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October 23rd, 2019 34 comments

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Doctor Who The Target Storybook Hardcover

Available to order in the UK from www.amazon.co.uk

Available to order in the USA and Canada from www.amazon.com #ad and www.amazon.ca

We’re all stories in the end…
A brilliant new collection of spin-off stories from famous episodes throughout the history of Doctor Who – and a new format for the successful Target publishing range.
In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and also look forward in time, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor.

Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s enduring legend. The book includes fifteen different stories, with contributions from show luminaries past and present – including Terrance Dicks, Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Mike Tucker, Joy Wilkinson, and Vinay Patel – and bestselling writers such as Jenny T. Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Una McCormack, Steve Cole and George Mann. With spectacular artwork from Mike Collins and cover art by Anthony Dry, The Target Storybook is a once-in-a-lifetime tour around the wonders of the Whoniverse.

Doctor Who: The Target Storybook is published on 24th October 2019 by BBC Books, priced £16.99.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Colin Baker is an English actor who became known for playing Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series The Brothers from 1974 to 1976. He went on to play the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the TV series Doctor Who. He reprised the role for the 1993 Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, and the 1989 stage show Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure. He has also voiced the Doctor for over 140 Doctor Who audio stories for Big Finish Productions.

Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers.

Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor).

Susie Day is the author of the Pea’s Book and Secrets series from Puffin. Her latest novel for children, Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It, is about dragons and toxic masculinity. Between books, she works as a copywriter in Birmingham. Susie currently lives in Coventry with her partner and two silly cats.

Terrance Dicks worked on scripts for The Avengers as well as other series before becoming full Script Editor of Doctor Who from 1968. Dicks worked on the Jon Pertwee Third Doctor era of the programme, and returned as a writer – scripting Tom Baker’s first story as the Fourth Doctor: Robot. Terrance Dicks novelised many of the original Doctor Who stories for Target books, and has written original Doctor Who novels for BBC Books.

Simon Guerrier is co-author of Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived and Whographica for BBC Books, and has written countless Doctor Who books, comics, audio plays and documentaries. He has been a guest on Front Row and The Infinite Monkey Cage on Radio 4 and, with his brother Thomas, makes films and documentaries – most recently Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt for Radio 3.

George Mann is the author of the bestselling Doctor Who: Engines of War and Newbury & Hobbes steampunk mystery series. He’s also written new adventures for Sherlock Holmes, a collection of Star Wars myths and fables, and the supernatural crime series Wychwood. He lives near Grantham, UK, with his wife, son and daughter.

Una McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King’s Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.

Vinay Patel is a playwright and screenwriter. His television debut was the BAFTA-winning Murdered By My Father and for Doctor Who he has written Demons of the Punjab. His latest play, An Adventure, ran at the Bush Theatre in 2018. Elsewhere, he contributed to the bestselling collection of essays, The Good Immigrant.

Jacqueline Rayner is the author of over 40 books and audio plays, including number one bestseller The Stone Rose, the highest-selling Doctor Who novel of all time, and two Doctor Who ‘Quick Reads’ for World Book Day. She lives in Essex with her husband and twin sons, and writes regularly for Doctor Who Magazine.

Beverly Sanford’s first Young Adult novel, The Wishing Doll, was published by Badger Learning in 2014, followed by Remember Rosie, Silent Nation and two non-fiction books. A BBC Writer’s Room semi-finalist (2011) and an Editor’s Choice in the Jim Henson Co/Penguin Dark Crystal Author Quest (2014), Bev is currently working on a screenplay for Sun Rocket Films and a children’s fiction series.

Matthew Sweet presents the BBC radio programmes Free Thinking, Sound of Cinema and The Philosopher’s Arms. He has judged the Costa Book Award, edited The Woman in White for Penguin Classics and was Series Consultant on the Showtime/Sky Atlantic series Penny Dreadful. His books include The West End Front and Operation Chaos: The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers and Themselves.

Mike Tucker is a visual effects designer and author who has written several original Doctor Who novels as well as fiction for other shared universes. He has also co-written numerous factual books relating to film and television, including Impossible Worlds and the TARDIS Instruction Manual.

Matthew Waterhouse played Adric, companion to Tom Baker and Peter Davison’s Doctors from 1980 to 1982. Since then, he has worked extensively as an actor in theatre. His published writing includes a memoir, Blue Box Boy, three novels and a book of stories. Recently he’s appeared in episodes of the audio version of Dark Shadows and numerous Doctor Who audio projects, including an award-winning one-man play, Doctor Who: A Full Life, and a forthcoming quartet of new adventures starring alongside Tom Baker.

Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer working across film, television, theatre and radio. She was a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’, a two-time Brit List nominee and has had her work widely produced in the UK and internationally. For television, Joy has written the Doctor Who episode The Witchfinders, and her other credits include BBC One’s critically-acclaimed drama Nick Nickleby.


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34 comments

  • Sambot22

    January 13th, 2021 - 12:36am

    I have just found that Blackwell’s have the paperback version of this book for only £5.99.
    Does anyone know how they deal with the wraparound cover on the paper back?

    Reply
  • Thetruth

    November 4th, 2019 - 7:30am

    I presume with this release they are going back to the better Doctor Who logo ready for the return in the Christmas special of…..

    Reply
    • Gordon

      November 4th, 2019 - 10:11am

      Nope.

    • TheMaster

      November 4th, 2019 - 12:04pm

      Ooh so mistake using the wrong logo worth more?

    • Anonymous

      November 4th, 2019 - 4:34pm

      No mistake it’s the target logo.

    • TheBrandGuidelinesnomore

      November 5th, 2019 - 7:29am

      The BBC once spent £4 million on changing the BBC logo from italics to none italics.

    • Anonymous

      November 5th, 2019 - 11:33am

      As do most companies

  • bryan

    October 24th, 2019 - 8:56pm

    My word this is a weighty tome, I was not expecting this to be like the Adams Novels we have had recently. For some reason I also thought it would be like the recent Companions lives book.

    Its a very Handsome Thing, and the Artwork plates are very very nice. This is more in line with the Short Trips Book from a few years ago(the one with the hidden story in the dust jacket) .

    Its a must have , as It has Terrance Dicks last Story, and is dedicated to Tommy Donbavand, which I thought was very Sweet.

    Reply
  • DPHill

    October 23rd, 2019 - 11:32pm

    May i ask why on gallifrey have they got adric alongside all incarnations of the Doctor???

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      October 23rd, 2019 - 11:58pm

      Because Matthew waterhouse has wrote an adric story for the book.

  • Anonymous

    October 23rd, 2019 - 12:02pm

    There are two stories linked to eras, one to the demons of the Punjab and one to Clive from rose. There are then stories from most doctors. There is no ninth doctor story. Presumably the ninth doctor story was Gareth roberts which due to circumstances had to be dropped. Some people might complain about why another story wasn’t added but there wouldn’t have been time to commission, edit, rewrite, re-edit and get artwork done. I’m not to bothered as the rest of the book is great.
    Other missing doctors are as follows. 5th dr is adric and nyssa only. No appearance by 5th. No 9th dr story as said. 10th dr does not appear. It’s a rose and human metacrisis doctor story. And 11th dr is also not a full 11th dr story just a cameo. That said I’ve enjoyed the book a lot.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      October 29th, 2019 - 1:18am

      Sadly my reaction was the total opposite. I usually really enjoy these volume’s of short stories.
      I was really looking forward to his one thinking it would be something special. Unfortunately I found it to be total drivel. Which is really surprising considering some well known author stalwarts of Doctor Who fiction were involved. A couple of them were just page fillers of rubbish but it passed a few hours. It certainly wasn’t entertaining & I only pushed through it hoping for something better – There wasn’t!

  • Dav McKenzie

    October 23rd, 2019 - 12:02pm

    I’m amazed they’re allowed to use the ‘classic’ Who logo given how pushy the BBC have been with the new brand forcing it on everything including the blu-ray collection.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      October 23rd, 2019 - 8:25pm

      Oh my God your right. I didn’t even notice. This logo is far superior and just works seamlessly for almost everything. Nothing against the new one but this is a very good thing that you just pointed out to me.

    • Anonymous

      October 23rd, 2019 - 9:48pm

      Logo makes no difference to me. What matters is the stories…

  • Steven taylor

    August 14th, 2019 - 10:27am

    So is there a story for each doctor

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      August 14th, 2019 - 12:37pm

      Nothing confirmed but seems likely.

  • Anonymous

    August 10th, 2019 - 5:12pm

    It says “15 Thrilling New Adventures” on the cover – that kind of indicates it’s new fiction.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      August 10th, 2019 - 6:22pm

      The comments below were made earlier in the year before it was confirmed as new fiction

  • Anonymous

    August 9th, 2019 - 9:08pm

    Just finished the new special about the target books and it includes the info that this is a wraparound cover featuring all of the doctors. Can’t wait to see it all!

    Reply
  • the4thdoc42

    August 7th, 2019 - 9:09pm

    Oh cool, it has the traditional ‘Target Reprint’ logo instead of the new one – was worried they would try to change it on the Target line (that being said it wouldn’t be that out of place – the original line changes logos all the time!)

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      August 7th, 2019 - 9:21pm

      Do you Know i hadn’t noticed… agree it wouldn’t have bothered me. The target range used several logos over the years.

  • Anonymous

    August 7th, 2019 - 8:28pm

    Love the cover!

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    May 2nd, 2019 - 1:00pm

    Gareth Roberts’ inclusion interests me, considering his rather shaky views/slagging of the BBC and Capaldi era in recent years, I figured he may’ve been too controversial.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      June 24th, 2019 - 6:46pm

      Turns out you were right!

  • Demdike@CultLabs

    May 2nd, 2019 - 12:05pm

    Terrance Dicks inclusion puzzles me as he’s said plenty of times in the past that he’d never write for Doctor Who again.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      May 2nd, 2019 - 12:12pm

      We’re assuming that this is original prose though as opposed to like a “Reflections” type situation.

    • Anonymous

      May 2nd, 2019 - 2:27pm

      Terrance dicks contributed to the dalek book a couple of years ago

    • Anonymous

      May 8th, 2019 - 8:17pm

      Confirmed as original prose

  • Anonymous

    May 1st, 2019 - 10:26am

    Saw this on Amazon, the author list is impressive. Terrance Dicks, Matthew Sweet, Simon Guerrier, Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Jenny T Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Gareth Roberts, Una McCormack, Steve Cole, Vinay Patel, George Mann, Susie Day, Mike Tucker, Joy Wilkinson & Beverly Sanford. No idea what it is but hopefully it’s some kind of short story collection. Interesting that it’s referred to as the target storybook.

    Reply
    • booboo

      May 1st, 2019 - 10:30am

      always difficult when they list these but you don’t know exactly what its is

      i wondered if was story of the history of the books hence all the names but title suggest its actually stories

    • Anonymous

      May 1st, 2019 - 10:34am

      That’s exactly what I thought boo boo, story or history? The title does seem more fiction than factual though. If it said the target story then I’d assume factual but storybook… hopefully we’ll get more info soon

    • The Flying Shark

      May 1st, 2019 - 3:19pm

      I think it might be like a ‘memories of Target books’ sort of thing?

    • Anonymous

      May 1st, 2019 - 3:38pm

      Judging by the price and page count it seems more like city of death/wheel of ice type thing. I’ve ordered it but if it turns out to be factual rather than fiction I’ll just cancel it. Fingers crossed for fiction!

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