Watched the first episode of Sarah Jane Smith Adventures and I really really enjoyed it a lot more than a was expecting. Thought the children would be unlikable and annoying but its not the case here, if the pilots anything to go by its not hard to see why people say its better than a lot of newer new who and has a classic who feel to it's not just because of Sarah jane . it was also quite emotional when Sarah was talking about the Doctor, well worth getting for any fan of doctor who and head and shoulders above that shite called class. I do think that Sarah should of named the boy John Smith.


Ordered the last two series ( went for blu as they were cheaper than the DVDs).

Have you bought the hardback reprints of the first three novels, Susan?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-...rds=doctor+who

You won't be disappointed.

No. Most of the books I have got are the paperbacks

I do have a handful of hardbacks tho, including 'The Edge Of Destruction', The Underwater Menace', 'The Wheel In Space' and 'Time-Flight'

After the successful reprinting of three novelisations dating back to 1964 and 1965, the Target Books novelisations line began properly in 1974 with 'Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion', which was the first original Target novelisation to be published. Despite it being an adaption of 'Spearhead from Space', the opening chapter of the book partially adapts episode 10 of the preceding televised story, 'The War Games'. With this book, Target continued the practice of using titles different from the original TV serial. This practice would continue off-and-on before being mostly abandoned by the mid-1970s, although the title format 'Doctor Who and the...' and variations therefore would continue to be used until the early 1980s.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20070924083620

Back cover summation (1974 Target edition)

"In this, the first adventure of his third 'incarnation', DOCTOR WHO, Liz Shaw, and the Brigadier grapple with the nightmarish invasion of the AUTONS — living, giant-sized, plastic-modelled 'humans' with no hair and sightless eyes; waxwork replicas and tailor's dummies whose murderous behaviour is directed by the NESTENE CONSCIOUSNESS — a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportions and indescribably hideous appearance.

'This DOCTOR WHO adventure (televised as 'Spearhead from Space') wins my vote as the best in the lifetime of this series so far.' Mathew Coady, The Daily Mirror

'DOCTOR WHO, the children's own programme which adults adore...' Gerard Garrett, The Daily Sketch"

Chapter titles

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

Differences from the televised story

• The novel opens at the end of The War Games with the Second Doctor being judged and pronounced guilty by a Council of Time Lords, led by a President of the Court. Eventually, and after rejecting the offered regeneration forms, the Doctor is grasped by a force-field and is sent on his exile to the 20th century on Earth.
• When the Third Doctor stumbles out of the TARDIS in the episode, he is still wearing the Second Doctor's clothes. However, the illustration of the scene below shows him wearing the Second Doctor's trousers, but the First Doctor's coat, waistcoat and cravat.
• John Ransome is renamed Harry Ransome.
• More detail is given to the hospital staff, including a rivalry between Henderson and Lomax and the medical staff's views on Beavis.
• Beavis plans to cut the Doctor open.
• Beavis witnesses the Doctor stealing his car.
• The scenes featuring the radar technician and UNIT officer are removed.
• In the televised version, Corporal Forbes is one of the sentries at the TARDIS and is later killed when a Auton causes his jeep to crash. In the novelisation, Forbes is not at the TARDIS and his patrol discovers the Doctor's body after the sentry shoots him. Forbes' jeep is later driven off the road by the Auton, but he is not killed in the jeep crash. Instead, he gets out and tries to shoot the Auton. The Auton then kills Forbes by breaking his neck.
• Sam Seeley's encounter with Forbes at the TARDIS in the televised version is replaced by a near encounter with the sentry at the TARDIS.
• The doll Ransome invented is called the Walkie Talkie, and Ransome demonstrates it to Hibbert. The doll is not named on-screen.
• Captain Munro is given the first name of Jimmy.
• Wagstaffe introduces himself to the Brigadier as being the defense correnspondent for the Daily Post.
• Mullins swears never to call the press again.
• Channing is present when the facsimile of Scobie goes to Scobie's house.
• Two Autons accompany Channing and Hbbert to the waxworks.
• Hibbert shows the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier the factory store rooms. He also tells them that their mannequins are called Autons, after the company's name, Auto Plastics.
• Seeley accompany's the Doctor, Liz, the Brigadier and Munro to his cottage of find the meteorite. He later travels with his wife to the hospital. On-screen, he is kept at the UNIT camp.
• A extra scene is added featuring the Doctor, the Brigadier and Liz in the car heading from the factory.
• "Scobie" is accompanied by two military policemen when he goes to take the meteorite from UNIT HQ. On-screen, a single officer accompany's him.
• The waxworks attendant is given more lines.
• Nobody is present in the waxworks when the Doctor and Liz visit it. On-screen, several other visitors are present.
• More detail is given into the effects of the invasion.
• An extra scene is added featuring Ransome, the Doctor and Liz in the UNIT car heading towards the woods.
• The battle between the UNIT troops and the Autons takes place in the factory, instead of outside it as in the televised version.
• On-screen, the Nestene is not seen fully, but in the novelisation, it comes out of the tank to attack the Doctor. It is described thus: "Standing towering over them was the most nightmarish creature Liz had ever seen. A huge, many tentacled monster something between spider, crab and octopus. The nutrient fluids from the tank were still streaming downs its sides. At the front of its glistening body a single huge eye glared at them, blazing with alien intelligence and hatred."
• Jimmy, one of the reporters, is not in the novelisation.
• A flashback sequence features Jamie and Zoe.
• The Nestene spheres are green.
• Hibbert is given more backstory.

Writing and publishing notes

• Terrance Dicks' first novelisation for the Doctor Who series was among the first commissioned new titles and arrived one week late. Dicks, who at the time was a member of the TV series production team, would be the most prolific author of the Target Novelisation line, writing dozens of works that would be published between 1974 and the publication of The Space Pirates in 1990, after which Dicks would write a original novels for virtually every continuation series of original fiction. He would also write two more novelisations: Shakedown, based upon an independent spin-off film, and the premiere episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Invasion of the Bane.
• The first edition cover includes the face of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, making him the first recurring character other than the Doctor to appear on the cover of a Target novelisation.
• The novel was republished in July 2011 by BBC Books. For this edition, an introduction by producer Russell T Davies was added and the title of the book reverted to Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion.

Been advised to give The Robots Of Death a go for my next Who story on DVD.:nod:

Its great and the robots are little creepy.

Finished the pirate planet yesterday, OK if a little tongue in cheek and the pirate captain was very pantomime villain, but it is Douglas Adams,next up for me earth shock in which we see the end of the annoying bastard of mathematical excellence!

The only original Target hardback i have is The Deadly Assassin.

Picked up the Big Finish story The Justice of Jalxar for 2.99 on the weekend as part of the celebrations for Tom's birthday. A masked superhero has become a feared vigilante on the streets of Victorian London, but may be connected to a darker series of events - charred, unrecognisable corpses that keep turning up on Professor Litefoot's autopsy table. The Doctor and Romana 1 are soon on the case... This was quite a fun story. The plot is pretty unmemorable but the fun is in seeing the Doctor reunited with Jago and Litefoot and them meeting Romana, and there are some great lines. If nothing else, it's the first BF I've actually managed to sit through for about six months! ;)

Were this a review of a new tv episode you'd be ripping it a new one due to the highlighted.