Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Invasion

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There are two types of novelizations: novels and novelizations. This one is definitely a novel. Ian Marter (who played Harry Sullivan in the early Tom Baker stories) takes this novelization of The Invasion above the faults and tediousness of most other Target novelizations. The result: a novel readable not only by the original audience but by older fans alike.

The best part of these books is seeing the deleted scenes and alternate scenes missing from the television story. These include a proper exit for the character of General Rutledge and the rescue of Professor Watkins (which leads to an alternate death for the character of Gregory). These are coupled with Marter's violence, gory descriptions, and language to make a novel readable not only by the original target (no pun intended) audience and older fans alike.

In fact the thing that separates this from the other Target books I've read is that very fact: it's readable not only by the original target (no pun intended) audience but by older fans too. This is due in no large part to the author whose violence, gory descriptions, and language supplement an all ready suspenseful story from the television series. In fact one wonders if it was the Martar novelizations that inspired the writers of the New Adventures which were to become controversial for those exact same aspects.

The faults in the novel are very much the faults of the original story. The Cybermen make a late appearance in the story and they are, for the most part, nothing more then tin soldiers. The early section of the story is slow to say the least and it's only mid-way through Chapter Four (around a third of the way in) that the story really starts moving. Like the TV version, the story's final chapters are the best.

The Invasion is definitely an above average Target Doctor Who novel. It lacks the faults and tediousness of most other Target novelizations and replaces them with just enough violence, gory descriptions, and language to make the novel stand out well above the rest. While the TV version is now on DVD, this novel makes for an interesting alternative that is well worth reading.