Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion

Cover

About the Book

About the Authors

Also available from BBC Books

Title Page

Introduction by Russell T Davies

The Changing Face of Doctor Who

1. Prologue: Exiled to Earth

2. The Mystery of the Meteorites

3. The Man from Space

4. The Faceless Kidnappers

5. The Hunting Auton

6. The Doctor Disappears

7. The Horror in the Factory

8. The Auton Attacks

9. The Creatures in the Waxworks

10. The Final Battle

Between the Lines

Copyright

‘
Here at UNIT we deal with the odd – the unexplained. We're prepared to tackle anything on Earth. Or even from beyond the Earth, if necessary
.'

Put on trial by the Time Lords, and found guilty of interfering in the affairs of other worlds, the Doctor is exiled to Earth in the 20th century, his appearance once again changed. His arrival coincides with a meteorite shower. But these are no ordinary meteorites.

The Nestene Consciousness has begun its first attempt to invade Earth using killer Autons and deadly shop window dummies. Only the Doctor and UNIT can stop the attack. But the Doctor is recovering in hospital, and his old friend the Brigadier doesn't even recognise him. Can the Doctor recover and win UNIT's trust before the invasion begins?

This novel is based on ‘Spearhead from Space', a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 3–24 January 1970.

Featuring the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee, his companion Liz Shaw and the UNIT organisation commanded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
.

Born in East Ham in London in 1935, Terrance Dicks worked in the advertising industry after leaving university before moving into television as a writer. He worked together with Malcolm Hulke on scripts for
The Avengers
as well as other series before becoming Assistant and later full Script Editor of
Doctor Who
from 1968.

Working closely with friend and series Producer Barry Letts, Dicks worked on the entirety of the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee's era of the programme, and returned as a writer – scripting Tom Baker's first story as the Fourth Doctor: ‘Robot'. He left
Doctor Who
to work as first Script Editor and then Producer on the BBC's prestigious Classic Serials, and to pursue his writing career on screen and in print. His later scriptwriting credits on
Doctor Who
included the twentieth-anniversary story ‘The Five Doctors'.

Terrance Dicks novelised many of the original
Doctor Who
stories for Target, and discovered a liking and talent for prose fiction. He has written extensively for children, creating such memorable series and characters as T.R. Bear and the Baker Street Irregulars, as well as continuing to write original
Doctor Who
novels for BBC Books.

Robert Holmes served with distinction in the army and also in the police before becoming a journalist. He also started to write for television series, including
Emergency Ward 10
.

After rewriting his proposed
Doctor Who
story ‘The Space Trap' as ‘The Krotons' in 1969, Holmes went on to become one of the programme's most prolific writers. He took over from Terrance Dicks as Script Editor of
Doctor Who
in 1974, working mainly with producer Philip Hinchcliffe during one of the programme's most successful periods at the start of the Fourth Doctor's era. During this time he extensively revised or reworked many of the scripts for the programme and wrote ‘Pyramids of Mars' under the pseudonym Stephen Harris.

Holmes wrote the introductory stories for both the Third Doctor (‘Spearhead from Space') and the Master (‘Terror of the Autons'). Several of his scripts are considered amongst the absolute best ever in
Doctor Who
– including ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang' and the Fifth Doctor's final story, ‘The Caves of Androzani'. In ‘The Deadly Assassin', Holmes established a background and society for the Time Lords that has endured to this day.

Robert Holmes wrote for many other series including
Doomwatch, Spy Trap, Dixon of Dock Green, Blake's 7
, and was Story Editor on
Armchair Theatre
. He also adapted David Wiltshire's book
Child of the Vodyanoi
for television, retitling it
The Nightmare Man
.

Robert Holmes died in 1986, while working on the final episodes of the
Doctor Who
story ‘The Trial of a Time Lord'.

Also available from BBC Books:

DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS
David Whitaker

DOCTOR WHO AND THE CRUSADERS
David Whitaker

DOCTOR WHO AND THE CYBERMEN
Gerry Davis

DOCTOR WHO AND THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
Terrance Dicks

DOCTOR WHO AND THE CAVE MONSTERS
Malcolm Hulke

DOCTOR WHO

AND THE

AUTON INVASION

Based on the BBC television serial
Spearhead from Space
by Robert Holmes by arrangement with the BBC

TERRANCE DICKS

Introduction by
RUSSELL T DAVIES

Illustrated by
Chris Achilleos

I met my first fellow fan through these Target books.

Of course, everyone watched
Doctor Who
in the old days, just as they do now. But as a Swansea kid in the '60s and '70s, I didn't really have a concept of fandom.
Doctor Who
was just a permanent and lovely thing, and no one could possibly be watching ITV on a Saturday night, could they? Simple as that.

But slowly, I became aware of a bigger world. Other forms of
Doctor Who
. Comic strips, the word ‘Rolykin', the TV21 Daleks, and best of all, prose versions of old stories, in which things were slightly different from the programme I knew; differences that were thrilling, and mind-expanding. I'd never have called this stuff ‘merchandise'. It was so much more than that! Looking back, it's easy to focus on the things we didn't have in those days – no DVD, no streaming, no Watch+1 – but maybe that vacuum made the things we did have more potent. Could a novelisation ever be so mysterious, these days? Tempting us in, with a permanent and yet askew version of the Doctor's adventures…?

It all began with
Doctor Who and the Daleks
. My neighbour, Ceri, had a copy of the paperback. Looking back, it must have been one of the first editions – the ‘Armada paperback for boys and girls', before the Target
range existed. Its dramatic cover haunted me. And I mean properly; I'd stare at it for ages, quite literally mesmerised. I'd ask to borrow the book and then keep it for weeks, hoping that Ceri would forget and not ask for it back. He always remembered, damn it. And so my life of crime began. One day, I just took it. Stuffed it in my pocket, smuggled it home, kept it hidden behind some other books, so only I would know it was there. And then it haunted me in a different, darker way, wedged in its shadowy hiding place; glowering and growing, like the cat in Vernon Scannell's poem, ‘A Case of Murder'.

Why was it so important, to own it? I'm still not sure, though I've wondered about this for decades. But later, when I came to actually work on
Doctor Who
(you may remember me from such classics as Children In Need Cutaway and Tonight's the Night's Alien Talent Search with John Barrowman), I'd always get annoyed when cynics would dismiss merchandise as money-making. We have teams of people who fight to raise standards on the books and toys, because these things are important. For children in particular, I think, it's part of owning the show, of participating; it brings that world of imagination into your hand, into your home, into your life of breakfast, school and bed. Maybe it closes the gap between Swansea and Skaro, just a little.

So, anyway, I had my guilty paperback festering away. But then, as though the world was growing up in sync with my little self, the book range became bigger. Target came along!
Doctor Who and the Daleks
was reprinted, with a better cover! Then more books. Monthly! Books promising books-to-come in the flyleaf!

And that's when I met her. That other fan. I was in
WH Smith. Checking the
Doctor Who
shelf, as I did every week, just in case. And joy of joys, this turned out to be an incredible day – two new novelisations released at the same time!
The Daemons
and
The Sea Devils
, together!

So I reached for those two books. Just as another hand reached for those two books. And we looked at each other and laughed. Two schoolkids. She was a bit older than me, I think, standing there with her mum. We said something like, ‘Me too!' ‘That's funny!' Pause. ‘I love these books!' ‘And me!' And that was that. We went our separate ways.

There's no great punchline to that tale. Sadly, I was doomed to never marry, so it's not the romcom ending you're hoping for. But that's the point: nothing happened except something truly massive – I met someone who loved
Doctor Who
as much as I did, someone whose love went beyond a Saturday night and into that greater world of artifacts, jewels and myths. I realised I wasn't alone. And as a result, although I've forgotten terrifying amounts of my ordinary days, I have remembered that simple moment for almost 40 years.

I wonder. Who was she? Did she stay in love with
Doctor Who?
Might she even buy this edition? Oh, I wonder.

But the world moves on. The Doctor disappeared, and then came back. Idiot parents now try to take Vernon Scannell's poem off the school syllabus, in case it makes children think too hard. And Ceri asked me to autograph a
Doctor Who Annual
for his lovely daughters, last Christmas (they remembered me from such classics as Who Peter and Russell's Comic Maker Hints & Tips. Or maybe Ceri just used the girls to distract me while he searched my bedroom). But the world keeps turning round to meet itself, and now these lovely books are back.

This one's a wonder. A stone-cold classic, frankly. Written by Terrance Dicks – who should surely be Sir Terrance, for enthralling a whole generation of kids – it contains a sentence that chilled me, thirty-seven years ago, and chills me now. As the villain reveals the true extent of his plan, we are told, ‘And Channing smiled a terrible smile.' I'm not kidding – it genuinely thrills me, just to type those words out, after all this time!

But that's how vital a book can be, how powerful, how forever. This is so much more than merchandise. I knew that, as a kid, and so did Ceri, and so did that unknown girl. We're a disparate little bunch of schoolkids, strangers, neighbours. But these novels are connecting us together, even now.

All the way across time and space.

This
Doctor Who
novel features the third incarnation of the Doctor, whose appearance was altered by his own people, the Time Lords, when they exiled him to Earth. This was his punishment for daring to steal a TARDIS, leave his homeworld and interfere in the affairs of other life forms. The Time Lords sentenced the Doctor to exile on twentieth-century Earth. The secrets of the TARDIS were taken from him and his appearance was changed.

While on Earth the Doctor formed an alliance and friendship with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, head of the British branch of UNIT. Working as UNIT's Scientific Adviser, the Doctor helped the organisation to deal with all manner of threats to humanity in return for facilities to try to repair the TARDIS and a sporty, yellow Edwardian-style car he calls Bessie.

UNIT in the United Kingdom is under the command of the ever-practical and down-to-earth Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He first met the Second Doctor, and fought with him against the Yeti and the Cybermen. UNIT is a military organisation, with its headquarters in Geneva but with personnel seconded from the armed forces of each host nation. The remit of UNIT is rather vague, but according
to the Brigadier, it deals with ‘the odd, the unexplained. Anything on Earth, or even beyond…'