Malcolm Hulke (1924–1979)

I found this one at the thrift store I frequent (there’s only two in my area) and decided why not – I have three other Doctor Who books published by Target Books I bought when I was teenager from a thrift store in Berdoo that is long gone at this point. I was pleasantly surprised, and not just because it was an easy read either.

As Dent sat there, touching the controls of the IMC spaceship, he felt happy and secure in the fact that he was an IMC man, with an IMC wife, IMC children, with a show more four-room IMC home. His present and his future were as secure as IMC, and IMC would go on forever. [pg.51]

It has an anti-corporate anti-imperialist theme established around page 50, and not subtly, that runs through to the end. The story concerns a paranoid bunch of interplanetary settlers fleeing the overcrowded fully corporate-ruled future Earth for the planet the Doctor and Jo find themselves stranded on. A ship full of mining corporation types is initially hiding in the background trying to scare the colonists away then outrightly try to take the barren planet, so that they can completely strip it bare, by force. There is also a race of apparently harmless “primitives” who have somehow “regressed” from a high-tech society leaving behind some ruins. Eventually, The Master becomes involved as an arbiter between the corporate ship captain Dent and the colonists because he wants the ultimate weapon built by the primitives which was ultimately the cause of why they devolved. Pretty typical Dr. Who.

If there was one thing Dent hated it was people who could think and reason. [pg.55]

There is some building of the anti-corporate theme by having the corporates having absolute hatred for those who can think and reason, those who didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t “fit in”, and for aliens. Feels somewhat timely to me. I was disappointed that there were no “real” monsters in this one, as corporate greed and unchecked power are the monsters featured here.

“Earth’s needs,” mused the Doctor, “or your corporation’s profits?”

“What’s good for IMC is good for Earth,” said Dent rather smugly, realizing that he was now blustering against the Doctor’s calm. “There are over a hundred thousand million people back on Earth, and they need all the minerals we can find!”

“What those people need,” said the Doctor, “are new worlds to live on, like this one. Worlds where they can live like human beings again, instead of like battery hens.”

“That’s not my concern,” said Dent. “Minerals are needed. It’s my job to get them.” [56]

The main theme is supported by several instances where the corporatists are fully anti-individualist and where they prefer order and profit over anything else. All their actions are in pursuit of these two goals sometimes even over each other though that avenue is never fully explored by the author just sort of mentioned here and there.

[…] Dent liked Morgan. Morgan was ambitious and totally unscrupulous. Dent felt you could always trust people like that. [pg.57]

The addition of the bible on page 117 however, raised my hackles a bit not just because I’m an atheist either. It served as a last-minute foreshadowing of another quickly added theme of self-sacrifice. It foreshadows the self-sacrifice of the Guardian to destroy the weapon after The Master proved it was a bad idea to let him have it and the leader of the colonists (John Ashe) who sacrifices himself by piloting the colonists’ ship which explodes to distract Captain Dent and his men. At its first appearance, it did springboard off the anti-corporate theme by having Dent read it unable to understand the sacrifice presented in it. However, it happens near the end just to service the plot. It was jarring and telegraphed the ending.

The three IMC security guards found the rocky slope hard going. They weren’t used to this kind of physical activity, and their uniforms restricted them. But they pressed on as best they could because they all had IMC living units back on Earth that they didn’t want to lose, and IMC wives, and their children were in IMC schools that were very exclusive, and if they got the durilinium from this planet they would all get good IMC bonuses. Above all, they hated all colonists because they were eccentric and didn’t conform to the society on Earth, and sometimes they smelt of sweat. [pg.80]

Overall, if you’re familiar with Doctor Who then I would recommend this one. It’s a quick read and has some interesting and relevant themes, it is also not subtle at all while establishing its main theme. If you’re not familiar with the Doctor, then it is easy enough to get through that I might recommend it, but as sci-fi goes, this is pulpy, adventure type science fiction.

“You’re nothing more than criminals,” Jo shouted.

“We obey our orders.” Said Allen. “There can’t be anything wrong in obeying orders.” [pg.75] show less

Another of the old Target Books Doctor Who novelizations, this one for the Second Doctor's final story. And a very significant story it is, too, full of important firsts. It's also a really good one, and it's honestly amazing to me, given the 1960s sense of pacing and its frankly rather ridiculous length, just how utterly watchable and engaging it is all the way through. It's not, of course, anywhere near the same experience in print, where we're deprived of Patrick Troughton's inimitable show more performance. But while this isn't exactly winning any literary awards, it reads much less like someone did a light editing pass over an episode transcript than most of Terrance Dicks' efforts do, and Malcolm Hulke does a reasonable job of capturing some of the feel of the original, especially its very unglamorous depiction of war. show less

Listening to Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters, Malcolm Hulke's novelization of his 'Doctor Who' storyline, Doctor Who and the Silurians, less than a month after listening to the original soundtrack for that storyline was interesting. I enjoyed the parallels in thinking between two Silurians, Morka and Bokka K'to, to that of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT and Major Baker, the security chief for Wenley Moor Nuclear Research Facility. For peace and sweet reason we have the Third Doctor, show more UNIT's Scientific Adviser, and Okdel L'da, leader of the Silurian refuge that was built under what eventually became Wenley Moor's cave complex. The scene where Okdel L'da contemplates what 100 million years of hibernation has meant for the civilization and cities he knew reminded me of chapters 9 and 12 of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Llana of Gathol. I felt so sorry for him. Making Morka the Silurian whom Doctor Quinn mishandled did give Morka a better reason to hate humans than he had in the TV series.

The novelization allowed Mr. Hulke to flesh out some of the characters created for the episode. I felt very sorry for Miss Dawson, who had her youth sacrificed on the altar of Dutiful Daughterhood. (Her late mother was abominably selfish.) Now Miss Dawson is attracted to a man who isn't worthy of her.

If Miss Dawson had a toxic mother, Dr. Quinn had a toxic father. That famous scientist made sure his son worked in HIS branch of science instead of the branch that son was interested in. I have less sympathy for Dr. Quinn, though, because he's manipulative and willing to sacrifice others to fulfill his own ambitions. Dr. Lawrence is a slightly more sympathetic character here, and Masters is quite insufferable.

The former medical librarian in me groans over the giving of antibiotics to patients suffering from a virus. I also wanted to scream when no one would listen to the Doctor's warning about said virus. All right, don't leave the infected (and infectious!) person lying on the floor, but for heaven's sake, break out the universal precautions in handling the patient. Okay, I'm not sure what the rules for infection control were like back when this story takes place, but surely Dr. Meredith should have taken more care.

I'm glad I listened to both versions. show less

This is an excellent novelisation of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story The Silurians. Already an excellent TV story, this novelisation adds depth to many of the characters and gives them motivations and back stories that would have been difficult or impossible to show within the confines of a TV story, albeit that at 7 episodes, this was one of the longer ones. The moral dilemmas of the clash between two advanced and intelligent civilisations are quite well explored. I would have liked a bit show more more detail of the effects of the epidemic on wider British society though if anything this was actually shown better on screen, with passengers collapsing at a London train station. This is an excellent and intelligent read, one of the best Target novelisations. show less