Doctor Who news: New Target novelizations delayed until 2021
By James Aggas
Seven Target novelizations of much-loved Doctor Who stories due for release this month have been delayed until Mar 2021.
There’s a bit of bad news for those who enjoy the Target novelizations of much-loved Doctor Who stories. This month, seven were scheduled to be released. Some of these were brand new novelizations entirely, while others had been published before, but were now being reprinted under the Target banner for the first time.
Anyone looking forward to these new books will now have to wait a little longer. In fact, it’s going to be a lot longer before we get to see them. Due to printing, distribution, and sales issues, the books have now been rescheduled for Mar 11, 2021.
This is definitely disappointing news. Of the seven to be published, three of the novelizations would have been brand new, all based on New Series stories. These include Dalek by Robert Shearman; The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson, and The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss, all of whom wrote the original TV episodes. It would have been interesting to see how each story could have been expanded on or explored further in these new books.
As well as the brand new novelizations, we also would’ve seen three new Target editions of previously released books, including Sixth Doctor story Revelation of the Daleks.
Image Courtesy: BBC Studios, BritBox.
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Filling the gaps
But it wasn’t just the brand new novels that were worth being excited over, especially for the hardcore Target collector. You see, Target novelized a great deal of the Classic Series during its original run. In fact, almost every single story had been given a Target book at some point. I stress “almost”, in this case.
Three noticeable gaps in the collection were the following stories: Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, and The Pirate Planet. All of these have now been novelized, but it would have been this month that they would have been published in the Target format for the first time. (City of Death had been given a similar treatment, which was first novelized in 2015 by James Goss before being re-released in heavily edited form as a Target book in 2018.)
On top of that, Gary Russell’s novelization of Doctor Who: The Movie – originally released back in 1996 – would have also been given the Target treatment for the first time. It’s exciting to imagine the Eighth Doctor getting a Target cover of his own.
It’s going to be a long wait for these books, especially for fans of the original Target novelizations. But we’re sure they will be worth the wait, and we’ll be eager to review each of these books as soon as they’re released.
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Were you looking forward to any of these new Target books? If so, which were you looking forward to more? The brand new novelizations based on New Series stories? Or were you keener to fill in those lingering gaps in your Classic Series collection? Let us know in the comments below.