Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #62

by Gerry Davis

The Sergeant blinked again. Three lights were moving towards him through the murk of the blizzard. Even as he looked, the lights changed into three tall, straight figures, clad in silver-armoured suits, advancing across the ice with a slow deliberate step. Horror-struck, the Sergeant reached for his gun, and a stream of bullets sprayed across the marching figures. BUT THEY CONTINUED MARCHING...

The CYBERMEN have arrived. The first invasion of Earth by this invincible, fearless race-and the last thrilling adventure of the first DOCTOR WHO.

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

141 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 19, 1976

About the author

Gerry Davis was a British television writer, best known for his contributions to the science-fiction genre. He also wrote for the soap operas Coronation Street and United!.

From 1966 until the following year, he was the script editor on the popular BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he co-created the popular cybernetic monsters known as the Cybermen, who made several appearances in the series over the following twenty-two years. His fellow co-creator of these creatures was the programme's unofficial scientific adviser Dr. Kit Pedler, and following their work on Doctor Who, the pair teamed up again in 1970 when they created a science-fiction programme of their own, Doomwatch. Doomwatch ran for three seasons on BBC One from 1970 to 1972, and also spawned a novel written by Davis and Pedler, and later a cinema film and a 1999 revival on Channel 5.

Davis briefly returned to writing Doctor Who, penning the original script for Revenge of the Cybermen, in 1975, though the transmitted version was heavily rewritten by the then script-editor Robert Holmes. He also adapted several of his scripts into novelisations for Target Books. With Kit Pedler, he wrote the science-fiction novels Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters (1971), Brainrack (1974) and The Dynostar Menace (1975).

In the 1980s Davis worked in America both in television and on feature films such as The Final Countdown (1980). In late 1989 he and Terry Nation made a joint but unsuccessful bid to take over production of Doctor Who and reformat the series mainly for the American market. Gerry Davis died on August 31 1991.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enter: The Cybermen and the first regeneration!


WHO

The Doctor:

The First Doctor


Companions:

Ben Jackson

Polly Wright


WHERE & WHEN

Antartica. Earth. Year 2000.


WHAT

This is a key story in Doctor Who lore, one of those serials that BBC lost some of the episodes, that it this case, it was lost the fourth (of four) episode that it was "recovered" using a basic animation and the original sound tapes.

There are some differences from the TV presentation like an odd decision to set the prose adventure in the year 2000 instead of 1986 in the TV original version, but at the end, this novelization is quite right to appreciate the story.

The real action is limited to be honest, and some science elements aren’t managed in a proper way (even having in mind that it was developed in the good ol’ 60s and that it’s a sci-fi show) that leave you with bittersweet sensation that the plot wasn’t exploited to its real potential,…

…BUT…

…it’s two key elements that made this tale a pivotal game-changer in the franchise of Doctor Who…

…it’s the very first story introducing the Cybermen which would became one of the most popular villains is Doctor Who, second only to the Daleks, that while you may not feel them like that in this adventure, it was after all the peak of the iceberg for many more ambitious stories to come using these great villains…

…AND…

…it’s the story where The Doctor passed through his first regeneration, even before of formally name this process in that way, and while it was due the original actor was too ill to continue in his acting role, this opened one of the best elements to keep Doctor Who active as sci-fi franchise even nowadays (2018).

The First Doctor, Ben & Polly arrive just in time (pun intended) to the Antartica when something impossible happened in near space orbit from Earth…

…a tenth planet appears in the Solar System!

It’s Mondas, homeworld of being whom used to be humans but due poor choices in the use of radioactivity, they started to replace organic parts for mechanical ones, until…

…almost none organinc left in their bodies and became…

…The Cybermen!!!

Now, Mondas was left without resources or any kind of energy, and its return to the Solar System means the doom for Earth and its inhabitants!

Resistance is useless! (Mmh… where did I heard that before? Mmh)

It’s obvious that the Cybermen where the inspiration for the Star Trek: The Next Generation’s The Borg, but nobody is hiding or denying anything since if you remember, the very episode where The Borg were introduced was aptly titled Q Who, and after all, if you have in mind that next stop for The Doctor and his companions, after this adventure will be “the planet Vulcan”, well, it’s like Pirates from Sillicon Valley,…

…the one without sin…

Meanwhile, take cover, since a fleet of 250 Cybercrafts are invading Earth and the only able to stop them is The Doctor, but he seems quite ill and aged.

This is not the end, by far chance, it’s only the last chapter of an era, and the next one is just around the corner!

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the introduction of both the Cybermen and The Doctor’s regeneration the story may initially seem a little weak, but it’s still a great adventure.

Davis pretty much sticks to the script with this novelisation, with the only real difference of setting the story in the year 2000.

These Cybermen are so iconic and the base under siege style story becomes more familiar during the Second Doctor era.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the second serial of the fourth season of Doctor Who which was originally broadcast in October of 1966. It was written by Gerry Davis, based quite closely on the teleplay he wrote in collaboration with Kit Pedler; the two were active and well known in the science fiction field outside of the show, too. The two companions of The Doctor are seaman Ben Jackson and Polly, a hip young contemporary woman who was never awarded a last name during her time on the show. The two most notable parts of the plot are the introduction of the Cybermen, who inhabit Mondas, the titular tenth planet that arrives in the year 2000 (one of the main differences from teleplay and novel; the televised version called it 1986) to cause trouble, and the regeneration of The Doctor. He's frail and weak through the story, and Ben and Polly carry the action. At the conclusion, he rescues Ben and Polly and then transforms into a different body, which is definitely something fans weren't expecting. The plot is a standard one of the time save for those two points: at the beginning the exotic location is the South Pole, and the Cybermen arrive soon and threaten the Earth with Z-bombs to save Mondas. Still, the Cybermen are quite intriguing and threatening, and it's one of the better-written stories of the first Doctor.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was itching to find out exactly what happened in this important serial that I couldn't wait for the DVD release (one of the later in the range), and snapped up an old copy on eBay.

I knew it was going to be a while for an release due to the important fourth episode missing (later animated) from the archive.
Why was I so keen? It's because it's the first time The Doctor changed (later called Regeneration) and introduced the Cybermen for the first time.

The like that the novel opens with a quick history of the creation of Cybermen on Telos.
The dehumanised men lack of emotions are due to their flesh being replaced by plastic.

One interesting quirk is that the story is now set in the year 2000, which wax apparently in the original scripts though does add a continuity error as in the projector room where Ben instantly reconises Roger Moore as James Bond, this contradicts him being from the 60's.

Davis starts seeding in The Doctor's falling health earlier too which is a nice addition.

[Leo H · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Gerry Davis' better efforts, a pretty enjoyable read. It does very much highlight how The Doctor basically vanished for the second half of the story, but Ben and Polly do quite well for themselves to be fair.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the year 2000 and a South Polar military base is tracking a manned capsule probing Earth's outer atmosphere. The TARDIS crew of an ailing Doctor, accompanied by Ben and Polly arrive at the base just as the capsule begins malfunctioning, seemingly affected by a strange force.
By the time this one came out I'd already witnessed my first Time Lord regeneration when Jon Pertwee bowed out, so the big surprise at the end of the Tenth Planet shouldn't have been much of a shock. What it did do to my understanding of the show, that I'd drifted into loving through Jon Pertwee's tenure, was to make me aware that regeneration had occurred before and that sooner or later it was going to happen again. The story also introduces the Cybermen in their original, almost unrecognisable, though very creepy, cloth masked version. I was a month old when The Tenth Planet was first broadcast and by the time this book got into my hands the BBC had already junked much of their pre-70s episodes including that crucial regeneration episode.
Gerry Davis' novelisation sticks close to the original script. There's a few minor changes like the year being 2000 instead of the original 1986, a Roger Moore James Bond cameo (sort of), some teasing lines from the newly regenerated Doctor at the conclusion and most noticeably the reinstatement of the Doctor's lines from episode three which were delivered in the televised version by Michael Craze (Ben) , somewhat confusedly, when William Hartnell missed filming due to ill health. Even though the Doctor doesn't have much of presence in this story it's still a very enjoyable affair and one of the first times the base-under-siege scenario that would soon become familiar was used. Let's face it, in the 1970s most little boys, when they weren't staging dinosaur battles, were probably launching Lego rockets into space - after that all important Thunderbirds countdown of course, so stories with astronauts are something that was sure to grab the imagination of young minds. Much of the tension throughout is generated by the astronauts in peril. The Cybermen on the other hand, though creepy, are a little too easily defeated. There's no mention of a weakness to gold at this stage but it's not needed as their real Achilles heel is not keeping track of their weaponry. They might be 'pretty advanced geezers' as Ben puts it but tacticians they aren't. Then when we find out that radiation makes them keel over like bowling pins, their battle cry of 'Resistance is useless' seems a little misguided. The real threat of the piece comes from the increasingly erratic and trigger happy base commander General Cutler who seems bent on sacrificing half the world's population to save his son.
Aged ten I couldn't really think of anything better than walking home with a book like this under my arm - I loved it.
Original artwork , features on script to novel, Gerry Davis and a new introduction by Tom MacRae.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio book
Anneke has read the audio version of this and it's just delightful to listen to. Would highly recommend it. They've got Nick Briggs doing the original cybermen voices, but she does all the rest. Simply wonderful.

1st reading
I must admit i was expecting a bit more from the first cyberman adventure. I liked the artic base and the astronaunts (ironic that they considered there should be black astronauts in 2000 but that they still referred to him as a negro). I liked the old and sick pre-regeneration doctor and the way Polly and Ben tried to compensate for him. It seemed like a good start but then it all kinda fell apart. The arrival of the other planet and the cyberman's lack of a plan seemed rather silly. Of course the biggest problem was the sexism in this story. Polly, being a woman, wasn't considered a big enough threat to even be locked up with the Doctor and Ben and all she had to do was make cups of tea and coffee!!! Which she got yelled at for doing wrong! It's only a few years away from Zoe defeating the entire invasion fleet and sending missles into orbit with the power of her brains! But what a big difference those few years make. I love Polly and Anneke Wills but this was just too sad.

[Scott Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently read the three Doctor Who novelisations from the mid-1960s, this is first of the Target novelisations I've tackled since I originally read many of them around 40 years ago. The Tenth Planet closely follows the TV story, but the dialogue-heavy writing with sparse descriptions does not quite convey the atmosphere of the original. Of course, the lack of visuals is also a benefit in some respects. The book suffers from the flaws of the TV script: some crude characterisations and very dodgy astrophysics (co-writer Kit Pedler was a medical scientist). But, it is less old-fashioned than the 1960s novels - only a couple of stray references to Polly's 'long legs' (Anneke Wills was not tall) betray the era. In the end, like the TV story, it is a reasonably effective prototype for the base-under-siege story that would come to the fore in the Troughton era of Doctor Who. The cybermen are menacing, but ultimately easily defeated. The humans are flawed and so rely on the Doctor and his companions to save the Earth - well, mainly Ben in this case. It is notable mainly for the first appearance of the cybermen and for the Doctor's regeneration - albeit described in only a few lines here.

[Alex Cahill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what I expected: quick and easy, nothing groundbreaking, and an entertaining 4 hours of audiobook.

I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of sound design – crackling audio when someone was speaking through a microphone, howling winds and bleeping computers.

The narrator was the companion from when this adventure originally aired on TV in 1966, and that gave me the warm and fuzzies.

I can't believe how useless the Doctor was in this adventure though.
I chose this book to learn more about his character, but he really stepped back and let his companions and the rest of the crew handle this crisis.
Shame on you, old man.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose it was about time I read my favourite Doctor's regeneration story. Quite enjoyable to be fair. I have always been a fan of the Cybermen as well, so of course there first appearance as villains was equally exciting as the Doctor's regeneration itself. Although it is MUCH different than the televised version that I have now viewed. All in all though. I still really enjoyed the story and blasted through it in a matter of hours.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Landing in Antarctica, the Doctor faces his end when Earth's twin planet, Mondas, appears in the skies followed by the arrival of its inhabitants who call themselves Cybermen.

Davis' novelisation of the First Doctor's final adventure is mostly faithful to the serial, with the addition of more interaction between the Doctor and other characters.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet is a fun if slightly inconsistent story. It's adapted from the TV serial of the same name which was originally televised in four weekly parts from 8 to 29 October 1966. It followed the 1st Doctor and his companions Ben and Polly as they land on a military installation in the South Pole in the year 2000. While they are being questioned by the military personnel on the base the planet stands witness as Earth's twin planet; Mondas approaches. As Mondas begins the process of draining the planets energy for it's own, we see the military base gets invaded by the Cybermen. The Cybermen are all that remains of humanity on Mondas, monstrous constructs of metal, plastic and organic parts. Due to the rapid decline of their natural resources, they have chosen to augment their humanity for survival. This augmentation was so extreme, the Cybermen lost all of their humanity and emotions and serve as a cold and incomparable villain to face off against. It's up to the Doctor and everyone on the base to overcome the Cybermen and save Earth from being destroyed by Mondas.

The narrative for the most part is pretty fun and compelling. The South Pole serves as a interesting backdrop for the 1st Doctor's last adventure and the whole base under siege narrative is played out pretty well. There's a varied range of supporting characters who all play an integral part in the storyline from beginning to end and they each have defining characteristics that make their inclusion in the narrative feel vindicated. The Cybermen as the threat are easily the best aspect of the story too. As noted they're an emotionless entity which are visually imposing and creepy. The idea that they reflect a dark future of humanity pushed to the limits makes them almost sympathetic but the fact they've far surpassed their own ability to sympathise with Earth and it's people makes them impossible to appeal to as a force. Kit Pedler is credited for helping to create the Cybermen, as he was a scientific adviser hired by the BBC at the time to help write science fiction for the show. He noted his inspiration for the Cybermen came from the dehumanisation of medicine and when you look at the idea of augmentation and prosthetics being relevant in today's medical world it makes the dark reality of the Cybermen even more believable. It's just a shame that they're not in the storyline for all that long, the moments they are here a great but they only really show up at the start and near the end. The other main bad guy of the narrative is the General Cutler.of the base, who has a very stubborn and aggressive mentality in how he approaches the situation Mondas presents. In a lot of ways he's like every other General bad guy in media but the narrative at least tries to make him feel justified in his actions when his sons life is at stake, he is willing to compromise his own morals and orders to save him. The main stars of the story are definitely Ben and Polly though, with the Doctor sidelined notably throughout the story his companions take a proactive approach in the situation and Ben saves the day numerous times throughout the plot.

In terms of pacing the narrative plays out in a reasonable speed. Again with it being adapted from a set of 4, 25 minutes episodes the threat and stakes are set up reasonably quickly. There's not much time to really sit down and get to know the characters as they're all put into situations of confrontations and conflict. Yet you're at least given a reasonably well paced story from beginning to end. My only issue is things seem to resolve themselves all on their own pretty quickly as well. It's kind of explained in a throwaway line by the Doctor but no clear context or explanation is really given to how the Mondas/Earth energy situation works. I think the set up works stringer than the climax in all honesty, as it definitely feels like it's not really interested in explaining the outcome all that well.

I respect the Tenth Planet for setting up the Cybermen and the the idea of regeneration. The story for the most part is a fun base under siege story which utilises science fiction is a smart fashion. The characters are all fun to read and the Cybermen stand out as the best aspect of the episode and it was fun to ready their very first story in the Doctor Who franchise.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I missed reading Gerry Davis' adaptation of his and Kit Pedler's script for "The Tenth Planet" during the height of my reading and collecting the Target novels. It could be due either to that fact that I didn't appreciate the William Hartnell serials as I do now during my initial viewing of Doctor Who or it could be that this one just didn't show up at my local bookseller.

A pivotal story in the history of Doctor Who, "The Tenth Planet" features two huge firsts -- the debut of the Cybermen and the first time the Doctor regenerated.

You'd think that for a story this pivotal to the long-running history of the show, the Target novelization would be more to write home about.

Davis follows the Terrance Dicks model of adapting Doctor Who stories and sticks fairly closely to the plot as it unfolded on screen. There are a few differences, from the story moving from 1986 to the year to 2000 and details of the first Doctor's first regeneration (he uses a special couch instead of just falling to the floor of the TARDIS). But, the basic outline of the story is still here, including the Cybermen invading an isolated base not once, but twice during the course of the four episodes. (This story could be looked as a template for not only the Cybermen's appearances during the Troughton era but also the base under siege stories that were popular during the era).

I did find it odd that Davis includes a prologue detailing the history of the Cybermen, which pretty much spoils the entire story to come. It also offers some hints as to their future history and feels like it's included to entice readers to pick up future Cybermen adaptations from Davis' pen. It's also odd for various Cybermen to have names.

The audio version of the book is up to the usual standards of excellence that I've come to expect from this range. Anneke Wells' reading of the story is a good one, including her choice on how to imitate various members of the regular and guest cast. It's a shame that this story isn't much of a showcase for Polly (is this the first time Polly is giving little to do in a story besides make coffee?!?) because you can tell Wells is enjoying revisiting the story and her character.

The audio version also gives us Nick Briggs as the voices of various Cybermen and the voices are close to what we saw on screen and not quite as jarring as hearing new Who Cybermen voices was in earlier installments (like the ones used in "Earthshock" for example).

Like many Who fans, I find it unfathomable that the BBC would keep parts 1-3 of this serial but not the historic fourth installment. I felt certain that with series 10's finale hinging on Mondasian Cybermen, that good news of the fourth installment's recovery would be coming out any day (as well as an opportunity to purchase the story again on DVD). And while that news hasn't broken (yet!), I still hold out hope.

Until then, this novelization and the DVD release can fill in a few of the gaps surrounding this pivotal story in the history of Doctor Who. It's just a shame that the adaptation isn't one of the better entries from the Target line.

[David Edmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a current reprint from BBC Books of a vintage Target Books novelization of the Doctor Who story, The Tenth Planet, the First Doctor's final adventure. Target Books would release novelizations of just about every Doctor Who episode, though not necessarily in the order that they serials were released to television. For instance, Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet was released in 1976, while the serial it was based on was broadcast in 1966. I have not seen the episodes this novelization was based on, but I'm familiar with the events and feel like the novel did a more than adequate job of translating the story to print. In fact, I think given that the story was written a decade after the episodes aired, Davis was able to improve on the story in some ways, since the future that was being described in the 1960s episodes was far closer to the 1970s story being told here. In the afterword, it is revealed that there are some changes made to the story, replacing scenes where the Doctor was missing from the aired episodes (William Hartnell was absent from an entire episode of filming due to illness, so changes to the script had to be made to include that absence), slight changes in time (the television episodes took place in 1986, the novelization takes place in 2000), and changes to the way the Doctor regenerated.

This adventure was also the introduction to the Cybermen, who came from Earth's sister planet Mondas, and who were coming to destroy the Earth. Mondas was a dying planet, and when it came back into our solar system, it started to leech power away from the Earth, so that eventually Earth would be laid to waste and Mondas would be a strong planet again. The Cybermen come to Earth to keep the security forces of the planet from interfering with the energy transference to Mondas. Naturally, the Doctor and his companions, Polly and Ben, find themselves in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it), and the Doctor seems to know exactly what's going on and helps to defend the Earth.  Through the course of this adventure, the Doctor grows more and more weak, eventually resulting in his first regeneration.

I really enjoyed reading this novelization. One of the things that made it really work for me was how contemporary the writing and feel of the story is for something that was written 35 years ago. Had I not know when the story was written before I read it, I would have thought it had been written more recently. I felt that the changes Davis made to the story worked well, especially since he wrote the original screenplay for The Tenth Planet and is responsible for the creation of the Cybermen, and was asked by Target to write this novelization ten years later.

This is my first experience with the Target Books edition of Doctor Who stories, and I'm fairly sure I'll be picking more up as I find them.  Recommended for Doctor Who fans!

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1026309.html#cutid2[return][return]This was the first new First Doctor book published by Target, and is of course both the last First Doctor story and the first Cybermen story. Davis made a number of changes, mostly minor and annoying, to the script he co-wrote with Kit Pedler. Most crucially, the Doctor's regeneration at the end takes place in a coffin-like cabinet rather than just on the floor of the Tardis; also the year of the action is shifted from 1986 to 2000. Bizarrely, considering that Pedler's involvement was supposed to bring a bit more scientific credibility to the show, the number of basic mistakes is legion - the South Pole is about the least suitable place imaginable to put either a space tracking station or a deadly nuclear missile, the terms 'nova' and 'supernova' are flung about with wild abandon, and the whole foundation of the plot makes as much sense as Velikovsky. Plus Davis is compelled to do some retconning of the Telos/Mondas confusion which actually makes matters worse. I enjoyed the screen version much more; it was easier to go with the flow and ignore the flaws is the story.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get that in his 1976 Target novelisation of Dotor Who and the Tenth Planet, Gerry Davis would advance the timeline from 1986 to 2000 (not 1996?), but weirdly, he also pushes Ben and Polly's time to the 1970s (and not even concurrent with the book release since Ben "just saw" 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun), which is rather strange. Regardless, this is an important story for the Doctor Who canon. It features the introduction of the Cybermen and includes the first regeneration. Davis sets up the First Doctor's frailty earlier in the novel than in the televised version, but changes a lot of the details of the actual event (nothing too egregious though). Where the book shines best is in its realization of the action beats (which, face it, were never very strong on TV given the production limits), and you come out of it liking Ben a lot more as a result.

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still not a huge fan of the first Doctor, who really doesn't seem to contribute much beyond the means of transportation. I did enjoy meeting Ben and Polly, and witnessing the first-ever regeneration. Otherwise the story was a bit lacking. A lot of running around and shouting - very DW - but the ultimate resolution is unsatisfying and a bit silly.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not yet seen the televised version of this story, but I enjoyed this novelisation. It is a shame that William Hartnell’s Doctor was not given more time to shine in is final story. The cybermen are always an eerie but exciting villain, and I like that they have more personality here, although it is implied that they are less human than in other stories (Having replaced their brains with computers and such) they have more of a sense of individuality and are effected by frustration, impatience and annoyance rather than remaining impassive and emotionless as they tend to.
I expect the quality of the televised episodes relies heavily on the acting abilities of the portrayers of General Cutler (who I was picturing as a strange mixture of Gene Kranz and Kelsey Grammer) Ben and Dr. Barclay.
The Astronauts are a strange addition to this, in my opinion they add an unnecessary additional tension adding element rather than focusing on the people trapped at Snowcap, I understand that they were trying to show the disaster as worldwide. The first astronauts make sense as it provides a reason for the base to be there but it’s strange that they just send up another astronaut for no particular reason.
(I will complete this review when I have watched the televised version!)

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who : The Tenth Planet (1976) by Gerry Davis is the novelisation of the second serial in the Fourth Season of Doctor Who. The Doctors companions are Ben and Polly.

The TARDIS lands at the South Pole in the year 2000. The crew are taken in to a space tracking station there and before long the Cybermen make their first appearance in Doctor Who.

The story does have the ludicrous story line that the planet Mondas was a twin of earth that moved away and is now returning back to ‘get energy from the earth’. It’s a pity that such interesting villains as the Cybermen were coupled with that in their first serial.

It’s also interesting how the Doctor regenerates in an episode where life extension through cybernetic means is shown.

The story is nice in that the Cybermen, while super strong and with highly advanced technology are shown to be possible to kill with their own weapons. Also that they have a weakness which is radioactivity in this serial before gold was introduced later.

The regeneration of the Doctor was a clever idea to keep the show going and is in itself interesting. People regenerate in new jobs and with new friends in a way too.

Doctor Who : The Tenth Planet is very worthwhile reading for Doctor Who fans and despite some silly bits is entertaining.

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on a script credited to Kit Pedler, but which had uncredit work by Pat Dunlop and Gerry Davis. This is number 62 in the Target catalogue. The original cover is by Chris Achilleos and the 2nd cover is by Alister Pearson.

I loved this book. The Daleks are what made Doctor Who famous, but I’ve always loved the Cybermen more (until NuWho). Their depiction is excellent, but I did notice a couple of things. The cyber guns are different. In the book they are short rod like things as opposed to the big two-handed searchlight things from TV. And no mention is made of their hands. The human hands is what made them super creepy in this story. Later versions had the hands covered as part of the cybersuit, but not with these first generation cybermen.

General Cutler as portrayed by Robert Beatly was brilliantly characteriesed as an arrogant grumpy American. He felt exactly like he does in the TV version, almost a caricature.

The only disappointment was the regeneration at the end. It's glossed over in a paragraph. Given the significance of this first regeneration to the history of Doctor Who I felt it needed more made of it.

I’m looking forward to Gerry’s other Cyberman novelisations, particularly Tomb which is my all time favourite Cyberman story.

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between a 4 and a 5 for me, and possibly heightened given historic nature of the story - first appearance of the Cybermen, and first regeneration as well.
As is apparently the case with many of the Cybermen stories, a bit of a prologue fleshing out Cybermen history, though this has been contradicted now by other newer stories.
Is also the first real base under siege story for me, a forerunner of much of the Second Doctor's stories, but quite different to the more sweeping locales that the First Doctor's run frequently had.
The story itself isn't bad, with quite a bit of tension and action, and Ben and Polly both do get plenty of time to shine, albeit the latter is more as the moral centre, though still manages to push people to do the right thing, with Ben doing more of the action, similar in some respects to the Ian and Barbara pairing of old.
Another story though with only really one female character, and compared to the Smugglers this is highlighted more, which is poor really, even for the time, and not sure about another story with the word negro being used as well.
Despite these drawbacks though, still a fun, memorable read for me.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot going on, from the Antarctican setting, orbiting astronauts, introduction of the Cybermen, and the First Doctor's last story - it could have been a dog's dinner and the science of the plot is enough to make you wince. But with a sympathetic eye, it's quite exciting really and Ben and Polly step up again to make the story work. The Cybermen are suitably threatening and it's a good story to mark the end of an era, even if Hartnell's last moments are less awe-inspiring.

I've really enjoyed revisiting the First Doctor Target books - I like the character much more on screen where his tone is more humourously irascible rather than tetchy and haughty as he seems in the books, but the pace is a lot more tolerable. Most of the best companions have also been from this era too, obviously except for Dodo and Susan. It may not be everyone's favourite, but it's the reason DW is still going strong in 2020.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird little adventure that had Ben and Polly doing more of the heavy lifting in this story with the Doctor largely being passive. It makes sense in the end why this was so, plus when you factor in what was happening with the actual show and its actors at the time of broadcast.

The actual story wasn't all that great - not that we can expect all that much from the first serial to feature the now infamous Cybermen. These early episodes weren't always the best and they certainly feel rather dated by modern standards. But the core narrative of the serial still works in this novelization with interesting beats in the story as the Doctor and his human friends do their best to counter the Cybermen's plans.

But I suppose the ending makes up for the Doctor's general inactivity throughout the story to some degree. It is a pivotal moment in Doctor Who history not just as the first feature of the Cybermen along with that ending moment. Good stuff.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I owe a debt really to these target novelisations as they set me on course for a life long love of reading.
These books fleshed out the old Dr Who series episodes and arguably elevated the stories which where generally good on screen but in this form we were able to see nuances and of course explore thought processes ..something difficult to do visually.
This is a first Dr adventure saying that the 2nd Doctor pops along in closure , it was also the introduction of the cybermen into the series.
I understand this tale is one of which the BBC has only partial tapes meaning it's unlikely to be reshown in its original form..however who knows what can be replicated in these AI days.
It was good fun a nostalgic romp in truth..the first Dr adventures are in truth somewhat lacking in action on the whole ..this is the case here ..we have a ailing Dr and Cybermen who aren't quite as evil as they would later be..however it's a good short read and these Target books don't turn up often these days.

[Julian White · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather lacklustre effort on this rereading, despite some updating (literally, to 2000) but that almost overcomplicates things. Ben has seen Roger Moore as Bond, for instance - which contradicts the date in The Faceless Ones (unless the Doctor has had the Space-Time Visualiser working again, or the crew have visited late 70s/early 80s Earth... ). The Doctor-lite middle sections, while giving Ben more to do fall a bit flat without the Doctor. Not sure about the author's credentials but some of the science is just wrong (presumably the original would have been corrected by Pedlar - but Mondas becoming a supernova!) and some of th continuity at the end wavers a bit. Possibly in an attempt to 'correct' the Doctor's regenerating clothes here we have a borrowed parka from the base turning into a 'familiar cloak'. Good to have the 'new' Doctor speaking, though!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the few other Target Doctor Who novelisations I have read, there is enough difference between the TV serial and the Book to keep things interesting for the seasoned Who lover.

I chose to read this one out of curiosity to see how the first regeneration was handled in novelisation format. It is a really easy quick read, where the action flows rather well. I almost wished that the TV serials had such good pacing, as at times they can drag on a little with far too much exposition and corridor running... but it would be Doctor Who with out running down corridors over and over.

I am looking forward to reading more of the Target books this year, just for the pure quci dose of escapism that they provide.

[Austyn Kidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novelisation of one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time, The Tenth Planet, which was the final regular appearance of William Hartnell as the Doctor. It also was a story with a 'base under siege' format, which ironically was more heavily used in the time of the second Doctor. The story begins with the TARDIS materialising in Antarctica, at which point the characters are taken into a bunker shortly before the arrival of Earth's twin, Mondas, which drifted away on a journey to the edge of space while its inhabitants became cybermen. It was expertly written and very faithful to the televised version, except for some elements in which the original script was used, which had to be modified to accomodate William Hartnell's deteriorating health.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I managed to find this a book fair/garage sale some years back.

I think I watched the titler episode around then as that’s how I generally go about watching and then reading ‘Doctor Who’ media especially in regards to the Classic series.
However, since it’s been a few years I did forget how light on The Doctor this story was, which is a bit of a drawback since I do like The Doctor as a character. On the other hand I am glad that I do own the story where they first regenerate, which is just a cool thing. It’s also cool that it’s the first appearance of The Cybermen.

The plot for me in novel form may be on or a little higher than average. But it still has significance and if you can find this or other Target ‘Doctor WHO’ books it’s worth picking up.

[Joe Brewer-Lennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important description of a pivotal story that is mostly missing from our screens. It’s the first appearance of the emotionless Cybermen and the last of the 1st Doctor’s adventures. The action is well described, the drama well executed, the added flourishes only a novel can provide are a gift (BBC budget, time constraints and an ill lead actor didn’t allow this story to fly so high). Only two disappointments: the first regeneration scene doesn’t have all the fizz it should; and as black lives really do matter, it’s time to delete some of the terminology used to describe a certain character.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the end of Wm. Hartnell's tenure, so there's a whole section where he's barely in it. Truly a relic of 1976, with its flattened female characters and Negro spacemen (never used in a derogatory way, though), this has a Star Trek World Utopia vision of International Space Cooperation kind of structure with Ben and Polly as companions. Good, scary Cybermen, but the Doctor's not as much of a presence on the page as maybe you'd like, and the secondary personalities - Ben, Cutler, and so on - are dominant. A few loose ends, but otherwise an okay read.