Don't ever sell them!

Just looking at some of those covers brings back so many happy childhood memories.

Nah... I get the urge every now and then to see what eBay makes of them, but I can't see me ever going for it. They're so much more than just a book! They're my childhood!

I'm not 100% sure but think it may have been Castrovalva. Christopher Bidmead, you thought the stories were complex during his time as script editor, you should try reading some of his novels......

tomb of the cybermen(i think)in 1979. i've read it about 15 times over the years. time for another go i think.

...and The Daleks God I'm old

Loved the WoF, couldn't put it down when I read it!

I borrowed "Dr Who and the Zarbi" from the library at
about age six but never read it because I didn't fully
accept that Hartnell picture on the cover as the actual
Doctor!

First one I bought was "Planet of Evil" at a bookshop
in London while on a school trip and I ended up with
almost all the Pertwee and Baker books..plus "Web of
Fear" (brilliant) and "Tomb of the Cybermen".

Still have them in a box up in the attic I think....must
have a look...

It was bought by my Mum on the island of Guernsey and it was "The Keys Of Marinus". I was eight. It would be thirty years old this year.

I remember seeing it for the first time in print and thinking, "What a cool cover!"

Did ANYBODY enjoy The Zarbi when they first (attempted to) read it? Considering it's recognised as a great story, and it was novelised by the story's writer, it should have been a classic. How come so many of us struggled with it?

Mine was three in one with, funnily enough, the Web of Fear, The Space War and a.n.other story that I forget. It was a reader digest / book club type summery. I still have some of my target novelisation that I have resisted packing away / off.

Bill Strutton was undoubtedly a basically competent writer with a lot of imagination, but unfortunately his actual style of writing comes across as very dry. The book was better than the televised episodes, though. I really do want to like The Web Planet, it's a very brave idea, a really groundbreaking concept. But God it's boring...

I'm pretty certain the third one was Revenge of the Cybermen. No rationale exists, as far as I know, for why those three completely unconnected stories were lumped together. They were all published in 1976, but even so...

Yes, it was groundbreaking... to this day, I think it's the only story featuring no humanoid characters outside the regular cast (please correct me if I'm wrong), which deserved a better production than it got.

I did manage to sit through the video (it was, admittedly, an effort and a half...), and found it hard to choose between it and the book for which was the more effective cure for insomnia.

Shame, really, because Bill Strutton was well respected. But remember, also, the format of Zarbi (and Daleks, and Crusaders) was pre-Target formalisation.

If I were responsible for older people's services, i would ensure that each sheltered accommodation had a Dr Who library.



Through one of those Bookworm catalogues, I got my first DW book: Time Flight. Not long afterwards, I spent my birthday money in WH Smiths on The Stones of Blood and The Masque of Mandragora. I had no idea how to pronounce the title of that one, aged seven.


The Target books are an incredible thing. That recent Mark Gatiss radio documentary made for lovely listening, and check out all things Target here:

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/

True-but then, so were The Daleks and The Crusaders, both of which are still wonderful reads!

For those interested in all things target this book is worth a look


The Target Book: A History of the Target "Doctor Who" Books .

Haven't got a clue but the chances are it was written by Tezza