Five new Doctor Who Target novelisations will become available from July 2023, each written by the original screenwriters of the television episodes.
With newly-commissioned artwork from Anthony Dry, these five new novelisations of Doctor Who stories celebrate the 50th year of the novel range, and also coincides with the show’s 60th anniversary. Four of the new titles will also be released as audiobooks on Audible throughout 2023.
Launched in 1973, Target Books published novelisations of almost every Doctor Who serial aired between 1963 and 1989, with only a few notable exceptions. BBC Books began reissuing these classic paperbacks in 2012, and in 2018 expanded the Target range to include all-new novelisations of modern-era Doctor Who episodes.
The 2023 collection celebrates the return of David Tennant and showrunner Russell T Davies to the programme. Both The Waters of Mars by Phil Ford and Planet of the Ood by Keith Temple are iconic Doctor Who episodes from the Tenth Doctor era.
Fans will also be able to add a Twelfth Doctor adventure, as played by Peter Capaldi, to their collection with The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness and a Thirteenth Doctor novelisation with Kerblam! by Pete McTighe. Stephen Gallagher’s Warriors’ Gate and Beyond will feature the Fourth Doctor.
Planet of the Ood by Keith Temple
The Doctor and Donna learn that the planet of the Ood holds cruel and awesome secrets. As they battle for justice and survival, the fate of the entire Ood race hangs in the balance. Will the outcome be salvation – or extinction? Also released on audiobook 13 July.
Kerblam! by Pete McTighe
Kerblam! is the biggest online retailer in the galaxy – but how did it become so big? When the Doctor’s Kerblam! package includes a mysterious request for help, she heads straight to the company’s warehouse moon to investigate… Also released on audiobook 8 August.
The Waters of Mars by Phil Ford
The first human colony on Mars is destined for destruction in a nuclear explosion. This tragedy is a fixed point in history. The laws of time dictate that it cannot – must never – be changed. But as the Doctor’s darkest hour comes calling, he resolves to break the rules as he never has before… Also released on audiobook 13 July.
The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness
It took three Doctors to broker a fragile peace between Zygons and Humans. Now the Twelfth Doctor must face the fallout alone. With his allies compromised and his companion believed dead, can he stop the world from plunging into war? Also released on audiobook 3 September.
Warriors’ Gate and Beyond by Stephen Gallagher
A new-to-print, expanded novelisation of the classic 1981 adventure. With the TARDIS caught in the collapsing void between two different universes, the Fourth Doctor is drawn into a dangerous alliance with a race of enslaved, time-sensitive aliens. The consequences are explored in two further short stories, one exclusive to this volume!
You can pre-order all these Target novelisations ahead of their release on 13 July 2023 on Amazon, Amazon UK, Blackwells, Bookshop, Waterstones and WH Smith.