecary Mergrave.

His last role was as the Headmaster of Coal Hill School in Remembrance of the Daleks. (The latter also featured George Sewell, whose birthday it would have been today. He died in 2007 aged 82).

Outside of Doctor Who he was associated with another famous fictional school - Grange Hill - in which he played the horrible Mr Bronson.

He had some notable big screen roles, including Imperial Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, and Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Hitler was a role he played on four other occasions (including The Tomorrow People), and he also played Himmler three times.

Behind the scenes, we remember Gerry Davis, the series' fourth script editor, who died today in 1991, aged 61.

During his tenure he introduced the popular base-under-siege scenario and played a major role in developing the character of the Second Doctor, having overseen the series' first change of lead actor. He introduced a scientific adviser to the programme - Kit Pedler - with whom he created the Cybermen, and also later devised the Doomwatch series.

He left the series part way through Evil of the Daleks and later moved to the USA to work. He novelised some Cyberman stories for Target, but is last TV story - Revenge of the Cybermen - was heavily rewritten by his later successor Robert Holmes. (His first job on Doctor Who had been to rewrite his predecessor's work on The Celestial Toymaker, so he couldn't really complain).

He tried to tempt the JNT production team with a Cyberman origins story but this wasn't taken up.

After the series had been taken off the air, he and Terry Nation formed a partnership to produce the series independently, but this offer was declined by the BBC.

On This Day... 29th August

The Tyrant of France, the fourth episode of 1964's The Reign of Terror, no longer exits, and there are no telesnaps, so the above image is of the titular character - Robespierre - from the surviving sixth instalment.

When it came to that story's Target novelisation, it was Ian Marter who got the commission, rather than regular adapter Terrance Dicks. We remember 'Uncle Tel' on the third anniversary of his death, at the age of 84 in 2019. His involvement with Target resulted in 67 Doctor Who novels, plus spin-offs like The Making of Doctor Who and the two Monster Books. He also wrote a number of non-Who books for the company, aimed at young children and teenagers.

We also lost comic actor Bill Kerr on this day in 2014, aged 92. Best known for the original radio version of Hancock's Half Hour, he played Giles Kent in The Enemy of the World - which was in production round about the time that Dicks was arriving to take up the assistant script editor role.

Also on this day: 

Patrick Barr (Hobson in The Moonbase) died in 1985, aged 77, 

Dallas Adams (Prof. Howard Foster / Kamelion in Planet of Fire) died in 1991, aged 44.

On This Day... 28th August

Today we wish Sir Lenny Henry a happy 64th birthday. He played Daniel Barton in Spyfall Parts 1 & 2. Back in 1985 he played a version of the Doctor in his own comedy series - the first black representation of the Doctor on TV. He and companion Peri faced Thatchos - a Cyber version of Mrs T. The sketch also featured Lee Cornes, who had been in Kinda playing the Trickster.

We also remember the Swedish actor / choreographer Tutte Lemkow, whose birthday it would have been today. He had four roles in Doctor Who, all during the Hartnell era, though only three were on screen. 

He was the devious Kuiju in Marco Polo, the bandit Ibrahim in The Crusade, and the mute spy Cyclops in The Myth Makers. The fourth role was as choreographer on The Celestial Toymaker.

He died in 1991, aged 73.

On This Day... 27th August

 

In 2011 Let's Kill Hitler launched the concluding half of Series 6, which had broken for the summer after the big revelation of River Song's identity in A Good Man Goes To War.

The Magician's Apprentice also had a debut today in 2015 - in an Edinburgh cinema as part of the city's International Television Festival. Series 9 wouldn't get underway on TV until 9th September.

Barry Letts' audio adventure The Paradise of Death, starring Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney and Lis Sladen, had its opening episode broadcast today in 1993 on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Today we wish Suranne Jones a happy 44th birthday. She played Idris, who becomes host to the soul of the TARDIS, in The Doctor's Wife, as well as the Mona Lisa come to life in SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge.

She shares her birthday with The League of Gentlemen / Inside No.9 star Reece Shearsmith, who played Rassmussen in Sleep No More. He is 53.

On This Day... 26th August

How it might have been... 

The pilot version of An Unearthly Child finally made its debut today in 1991 It was screened on BBC2 as part of a themed day dedicated to Lime Grove Studios, which had just closed down as a TV production facility.

The pilot had additional sound effects on the theme music and on the TARDIS dematerialisation, the Doctor and Susan were specifically from the 49th Century, he wore an ordinary suit with collar and tie... Lots of things changed from this to the broadcast episode. A few mistakes as well - like the TARDIS doors refusing to close and Susan getting the chart position wrong for John Smith and the Common Men.

The Doctor Who Prom concert was shown on BBC1 this afternoon in 2013, presented by Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and members of the Paternoster Gang.

Today we wish producer Phil Collinson a happy 52nd birthday. He was fortunate to have been in the producer's chair for much of the first Russell T Davies era, which meant we got to know him well through Doctor Who Confidential. 

He left at the end of Series 4 to take over the running of Coronation Street, but we now know that he is rejoining RTD and Julie Gardner for Series 14.

He shares his birthday with Annette Badland - the Slitheen otherwise known as Margaret Blaine - who turns 72 today.

We also remember a trio of classic era guest stars who passed away on this date: Gerard Murphy (Richard in Silver Nemesis) who died in 2013 aged 64; Martin Miller (Kublai Khan in Marco Polo) who died in 1969 aged 69, and Tariq Yunus (Cass in The Robots of Death) who was only 47 when he died in 1994.

On This Day... 25th August

Tom Baker, in character as the Doctor, was the guest presenter of BBC 1's Disney Time today in 1975. This show appeared only at Bank Holidays, and featured clips from the animation studio's movies. Jon Pertwee had also presented previously, in 1973. He got to go to Stockholm, whilst Baker only got as far as Upper St Martin's Lane, near London's Covent Garden.

The programme ended with the Doctor being handed a message from the Brigadier, asking for his help. This tied in with the opening episode of Terror of the Zygons which was due to be screened on the 30th August - although Revenge of the Cybermen had already set this up.

In 2011, Torchwood: Miracle Day gave us Immortal Sins.

Today's birthdays include Tracy-Ann Oberman (Army of Ghosts / Doomsday), who is 56, and Jessica Martin (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and voice of the Queen in Voyage of the Damned) who is 60.

Keegan Joyce who played Starkey, the young male lead in the Australian K9 series, turns 33.

We also remember actor Christopher Burgess who appeared in three stories - all directed by Barry Letts.

He was Swann in The Enemy of the World, Prof. Phillips in Terror of the Autons, and Barnes in Planet of the Spiders. He died in 2003, aged 87.

On This Day... 24th August

 

Today in 1968 The Dominators reached its third instalment.

We also wish Stephen Fry a happy 65th birthday. He was due to write a story back in the days of Series 2 but nothing came of it in the end. (See my recent "Inspirations: Fear Her" post). 

Back in 2001/2 he had played the Minister of Chance in the BBCi webcast Death Comes To Time, but more recently he finally made an appearance in the series proper playing "C", the Head of MI5, in Spyfall Part I.

He shares his birthday with My Beautiful Laundrette's Gordon Warnecke, who played Tuza in Trial of a Time Lord Parts 5 - 8 (Mindwarp). He is 60 today.

On This Day... 23rd August

The first Doctor Who-ish movie opened in cinemas across the UK today in 1965. Dr. Who & The Daleks starred Peter Cushing as a human inventor named Dr. Who. Another big difference was that Barbara (Jennie Linden) was one of his grand-daughters, with Ian Chesterton (Roy Castle) her boyfriend. He was there mainly for comic relief. Susan was the much younger Roberta Tovey, who would be the only co-star to make it onto the second movie a year later.

On the same day that audiences could first see the Daleks in colour on the big screen, William Hartnell was nominating his favourite pieces of music on Desert Island Discs (on BBC Radio 4).

In 2014 the Peter Capaldi era got underway with Deep Breath. This also offered the first glimpse of Michelle Gomez's Missy, though we didn't know that at the time.

Today we remember producer Innes Lloyd, who successfully steered the programme through the first regeneration of the programme's lead actor. He died in 1991, aged 65.

Lloyd took over from John Wiles, who had only been in post a relatively short time. He was quite open about his dislike for science fiction. He formed an uneasy partnership with script editor Gerry Davis and together they got rid of the purely historical stories and introduced the base-under-siege format. The first of these was The Tenth Planet, which saw the debut appearance of Cybermen and the final regular appearance of William Hartnell, replaced by Patrick Troughton. Lloyd was also responsible for bringing Frazer Hines onto the programme as a regular. Davis left and was replaced by Peter Bryant, who was then groomed to take over from Lloyd. His final story as producer was The Enemy of the World, though Bryant was handling most of the day to day business by this time.

Lloyd went on to produce a number of award-winning collaborations with Alan Bennett - Talking Heads, An Englishman Abroad, and A Question of Attribution.