h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/01/db0103.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/12/01/ixportal.html

And his novelisation of the story was one of the best in the Target range

Sad news indeed. I loved that book when I was a kid.

With BBCi republishing e-books at the moment, I wonder if they'd consider acquiring the very first ones, which are out of print now, 'Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks', 'Doctor Who and the Zarbi' and 'Doctor Who and the Crusaders'.

Which I've got. I was always confused as child, after reading both An Unearthly Child and the daleks- I couldn't understand why Ian didn't know Barbara, and when exactly he started smoking

Something similar happened to me, though thankfully I'd already seen 100,000 BC when I first read In An Exciting etc etc. The same thing happens later on when Jo Grant first meets the Doctor at the start of the novelisation of Doomsday Machine, sorry, Colony in Space.

Those first three books are ace, though, aren't they. I read In An Exciting etc etc again last week for the first time since about 1990 and it really is top hole, so cleverly and thoughtfully written.

But, anyway, Bill Strutton. RIP.

It's a shame the majority of the rest of the Target novels were so short and simple. Exceptions such as Curse of Fenric excluded, of course.

Well, not only were a lot of them written to a very restrictive set of criteria (most obviously, a pagecount maximum of 126), but let's not forget that at one stage the chief writer for the range (whoops, very nearly gave away one of the answers to the H2G2 Post Dr Who Anniversary Quiz there) was having to write one book every single month in addition to his day job!

In the 80s more writers novelised their own scripts - hence the definite improvement in standards (sorry Uncle Tel).

The fault is not all at the man himself's door- editoral policy for the range in the 70s clearly involved marketing the books at the 10-13 age range.

And, of course, market forces. Doctor Who was at its peak then, and Terence had to knock books out at a rate of one a month. he knows they were 'adequate' himself; his original novels written for the Virgin New Adventures were much better.

When Bill Strutton wrote his though, they'd only published two other books - a reprint of The Daleks (or 'in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks'), and an adaptation of The Crusades. He didn't have much of a house style to go on, so it became atypical of what was to come.

Not a single 'wheezing, groaning' sound in sight. Though it does mark the first use of the title 'Escape to Danger' in Who print... though not the last.

Never really cared for El Tel's original material - a bit shallow for my tastes, plus I couldn't possibly envision the McCoy Doctor announcing 'I like my women big and bouncy' as he does in (I think) Exodus. Too many raids on The War Games, too, for all that it's his finest four and a bit hours.

I'm hugely enjoying his bit of Deadly Reunion, though, he's discovered self-parody and it's magnificent!

I'm actually going to have to read Exodus now

... and another one, which I meant to mention earlier- Dinsdale Landen, the famous character actor who played Dr. Judson in Curse of Fenric.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3355221.stm

Alfred Burke, who played COmmander Millington in Fenric, died a week or two earlier too.

Ooh, we're a morbid lot, aren't we?

Depressing, isn't it. The only regularly updated thread for the group is the obits. thread

Well, I guess that means there won't be any 'Return to Maidens' Point' vids in the style of Return to Deveil's end then. Actually, Fenric is a bit cursed, if you'll forgive the pun. Quite a lot of the people involved in it have snuffed it...

I can only additionally think of the director, Nick Mallett. Oh, and the producer of course, but that's not really specific to that show...

Ms Hardaker and Rev. Wainwright are still with us - in fact, just to brighten this up, Nicholas Parsons was listed in the New Year's Honours list.

I suppose put like that it doesn't seem so bad. Have you watched the DVD release, btw? It definitely sets a new standard in DVD productions.

What for? Services to entertainment?

Oh, and Tip Tipping, although again not specific to the story really.

Ah, Blues Shark said that you have a little bit of trivia - exactly how many people have played the Doctor - including stand-ins and stuntmen - on screen.

Now, I can think of about 20 or so. The 8 TV Doctors, plus at least three stand-ins for Hartnell (including Edmund Warwick, the least-convincing look-alike ever), at least one for Troughton (lying on a bed in Wheel in Space for the episode where Troughton was on holiday), Terry Walsh for Pertwee and Baker, someone else for Davison, Tip Tipping for McCoy...

Oh, and five other Doctors if you're going to count The Curse of Fatal Death.

So, what's your list? I'm really intrigued by this... If you do this, I'll post up my list of what Doctor Who would have been like had each Doctor had equal screentime...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_856016.html?menu=

*Not* a death this time, a resurrection instead .

Yes, I have Jims, but I can't do them all off the top of my head (cries of 'shame!' ), I'll look it out tomorrow.

Right then- The usual eight, plus:

Straightforward doubles:

Brian Proudfoot (location double
for WH); Edmund Warwick (double during Dalek Invasion of Earth);
Albert Ward (used for WH's hands in The Romans, the Celestial Toymaker
and The Smugglers); Gordon Graig (double in The Smugglers and Tenth
Planet); Richard Hurndall (WH double for Five Doctors)

Peter Diamond (double for PT); Mike Smith (double for
helicopter flying in Enemy of the World); Chris Jeffries (Wheel
in Space, Dominators); Tommy Laird (knocked out back for Ice Warriors)

Terry Walsh (stunt for JP and TB); Stuart Fell (stunt for TB in
Mandragora); David Rofle (Leisure Hive (sequence where TB is shown pulled
apart in regenerator); Roy Seeley (ditto); Derek Chaffer (ditto);
Mike Handely (dressed as Pangol doubles from Lesiure Hive) Ridgewell
Hawkes (ditto); Jeff Wayne (ditto) **David Rofle, Roy Seeley and Derek
Chaffer also used in this sequence**

Gareth Milne (stunt from Warriors of The Deep);

Bill Weston (despite his claims, CB *was* doubled for some of the
stunts in Mark of the Rani)

Mike Tucker (double for SMC's legs in Dragonfire); Tip Tipping (stunt
for SMC in Remembrance; Fenric and Survival); Paul Heasman (stunt for
SMC in Nemesis)

There's also a stunt double for McGann, but I'm damned if I can find
his name.

Other versions of the Doctor:

Edmund Warwick (previously mentioned) as robot Doctor from The Chase;
Adrian Gibbs (The Watcher); Geoffery Hughes (sort of- played Popplewick,
who was The Valeyard, who was part of The Doctor); Michael Jayston (The
Valeyard); Debatably Philip Hinchcliffe, Robert Holmes, Douglas
Camfield, Graeme Harper, Robert Banks Stewart, Christopher Baker,
George Gallacio and Christopher Barry (played the chaps who were
supposedly past Doctors during the mind bending battle in Brain of
Morbius)


So from that lot we have a grand total of either 33 or 42...

I know the production team thought of the faces in Brain of Morbius as previous Doctors, but as Morbius blows a fuse at that point 'd prefer to think of them as previous Morbiuses. But even so, that's a brilliant list!!