Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
by Malcolm Hulke
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The Doctor and Sarah arrive in London to find it deserted. The city has been evacuated as prehistoric monsters appear in the streets. While the Doctor works to discover who or what is bringing the dinosaurs to London, Sarah finds herself trapped on a spaceship that left Earth months ago travelling to a new world... Against the odds, the Doctor manages to trace the source of the dinosaurs. But will he and the Brigadier be in time to unmask the villains before Operation Golden Age changes the show more history of planet Earth and wipes out the whole of human civilisation? This novel is based on a Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 12 January-16 February 1974. Featuring the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee with his companion Sarah Jane Smith and UNIT show lessTags
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This does pretty much what it says on the tin. Central London is devoid of people but populated with dinosaurs. Why? How? The Doctor (#3) and Sarah Jane Smith must find out.
The tone of this book is a bit weird. The first chapter starts off with a drunk guy who is abandoned by his friends in dinosaur-infested London, which is not really what I'd expect in a Dr Who novel, although I did find it amusing in a grownup way. It was just a strange thing to have coexisting with patches of patronizing explanations of terms such as "copper's nark" and "stool pigeon" when these are used by one of the characters.
The story itself is fine, although the dinosaurs probably better in the reader's imagination; since this came long before Jurassic Park, show more the special effects in the TV version are probably somewhat unintentionally amusing. It might also be a bit predictable, but perhaps seeing it in multiple episodes instead of reading it as a book in one sitting would help break up the flow. One thing that did grate, though, was how many times Sarah Jane kept getting captured and telling the wrong people what she knew. Perhaps it was only twice, but you'd think she would have learned the first time. That was not the best use of Sarah Jane, narrative-wise.
If you're in the mood for some very light entertainment, this might hit the spot, but otherwise you can probably give it a miss. show less
The tone of this book is a bit weird. The first chapter starts off with a drunk guy who is abandoned by his friends in dinosaur-infested London, which is not really what I'd expect in a Dr Who novel, although I did find it amusing in a grownup way. It was just a strange thing to have coexisting with patches of patronizing explanations of terms such as "copper's nark" and "stool pigeon" when these are used by one of the characters.
The story itself is fine, although the dinosaurs probably better in the reader's imagination; since this came long before Jurassic Park, show more the special effects in the TV version are probably somewhat unintentionally amusing. It might also be a bit predictable, but perhaps seeing it in multiple episodes instead of reading it as a book in one sitting would help break up the flow. One thing that did grate, though, was how many times Sarah Jane kept getting captured and telling the wrong people what she knew. Perhaps it was only twice, but you'd think she would have learned the first time. That was not the best use of Sarah Jane, narrative-wise.
If you're in the mood for some very light entertainment, this might hit the spot, but otherwise you can probably give it a miss. show less
I've seen almost none of the Jon Pertwee episodes of 'Doctor Who,' including 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs,' although I've been told it was a good story. As the next best thing, I've bought and read Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion by Malcolm Hulke. The novelization includes an introduction from the late science fiction great, Harlan Ellison.
There's a brief page about dinosaurs before chapter one opens. We get to meet a layabout named Shugie MacPherson who traveled to London with some friends. He got so drunk that he couldn't be roused enough to get up when one of them, Donald Ewing, tries to get him to understand that London is being evacuated. Another, Jamie, warns Shugie how much time he has to get in the van before he'll be left to show more die. (They and Ian couldn't drag him to the van?)
Shugie spends four days in a house with the electricity and water turned off. He eats tinned corned beef and drinks whisky. When they run out, he leaves. At least he finds out why London was evacuated. It goes about as well for him as one may expect from a prologue character.
The TARDIS appears with the Doctor and reporter Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane notices things are strange. The Doctor dismisses her concerns. Foolish Doctor. They're soon in trouble. Which is going to be the bigger trouble: dinosaurs or army soldiers mistaking them for something bad?
General Finch is a big pain to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart . (Think Colonel Breen in the 'Quatermass and the Pit' / 'Five Million Years to Earth' movie.) The Doctor makes some interesting deductions, not that Finch believes him.
NOTES:
Chapter 1:
a. Here is where the Doctor speaks in favor of the Vandals. He had met some, of course.
b. The Doctor serves pills for meals. Sarah Jane is not impressed.
c. In British slang, 'I'm whacked' means some one is exhausted, not murdered.
d. A 'jimmy' is a short crowbar.
Mentions: Woolworth's, Wimpy's, and the Marie Celeste mystery
Chapter 2:
a. We meet a jerk named General Finch who wants Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to order his men to shoot to kill looters.
b. Sarah Jane is 23.
c. A looter named Lodge fills the Doctor and Sarah Jane in about the dinosaurs.
d. The Doctor uses the Venusian karate hold.
e. Richard I went to fight in the Holy Land in 1191.
Chapter 3:
a. The reptile men in Derbyshire battle were in 'Doctor Who in the Silurians,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters.
b. The giant maggots in a disused mine in Wales happened in 'The Green Death,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Green Death.
c. The Doctor explains time eddies.
d. See here for which color flag stands for which kind of dinosaur on U.N.I.T.'s map of London.
Chapter 4:
a. We meet the smug Professor Whitaker, inventor of the Timescoop and a creepy man named Butler.
b. We also meet Sir Charles Grover, Minister with Special Powers. The Doctor knows of him.
c.. Captain Yates saves the Doctor.
Mentions: King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde, Noël Coward
Chapter 5:
a. The Doctor tells Sarah about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and time travel.
b. The 'STD' that Sarah Jane is talking about is 'subscriber trunk dialing,' an old British term for long-distance phone calls.
c. General Finch might be referring to John Stonehouse, who tried to fake his death in 1974, two years before the copyright of this novelization.
d. The Doctor saves Sarah Jane, who has been locked in.
e. Sarah Jane has a good idea that she investigates on her own because the men have been dismissive already.
Chapter 6:
a. Sarah Jane meets three persons who aren't using their real names and tell her something she doesn't believe.
b. The Doctor sees some interesting signs on a wall.
Chapter 7: Mentions: Disraeli, Gladstone, Churchill, President Kennedy
Chapter 8: Mention: Oliver Cromwell
Chapter 9:
a. We learn how Butler got his scar.
b. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's final authority is the Supreme Headquarters of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce at Geneva, Switzerland.
Chapter 10 Mention: Foyles bookstore, The Bible's Book of Ezekiel
This is a good adventure, although Operation Golden Age had an insufficient gene pool and were quite wrong about humans being the only species to pray on its own species. The dinosaurs were a good menace. There were plenty of surprises for the characters and good clues before the big revelation. It makes me wish I'd seen the episodes. show less
There's a brief page about dinosaurs before chapter one opens. We get to meet a layabout named Shugie MacPherson who traveled to London with some friends. He got so drunk that he couldn't be roused enough to get up when one of them, Donald Ewing, tries to get him to understand that London is being evacuated. Another, Jamie, warns Shugie how much time he has to get in the van before he'll be left to show more die. (They and Ian couldn't drag him to the van?)
Shugie spends four days in a house with the electricity and water turned off. He eats tinned corned beef and drinks whisky. When they run out, he leaves. At least he finds out why London was evacuated. It goes about as well for him as one may expect from a prologue character.
The TARDIS appears with the Doctor and reporter Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane notices things are strange. The Doctor dismisses her concerns. Foolish Doctor. They're soon in trouble. Which is going to be the bigger trouble: dinosaurs or army soldiers mistaking them for something bad?
General Finch is a big pain to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart . (Think Colonel Breen in the 'Quatermass and the Pit' / 'Five Million Years to Earth' movie.) The Doctor makes some interesting deductions, not that Finch believes him.
NOTES:
Chapter 1:
a. Here is where the Doctor speaks in favor of the Vandals. He had met some, of course.
b. The Doctor serves pills for meals. Sarah Jane is not impressed.
c. In British slang, 'I'm whacked' means some one is exhausted, not murdered.
d. A 'jimmy' is a short crowbar.
Mentions: Woolworth's, Wimpy's, and the Marie Celeste mystery
Chapter 2:
a. We meet a jerk named General Finch who wants Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to order his men to shoot to kill looters.
b. Sarah Jane is 23.
c. A looter named Lodge fills the Doctor and Sarah Jane in about the dinosaurs.
d. The Doctor uses the Venusian karate hold.
e. Richard I went to fight in the Holy Land in 1191.
Chapter 3:
a. The reptile men in Derbyshire battle were in 'Doctor Who in the Silurians,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters.
b. The giant maggots in a disused mine in Wales happened in 'The Green Death,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Green Death.
c. The Doctor explains time eddies.
d. See here for which color flag stands for which kind of dinosaur on U.N.I.T.'s map of London.
Chapter 4:
a. We meet the smug Professor Whitaker, inventor of the Timescoop and a creepy man named Butler.
b. We also meet Sir Charles Grover, Minister with Special Powers. The Doctor knows of him.
c.. Captain Yates saves the Doctor.
Mentions: King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde, Noël Coward
Chapter 5:
a. The Doctor tells Sarah about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and time travel.
b. The 'STD' that Sarah Jane is talking about is 'subscriber trunk dialing,' an old British term for long-distance phone calls.
c. General Finch might be referring to John Stonehouse, who tried to fake his death in 1974, two years before the copyright of this novelization.
d. The Doctor saves Sarah Jane, who has been locked in.
e. Sarah Jane has a good idea that she investigates on her own because the men have been dismissive already.
Chapter 6:
a. Sarah Jane meets three persons who aren't using their real names and tell her something she doesn't believe.
b. The Doctor sees some interesting signs on a wall.
Chapter 7: Mentions: Disraeli, Gladstone, Churchill, President Kennedy
Chapter 8: Mention: Oliver Cromwell
Chapter 9:
a. We learn how Butler got his scar.
b. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's final authority is the Supreme Headquarters of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce at Geneva, Switzerland.
Chapter 10 Mention: Foyles bookstore, The Bible's Book of Ezekiel
This is a good adventure, although Operation Golden Age had an insufficient gene pool and were quite wrong about humans being the only species to pray on its own species. The dinosaurs were a good menace. There were plenty of surprises for the characters and good clues before the big revelation. It makes me wish I'd seen the episodes. show less
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1038662.html#cutid2
I am not sure if this is the best of the Season 11 novels, as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders clearly takes that trophy, but it is certainly the most interesting. It starts with a lovely vignette of a Scot in London for the football who becomes a victim of the dinosaurs; there are other little bits of depth added as well, Professor Whitaker becoming very camp, and a couple of odd extra details - the Doctor is described as having "a mop of curly hair" (shurely shome mishtake?) and he talks about the Mary Celeste again as he did in Doctor Who and the Sea Devils. Also, of course, the book loses the appalling visual effects of the original programme - these dinosaurs are flesh and show more blood, not rubber!
Yet at the same time it is a bit too over-earnest, not quite as mature as Hulke's better novels (Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters and Doctor Who and the Green Death), so it doesn't quite get its fourth star from me.
It is interesting that both this and the previous story are about the bad guys shunting people (and in this case dinosaurs) between the present and the past.
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/invasion-of-the-dinosaurs-by-jon-arnold-and-malc...
One other detail added by Hulke for the novelisation is that Butler, the character played by Martin Jarvis, has a large facial scar, and is also made more complex, doubting the wisdom of the grand plan at an earlier stage. show less
I am not sure if this is the best of the Season 11 novels, as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders clearly takes that trophy, but it is certainly the most interesting. It starts with a lovely vignette of a Scot in London for the football who becomes a victim of the dinosaurs; there are other little bits of depth added as well, Professor Whitaker becoming very camp, and a couple of odd extra details - the Doctor is described as having "a mop of curly hair" (shurely shome mishtake?) and he talks about the Mary Celeste again as he did in Doctor Who and the Sea Devils. Also, of course, the book loses the appalling visual effects of the original programme - these dinosaurs are flesh and show more blood, not rubber!
Yet at the same time it is a bit too over-earnest, not quite as mature as Hulke's better novels (Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters and Doctor Who and the Green Death), so it doesn't quite get its fourth star from me.
It is interesting that both this and the previous story are about the bad guys shunting people (and in this case dinosaurs) between the present and the past.
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/invasion-of-the-dinosaurs-by-jon-arnold-and-malc...
One other detail added by Hulke for the novelisation is that Butler, the character played by Martin Jarvis, has a large facial scar, and is also made more complex, doubting the wisdom of the grand plan at an earlier stage. show less
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- Canonical title
- Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
- Alternate titles
- Invasion of the Dinosaurs
- Original publication date
- 1976-02-19
- People/Characters
- The Doctor (3rd); Sarah Jane Smith (reporter | companion); Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Brigadier | U.N.I.T.); Mike Yates (Captain | U.N.I.T. | United Nations Intelligence Taskforce); John Benton (Sergeant | U.N.I.T.); Shughie McPherson (luckless layabout) (show all 28); General Finch (Commander-in-Chief of Greater London Emergency Area); Smith (Army soldier); Wilkins (Army soldier); Corporal Norton (U.N.I.T.); Polly Anderson (one of the people); Lodge (22-yr-old looter); Sir Charles Grover (Minister with Special Powers | Save Planet Earth Society founder); Professor Whitaker (scientist who developed the Timescoop); Butler (scarred left cheek gotten when he was a London fireman trying to save a child); Mark (handsome young man of the people | John Crichton | runner); Ruth (beautiful gray-haired woman of the people | had a bill against polluting rivers); Adam (middle-aged white-haired man of the people | Nigel Castle | novelist); Corporal Bryson (U.N.I.T.); Jamie (came to London with Shugie | van owner); Donald Ewing (ship's riveter from Clydeside | Shugie's friend); Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex, multiple); pterodactyl (multiple); peasant (from the time of King Richard I while John was in charge); brontosaurus; diplodocus; stegosaurus; triceratops
- Important places
- London, England, UK; England, UK; Action, London, England (The Little Shop jewelry store); Bert's Café (fictional | fictional); Shepherds Bush, London, England, UK; U.N.I.T. temporary HQ (North London school classroom) (show all 13); Church hall in London (Number 5 reception area | where looters are processed); Operation Golden Age (Timescoop Control Center under central London); aircraft hanger (on the fringe of London's evacuated area); Whitehall, London, England (Sir Charles Grover's office); Westminster Underground Station, London, England; The Reminder Room (fictional); Foyles bookstore, Charing Cross Road, City of Westminster, London, England, UK
- First words
- Shughie McPherson woke up that morning with a pounding headache.
- Quotations
- When Doctor Who lands in London and finds the entire city deserted - except for dinosaurs - he figures something really weird is going on. (back cover)
[The Doctor sees a tyrannosaurus rex blocking the road.]
'I've always wanted to study one of those,' said the Doctor, observing the scene in his typically scientific manner.
'Well I haven't!' screamed Sarah. ... (show all)(chapter 2)
[The Doctor gives this response to the idea that there is no alternative to Operation Golden Age's plan to make the world a better place.]
'Yes, there is,' replied the Doctor. 'You can try to make something better of the... (show all) world you've got. You humans can end the arms race, you can treat people with different color skins as equals, you can stop exploiting and cheating each other, and you can start using Earth's resources in a rational and sensible way!' (chapter 9) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"The important thing is to keep an open mind."
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