The General Target Book Thread

[Patrick Coles]

A guy I knew at work years ago was a TOTAL Dr.Who freak (by his own admission) ....he had colour pics of the first five Doctors  (from some Sci fi magazine I guess) on the office wall next to his desk...and was trying to get a Colin Baker photo 

I visited his home once, his poor long suffering wife despaired of him - she HATED Dr.Who ! - but put up with his er 'weakness', even his little daughter despaired of her Dad's Dr.Who mania...

I mention this as he had a complete collection of Target books all faithfully in TV order....with the later 'missing adventures' books all correctly slotted in between the TV adventures for each Doctor, plus the few non TV Target books of the lost Colin Baker season, and a few others that I think were radio stories...

He even had TWO copies of the SAME book ! - he had 'The Two Doctors' book twice...issue one slotted in the correct spot in Patrick Troughton's era...and issue two later in Colin Baker's era

- I asked him why was that ...?

'Because it happens to BOTH the second & sixth Doctors at specific points in each Doctor's timeline...' he replied quite seriously !!
(he told me this was unlike 'Three or Five Doctors' where previous incarnations get lifted OUT of their timelines...)

I laughed & told him he really needed to get out more !! (his Lovely wife & little girl nodded !)

I must say his book collection was very impressive - he said he'd had alot of trouble getting one book ('Cold Fusion' was it ? - it was a Peter Davison one I think, possibly not a Target one as I can't remember any story on TV with that name...but he had finally got a copy)

despite his 'mania' he WAS a very level headed nice guy I must stress...not a 'oddball' or 'geek' at all

I lost contact with him later due to a change of office, but often wondered how many 'Dr.Who' books he later had...!

it looks from this thread as tho' he was no fool and was sitting on a very valuable set of books indeed...I laughed at the time, but now realise he was quite shrewd in building up such a collection (tho' he did it out of his sheer love of 'Dr.Who' not with any thought of monetary gain etc...)

[barryb]

I started getting my Target books in 1976, when bought the web of fear for Christmas. from then on I collected them and got them all, but it was very difficult to get them all in print and it was probably 1984 before I finally got the holy grail "The Sontaren Experiment" which was the most difficult to get, I had to wait for years, after that I have collected them all and got them all up to the beginning of the new series.

I always stocked them in transmission order, but looking back, I wanted to protect them, so covered many of them in sticky back plastic, which means they are now not in great condition, because I was not good at it.

My web of fear I still have, but alas it lost its cover, although I do have a blue spine reprint. I also did collect all the first editions with illustrations in, and was fortunate to be an acquaintance of Michael Craze, who worked in a pub with my mum in Beckenham, so I have all his books autographed.

[Alan Jeffries]

I have them all as first editions with the exception of The Three Doctors which I could not find anywhere. In a strange quirk of fate The Three Doctors was one of the 3 stories I could never find on video........

[Robert Lia]

I bought my first TARGET book in December 1979 at the convention we had in Los Angeles when I was fifteen. In fact I bought a whole bloody stack at the first dealers table I stumbled on. Terrance Dicks was there and autographed for me that day a second edition of "The Face of Evil". From that day I collected them all as they came out first edition. I even managed to get some earlier ones later on in the80's with the black logo cover. I kept buying them until about 2000 when I switched over to getting the Big Finish Audios.

I still have every one in a closet in plastic book bags displayed in broadcast order from Unearthly Child up to an early 2000 8th Doctor book. They are displayed with my DVD's and Dr. Who action figures in a closet that can be closed if need be so that no one can see inside it. The rest of my house is jut like any one else's house. I tell my three kids I kep them all displayed there where I can see them when ever I want but they do not over power a room and leave the rest of the house looking like a normal house.

[darcysmart]

Apr 12, 2014 23:43:32 GMT Alan Jeffries said:

I have them all as first editions with the exception of The Three Doctors which I could not find anywhere. In a strange quirk of fate The Three Doctors was one of the 3 stories I could never find on video........

That's quite a coincidence, I went into a vinyl store a few months ago and they had a stack of DW VHS' for $5 each, 'The Three Doctors' among them. Ultimately I chose 'Day of the Daleks' instead, as I hadn't seen it.

[Jaspal Cheema]

Apr 13, 2014 6:30:53 GMT darcysmart said:

Apr 12, 2014 23:43:32 GMT Alan Jeffries said:

I have them all as first editions with the exception of The Three Doctors which I could not find anywhere. In a strange quirk of fate The Three Doctors was one of the 3 stories I could never find on video........

That's quite a coincidence, I went into a vinyl store a few months ago and they had a stack of DW VHS' for $5 each, 'The Three Doctors' among them. Ultimately I chose 'Day of the Daleks' instead, as I hadn't seen it.

Yes, I remember the first edition of Three Doctors-it was the one where Chris Achilleos pinched the hand illustrations for Omega from a panel from a Silver
Surfer comic . However the 2nd edition illustration was beautiful, with the 3 actors against a painted starfield.Funnily enough, this is one serial which I never tire of, I've watched it so often.

[John Green]

Or was it a Fantastic Four comic?

Yep! www.bleedingcool.com/2009/06/23/classc-swipe-file-the-three-doctors-and-fantastic-four-49/ Loved reading it at the time...

[stephenwit1]

That's cool.

[Will Weller]

Just out of interest, has anyone read John Peel's novels of Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time?  

[Mark P]

As this thread has been renamed 'The General Target Book Thread' are we going to get threads for the other ranks too e.g. 'The Brigadier Target Book Thread'?

[John Green]

Apr 23, 2014 23:04:18 GMT Mark P said:

As this thread has been renamed 'The General Target Book Thread' are we going to get threads for the other ranks too e.g. 'The Brigadier Target Book Thread'?

'The Corporal Target Book Thread'? Do we really want to go there?

[bevanthomas]

Well... I must say they're a lot less disconcerting than the "private" Target Book thread. Nudge, nudge...

[John Green]

Apr 24, 2014 10:20:16 GMT bevanthomas said:

Well... I must say they're a lot less disconcerting than the "private" Target Book thread. Nudge, nudge...

I avoided that one on the grounds of taste.
Which is very unusual for me...

I thought that this www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/book-reviews-latest-literary-releases/981-doctor-who-and-the-re-released-target-books
was quite good.

[Brad Phipps]

I sold most of mine in the early 2000s as they were never read or just stayed on the shelf.

I donated my remaining books (Power, Evil, the handbook series) to the annual Dunedin 24 Hour Book sale (which ironically is on tomorrow).

Do I miss them? Yes. Did I read them? Hardly ever.

Will browse the book sale tomorrow and see what I can spot.

[tombeveridge]

...and maybe buy them back again, Brad? Been there and done that, myself, one more than one occasion! Perhaps some who criticise the Beeb for junking material that was unlikely ever to be re-viewed and that was taking up shelf space will see that's it's a common enough action, even amongst dyed-in-the wool Dr Who fans like ourselves.