Doctor Who and the Zarbi

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #73

by Bill Strutton

The Zarbi, huge ant-like creatures with metallic bodies and pincer claws, are waiting for Tardis [sic] when its police-box shape materializes on the cold and craggy planet Vortis. They capture Doctor Who, Ian and Vicki and take them to their weird Headquarters, a city of web-like organic matter.

But the Zarbi are not the only beings on Vortis. Barbara has fallen into the hands of the butterfly-like creatures with soft voices and iridescent wings, whose civilisation has been destroyed by the Zarbi. She learns that her captors are only the advance party of Menoptera in exile who plan to win back their planet by an invasion from outer space. For the Zarbi 'have brought the dark age to Vortis'.

In the final thrilling chapters, Doctor Who and the crew of Tardis encounter the power which controls both the Zarbi and the living Web City. How can they defeat this strange bladder of blazing light which draws in and absorbs all who come into its presence?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Novels, Audiobook

174 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 16, 1965

About the author

William Harold "Bill" Strutton was a screenwriter and novelist from South Australia. He worked on some of the best-remembered 1960s television shows including Ivanhoe, The Saint, The Avengers, Riptide and Doctor Who.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only the second Doctor Who story to be novelised, this was way before the Target series was launched and it’s really noticeable.

The most obvious difference is the constant referring to The Doctor as ‘Doctor Who’.
With a higher page count and the six part serial spread across just 6 chapters, an intriguing visually ambitious story only just plods along.

I found this one to be a bit of a chore.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tardis gets pulled to the planet Vortis. The doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicky quickly find themselves in the middle of a giant insect war. The Animus is basically a giant spider that’s using the ant-like Zarbi like mindless slaves, while slowly infecting and taking over the entire planet. The bee/butterfly Menoptra once inhabited Vortis but the Animus forced them to flee to another planet. Now the Menoptra finally have the technology to fight the Animus and they’ve come back to reclaim their planet.


The first time I watched The Web Planet I thought it was boring, which seems to be the popular opinion. But I recently rewatched it and I can’t help but feel it’s actually better than people give it credit for. This is a really ambitious, imaginative and creative story. It has some very fascinating world building and a strong plot. It’s also very experimental, which is usually either a hit or a miss. But if there’s one thing Doctor Who should be known for is its ability to experiment and even to reinvent itself, as that’s the reason why Doctor Who is still going strong in the first place.


Now, I won’t say this is one of the best Doctor Who serials from the sixties as it definitely has its flaws. The plot for example is stretched thin over too many episodes, making for a really slow pace. And that’s actually the reason why I picked up this novelization, to see if it could correct these flaws and make the story as a whole better.


Now the novelization does do some things differently from the TV episodes. What it improves upon is without a doubt the pacing. It feels like the story is progressing faster, making it less of a chore to make it through the first half. The motivations of certain characters are explored a bit more. Some added subtle details bring a little bit more clarity to the plot. The larvae guns are defined better and made more threatening here than on TV, they’re essentially venomous grubs used like weapons by the Zarbi. The Animus is better described here as a parasite or a even a disease, spreading and infecting the planet. The sacrifice made towards the end also feels a lot more impactful and memorable in the novelization.


Unfortunately, this novelization also has some flaws. It took me a few pages to get used to the fact that the doctor is called “Doctor Who” here. There’s some added sexism to be found here, which is so weird as Barbara is by far the main character who shines the most in this story. Like the TV series, not all the plot threads come together quite nicely in the end but it’s still a pretty decent ending. And I think the Animus did manage to come across as more menacing on TV in my opinion.


This novelization also doesn’t really feature that many detailed descriptions of the fascinating alien world and leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination. This can be considered both a good and a bad thing. The alien setting from the TV series is simply put stunning and shockingly beautiful, especially considering the limited technology and budget they had available at the time. Though it might look a bit cheap by today’s standards, this was experimentation and technical ingenuity at its finest and is a perfect example of the ambition this story had during its inception. It’s one of the greatest strengths of the TV serial and it would have been nice to get more descriptions in this book so us readers could explore this alien world further.


This is such a fascinating and ambitious concept and setting. It’s just a shame it never seems to have reached its full potential, both on TV and in writing. Considering the Ood from the new series were inspired by the Sensorites from the classic series, I can only hope someone from the new series might ever get inspired by the Zarbi to properly do this story justice.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the fifth serial from the second season of Doctor Who, which was broadcast in February and March of 1965 under the title of The Web Planet. Bill Strutton adapted his own original teleplay for the book, which was only the second Doctor Who adventure to appear in book form. It was published in a hardbound edition for children in September, 1965, and Target incorporated it into their long line of Doctor Who adventures in 1973. It's quite a bit different than the later adventures, as the main character is actually named Doctor Who, the ship is just called "Tardis," and the female characters... well, they don't get much respect. Strutton was able to describe the insect planet and inhabitants as he had originally envisaged them, on the other hand, which was a plus due to budgetary restraints in the effects area. The book is divided into six chapters and follow the pace and structure of the six episodes of the serial closely, although I think it could have been shortened a bit to good effect. The story has The Doctor (the original, of course), and his associates Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton (the teachers of his granddaughter Susan, whom he'd essentially kidnapped the year before), along with new TARDIS team member Vicki (who was never given a last name, poor thing), land on the planet Vortis, home of the ant-like Zarbi, which is suffering an invasion of the Menoptera, who look like the mutant grandchildren of Mothra. There's a confusing bit about Barbara's bracelet and then they meet a giant spider.... obviously not one of my favorites in the series, but Target did keep the fine John Wood illustrations in their paperback edition. For true Whovian historians and completists.

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I do enjoy the target novelisations, a nice way to revisit stories and get a feeling for ones you can't see. This one I started reading right after having watched the episode and I gave up before the end of the first chapter. First it starts with Ian wanting Barbara to cook them breakfast. They are both professional teachers why can't he cook his own breakfast and expects her to do it? Oh yes because she's a woman! Adding in Extra sexism is not necessary! Then the men discuss how they are uneasy about leaving the two "girls" alone, one of whom is a grown woman not a girl and as she showed in the actual episode and incredibly competent and clever woman! But in the novel they had her all scared about being left alone! Then they cut entirely the conversation Vicki and Barbra had about education, by this point it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to assume this was because the author didn't think that "girls" should be educated, after another reference from Ian about the "girls" needing looking after I gave up. I was really looking forward to the descriptions of the aliens and their civilisation in the book but this was just too sexist to continue! By far the worst target I've come across! Come back Terrance Dicks all is forgiven!!!

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The TARDIS finds itself drawn inexorably to the planet Vortis, somewhere that the Doctor recognises, apart form the satellites which weren't there previously. The planet appears to be under attack and the Doctor must use all his wiles to thwart the invaders.

A nice novelisation, which was still early enough in the release schedule for Strutton to refer to the main character as "Doctor Who" - a name that was never used on screen and was soon dropped in the novelisations.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and enjoyable read. But then the first doctor is one of my favourites. The web planet episodes ( on which the book DR WHO and the ZARBI is based) achieved the highest ratings the TV show ever had or would have for a long time. Very popular TV and remarkable when you consider that the BBC spent hardly any money making it. As evidenced by the wobbly sets and the all too obvious "print the first take" attitude.
Still, the makers did their best and their best was good enough for the viewers back in the day. Readers of course have no such limitations and the literary planet Vortis is freed from all budgetary restraints to expand and fill the imagination. And that of course, is the magic of books.

[Trevor Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from the annoying trait of describing the Doctor as Doctor Who and the TARDIS as Tardis, this is a really good read that cracks along at a great pace. Much better than the TV story

[Jonnyhames · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a good adaptation of a pretty bland story. And it's one of the early adaptations that thinks the character's name is Doctor Who.

[Jay Emmerich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Pretty simple story but a significant improvement on the original episodes. Not necessarily one I'm gonna recommend due to the fact that there's a lot more you could be reading but it's a fascinating little thing to compare against what is widely perceived as one of the worst (if not worst, then annoying might be a better descriptor) episodes of Classic Doctor Who.

[Scott Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

By far the best thing about this book is the superb cover illustration by Chris Achilleos. The Web Planet was a flawed Doctor Who production and so in this novel the original script writer, Bill Strutton, had an opportunity to better realise his vision. He wasted that opportunity. The first two sentences contain examples of one of the main problems - despite writing the TV script and so, presumably, being fully aware of the name of the main character and that of his space ship, here Bill Strutton chooses to name the Doctor as 'Doctor Who' and the Tardis as 'Tardis' (without the article). This is a shame as the writing itself is generally good and the setting is interesting, with its depiction of two insect-like alien species. The plot is perhaps above average for early Doctor Who, but is somewhat rushed here as significant portions of the script have been excised for the novel.

Despite these problems, I might have given this book 3 stars, if it weren't for the outdated sexism - outdated, that is, even by the standards of the 1960s. The author not only refers to all female characters as 'girls', but even adds extra scenes or dialogue which did not appear in the TV script, and which are clearly designed to reinforce the dominance of the main male characters and diminish Barbara, the only strong female lead. Within a few paragraphs of the beginning, the Doctor is asking Barbara to make coffee and Ian is expecting breakfast from her!

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1022168.ht...[return]Doctor Who and the Zarbi was based on the story now generally called The Web Planet, which crashes and burns spectacularly awfully on screen because today's viewers cannot take the production values seriously. The book is a bit better, because the printed page and the reader's imagination, rather than the unforgiving camera, supplies the details of the various non-human races in conflict on the planet Vortis. In principle it makes a good sf story, perhaps the best sf story, in terms of the norms of the genre, from the whole Hartnell era.[return][return]The book does suffer from a couple of weaknesses. Most bizarrely, and uniquely, the central character is referred to as 'Doctor Who' rather than 'the Doctor' throughout, and the Tardis loses the definite article, as if Tardis was just the name of the vessel. Also, in places the book feels uncomfortably like what it is, a TV script cast in different format, and one feels that Strutton is just writing what appeared to the viewer on the screen. Having said that, though, the book is still better than the original TV story.

[Alys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. There was loads of REALLY annoying sexism in it especially to Barbara. They spent the entire novel trying to protect her, asking her to make them food and then after she single handedly saved all their lives (while the rest were being totally pathetic) at the end did she get so much as a thanks? No. Apparently the sexism isn't in the original ep so why was it added??
Otherwise there were great characters and a fun, interesting plot. V enjoyable.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Web Planet today is regarded as one of the worst Doctor Who stories in existence and often cited as the worst William Hartnell story. I happen to disagree with this as I give it a slightly above average 5.5/10 which is slightly more than the very first Doctor Who story An Unearthly Child. It is by no means perfect, but fans today often forget just how popular this serial actually was. It’s viewing figures at times were higher than The Day of the Doctor with critical praise from its audience, so is it really a surprise that it was decided to do three novelizations this was the second written? Bill Strutton adapted his own work into Doctor Who and the Zarbi doing a straight novelization job, going so far as to splitting the chapters up into six chapters that are the names of the episodes of the serial. This sadly is a large problem as the novel is a lot longer than many of the other novelizations and the long chapters make it a little bit more difficult to get through. It’s also a bit jarring as Strutton’s story is one of few novels to refer to the Doctor as Doctor Who and refer to the TARDIS as Tardis like the Peter Cushing films. It is really difficult to take it seriously as that’s how it works in this novel. Strutton’s writing style however is especially engaging as unlike the television story where the Menoptera were males and females, gender is unknown in the novelization which makes the alien setting feel much more alien. He however does make it feel like a product of the time as he didn’t have Dennis Spooner and Verity Lambert to tell him not to treat Barbara like a traditional 1960s woman. Yes she still is very much responsible for saving the day. Strutton also does a lot as to not write the Animus by name, but only referring to it as the Voice. This makes it feel much more Lovecraftian in nature much like it would be revealed to be in the Virgin New Adventures. The novel also has a lot of illustrations showing just how Strutton really imagined the sets which are really nice to look at and beautifully drawn. It still is a little bit of a drawn out novel as the story really wasn’t suited to the six episode format, which is what really plagued the television story from the offset.



To summarize, Doctor Who and the Zarbi is a novel that really shows just how good the television story could have been. It shows that it isn’t a story that deserves to be loathed by fandom for what is honestly just a lot of bad execution and some awful directing choices. Yes, the pacing is still really off for a story and some of the unrestrained Strutton doesn’t really work here as Barbara is really out of character for the novel (with some 1960s sexism involving her especially). 7/10.

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on Bill’s own script this is one of the original 3 novelisations published by Frederick Muller before Targets were even a thing. Sadly I’m not rich or lucky enough to have one of these. The cover art on the original is be John Wood who also did the internal illustrations.

The book is number 73 in the Target catalog. The cover of the first Target version is by Chris Achilleos, and the second version by Alister Pearson. Both artists have done numerous Doctor Who covers. Both the target version also include John Wood’s internal illustrations. And while digging up these details I saw a truly outstanding Spanish (I think) edition with artwork by Rui Ligeiro which I’d love to have even though I couldn’t read it.

Web Planet is a story I’ve always loved because of its weirdness. The book is faithful to the broadcast version. There was a couple of minor changes that stood out to me. The first was the loss of the Atmospheric Density Jackets the Doctor and Ian wore when the first leave the TARDIS. I loved this idea as it showed the planet wasn’t just a pseudo-earth. The needed aids to help breathe. Their removal doesn’t affect the story in any meaningful way, but I was sad they weren’t included as I loved the concept.

Next was the Doctor’s magic ring he used to power the TARDIS doors and control Zombo the Zarbi. They made quite a fuss over it in the broadcast version, but in the book Zombo is simply controlled by hand gestures.

Next is a couple of name changes. And I think I prefer what was in the broadcast verison over the book. The weapon goes from being some sort of bomb/grenade called the Isop-tope to being a simple gun called a Web Destructor. I think the original is more interesting and imaginative.

The Carsinome goes from being the named Carsinome to some nameless parasite. I much prefer the name with its cancerous connotations reflect the malignant growth of it.

Another thing that drove me to distraction was the Doctor being referred to as Doctor Who most of the time. In dialogue he was ‘Doctor’, but the narrative it was Doctor Who. But not all the time. And on page 128 he’s ‘Doctor Whoblinked’ – typo of a missing space, but caused me a double take.

But all of these are minior quibbles that don’t detract from the major enhancements to the story in the behaviour and actions of the Zarbi. They are much more agile and effective as villains in the book than they are on the broadcast version. They’re more than a pair of legs in a ponderous hard shell.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confession time. Many of the earliest Doctor Who novelizations, I've owned...but never read. Only last year did I get around to Doctor Who and the Cybermen (The Moonbase), by Gerry Davis. Doctor Who and the Daleks, by David Whitaker? Never read it. Doctor Who and the Crusaders? Likewise, never done it. So too, The Zarbi (The Web Planet). I know - #BadFan

Here's the thing. When you watch The Web Planet, the gulf between the actual storytelling scope of the adventure as written and the spit-and-sawdust budgets of 1960s Doctor Who becomes glaaaaaringly obvious. For all that though, The Web Planet, bless it, really, truly tries, and absolutely succeeds in both looking and sounding like nothing else in the history of Who.

The novelization? Oh hell yes. Bill Strutton gets his game well and truly on here. There are clunky Sixties-isms like occasionally referring to the Doctor as Doctor Who in the narrative, and likewise either 'the ship Tardis,' or just 'Tardis' rather than 'the Tardis,' but honestly they're not that intrusive and they rapidly melt into the background anyway in this story of insectoid folk. It's punchy, it's powerful, and it's genuinely up there in terms of the popcorn-chewing value of a solid adventure story.

What's worth double the money here though is the absolutely belting reading of the audiobook version by William Russell. In recent years, as is more than understandable in a gentleman of his age, his voice has grown lighter and shakier - giving an added oomph to his First Doctor and more of a struggle to his Ian Chesterton. This feels like it was recorded a good long while ago though, when his voice was stronger, still almost freakishly recognizable from his performance in the early Sixties. What that means is that here, you get a Web Planet as weird as your imagination can make it, with real, fierce villains, strong if fluttery Menoptera, and a Tardis crew that feels assured in Russell's vocal tints and energies.

Should have listened to this years ago. Stop waiting - pay a visit to the Zarbi today.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the three novelisations penned in the 60s and subsequently folded into the Target range, Doctor Who and the Zarbi has its writer Bill Strutton himself adapt The Web Planet. You can tell this is an early one because "Tardis" is uncapitalized, they call him "Doctor Who", and there are only 6 chapters, corresponding to the TV episodes. Not quite slavish to the aired version (he never names the Animus, which is weird), it's still very close, showing that The Web Planet was mostly what he envisioned, but for the production's attempt at creating Vortis for the small screen. Does it help the book that we get clear descriptions instead of Vaseline-O-Vision and goofy insect costumes? I don't know. I'm among those who thought those were a feature, not a (hehe) bug. Unfortunately, without the sheer oddity of the production, and hemming so close to the episodic plot, Strutton fails to streamline his adventure story. There are a lot of redundant moments (especially for the Doctor and Vicki in the control chamber), and all that wasteful bafflegab at the beginning in Tardis. Where it does a little better is in making Ian's arrival in the Anima's chamber more germane to the story, though his journey there is rather tedious. If I can't look at smeared insect people doing ballet, I guess I'm not that interested in this one. Nice illustrations though - John Wood's plates feature clean art and fair likenesses (aside from Vicki).

[Mestor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Strutton's novelisation of his Doctor Who serial 'The Web Planet is a far more rewarding experience than watching the serial itself. For a start, the novelisation is not hampered by Richard Martin's laboured direction, or the amateur dramatic performances of some of the guest cast. I don't subscribe to the view that the serial was too ambitious for the resources of the time; in the hands of a more skilful director, 'The Web Planet' could have been a much better programme than it turned out to be.

Nevertheless, it would never have been gold standard Doctor Who, and this becomes evident when read in book form. The story involves too much standing around with nothing much really happening. After a somewhat laborious few chapters, the ending of the piece relies far too heavily on a MacGuffin to save the day, ending up rather rushed. Strutton also drops the name of the Animus, the story's central villain, replacing it with the more prosaic Intelligence.

That said, there is some nice interplay between the characters, and Strutton absolutely nails the personality and mannerisms of William Hartnell's incarnation of the Doctor. Plus, I rather like the naive reference to the character as Doctor Who throughout, a quirk one finds in many examples of Doctor Who related fiction in the 1960s.


Not a classic by any means, but a worthwhile read nonetheless.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

The First Doctor adventures will always be an artifact of the times they were created. This applies to both the nature of the stories and of course the quality of the costumes and sets. And this is one of those stories that clearly tried to be more by bringing us to an exotic alien world with strange insect-like aliens and other fantastical bits.

But it also has an oddly complicated story about a war involving a mysterious mastermind (also a bit of a trope across the whole series) and races who once lived in harmony. The different elements are potentially interesting but when it all came together, it was a bit weird at points or at least felt uneven. It doesn't go all the way to being a bad story, but it does struggle at some points.

I really should have finished this book sooner, but those narrative struggles bogged me down at some points since it was hard to sustain interest with some of the side diversions. But I don't regret having read this book as another glimpse into the Classic era that I haven't seen much of on TV.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the original trio of Doctor Who novelisations released during the 1960s and the first Who book to be written by the original author of the on screen script.
Bill Strutton does a workmanlike job of committing his television story to paper, but never quite captures the spirit of the show. Details are simplified for the reader - the web structure of the villain remains unamed, as does the main antagonist - removing some of the serial's more incomprehensible moments.
The Zarbi has a scale that could never be achieved on screen but the author seems unfamiliar with the basic props and characterisations of the show. At times it feels like he is working from the series "Bible" rather than having seen previously broadcast stories, giving the book a perculiar feeling of familiarity with strangers throughout. The sensation is heightened by the internal illustrations from John Wood.
Oddly the only book not to have originally been issued in paperback in 1965.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between a 3 and a 4 for me. Generally quite a good story I think, reasonable mix of mystery, suspense and action within, as the various companions get into and out of danger as normal, but with quite a strong undercurrent of the unknown when it comes to what they are ultimately dealing with.
I find the final climactic scenes very good, with good descriptions of the foe they are facing, and how different and powerful it is, it is good to see this has been expanded on in other media, which I may have to get at some point.
Points were detracted by constant reference to the Doctor as Doctor Who, and the Tardis as just Tardis, which was disjointing.
I'm not as familiar with the TV story, so can't really comment on how faithful it is :)

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Zarbi (1965) by Bill Strutton is the second Doctor Who novelisation ever written. The First Doctor’s companions are Vicki, Barbara and Ian. The TV serial was the fifth of the second season of Doctor Who and was known as the Web Planet. Bill Strutton was from South Australia for any Australians who might just care.

The TARDIS is pulled onto the planet Vortis where the ant like Zarbi have taken over. The planet’s previous main species, the Menoptra are trying to regain a hold. But somehow the Zarbi are acting together and have some sophisticated weapons.

In this serial The Doctor is referred to as Doctor Who which is a bit unsettling at first.

The story isn’t too bad. It’s not great either. But it’s an OK read.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

60th anniversary read. This book is interesting in that the story really looks to be goofy, however I think that is because the limitations of a very low budget and 60’s technology couldn’t be properly realized. The bad is that it is jarring to see the doctor constantly referred to as “doctor who” throughout the book, and the social interactions have not aged well. However, the good is that this has a world and aliens that truly can feel alien, if you keep to the word of the book, as opposed to visualizing the scenes from the actual video of the show. I think this may be one of the more successful stories that really feels alien in that context. Next up: Doctor Who and the Crusaders. Woohoo…what…he’s called “Doctor Who” in that story too? You’ve got to be kidding me….

[fred jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story

Bill Strutton did an excellent job of adapting his ambitious script of this first Doctor story. His descriptions and writing bring the Zarbi, Menoptera and Vortis into a much more vivid and darker life that the tight budget for the series managed. One of the earliest novelizations before the series lore was set, it has some things that grate for fans like me, the doctor is Doctor Who, the ship is just Tardis and the attitude to Barbara and Viki is very condescending especially early on. William Russell does a super job with the narration and his thoughts at he end were fascinating.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid all around novelization. I'd give it higher than three starts except it suffers from the fact that it was broadcast and written in 1965 well before most of the canon of the series had been created, The Doctor has not yet regenerated, the indestructability of the Tardis has yet to be established etc. ...

Fans particularly of the series from the 2005 reboot onwards might be very confused by the goings on. The language is also a touch archaic and slows the pace just a tad in comparison to other titles in the reissue series.

[Emilou · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a really interesting plot, but it was very hard to read due to the lack of accuracy on the author's part. It felt as if the author wasn't even a Doctor Who fan since he consistently called him "Doctor Who" instead of "The Doctor", and "Tardis" (italicized, like it was the name of a ship, e.g. Titanic) instead of "The Tardis". Either the author hadn't seen a single episode of the series and just wrote this book for money, or the editors fudged on the project. Those kind of errors ruined an otherwise good book.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was only conscious of the sexism everyone describes in this story at the beginning. It was definitely there at the opening, but I didn't really catch anymore as the story progressed.
This was a pretty decent sci-fi story with the Doctor thrown in to give it a little something extra. I enjoyed the variety of sentient life (all related to insects) on the planet setting for this story. This allows the story to vary from the common humanoid alien trope of most Doctor Who and older sci-fi of the time period.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A faithful adaptation of an early Doctor Who story that was well known at the time for being visually very ambitious - probably beyond the realms of what was technically achievable for television at the time. The book was one of the first to be adapted into a novel too, and the Doctor being referred to as Doctor Who throughout, always by the narrator and occasionally by the characters themselves - takes a little getting used to!

[Jazza1971 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather a plodding retelling of this Hartnell story which is rather misogynistic in it's handling of the women.
Strutton rather annoyingly refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" throughout and his description of the TARDIS interior suggests he has never actually watched the show, not even his own story.
I've been reading (or re-reading in many cases) the Target novels in story order and this turgid retelling comes as rather a jolt after the excellence of "The Romans".

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, not the greatest novelization of the Doctor Who stories (Yes I know it's one of the first ones so I do have to give it some slack). But the fact that the consistently referred to the Doctor as Doctor Who kind of really annoyed me and it's just a very strange story in general. I'd say give it a pass.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read by William Russel (Ian Chesterton)

What a great audiobook!!! William Russels reading is amazing. I was sitting on the edge of my sofa while listening to it. I was so tense and exciting. The story did not really work on television because of budget reasons but it is so much better when you listen and imagine.