Doctor Who Literature

When Bill Evenson is in the house, anything can happen on the podcast. Today we discuss The Web of Fear , the TV episodes (four of the six of which were famously rediscovered and released in 2013), and the 1976 Terrance Dicks novelization. But we also discuss Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, Mel Brooks, alcohol, the LAX Marriott and Doctor Who convention dealers' rooms, and... more alcohol. Also...

This is the first episode of Doctor Who Literature recorded and aired after the April 2022 premiere of "Legend of the Sea Devils". Hear Jason's review at the top of this episode -- and, for a more balanced view, Jason recently joined a Trap One panel discussing the same episode . This week, we have our first three-time guest, Mr. Si Hart . We break down, just how good is Genesis of the Daleks? How...

May 1976 saw the release of "Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen". It's the third novelization of a Tom Baker episode -- all by Terrance Dicks so far -- and the third novelization of a Cybermen episode -- but this is the first one by Terrance and the first one NOT written by Gerry Davis. David Barsky joins us in the first half to talk about how he got into television, where his career has t...

This week Jason is joined by Lewis Baston , author of a forthcoming Obverse Books' Black Archive book on the Doctor Who serial "The Sun Makers", to talk about Malcolm Hulke's February 1976 novelization of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"... but, fear not, we get plenty of talk in about "The Sun Makers", too. Later on, Jason breaks down all the ways, plot-wise and dialogue-wise, and tone-wise, how the n...

Happy April 1st to all our listeners. This week, our read-through of the Peter Cushing novelizations, by Observe Books, reaches "Escape to Danger", a short-story anthology adapting all six episodes from Cushing's wildly successful second radio series as Dr. Who. What happens when Robert Holmes turns his hand to the Cushing Universe characters? You won't want to miss Jason's breakdown of the first...

It's February 1976, and "Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet". The first Hartnell-episode novelization published in ten years, a novelization of the first Cyberman TV adventure... and William Hartnell's last full story. Ross from "Gallifrey's Most Wanted" rejoins Jason to talk about how this book compares to childhood memories. We also take a grand tour through all of Doctor Who -- TV, books, Big Fini...

We take a break between Seasons 1 and 2 of the program -- as we're in between the 1975 and 1976 books -- and reflect on the passing of Lynda Baron, one of the great "Doctor Who" guest performers (1966, 1983, 2011). What are the best verses of "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon"? What happens when the Target novelization of "Enlightenment" is missing a key scene? And, worst of all, what happens...

It's the last novelization of 1975, and the end of the first season of Doctor Who Literature. In a slight format change, Jason goes deep into the memory banks to explain a curious notation that he wrote on the inside cover of the book back in 1985. We're joined then by Jason's good friend Mark from the Trap One Podcast to discuss what the novelization of "The Three Doctors" means to us. Plus many...

We open by paying tribute to two big names from the Doctor Who family who we lost this past week, an actor from the 1970s and a writer from the 1960s. In the first part of the program, Jason -- having run out of blog posts to adapt, had to write half of this week's script from scratch -- takes us on a journey through Terrance Dicks' word-pictures, editorial additions and omissions, and lyrical evo...

Welcome to a special recorded-at-Gallifrey-One-in-Los-Angeles edition of Doctor Who Literature. While Jason the Brooklyn boy is somewhat out of his element in this big big city, he's joined long-distance by a fellow Brooklynite to discuss Malcolm Hulke's glorious August 1975 paean to the common man and laborer. The first half of the book features Jason's breakdown of the text of the book, adapted...

It's May 1975, and Terrance Dicks' second book in three months. Will his increased writers' output affect his style, descriptive powers, wit, pizzazz? ... obviously not. This book is tremendous and actually an improvement over the TV serial in several spots. In the first half of the episode, Jason breaks down why this novelization is such an upgrade from TV, and why the mere act of opening the boo...

Doctor Who Literature turns to Jason's first novelization, Doctor Who and the Cybermen, which Jason first read -- all in one day -- on Super Bowl Sunday 1985. Thirty-seven years later and the book's prose, vocabulary, and descriptive powers, are still unmatched. In the first half of the episode, Jason breaks down what makes Gerry Davis' writing style so good, and fortunately there are many more Da...

Welcome to the double digits for the Doctor Who Literature podcast (excluding bonus episodes), and it's the last Target novelization of 1974, Terrance Dicks' third book, and the first novelization of a Patrick Troughton/2nd Doctor adventure. The Abominable Snowmen has been in the news this week, or, at least, on the rumor mill, with stories that the forthcoming animation of the TV serial, co-funde...

It's October 1974, and Malcolm Hulke's third novelization of the year. He'll never have another year this prolific, but what a trilogy of books he's left us. Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils is the shortest of the bunch, but don't let the length fool you; there's some terrific material here in terms of character insights and observational humor. Even if there aren't too many actual Sea-Devils. In the...

This week we're up to October 1974 and the first book of Target's last double-release month. The first of those two books is the novelization of "The Daemons", the Season 8 finale, and is written by the episode's producer and co-writer, Barry Letts. It's one of the longest novelizations Target will ever put out, and in the first half of this episode, we'll take a deep dive into just what Barry is...

March 1974 saw two Target novelization releases; Episode 6 covered one of those, Malcolm Hulke's Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon. This week we jump back in time from the 30th century to the 22nd and take a long look at Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks. A remarkable book, one of Terrance's longest, this expands greatly on the troubled TV production, adding a prologue and epil...

It's March 1974, and the third and fourth Target novelizations of Doctor Who episodes are released in the same month. Once again, the double release features one Malcolm Hulke book and one Terrance Dicks book. This week we're discussing the Hulke entry, the novelization of 1971's "Colony in Space". In the first half of the episode, we'll break down this long and remarkable book. In the second half...

For the first time, Jason is joined by a guest, prolific Doctor Who non-fiction writer, longtime fan, epidemiologist, and a former profile subject on Morgan Freeman's "Through The Wormhole", the inimitable Stacey Smith? (the questionmark is part of her name). In the first part of the episode, Jason goes in-depth on the text, prose, and themes of The Cave Monsters. Then, as Stacey joins in, togethe...

After three episodes on the Frederick Muller books from the 1960s, it's now 1974, and the Target range -- which began with 1973 reprints of the Muller books -- begins properly with a twin January 1974 release of novelizations of "Spearhead From Space" and "Doctor Who and the Silurians". It's a very warm welcome to the Target line for Terrance Dicks -- they'll end up keeping him. Join us for a deep...

Chapter 5 of Doctor Who: Flux, Survivors of the Flux, contained a voice cameo hearkening back to UNIT's glory days, as well as a surprising if somewhat illogical revelation about that voice's military track record. Join us for a bonus episode looking back to November 2003's Past Doctor Adventure novel, "Deadly Reunion", Doctor Who's 40th anniversary story, and something of an autobiography for its...

The third and final Frederick Muller-published Doctor Who novelization -- and its second by David Whitaker -- came out in February 1966. The book remains in print today and still generates many fresh topics for discussion. Are Ian and Barbara a couple? Are wars only waged between one good side and one evil side? Who are we supposed to root for in this book? When is it appropriate for an author to...

Welcome to the first bonus episode of Doctor Who Literature. For this episode we're discussing not the books, but the TV series itself, on this, November 23, 2021, it's 58th anniversary. Tying in to Jason's recent Twitter watch-through of the Classic Series, #drwhopilgrimage, this episode will feature two randomly selected episodes of the classic series, with live and unscripted commentary over ea...

Welcome back to the Doctor Who Literature podcast. This week, I'm discussing the second published Doctor Who novelization, adapting the notorious (and very highly-rated) 1965 serial, "The Web Planet". Bill Strutton's only contribution to the books line. Strutton, who had a prolific career and a fascinating biography, came to the books very early on, and some of his assumptions about the TARDIS and...

Welcome to the first full episode of the Doctor Who Literature podcast. I'm discussing the first Doctor Who episode novelization, 1964's "Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks". It's a novelization... that isn't.

Coming soon, the History of Doctor Who Literature podcast, a book by book examination of the Target novelizations, in publication order.