Doctor Who Books (Fiction)

[blueshift]

May 13, 2018 20:56:56 GMT The Doctor said:

I put the books on the shelf by number back in the day!

-Ralph

And this is how we know it's wrong

[Philip Ayres]

Story Order is the only correct way to do it.

[The Doctor]

I recall being annoyed back in the day that Virgin and then BBC Books did not have numbers on their Who titles.

I am still annoyed that Star Trek novels dropped their numbering system a decade or two ago!!!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

The Titan Star Trek numbering system was wrong anyway. They started releasing Pocket Novels several years in so some earlier novels are numbered after later ones. My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way being the most obvious example.

[Philip Ayres]

May 13, 2018 20:59:52 GMT Pinwig said:

24 missing from the numbered run of 156 books.

Unacceptable! Pretty sure some of these I have owned, so they may be in another box somewhere.

Which ones?

[legios]

May 13, 2018 21:23:02 GMT Philip Ayres said:

The Titan Star Trek numbering system was wrong anyway. They started releasing Pocket Novels several years in so some earlier novels are numbered after later ones. My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way being the most obvious example.

Technically not wrong. The books were published in a different order in the UK to that which they were published in the US, and Titan's numbering ran in UK publication order and not in US publication order. In the same way you wouldn't catalogue the Titan editions as being published by Pocket Books From a cataloguing and classification point of view the Titan releases of these books were different entities to the Pocket editions and therefore are catalogued on a different basis.

Karl

(I work in the same office as colleagues who literally do this stuff five days a week. You start to absorb it through the skin)

[Philip Ayres]

True but from a fictional point of view having book 21 before book 4 is annoying. If I'd have been Titan I'd have made sure that any book that depended on a previous US title had the previous US title out first!

memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Titan_Books

Titan	Title	Pocket
1	Chain of Attack	32
2	Deep Domain	33
3	Dreams of the Raven	34
4	The Romulan Way	35
5	How Much for Just the Planet?	36
6	Bloodthirst	37
7	The IDIC Epidemic	38
8	Yesterday's Son	11
9	Time for Yesterday	39
10	The Final Reflection	16
11	Timetrap	40
12	The Vulcan Academy Murders	20
13	The Three-Minute Universe	41
14	Star Trek: The Motion Picture	1
15	Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan	7
16	Memory Prime	42
17	The Entropy Effect	2
18	The Final Nexus	43
19	The Wounded Sky	13
20	Vulcan's Glory	44
21	My Enemy, My Ally	18
22	Double, Double	45
23	The Covenant of the Crown	4
24	Corona	15
25	The Abode of Life	6
26	Ishmael	23
27	Web of the Romulans	10
28	The Cry of the Onlies	46
29	Dreadnought!	29
30	The Kobayashi Maru	47
31	The Trellisane Confrontation	14
32	Rules of Engagement	48
33	The Klingon Gambit	3
34	The Pandora Principle	49
35	The Prometheus Design	5
36	Doctor's Orders	50
37	Black Fire	8
38	Killing Time	24
39	The Tears of the Singers	19
40	Enemy Unseen	51
41	Mindshadow	27
42	Home Is the Hunter	52
43	Demons	30
44	Ghost-Walker	53
45	Mutiny on the Enterprise	12
46	A Flag Full of Stars	54
47	Crisis on Centaurus	28
48	Renegade	55
49	Triangle	9
50	Legacy	56
51	Battlestations!	31
52	The Rift	57
53	Faces of Fire	58
54	The Disinherited	59
55	Ice Trap	60
56	Sanctuary	61
57	Death Count	62
58	Shell Game	63
59	The Starship Trap	64
60	Windows on a Lost World	65
61	From the Depths	66
62	The Great Starship Race	67
Giant #1	Uhura's Song	21
Giant #2	Dwellers in the Crucible	25
Giant #3	Shadow Lord	22
Giant #4	Pawns and Symbols	26

[Pinwig]

May 13, 2018 21:23:21 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Which ones?

Too many to list, but some I'm sure must be somewhere as I remember them too well. Mostly later ones from 130 upwards, but I'm saddened I don't have two of my favourite Pertwees, Mind of Evil and Time Monster. I've got a big box of New Adventures in the archive. I'm betting there are a few in there.

[blueshift]

This is not a Doctor Who book related table!!!

[The Doctor]

Numbers tell me if a book I have missed,
Then I do not get super pissed!

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Depressed by the state of these books. Twenty years in a loft has not been kind to them. I feel a project coming on. Replace the worst and fill the gaps. Do charity shops still get these? Or am I living in the past there?

[The Doctor]

I see them sometimes in Oxfam,
Their condition can be a bit 'hit by a wham'.
Old books these are now,
Reprints needed - and how!

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

reprints are needed,
hopefully pleas will be heeded,
Many of us have collections in a less than happy state,
to never have them complete and nice - a terrible fate.

[The Doctor]

I am reading 'Rose'.
It has some fine prose.
Will the Doctor win?
Or be eaten by a wheelie bin?

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

'The Christmas Invasion' was also a hit,
2 out of 2 new Targets have not been sh*t.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

There have been so many stylistically different and short lived restarts for Target books that I can't imagine a full, proper reprint collection. The whole lot in the current style would be amazing. That's a partwork I'd buy into.

[blueshift]

I'd love a partwork of Target books
Into me it'd have its hooks!
Though the dealbreaker would be the cover
Not photoshop, of painted I'm a lover!

[The Doctor]

I would buy every one,
My bank account: undone!

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

'Day of the Doctor' almost vanished up its bum,
Oh dear I thought this could go rum.
But overall it was a good read,
My brain it did feed.

'Twice Upon a Time': not much to it,
It lacks a certain whit.
Still enjoyed it a lot though,
Just wish it had a good foe.

All four brand new Targets have hit the spot,
Now BBC Books must novelise all remaining TV episodes: the lot!

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Been reading The Romans today. Really good adaptation. The epistolic format allows for some neat dramatic irony, which is played for laughs in the style of the original serial. Very enjoyable.

[Pinwig]

Few Target books arrived today to start hole filling in my collection. Enlightenment, Inferno and The Massacre have joined the others. That completes Davison. Pertwee should be complete by end of next week if all goes according to plan.

[Pinwig]

Very nice copy of The Mind of Evil arrived today to fill another hole. Another parcel containing The Time Meddler and The Time Monster is trapped at the PO. With the latter I'll be Pertwee complete. That'll be Docs 3, 4 and 5 ticked off. Closing in on 1.

[blueshift]

Are you going for first editions, reprint covers or just the stories?

[Pinwig]

I'm trying to amass a collection of the original covers so I've got the books in their original formats (not necessarily first prints, too many aren't to be worried about that), but I haven't checked properly yet to make sure they all are. I don't have any virgin reprints though, they're all Target books. 17 TV stories left to get, but most of those are the expensive ones. I'm just picking off the cheap ones at the moment.

I'll probably replace some of mine too if I find cheap copies; I've got a good number of 3rd/4th Doc originals that are in shockingly poor condition. Picked up a jumble sales years back probably.

[blueshift]

What ones are you missing, I discovered a small sci-fi shop in Worcester the other week with a decent selection of Target novels, albeit at proper prices for some of the rarer ones. They had a lot of the later stuff though.

[Pinwig]

Ooh. Lot of these seem to demand silly money, especially the three Troughton ones.

Planet of Giants
The Rescue
The Smugglers

The Power of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Wheel in Space

Attack of the Cybermen
The Mysterious Planet
Mindwarp
Terror of the Vervoids
The Ultimate Foe

Time and the Rani
Dragonfire
The Happiness Patrol
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Battlefield
Survival

Then lower priority, the 'other' ones:

Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma
Harry Sullivan's War
The Nightmare Fair
The Ultimate Evil
Mission to Magnus
Slipback
The Paradise of Death

[blueshift]

They definitely have Nightmare Fair, Ultimate Evil and Slipback, I'll pop in at the weekend and check prices.

[Pinwig]

Ta!

[The Doctor]

Having loved the new Target books I really should pick up the reprints from recent years...as I didn't get them!!!

I have brought shame to myself.

Which ones were reprinted in the current trade dress?

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

I think there have been two runs of those.

But hey, I got Rose and The Day of the Doctor today. Have we had a spine moan? What the f*** were they thinking?! the titles don't align!? don't they know who they're dealing with?

These books are really cheap too. The covers are printed in smudgable ink. I've just had to have a go at my copies with a damp cloth to remove smeared bits of the images off the front. For a £7 paperback these are ultra cheaply produced - naff paper, thin cover card.