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

So, who else has a Target book collection.
I had a comparatively small one - only 20ish books, until yesterday when I saw 56 for sale!

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I've got about 90, with a few doubles. I managed to get a complete set of the Pinnacle reprints last year, too.

The problem with the books was that they didn't stress how cheap the TV show looked most of the time! Watching a lot of old stories for the first time was a real let-down!

I never know what order to put them in - whether it's episode order, which sometimes contradicts itself, such as "An Unearthly Child" and "The Daleks", or publishing order. It's also confusing when they have completely different names.
But at least I get a general idea of what happened in the missing episodes (as they're cheaper than getting the audios!)

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Mine are nominally in order of transmission with a few oddities like the Harry Sullivan novel stuck down the end next to some fanzines I contributed to. The numbering system never made sense to me and as for putting them in publication order... well, until relatively recently I wouldn't have had a clue what that was!

My Missing Adventures are in publication order simply... because! The good thing about the New Adventures is that publication order and chronological order are identical. And barely having truck with the BBC range has saved me a problem on that front.

Greetings. I have over 30 books in the Target range, most of them being the third and fourth Doctors! I think the Target books are good as the action and descriptions are short and simple. I think Terrance Dicks (script editor from 1969 to 1974) is the best Target novelist.
I have attempted to novelise Resurrection of the Daleks, but so far I have not passed episode two!

Hi ive got 59 Target books-i love reading them if i wake up through the night and cant face watching a video.I think my fave is Dr Who & the Loch Ness Monster-but its pretty hard to choose.

I have all my books in Transmission order-this comes from the early days when i kept books and videos side-by-side,to fill in the gaps,but now im down to only waiting for videos or dvds of The Dalek Invasion of Earth & The Sensorites

Yes i agree about Terrence being the best author-you always know its him without even reading the authors name.I think he was the best at keeping the Dr Who feel of the stories.

He wrote some of the best books, yes, but also some of the very worst ones, too! I think the single best book was Remembrance of the Daleks, but the most consistently excellent author was Malcolm Hulke, all of whose books are extremely readable and intelligent.

Is it just me, or did they start off thicker, and then get thinner as time went on.
My First Doctor collection seems to be wider than my Sylvestor McCoys...(Gary Russell's "Doctor Who: The Pilot (cbka "The Enermy Within") doesn't count.)

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The Reign of Terror has a magnificent 160 pages but The Creature from the Pit has only a measley 121 pages.Scientific proof or what?

Not really, the publishers had a policy of getting the regular hacks (Terrance, Ian Marter, Gerry Davis, Nigel Robinson) to write novels of 126 or 144 pages exactly, but when they started getting novels written by the original scribe they were a lot more flexible and wound up with longer books as a result.

I was joking...

I wonder what is going to happen about novelisations of "Shada", "The Pirate Planet" etc. Didn't Douglas Adams hold the copyright, and refused to let anyone else write those novels, and refused to write them himself without a substantial amount of money?
Is the situation now in the hands of his inheritors?

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I presume so. DNA was, let's face it, a man who knew what his name was worth and so wasn't impressed by the usual Target fee of £75 and a cheese roll. That said, if you want to read a novelisation of City of Death and Shada, go and buy a copy of Dirk Gently as it's the next best thing. (Although the fact that David Fisher isn't even credited on the book in passing is one of my bugbears.)

I seem to recall reading in a DWM interview that Traget did get in touch with DNA with a view to novelising his stories, but as you say, he was offered the standard deal and turned it down, on the principle that he was a best selling author.

Can anyone tell me why the others that weren't novelised weren't novelized - ie, Revelation of the Daleks etc.?

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Greetings. I have about twenty or thirty books in the Target range, most of which are the 3rd or 4th Doctors! I think that they are good as they explain the events briefly but well. However, the books tend to change things from the transmitted episode. What about the New Adventures range? Perhaps we could have conversations about that.

err.. the only thing is.. im too lazy too read those- i can only be bothered reading the stories that i feel i know a bit about- awful innit? but hey! I do like the covers...how girly is that!

Pretty much the smae reason as the DNA stories- copyright.

Either the authors of the stories didn't want anyone else to novelise them and were too busy to do it themselves (as with Revelation), or there is confusion as to who holds the copyright, such as when stories have been taken over by script editors and shown under assumed names.