Jason is on vacation this week, so here is a pre-recorded episode. We did not discuss the book cover, but this is one of the all-time great Target covers, so take an extra minute to drink that in. Jeff Cummins, everyone. Such a haunting, moody painting.

Please e-mail the pod at [email protected].

In 2022, it may be mid-August, traditionally a slow season for media, but there's been a lot going on this week. Jason takes a look at the series finale of "Better Call Saul" -- is it the greatest US TV series finale ever? And there's a new trailer out for the Doctor Who Blu-ray Collection -- it's Season 2, and Maureen O'Brien is back on screen as Vicki! We also have listener mail, and a plug for two new Black Archives releases.

Back to January 1978, Jason is joined by Lelon Stoldt (@LelonStoldt), creator and co-host of the InDOCtrination podcast -- catch its latest episode, which dropped after we recorded.

Jason pauses the read-through in between the 1977 and 1978 books, and gives the episode over to Jim Sangster, a long-time Doctor Who fan who you know from pretty much everywhere, but most recently from his pandemic-inspired read-through of the Target novelizations in publication order (does that project sound familiar?), the wonderful Escape to Danger blog.

You can also find Jim on Twitter and I highly recommend his Target-inspired Redbubble shop.

We also have listener mail; Jason is left completely speechless by some of Jim's stories; and Jason digresses to discuss his all-time favorite Albert Brooks movie.

We will be back next week and will embark for the next few months on our journey, this time through the 1978 and 1979 books.

We close out the 1977 Target novelizations with the longest-ever episode of Doctor Who Literature.

Please e-mail the pod at [email protected].

"The Talons of Weng-Chiang" is still, by popular acclaim, one of the greatest "Doctor Who" stories of all time. It's still in the top-10 -- out of both Classic and New series -- in the year-2014 DWM survey, and is even top-5 among Classic stories on that list.

"The Deadly Assassin" is the first Season 14 story to be novelized, the first of four straight Season 14 books to come, and the start of a long consecutive run of adaptations of *many* truly excellent Doctor Who stories.

Please e-mail the pod at [email protected].

This week Denise Sutton (@CupOfTea69) is our guest. We discuss what it's like watching Doctor Who overseas, what it's like when "The Dominators" is your birth story, and what links "The Mutants" has to other Bob Baker & Dave Martin scripts. Denise can also be found at her blog and on several terrific episodes of Trap One, such as discussing the Audio Annuals or "The Pirate Planet".

Please e-mail the pod at [email protected].

You can catch all past episodes at https://anchor.fm/doctorwholit.

Back for a record-setting fourth appearance on Doctor Who Literature this week is Simon Hart (@Si_Hart). We both break down the TV version of "Planet of Evil" -- is this one of Doctor Who's most successful hours? How does the dialogue and plot logic measure up to the many other jewels in the Philip Hinchcliffe era crown? Then we get to the book -- is Terrance Dicks able to work his usual magic on a script that he seems to find less enjoyable than many others he's adapted in the past?

Si also tries to defend his crown as all-time DWL "20 Questions" champion. Can he break his own record this week?

It's June 1977, and the release of the novelization of a Doctor Who story whose influence is still being felt in the New Series even 45 years later. It's "The Brain of Morbius".

My guest this week is Adam Clegg (@AdamJClegg) of the Real McCoy Podcast, and we both have thoughts about Morbius, and the New Adventures, and the current series, and many, many other topics.

Catch Jason and Adam together on past Trap One Podcast episodes such as this one.

You can also hear Jason this week on the newest episodes of Reality Bomb and Gallifrey's Most Wanted. And check out the night that Trap One took Times Square!

Jason is joined this week by three-time Doctor Who Literature guest Stacey Smith?, to break down Ian Marter's first novelization, "The Ark in Space". Stacey, who continues to be prolific, recently edited the Outside In volume on Twin Peaks, and, of course, Stacey being Stacey, has several other books in the work. All at once. Other passionate and controversial opinions are exchanged.

Jason then does his close reading of Ian Marter's text of the Ark in Space book. What does Marter do differently from Terrance Books? How do the scenes in the book stack up to those on television? And how much are we looking forward to Marter's next book after this one?

You can check out the full Doctor Who Literature archives here.