'Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet' - Gerry Davis (BBC Books)

When I was a kid, if you missed an episode of Doctor Who that was pretty much that. If you wanted to find out what happened then you had to rely on a friend at school having seen it and that they were happy to tell you. If that wasn't bad enough, by the time I was old enough to watch Doctor Who I'd already missed something like twenty years of episodes that wouldn't be released on video for at least another ten years. Thank goodness for the Target novelisations then (and the library bus that used to park up by the shopping centre); I was able to catch up on a whole load of stuff, some of which I wasn't even aware of until I saw it on the shelves.

BBC Books have been quietly republishing these books, just recently, and I thought it would be fun to have a read and revisit a few childhood favourites (to see how they've stood up to the passing of time and also because I've needed a little comfort reading just recently). I vaguely remember reading 'The Tenth Planet', years ago, so was pleased to see it on the list of re-issued books...

The Doctor and his companions find themselves at the North Pole where a military base has picked up signs of a tenth planet that has entered the solar system and is approaching Earth. As the planet draws closer, it begins to drain energy from Earth at a startling rate. The Doctor knows of this planet, and what will soon be visiting the Earth from its surface, but as the Cybermen attack, and take over, the base the Doctor is unable to help in the way that he normally would. The Doctor is dying...

The whole point of the Target novelisations was that, on the whole, they were very faithful to what you would have seen in each episode. It was basically like watching a DVD but in book form. I think the problem here though was that sometimes the book could be a little too faithful and this didn't transfer very well to the page. This was certainly the case with 'The Tenth Planet' with a lot of attention being paid to the plight of a spacecraft caught in the pull of the (tenth) planet Mondas. I'm sure this would have been suitably tense on the screen but here all we get are a lot of 'technical speak' that doesn't really tell the reader what is happening. When the fate of the shuttle is finally revealed I was surprised to see that it was in that much trouble in the first place...

The rest of the book is a lot better, in this respect, with a clear picture painted of what is going on. The white backdrop of the North Pole does a good job of highlighting the drama being played out and there is plenty of drama with the Doctor out of action and his companions forced to fall back on their own ingenuity if there is to be any chance of survival. This was quite an interesting spin on what you'd normally see in a Doctor Who book or TV show (at least it was for me) with a lot of the focus on the companions Ben and Polly. Both of these characters really rise to the challenge (Ben in particular) and the reader gets a tale that feels a lot fresher as a result (even though you know how it has to end). The Cybermen come across as very slow and cumbersome but are no less fearsome for that and I couldn't help but wince, on certain occasions, as I just knew that one of the human characters was about to get their comeuppance...

At only a hundred and fifty seven pages long, 'The Tenth Planet' is a quick read and maybe one that isn't up to a deeper examination. It does its job but no more than that and that makes me wonder if the book (or any of the others in the series) would appeal to people who weren't already fans of the show. I enjoyed it though; there's a lot happening with an air of suspense that you don't normally come across in this setting. Looking forward to reading the next one...

Eight out of Ten