Audio Go: Target Update

Back last year I asked David Fisher whether he would be interested in penning his own novelisation of the story in which he would be able to expand upon the characters and backgrounds of the adventure. David took on the challenge and has delivered a superb new telling of the story.

This is a one-off for the time being, because there are still dozens and dozens of original Target novelisation queuing up to be released as Audiobooks. I'm hoping it will prove to be a popular diversion from the norm, and one which will perhaps pique the curiousity of many Doctor Who fans.

The Edge of Destruction, out now

William Russell reads this exciting novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure.

In a final bid to regain control of the TARDIS' faulty control system the Doctor is driven to experiment with a dangerous untried combination. With a violent explosion the TARDIS blacks out and the crew find themselves trapped inside. A simple technical fault? Sabotage? Or something even more sinister? Tension mounts as the Doctor and his companions begin to suspect one another. What has happened to the TARDIS? Slowly a terrifying suspicion dawns. Has the TARDIS become the prisoner of some powerful fifth intelligence which is even now haunting the time-machine's dark and gloomy corridors?

William Russell, who played the Doctor's companion Ian in the original TV serial, reads Nigel Robinson's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1988.

The War Games, due 3rd February 2011

David Troughton reads this thrilling novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure.

Mud, barbed wire, the smell of death...The year is 1917 and the TARDIS has materialised on the Western Front during the First World War. Or has it? For very soon the Doctor finds himself pursued by the soldiers of Ancient Rome; and, then he and his companions are reliving the American Civil War of 1863. And is this really Earth, or just a mock-up created by the War Lords? As Doctor Who solves the mystery, he has to admit he is faced with an evil of such magnitude that he cannot combat it on his own - he has to call for the help of his own people, the Time Lords. So, for the first time, it is revealed who is Doctor Who - a maverick Time Lord who 'borrowed' the TARDIS without permission. By appealing to the Time Lords he gives away his position in Time and Space. Thus comes about the Trial of Doctor Who...

David Troughton reads Malcolm Hulke's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1979.

The Ribos Operation, due 3rd March 2011

John Leeson reads this thrilling novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure.

Reluctantly cancelling his well-earned holiday, the Doctor sets off in the Tardis to trace and re-assemble the six segments of the Key to Time on which the stability of the entire Universe depends. Assisted by the argumentative Romanadvoratrelundar and K9, he lands on the planet Ribos in search of the first segment and finds himself entangled in the machinations of two sinister strangers, Garron and the Graff Vynda Ka. Who are they? Is Garron simply a shady confidence-trickster dealing in interplanetary real estate? Is the Graff Vynda Ka just a power-crazed exile bent on revenge? Or are they both really agents of the Black Guardian, intent upon seizing the precious Key in order to throw the Universe into eternal chaos? Risking his life within the monster-infested catacombs of Ribos, the Doctor has to use all his wit and ingenuity to find out...

This is an exciting unabridged reading, with music and sound effects, and this novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure, first published by Target Books in 1979.

Inferno, due 7th April 2011

Caroline John reads this thrilling novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure.

In this exciting reading, first published by Target Books in 1984, the Doctor is trapped in a parallel world, unable to act as the Earth is threatened by a poisonous liquid leaking from top-secret drilling project Inferno.