Target Books present 'The Assistants of Doctor Who'

Wasn't Barbara Wright wonderful... so sensible and so down-to-Earth... except when she attempted to change the course of Aztec history. But she did it with the best of intentions!

Fans of Doctor Who were quite rightly well-chuffed when the fledgling Target books announced a new series of 'original' novels featuring The Assistants of Doctor Who back in the primeval seventies - one dedicated to the further adventures of TV's sixth favourite history teacher.

Sadly only one was published (and even that was only available in selected outlets). 

The 'Assistants' range of novels was shelved until the eighties when Target decided it needed to inflict 'Turlough and the Earth Link Dilemma' on the world. 

And the rest is history. 

Thank God!

"And you can see the next episode of Doctor Who..."

...at the slightly earlier time of 8.15 next Saturday evening. 

"Next tonight - more medical mayhem in Casualty."

Doctor Who and the Knightmare Child - Target book cover

I make no apologies for the altered title of 'The Woman Who Lived' Target novelisation. 

It was too irresistible not to use... 

And far too apt to ignore...

A Page from The Master Annual 1975

Those days of cleaning up when you empty your sock drawer and find it lined with a decades old page from a newspaper. You stop to read it. Every single sentence and word takes you back to your childhood. The adverts make you smile. The pictures are so badly printed, they are unidentifiable...

This isn't one of those days but I'll pretend it is.

Look what I found...

Vintage Doctor Who Target books to come...

If you've been following my Twitter feed and/or subscribe to the 'Off Target' Facebook group, you'll have seen some of my recent Target book covers - most of which I have yet to post on here. 

With my creative juices at a bit of a low at the moment, I set about producing these vintage style covers for the 1960s Doctor Who stories. There's no rhyme or reason for the titles chosen for this little project - just the availability of visual material for them.

I've kept to a few rules on these covers. The logo is the one used on the original Target releases and has to be either black on white or white on black. I also tried to make the images used unusual and not what any sane person would choose. Likewise with the choice of colours for the images that have been - somewhat crudely - colourised. 

I will admit that I've been a free and easy with keeping to the overall style of the original covers, going for a more retro-70s look than keeping to Chris Achileos' unique take on them. 

I hope you like them. I'll post larger versions over the coming days but in the meantime, here's a mocked-up flyer for them...

Doctor Who and the Space Vikings - Target book cover

I will admit now that the re-imagined title for Doctor Who - The Girl Who Died didn't come from me. 

It actually came from an old episode of Lost in Space*. 

Obviously, it can be put to better use on a Doctor Who book where it can safely replace a title that is so disturbingly a spoiler for the story's end... 

* The evidence...

TV's Sapphire & Steel Make Microwave Cooking Easy!

Ever fumbled with your new sophisticated microwave oven?

Maybe you've undercooked your scrambled eggs?

Or have nuked your Findus Ready Meal into a solid mass of carbon?

Then you need help from television top time agents...

Vesta - the makers of Britain's most popular dried substitute food stuffs - bring you Sapphire & Steel's complete guide to microwave cooking...

Time is now on your side with this 'new' handy guide. 

Let's Make a Chumbley Army!

Terry Nation's Daleks from TV's Dr. Who were everywhere in the sixties. 

You could also find the odd Mechonoid and Zarbi if you looked real hard. 

But what about Chumblies - the little robots that assisted the 'beautiful' Drahvins in their attempt to defeat the 'ugly' Rills. 

I'm sure the writer of the Doctor Who serial 'Galaxy Four' - William Emms - had high hopes of them becoming the next Daleks. 

However, Chumblimania was not to be. 

Or was it?



You can't have too many Chumblies...

A Couple of Old Doctor Who Target Books

Two more Doctor Who Target books - both done using the original layout. 

The first is one for the Tenth Planet that should've been in this little collection but I just couldn't get it to look right until now. 

This second one came to me last Saturday night when I was toying around with what the title for 'The Girl Who Died' would be had it been a Target novel. 'Doctor Who and the Vikings' has the ring of an early Target book about it... so I did this as a one-off.

I'll post the proper one AFTER the new episode airs. 

SPOILERS! 

Doctor Who and the Fisher King - Target book cover

A bit late posting this one to the blog. It's been on my Twitter feed since Saturday night and seems to be liked a bit.

If you don't already follow me on Twitter, please do so as I always post links to updates on here as they happen. The link is here.

Thanks.

Announcing The Official Conservative Party Figurine Collection

I do tend to avoid politics when I'm online. It's not that I'm not interested in politics. I tend to prefer direct action to endlessly debating things. I put it down to my impatience with ignorant opinion and it's the sort of people who have these sort of opinions that you end up arguing with to the point you're just going round in circles... a waste of time really. 

But occasionally I find something online in the world of politics that just tickles me.

Recently images of two Conservative party politicians started doing the rounds of social media and I had to add my own four pennies to the mix. 

All I can add is that... Yes - standing with your feet apart during a presentation denotes confidence but standing with your feet too far apart will also give the impression you're about to take a rather deliberate 'fecal' dump in the middle of the stage....

... or that you're posing for your own plastic action figure in the way that only SF action heroes pose! 

I post this with apologies and acknowledgement to the friends I have working so hard in the collectable figurine part work industry. Keep up the good work. 

Doctor Who Goes Under the Lake - Target book cover

Click for larger

The Target book steam engine chugs merrily on with this little effort for 'Under the Lake'. 

Stay tuned for the sequel... or is this the prequel to next week's episode?

God knows these days...