Doctor Who Target Book Club Podcast

Can a DOCTOR WHO story still be a good one if it uses words like “tits,” “marmalade,” and “cowsh*t”? Are we all going to N-Space when we die – or are we doomed to go into E-Space? Do they have anything to do with each other at all? And who cares? These are a few of the many burning questions that Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes explore in their discussion of Barry Letts’ TECHNI...

EPISODE 72: DEATH TO THE DALEKS Add two cups of previous Dalek story tropes. Sprinkle in some seasoning from other non-Dalek stories. Liberally baste with sometimes ludicrously out of place incidental music. Throw it in the oven and don’t bother to time it or see how the mix turns out. That’s the recipe for Terry Nation’s DEATH TO THE DALEKS. Can Terrance Dicks pull off a move worthy of TOP CHEF a...

EPISODE 71: THE DINOSAUR INVASION Warning: Political Content Ahead! In other words, no different from our other episodes - except in addition to our usual gang of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes, we are joined by Trey Korte to discuss one of the most overtly political novels in the Target range, Malcolm Hulke’s THE DINOSAUR INVASION. If we don’t offend at least one person on BO...

Let’s get all sliggy hoo and drink ourselves blatt! Actually, let’s just get reasonably drunk and discuss Barry Letts’ adaptation of his own 1993 radio play THE PARADISE OF DEATH – and if you don’t feel like you’re in some sort of virtual reality by the end of this one, there’s no helping you. Our three-person panel of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes discuss what may be the sec...

And then there was Sarah Jane Smith. And the Sontarans. And Gallifrey (or at least its name). And there’s even the Tom Baker logo before there was Tom Baker! Unfortunately, there was also Irongron, Bloodaxe, and a whole host of other Ren Fest rejects. Our three-person panel of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes discuss Terrance Dicks’ novelization of the eleventh season opener by...

The environment is in peril, there’s a food crisis, and a megalomaniac emerges from a corporation to try to take over the world? The only difference between this story and the world of 2020 is we don’t have giant maggots – yet! But we do have our three-person panel of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes to discuss Malcolm Hulke’s novelization of the tenth season finale! If you like...

…or, as so many have noted, PLANET WITH SOME DALEKS ON IT. Wish we could say that’s the only thing wrong with this story, but we really don’t like to lie. That, and it reminds us at times of viruses and bad leadership, two things we’re trying to escape these days. What’s not to hate? Turns out, there’s some good here, as our three-person panel of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes...

What’s worse than a sitting President not listening to the truth about a pandemic? A sitting President not listening to the truth about an impending interstellar conflict. (That, and a whole lot of running around. I mean, SO much running around. ENDLESS running around.) All that, and tons of background hum, is what you’ll get from our discussion of Malcolm Hulke’s novelization of the story FRONTIE...

A new year, a new way of recording the podcast…a new pandemic…But hey, you can’t have everything. What you CAN have is our discussion of Terrance Dicks’ novelization of CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, brought to you by your friends on Skype, Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes! We also have a book discussion group of our very own on Goodreads! It can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y7kmaspr....

EPISODE 64a: CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 2019 Just what it says on the tin. Includes an interview with Louise Jameson – and bloopers! You’re welcome! Although we are as of now going on a two month hiatus – we will be back in March 2020, never fear - if you’d like to hear more of this sort of quality content (with properly positioned microphones next time!), please come visit our Patreon page! It's at https:...

Here's a preview of our Christmas special, which will be released this Sunday: the Christmasified version of our opening, as originally composed by Aaron S! Thank you, Hans Wax, for the help in realizing this!

EPISODE 64: THE THREE DOCTORS If the book is called DOCTOR WHO AND THE THREE DOCTORS, then in the immortal words of Fraser Hines, who is Doctor Who? Does a gel monster split in the woods? And why in the hell is Alyson so LOUD this episode? Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes try to answer only one of these three – can you guess which one? Recorded live at Chicago TARDIS 2019! Altho...

Just how many damn Atlantises WERE there, anyway? Should we attribute all that’s witty and good in this book to Dicks? And is Kronos truly beyond good and evil? Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes struggle with those questions and more, while still laughing at the naughty bits. If you’d like to hear more of this sort of quality content (better content than THIS episode, anyway), pl...

In some alternate universe, Target Books paid for a separate novelization of the one episode story MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN. The resulting novel was more like a pamphlet, only 19 pages long, but it got reading audiences excited for the two volume novelization of the 12-episode story that was to follow. This is our mirror universe discussion of that oh so brief novel... Welcome to our DOCTOR WHO TARG...

I should have known that any episode I would edit during Halloween week would be cursed, but boy howdy. If you can manage to listen to this discussion of Terrance Dicks’ novelization of THE MUTANTS, by our usual panel of Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes, and still enjoy it, then all we can do is paraphrase Sally Field and say, “You like us! You really LIKE us!” If you’d like to...

Pizza, cocaine, sushi, and petty theft – one of these things doesn’t belong, right? And yet somehow they ALL come up, as Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes discuss Malcolm Hulke’s novelization of his own script for THE SEA-DEVILS (hyphen optional). If you’d like to hear more of this sort of quality content, please come visit our Patreon page! It's at https://www.patreon.com/DWTarg...

Will Britain join the EEC? Will the Doctor manage to discover who is trying to keep the backwater “developing” planet of Peladon from joining the Galactic Federation? And does anyone f**king care? If you’re Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, or Dalton Hughes on this week’s panel discussing Brian Hayles’ THE CURSE OF PELADON…well, you can figure it out, can’t you? In fact, you have our permission to...

Could one of the best Target novelizations of all time have been a Terrance Dicks book all along – and more surprisingly, could it have come from such a piece of crap episode? Join Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, Dalton Hughes, and special guest Larry VanMersbergen as they discuss this amazing piece of writing. Then stay tuned for a special tribute to the late Terrance Dicks, who recently passed...

Is science really magic? Is religion really science? And how much does the Third Doctor actually hate Jo Grant? Our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes, joined by special guest Jennifer Picker) address those questions and more, during our discussion of Barry Letts’ novelization of THE DAEMONS. (That’s “DEE-mons,” by the way – the book even says so! What, did you fail Latin a...

Dystopiana, robber barons, pet coke, and Tinder – what do they all have in common? Somehow this week, our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes, joined by special guest Jason A. Miller) manages to link them all together and more, during our discussion of Malcolm Hulke’s novelization of THE DOOMSDAY WEAPON. Consider it the perfect way to lift your spirits now that your IMC-chos...

Could Chin have become the Cousin Oliver of DOCTOR WHO? This is just one of the many stimulating questions that our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes, joined by special guest Trey Korte) discusses, during our episode on Terrance Dicks’ novelization of THE CLAWS OF AXOS. Let the Feeding Cycle begin – but don’t forget your Rolaids! If you’d like to hear more of this sort of...

A creature that eats evil, bootleg Pinnacle hardcovers, and the Master’s bad taste in music: these subjects and more are covered as our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes) welcome guest panelist Larry Van Mersbergen of the DOCTOR WHO COLLECTORS PODCAST for Terrance Dicks’ novelization of THE MIND OF EVIL. All this, and the surprise reappearance of the Master, too! Will we e...

Killer Teletubbies, insecure madmen who are NOT the President, and a new assistant with the science knowledge of a third-grader: these are all things that our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes) discuss, and more, during our episode on Terrance Dicks’ novelization of TERROR OF THE AUTONS. All this, and the Master, too! Enjoy him, because you will NEVER see him again! (Ahem....

A dictatorial nitwit who thinks he knows everything and listens to no one steers a project with no oversight on a course for disaster, all the while turning into a monster before everyone’s eyes. But enough about Trump. Let’s instead talk about the novelization of INFERNO, which our panel (Tony Whitt, Alyson Fitch-Safreed, and Dalton Hughes) discovers has its own shocking parallels to our own spac...

It’s not short, it’s not sweet, and it will definitely give you cancer. But enough about AMBASSADORS OF DEATH… Our regular panelists Alyson Fitch-Safreed and Dalton Hughes get together to talk about why the novelization of this story isn’t much better than the televised story and may indeed be far, far worse. If you’d like to hear more of this sort of quality content, please come visit our Patreon...