Ooh, now this is a treat: here’s our first look at the new covers for the upcoming Target novelisations for The Pirate Planet, Resurrection of the Daleks, and Revelation of the Daleks.
Anthony Dry provides the artwork, in classic Target style, based on the style of Chris Achilleos. Here they are, with synopsis for each:
The Pirate Planet
The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces.
With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet – Zanak.
Ruled by the mysterious ‘Captain’, Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age and they fill up again. It’s an economic miracle – so obviously something’s very wrong…
Resurrection of the Daleks
The TARDIS is ensnared in a time corridor, catapulting it into derelict docklands on 20th century Earth. The Doctor and his companions, Tegan and Turlough, stumble on a warehouse harbouring fugitives from the future at the far end of the corridor – and are soon under attack from a Dalek assault force.
The Doctor’s oldest enemies have set in motion an intricate and sinister plot to resurrect their race from the ashes of an interstellar war. For the Daleks’ plans to succeed, they must set free their creator, Davros, from a galactic prison – and force the Doctor to help them achieve total control over time and space. But the embittered Davros has ideas of his own…
35 years after its first TV transmission, Doctor Who fan-favourite Resurrection of the Daleks is novelised at last, by the author of the original script, Eric Saward.
Revelation of the Daleks
The Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros to visit the funerary home Tranquil Repose – where the dead are interred and the near-dead placed in suspended animation until such time as their conditions can be cured.
But the Great Healer of Tranquil Repose is far from benign. Under his command, Daleks guard the catacombs where sickening experiments are conducted on human bodies. The new life he offers the dying comes at a terrible cost – and the Doctor and Peri are being lured into a trap that will change them forever.
At last, the only classic-era Doctor Who adventure never to be novelised is here, and by the author of the original script, Eric Saward.
These three books have all been previously released as hardbacks, so this time, they’re being turned into more traditional Target-sized paperbacks.
Speaking of the 2018 releases, Anthony Dry told the DWC:
“[The BBC] wanted [the covers to look] retro and vintage, much like the reprints a few years ago and I understood that. I’m not a dedicated illustrator of sorts – my background is in Graphic Design – so I understood commercially what they were after. You ask yourself, ‘who is the audience? What would they like to see?’ I don’t normally do the whole pointillism approach, but this time I thought, ‘why not?'”
And in our exclusive interview with Achilleos, he recalled working on the original Target covers:
“Well, I always saw them as graphics rather than paintings. They were very small book covers and you had to do something very impactful to grab attention and that worked very well. But it wasn’t always the Doctor’s face in black and white on them, I did some colour ones to try and move on a little bit rather than doing the same theme all the time. I took a chance and did different things, like using the work ‘Kklak!’, or even leaving the Doctor’s head off altogether, stuff like that to make it interesting.”
The Pirate Planet, Resurrection of the Daleks, and Revelation of the Daleks are released alongside The TV Movie, The Crimson Horror, Dalek, and The Witchfinders, on 11th March 2021.
