Target Books
Encyclopedia
Target Books was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd
Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd
Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd was a United Kingdom paperback publishing company established in the early 1960s as Tandem Books. Its principal imprint was Tandem. The hyphenated name Universal-Tandem was adopted as a corporate identity in 1968 after Tandem Books was bought by the American group...
, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem
Tandem
Tandem is an arrangement where a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction....
imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of novelisations and other assorted books based on the popular science-fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. In 1975 Universal-Tandem was sold by its American owners, the Universal-Award group, to the British conglomerate Howard and Wyndham. The company was renamed Tandem Publishing Ltd before being merged with the paperback imprints of Howard and Wyndham's general publishing house W. H. Allen Ltd to become Wyndham Publications Ltd in 1976. However, during 1977 and 1978 the Wyndham identity was phased out and, until 1991, Target books were published by 'the paperback division of WH Allen & Co.'
The most prolific writer in the Doctor Who range was Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
, while actor turned writer Ian Marter
Ian Marter
Ian Don Marter was an English actor and writer, perhaps best known for his role as Harry Sullivan in the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, from December 1974 to September 1975 as a regular, with a one story return in November and December 1975...
, Malcolm Hulke
Malcolm Hulke
Malcolm Hulke was a British television writer and author of the industry "bible" Writing for Television in the 70s...
, Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe is a British television producer, who brought shows including Private Schulz and The Charmer to the screen, probably best known for the overseeing of British television series Doctor Who from 1974-1977...
and Nigel Robinson
Nigel Robinson
Nigel Robinson is an English author, known for such works as the First Contact series.Nigel was born in Preston, Lancashire and attended St Thomas More school....
(who was for a time the editor of the range) were also contributors.
Almost every story from the Doctor Who series was produced in novelisation form; the exceptions being three scripts by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
(Shada
Shada
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season , but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming...
, The Pirate Planet
The Pirate Planet
The Pirate Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 September to 21 October 1978. It forms the second serial of The Key to Time...
and City of Death
City of Death
-Pre-production:Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Whos sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas...
) and two by Eric Saward
Eric Saward
Eric Saward was born on 9 December 1944 and became a scriptwriter and script editor for the BBC, resigning from the latter post on the TV programme Doctor Who in 1986....
(Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...
and Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 March and 30 March 1985...
). Saward was reluctant to novelise these scripts himself due to the large percentage of the author's royalties demanded by the agents of the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation
Terry Nation
Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, for the inclusion of the creatures, and other writers were dissuaded for the same reason. Adams reportedly wanted to adapt his scripts, but his other work prevented this from occurring.
The company also produced novelisations of various other film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series, again aimed mostly at the child and teenage markets. They also published a number of original children's and teenage novels.
WH Allen was purchased by the Virgin Group
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
in the late 1980s and changed its name to Virgin Publishing in 1991. According to the On Target website (see link below), the Target Books line was retired on new books following the publication of Victor Pemberton
Victor Pemberton
Victor Pemberton is a British writer and television producer.Victor Pemberton's scriptwriting work included BBC radio plays, and television scripts for the BBC and ITV, including Doctor Who, The Slide and The Adventures of Black Beauty.His television production work included the British version of...
's Doctor Who - The Pescatons
The Pescatons
Doctor Who and the Pescatons is an audio play in two episodes based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
in the autumn of 1991.
However, when Virgin Books later published novelisations of the serials The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to...
and The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...
, and an adaptation of the radio play The Paradise of Death
The Paradise of Death
The Paradise of Death is a radio audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on BBC Radio 5 from 27 August to 24 September 1993. The original radio play was released on CD as part of the BBC...
, the books were identified as being part of the Target series on their title pages; The Paradise of Death, published in April 1994 as No. 156 in the "Doctor Who Library", was the last book to be connected to Target. Reprints of the older novelisations with new covers were published until March 1994, using the Target name.
Further novelisations of Doctor Who-related productions were published by Virgin under the New Adventures
Virgin New Adventures
The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
and Missing Adventures
Virgin Missing Adventures
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and...
lines (including an adaptation of the BBC Radio play The Ghosts of N-Space
The Ghosts of N-Space
The Ghosts of N-Space is a radio audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was recorded in 1994 and finally broadcast in six parts on BBC Radio 2 from January 20 to February 24, 1996. This was the second Third Doctor radio play, following The...
and the independently-produced spin-offs Downtime
Downtime (Doctor Who)
Downtime is a direct-to-video spin-off of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was released direct-to-video and produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures...
and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans is a film spin-off of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was released direct-to-video in 1995 and was produced by the independent production company Dreamwatch Media, a division of Dreamwatch magazine...
), while BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
would later adapt the 1996 TV-movie and the 2003 webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
, Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka is a flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who...
.