It's Episode Lucky-Number-Thirteen. Doctor Who and the Giant Robot is one of our favorite novelizations from childhood, a slim volume -- the shortest Target book to date -- but it's held an outsized influence over Jason's life, since he first read it over 35 years ago. What about this little book is so magical? Why should it still be widely read today?

In the first half of the episode, Jason takes you on journey through the book's text. Terrance Dicks uses fewer words here, in the March 1975 release, than in his earlier books, but pulls no punches, and works his usual craft in adapting the teleplays while never missing a wicked character aside or sharp internal thought.

Doctor Who Literature turns to Jason's first novelization, Doctor Who and the Cybermen, which Jason first read -- all in one day -- on Super Bowl Sunday 1985. Thirty-seven years later and the book's prose, vocabulary, and descriptive powers, are still unmatched.

We're up to the 1975 Target Doctor Who novelization releases. Up first, the first novelization (of two) by Brian Hayles, featuring the first novelization (of four) to feature the Ice Warriors.

Once we get to the book, the first half of the episode is Jason and his trademark breakdown Brian Hayles' prose style and narrative choices.

Welcome to the double digits for the Doctor Who Literature podcast (excluding bonus episodes), and it's the last Target novelization of 1974, Terrance Dicks' third book, and the first novelization of a Patrick Troughton/2nd Doctor adventure.

It's October 1974, and Malcolm Hulke's third novelization of the year. He'll never have another year this prolific, but what a trilogy of books he's left us. Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils is the shortest of the bunch, but don't let the length fool you; there's some terrific material here in terms of character insights and observational humor. Even if there aren't too many actual Sea-Devils.

In the first half of the episode, I break down Hulke's writing style in the book, and catalogue the many changes from screen to book.

In the second half, I'm joined by one of my favorite podcast guests, Frazer Gregory, who shares his memories of this novelization, and does some of the best dramatic readings from the book that you'll find, outside of the Target novelization audiobook range.

This may be the end of Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils, but the Sea Devils will return.

This week we're up to October 1974 and the first book of Target's last double-release month. The first of those two books is the novelization of "The Daemons", the Season 8 finale, and is written by the episode's producer and co-writer, Barry Letts. It's one of the longest novelizations Target will ever put out, and in the first half of this episode, we'll take a deep dive into just what Barry is able to do with all that extra space.

March 1974 saw two Target novelization releases; Episode 6 covered one of those, Malcolm Hulke's Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon. This week we jump back in time from the 30th century to the 22nd and take a long look at Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks. A remarkable book, one of Terrance's longest, this expands greatly on the troubled TV production, adding a prologue and epilogue not seen on TV, and giving us Terrance with some of his most evocative prose ever.

The first half of the episode features Jason's trademark deep dive into the book's prose.

For the second half, we're joined this week by Tony Whitt of the Doctor Who Target Book Club podcast (@DWTARGETBC). Tony's excellent Target podcast previously covered this book -- and paid tribute to Terrance Dicks in general -- in 2019, and you can find that episode here:

https://soundcloud.com/doctorwhotargetbc/ep-59-day-of-the-daleksdicks-tribute-wlarry-vanmersbergen

It's March 1974, and the third and fourth Target novelizations of Doctor Who episodes are released in the same month. Once again, the double release features one Malcolm Hulke book and one Terrance Dicks book. This week we're discussing the Hulke entry, the novelization of 1971's "Colony in Space".

Living on a hostile alien planet and being threatened by a capitalist world-state, has never been this entertaining or illuminating!

For the first time, Jason is joined by a guest, prolific Doctor Who non-fiction writer, longtime fan, epidemiologist, and a former profile subject on Morgan Freeman's "Through The Wormhole", the inimitable Stacey Smith? (the questionmark is part of her name).

After three episodes on the Frederick Muller books from the 1960s, it's now 1974, and the Target range -- which began with 1973 reprints of the Muller books -- begins properly with a twin January 1974 release of novelizations of "Spearhead From Space" and "Doctor Who and the Silurians". It's a very warm welcome to the Target line for Terrance Dicks -- they'll end up keeping him. Join us for a deep dive in Terrance's magnum opus, a 150-page book, one of his very best, if not THE best, books he wrote. What value does Terrance add to the TV scripts and direction? How does he describe the TARDIS materialization sound and the Third Doctor's face, in this, his first Doctor Who book? Join us, and find out ...