By Eric Saward

BBC Books, out 14 November

 

The Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros to visit funerary home Tranquil Repose, unaware that the Great Healer is hiding his sickening experiments on humans.

I imagine that Eric Saward’s novelisation of his 1985, two-part Season 22 Dalek serial will in part be embraced for what it represents – the completion of a library of books that first began in the 1970s. Target first published their adaptations of Doctor Who stories in 1973 (although the first three were reprints from the 60s), and here we are 46 years later with the final volume of classic Who. Even the Douglas Adams stories were already in the collection (though through different writers) but this is the final story, albeit in hardback – this is being released next year alongside its stablemate Resurrection of the Daleks in paperback, Target sized versions that will sympathetically sit in line with the other editions.

As with Resurrection of the Daleks, Saward has not just taken the studio scripts and added linking narrative, he has provided a bottom-up rewrite without the constraints of a TV budget. Immediately we’re taken into the cavernous wardrobes of the TARDIS as Peri mulls over which coat to wear. It’s a scene that wouldn’t have been realised in BBC TV Centre, and fresh from the author’s imagination it can be included as desired.

There’s background on what Takis and Lilt got up to before the story began as well as some fun details about Alexei Sayle’s DJ (Derek Johnson). A nip here, a tuck there, some reordering of scenes, there’s nothing that sticks out, just a solid revision of the story. There’s no point in trying to read along to the televised version, see it as someone recounting their story as they remember it.

Verdict: Besides being significant as the final classic Who Target novel, this is a fine retelling of an atypical story with some great supporting characters and macabre moments. 8/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order Revelation of the Daleks from Amazon.co.uk