BBC Books has announced that it will be expanding the Doctor Who Target range with five new titles in Summer 2023, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
The new titles celebrate Target publishing Doctor Who books for half a century.
Launched in 1973, Target Books published novelisations of almost every Doctor Who serial aired between 1963 and 1989, with only a few notable exceptions. To the delight of fans, BBC Books began reissuing these classic paperbacks in 2012, and in 2018 expanded the Target range to include all-new novelisations of modern-era Doctor Who episodes.
The 2023 collection celebrates the dramatic return of David Tennant and showrunner Russell T Davies to the programme. Both THE WATERS OF MARS by Phil Ford and THE PLANET OF OOD by Keith Temple are iconic Doctor Who episodes from the Tenth Doctor era.
Fans will also be able to add a Twelfth Doctor adventure, as played by Peter Capaldi, to their collection with THE ZYGON INVASION by Peter Harness and a Thirteenth Doctor novelisation with KERBLAM! by Peter McTighe. Stephen Gallagher’s WARRIORS’ GATE AND OTHER STORIES will feature the Fourth Doctor.
This year, the expansion continues with:
KERBLAM! by Peter McTighe – Kerblam! is the biggest online retailer in the galaxy – but how did it become so big? When the Doctor’s Kerblam! package includes a mysterious request for help, she heads straight to the company’s warehouse moon to investigate…
You can pre-order KERBLAM! here
THE PLANET OF OOD by Keith Temple – The Doctor and Donna learn that the planet of the Ood holds cruel and awesome secrets. As they battle for justice and survival, the fate of the entire Ood race hangs in the balance. Will the outcome be salvation – or extinction?
You can pre-order THE PLANET OF OOD here
THE WATERS OF MARS by Phil Ford – The first human colony on Mars is destined for destruction in a nuclear explosion. This tragedy is a fixed point in history. The laws of time dictate that it cannot – must never – be changed. But as the Doctor’s darkest hour comes calling, he resolves to break the rules as he never has before…
You can pre-order THE WATERS OF MARS here
THE ZYGON INVASION by Peter Harness – It took three Doctors to broker a fragile peace between Zygons and Humans. Now the Twelfth Doctor must face the fallout alone. With his allies compromised and his companion believed dead, can he stop the world from plunging into war?
You can pre-order THE ZYGON INVASION here
WARRIORS’ GATE AND OTHER STORIES by Stephen Gallagher – a new-to-print, expanded novelisation of the classic 1981 adventure. With the TARDIS caught in the collapsing void between two different universes, the Fourth Doctor is drawn into a dangerous alliance with a race of enslaved, time-sensitive aliens. The consequences are explored in two further short stories, one exclusive to this volume!
You can pre-order WARRIORS’ GATE here
Each of the authors for the 2023 Target books are the original screenwriters of the TV episodes. Target fans can expand their collections with these new, iconic novelisations.
You can pre-order all these Target novelisations now ahead of their release on 23rd July 2023.
Considered a unique record of Doctor Who’s history in the era before fanzines, official magazines and home video, Target books are probably the most cherished items of merchandise inspired by the show. They’re certainly the most commercially successful.