Doctor Who Target Book Club Podcast

What does Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel about a woman cheating on her husband before drowning herself have to do with a two-part DOCTOR WHO story from 1984? Absolutely f*ck all. Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest Jim Sangster as they discuss why, with certain types of Pringles, you CAN eat just one. We are now a proud part of the Direction Point Podcast Network...

Come on in, the water’s fine! Mind you, it’s infested with Sea Bases, Silurians, and Sea Devils, with the occasional foreign saboteur thrown in, but it’s still warmer than being on dry land in Chicago right now! Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest Jim Sangster as they take a deep dive into the first story of Peter Davison’s last season. Will they all end up...

It’s (still, barely) the 60th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO, and to celebrate, we’ve decided to take a little trip back in time ourselves, to discuss the novelization of the very first story of the series, AN UNEARTHLY CHILD! Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes as they revisit a novel that two of them have never read before. (Well, one has, but they forgot it.) Anyway, come h...

It’s the 60th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO, and the moment has been prepared for! Well, mostly, if you consider a PowerPoint presented at Chicago TARDIS “preparing for” anything. Come join Tony Whitt and special guest Larry VanMersbergen as they look at a few of the most notable times an author has gone off target (get it?) to tell a different story on the printed page than what appeared onscreen. Wa...

We’re back from hiatus, and it’s about time! Actually, this time it isn’t about time, for once. It’s about James Bond pastiches, mid-life crises, and both Freudian and Jungian interpretations of a plot that really makes no damn sense. Join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and Alyson Fitch-Safreed to discuss Ian Marter’s last, and definitely strangest, book, the original novel HARRY SULLIVAN’S WAR. We ar...

One day we shall come back. Yes, we shall come back. But we’re going on hiatus until November, so you’ll just have to wait. Till then, there must be no tears, no regrets. Just join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and special guests J.G. McQuarrie and Jim Sangster as the Five Critics discuss that sweet confectionery, Terrance Dicks’ novelization of the 20th anniversary story THE FI...

How did the Master seduce a young fan to the Dark Side using only a cricket ball? And why are the Doctor and Tegan suddenly so bitchy with each other? Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and special guest Trey Korte as we discuss Terence Dudley’s latest attempt to make a sprawling historical novel out of a two-part story, THE KING’S DEMONS. We are now a proud part of the Dir...

Ahoy there, landlubbers! Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and Alyson Fitch-Safreed as we discuss Barbara Clegg’s novelization of ENLIGHTENMENT, leading to questions about what Eternals actually do when they’re not existing, whether Turlough is really a developed character or not, and why the White and Black Guardians are wasting their time hosting a race for Enlightenment (maybe they’ve got no...

Space pirates who look like gay 80s glam rockers! Shambling walking undead zombies! Exposition Patient Zero! Oh, and Nyssa leaves, too. Sounds like a hot mess, and on TV, it is. On the printed page…it’s something entirely different. Join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and Alyson Fitch-Safreed as we discuss John Lydecker’s novelization of TERMINUS! We are now a proud part of the Direction Point Podcast...

When is a Time Lord not a Time Lord? When is an English schoolboy not an English schoolboy? And for the love of all that’s holy, when, oh when, were the UNIT stories actually set?! Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and Alyson Fitch-Safreed as we discuss Peter Grimwade’s novelization of MAWDRYN UNDEAD and try to figure these oh so important questions out! We are now a proud part of the Direction...

We can dance, we can dance, everybody’s taking the chance, it’s the Snakeydance! Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and Alyson Fitch-Safreed as we discuss the sequel no one was really asking for and how, just sometimes, the first movie really IS better. We are now a proud part of the Direction Point Podcast Network, including such fine shows as THE DOCTOR WHO COLLECTORS PODCAST, THE POLICE BOX I...

Omega’s back, and it’s about…something or other in Amsterdam, apparently. What is the Arc, and why is it infinite? Does it have f**k all to do with the plot? And who thought that giant pile of chicken bones was a good idea? Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and special guest J.G. McQuarrie as we discuss these and other absorbing questions, and manage to answer none of them...

It’s often been said that the main reason that TIME-FLIGHT is considered such a poor story is its utter lack of budget. But the wonderful thing about novelizations is that budget is no longer a consideration, and when a writer adapts his own script for the page, it’s generally going to be much better than it ever was onscreen. Isn’t it? Come join Tony Whitt, Dalton Hughes, and special guest J.G. M...

It’s the end of an era. Never again will we be able to make jokes about Matthew Waterhouse – at least, not any good ones, anyway. Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest Jim Sangster as we discuss why we’ve all been unfair to Waterhouse, to Adric, and even to Ian Marter as we talk about his novelization of Eric Saward’s story EARTHSHOCK. (And no, no one’s been...

In our newest episode, Tony gets lost in the walls of a stately manor, Dalton gets lost in the labrynthine rules of cricket, and special guest Jason Miller gets lost in showing us just how much his podcast and ours are “Two peas in a pod…positively two peas in a pod.” It’s time for murder, cricket, and horticulture as we discuss the somewhat overgrown novelization by Terence Dudley of his script f...

It’s the very first Peter Davison novelization, the very first novel by Eric Saward, and the very first photo cover that doesn’t suck. It’s also the very first appearance on our show of special guest Jim Sangster, as he, Tony Whitt, and Dalton Hughes discuss the novelization of the story that put gaudily decorated androids and plague mice on the map, THE VISITATION! We are now a proud part of the...

And you think you woke up on the wrong side of the bed... When Tegan takes a nap on an alien planet and wakes up in a bad mood, everyone has to deal with the consequences. Oh, and Matthew Waterhouse tries to teach acting. This and more are in store as Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes discuss Terrance Dicks’ novelization of KINDA! We are now a proud part of the Direction Point Po...

Alyson claims she’s never heard Tony sputter with rage before this episode. (She has, but that’s beside the point.) Come join them and Dalton as the three discuss the sheer stupidity that is FOUR TO DOOMSDAY, made only nominally better by the novelization by Terrance Dicks. As Adric would say, it’s “silly.” As Peter Davison would say of Matthew Waterhouse, it’s “stupid.” We are now a proud part of...

It’s the beginning, and the moment…ah, you get it. Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest J.G. McQuarrie as we discuss Christopher H. Bidmead’s introduction to the Fifth Doctor, CASTROVALVA, and try to figure out if the new guy is actually going to work out. (Come to think of it, we’ll likely be talking about that in a year’s time in real life, won’t we?) We a...

It’s wintertime, when all of our fancies turn to snowmen, gifts under the tree, and sacrificing virgin boys to Hecate. OK, maybe not everyone does that last one, but “religious freedom,” right? Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes as we do our not-so-special Holiday Special and discuss Terrance Dudley’s bizarre novelization of the equally bizarre K-9 AND COMPANY! Now with...

It’s Chicago TARDIS weekend (or rather, it was), and so it’s time for a special live recording to mark a special occasion in our podcast…the debut of the Cloister Bell! (JK, LOL, as the kids say.) Come join the discussion with Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest J.G. McQuarrie as we are pleasantly surprised at how engaging a book by the man who made “telebiogenesis”...

What exactly is it with the effed up society that Nyssa of Traken comes from? Maybe that weird figure in the Grove is doing us all a favor by getting rid of them all – but only if he also gets rid of the novelization by Terrance Dicks. Come join the discussion by Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes to find out why this book should be kept…far away from us. We are now a proud part o...

What is going on in this story? If that’s something you’ve always wondered…well, the book will make it clearer, and maybe the discussion by Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest Jennifer Picker might help. Might. Let us know what you think! We are now a proud part of the Direction Point Podcast Network, including such fine shows as THE DOCTOR WHO COLLECTORS PODCAST, TH...

Get out your tourniquets and your butterfly syringes, and put those pesky crosses away – it’s time for the blood letting to commence! Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes try their damnedest to celebrate Halloween as they discuss Terrance Dicks’ novelization of his own script for STATE OF DECAY and find themselves wishing he’d stolen even more from Bram Stoker than he did. We are no...

EPISODE 123: FULL CIRCLE If Limahl had been cast as Adric, we could’ve made endless jokes about FULL CIRCLE being a Never-Ending Story. Instead, we get Matthew Waterhouse. F*ck. On the other hand, we also get Andrew Smith’s surprising novelization! Come join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes as we discuss how much better Adric is on the page! We are now a proud part of the Direct...