Doctor Who and the Ark in Space (novelisation)

 was a novelisation based on the 1975 television serial The Ark in Space.

1977 edition
At a time in the far-off future, Earth has become uninhabitable. A selection of humanity is placed, deep-frozen, in a fully automated space station, to await the day of their return to Earth...

Thousands of years later, DOCTOR WHO arrives. He finds things going suspiciously wrong, and the station under attack from the giant WIRRN, deadly creatures who, in their lust for power, now threaten the future of the whole human race...

Chapter titles

 * Prologue: The Intruder
 * 1) The Second Invasion
 * 2) Sarah Vanishes
 * 3) Sabotage!
 * 4) A Fatal Wound
 * 5) The Wirrrn
 * 6) Time Running out
 * 7) A Tight Squeeze
 * 8) A New Beginning

Deviations from televised story

 * Space Station Nerva is named Terra Nova. The space station has blue whales and elephants in storage.
 * Wirrn larvae are used as a threat.
 * The Wirrn try to eat the ventilation shaft Sarah is crawling through.
 * The Doctor, Harry and Sarah return to Earth in the TARDIS, rather than using the Time Ring.

Writing and publishing notes

 * Ian Marter suggested writing this novelisation after having been closely involved with the story. Marter portrayed Harry Sullivan in The Ark in Space and after leaving the series went on to write several Target Books novelisations. His authorship of this book makes him the only actor in Doctor Who history to write a novel adapting a serial in which he played a major role (a feat he would repeat a year later with Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment). This was Marter's first novelisation for Target; he would continue contributing to the range for the rest of his life.
 * Marter originally planned to write the novel in first person from Harry Sullivan's point of view, but this idea was abandoned.
 * This was Chris Achilleos's last cover for the Target range.
 * The inside page includes the comment: "THE CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO. The cover illustration of this book portrays the fourth DOCTOR WHO"

British publication history
First publication:
 * Hardback
 * W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target

Re-issues:
 * 1991, with new cover by Alister Pearson