Doctor Who to release 5 new Target books in 2023
It’s not just the main TV show that’s enjoying a big birthday in 2023 as while Doctor Who turns 60 in November, the Doctor Who Target book range is celebrating 50 years of publishing in the summer of 2023.
And to make sure it’s an unforgettable birthday for fans of the novelisations of Doctor Who, Target is releasing five brand new titles to mark the occasion.
BBC books has commissioned five new titles for “summer 2023” and each will have newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
In 2023 the book collection celebrates the exciting return of two of new Who’s most well-loved figures David Tennant and Russell T Davies with both The Waters of Mars by Phil Ford and The Planet of the Ood by Keith Temple from the Tenth Doctor’s era in the TARDIS.
There are also adventures from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor in Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness and Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth in the book Kerblam! by Peter McTighe.
A Fourth Doctor Adventure will also be available by Stephen Gallagher in the shape of Warrior’s Gate and Other Stories.
The official synopses of each of the stories from BBC books reads:
“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…
“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?
“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…
“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?
“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!
All of the new titles are available to pre-order now ahead of their release on the 23rd of July 2023.
Target Books was launched in 1973 and published novelisations of every Doctor Who serial broadcast between 1963 and 1989, with only a few exceptions. The books were reprised as paperbacks in reissues from 2012 and the collection was expanded to include the new era of Doctor Who post-2005 since 2018.
Doctor Who returns to TV screens in November 2023 with three special 60th-anniversary episodes starring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor alongside his old companion Donna Noble played by Catherine Tate.
The first episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s era as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday will air around the festive season of 2023, with Doctor Who season 14 playing out in 2024.
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