Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #82

by Peter Grimwade

The Doctor's time-travelling machine is trapped in the flight-path of an alien spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. To avoid the fatal impact of a head-on collision the TARDIS resorts to the only escape possible and materialises on board the on-coming liner.

This solves the immediate problem, but a new difficulty arises — the TARDIS cannot get off the ship until a radio signal transmitting from Earth has been disconnected.

The Doctor sets off in a Transmat Capsule, having programmed the TARDIS to enable Tegan and Nyssa to follow him once he has dealt with the interference.

Naturally enough, things don't go quite as planned...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Time Travel, British Literature, Ebooks

119 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

Peter Grimwade was a British television writer and director, best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Outside of Doctor Who, Grimwade wrote and directed The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt for the ITV children's drama series Dramarama. The play was about events behind-the-scenes on a low-budget television science fiction series, which Grimwade openly acknowledged was inspired by his experience working on Doctor Who.

When the BBC gave the publisher W. H. Allen the rights to use Vislor Turlough in the novel Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, W. H. Allen offered Grimwade a chance to publish an original novel. The result was Robot, a book filled with Doctor Who references.

Afterwards, Grimwade left the BBC and mainly worked in producing industrial training videos. He died in 1990 of leukaemia.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the third serial from the twentieth season of Doctor Who, which was broadcast in February of 1983. Peter Grimwade wrote the adaptation of his teleplay, perhaps simultaneously. The fifth regeneration of The Doctor is the star, with his two companions Tegan and Nyssa. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart makes a welcome appearance for the first time in a long while, but a less-welcome new member of the TARDIS crew is introduced, Visior Turlough. The story is set in 1977 and 1983, at a boarding school and in a spaceship above the Earth. The Black Guardian is introduced, and offers Turlough escape from Earth if he'll kill The Doctor. A starliner is filled with mutants who want to use the regenerative powers of the Time Lords in order to die. It's a rather grim and dark story, with no happy resolution. Grimwade is able to add a little more depth of character to Turlough to make him a little less unlikable, and provide some insight as to what Lethbridge-Stewart's been doing. It's a fast read that holds interest, but not among my favorites of the adventures.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

GOOD LUCK
In finding this h/b book as it has been out of print for years .The differences between the 1983 Black Guardian played by UK 's answer to Vincent Price Valentine Dyle know in 1940s on radio as The Man in Black ; that is why was the Black Guardian.
This also sore the return of Doctor Who's most loved Brig. Who had not been in the series since 1975.
Mawdryn is a Lime Lord like Möbius this weird one started the new season brilliantly .
We even get a quote from Richard Wagner is this Grimwade's in joke on All Creatures Great Small? If don't get hard cheese.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to see and know what the Brigadier is up to during this time period and it's certainly a grim and dark story which I generally enjoy in Dr. who. It is not the best and not the worst but is a fair 3 star outing for the 5th Doctor.

[Ivana Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok adaptation. The creatures are described in much more detail than you'd usually expect from Target novels, with oen sore and dripping pus etc. For some strange reason the final line of episode 3 "It'll be the end of me as a Time Lord" has been changed in to something much less dramatic. As usual with 5th Doc novels, the front cover features a photo of Davison that does nothing to convey the plot, or ( quite likely) encourage people to pick up the book, other than DW fans who'd already watched the tv series. A weird bit of marketing I never really understood.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mawdryn Undread (1983) by Peter Grimwade is the novelisation of the TV serial of the same name. It’s from the twentieth season of the original run of Doctor Who.

Mawdryn Undead is notable for introducing Vislor Turlough, who was one of the more interesting companions the Doctor had. The story itself starts with a TARDIS malfunction and tales of Turlough. The TARDIS is pulled onto an unknown ship which has a transmat device that the Doctor then uses. There are multiple connections to time on Earth.

It’s not a bad plot as far as Doctor Who goes. It’s not a great one though.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1060883.html#cutid4[return][return]I was bracing myself for another terrible book after the awfulness of Doctor Who - Time Flight. But in fact I was pleasantly surprised; I think it is a better story in the first place, but Grimwade is able to bring in a bit more characterisation to new companion Turlough and the Brigadier, and a bit more background to the public school. Not bad at all.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a decent read which introduces / reintroduces some good characters, but isn't anything to write home about :)
Turlough is introduced here, and I quite like Turlough - which is interesting given my dislike for Adric, and they're are both presented as dislikeable characters, but Adric I just didn't like, whereas Turlough I found more interesting. Perhaps because set up from the get go to be a grey character, but at same time doesn't seem to be misogynistic at least, just treats everyone badly.
We also get to see the Brigadier again, after quite some time, the story initially intended to bring back Ian Chesterton, but while I would have liked to see Ian again, is good to be able to see the Brigadier again, and I think this helped set up for further reappearances from the Brig as well, which is great :)
On the flip side, the story was clearly designed with Ian in mind, so the Brigadier in here, while great to see, does seem some what out of character, and doesn't quite fit in so well.
The story itself has some great bits, with the parallel running of two different time periods, and the 'antagonists' here aren't really evil as such, just desperate.
However, the writing can let it down, has that annoying feature of skipping over dialogue which I don't enjoy, and with the Brigadier being slightly out of place as well, just lets the story down somewhat, pulling it back to a 3.

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novelization of a Doctor Who episode was written by the scriptwriter. This makes a bit of a difference, either because it allows him to get some details into the story that did not make it to the televised version, or because it allows him to rethink some details. Either way, the novel turns out to be a little better than the serial by filling in some gaps. Chief among these is the difference between The Brigadier 1977 and The Brigadier 1983. In the novel, Grimwade makes clear that the “breakdown” event had a much greater effect on The Brigadier than the TV serial showed. The story itself is one of the more tightly plotted, as time paradox stories need to be. Grimwade, however, makes a few narrative errors, such using the “Little did he know that...” narrative intrusion several times. I am also not so fond of stories in which everyone knows what a Time Lord is. That makes the Doctor Who universe too small.

[Julian White · Rating 3 out of 5]

pdf - 108 pages

An engaging enough introduction to Turlough, enlivened by two versions of the Brigadier (though neither ring quite true) in a complex dual-time narrative hat includes the Silver Jubilee... And a seemingly deserted Art Deco space liner - travelling in an orbit that brings it close to inhabited planets on occasion where the titular Mawdryn and associates might be able to break their eternal torment (the penalty of their hubris in aiming for immortality). The resolution smacks of 'with one bound' jiggery-pokery involving Blinovitch...

Not quite as bad as that all sounds - and a lot better than some novelisations - but curiously uninvolving. And I'm really not keen on the Black Guardian concept!

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess the main point of this story was to introduce Turlough as a potential companion for the Doctor, although he's not a very likable character and this was hardly a great way to bring him into things. And they added the novelty of bringing back not one but two versions of the Brigadier, so there's that.

The actual story was rather meh with Turlough under the sway of the Black Guardian and he spends the story constantly struggling with the Guardian's influence versus his recognition that the Doctor is a good person. Then you bring in the other mutant aliens, and on the whole it's a bit of a mess.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite beginning in a fashion very similar to his own Time-flight, Grimwade gives us a very entertaining retelling of the television adventure. There’s a lot of background details given to the reader which makes the story a lot more interesting and raises the stakes somewhat because we care so much more about everything going on, rather as we did with the earlier book.

[Mole Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A grim and desolate horror tale reminiscent of the "early ghost stories" (i.e. The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House). This is probably the quintesential Turlough story - the kind of Doctor Who story he would write if given the chance - and really fitting for the Fifth Doctor.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com...

[Michael Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tells the story nicely, and I did enjoy it, but that story is fuzzy time-travel nonsense of a sort that recurrently afflicts Doctor Who.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed the book more than the episode. I liked getting more background information with the book plus I didn't have to see Mawdryn. The make-up always grosses me out.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 re read rating 3.5

Haven’t read in a long time so decided to pick a few to read this November.
This was an okay read, nothing really special I thought. Story was concisely told, characters were drawn clearly, if any additional details were added to the story I didn’t spot them.

Overall then not the best or worst of the target adaptations, somewhere in the middle but still recommended.


~~~~~~~~

Original Rating 3.5

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A faintly interesting story is saved by the introduction of new companion Turlough and the return of the Brigader.
Having the Brig interacting with a Doctor is always fun and it was interesting to see how well he got along with Tegan.
This actually worked better as a TV episode, where the personalities of the actors comes through better and helps boast the story.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite novelization thus far. Part of it is that it's not the first Doctor, who I really don't like, and part of it is that I keep hearing about Turlough on the internet, so it's good to finally read about his first adventure with the Doctor. I'd like to read more of that, as well as see the episodes.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of my early childhood favourites. Peter Grimwade has such an excellent command of both the 5th Doctor, and old-school Doctor Who storytelling in general. A story already steeped in nostalgia and being lost in the past...enhanced by an author determined to rise to the challenge of expanding and enhancing his original TV scripts within the then-required word count. Highly recommended.

[Matthew Goode Ⓥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better DW novels I've read so far.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a bad little story. It was part of the 20th anniversary year celebrations