Doctor Who and the Visitation (novelisation)

 was a novelisation based on the 1982 television serial The Visitation. This was the first Fifth Doctor novelisation to be published.

1982 edition
Tegan, the young air hostess who quite unintentionally became a member of the TARDIS's crew, wants to return to her own time, but when the Doctor tries to take her back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth century the TARDIS lands instead on the outskirts of seventeenth-century London.

1992 edition
"Call yourself a Time Lord?" Tegan shouted. "A broken clock keeps better time than you!"

The Doctor tries to return Tegan to the Heathrow she left in 1981, but instead the TARDIS lands just outside London in 1666 - the year of the Great Plague.

The Doctor and his companions receive a decidedly cool welcome - and it soon becomes clear that the sinister activities of other visitors from space and time have made the villagers extremely sensitive of outsiders.

And as a result of the aliens' evil schemes, the Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a key role in a gruesome historical event.

This is a novelization by Eric Saward of his own television story, first broadcast in 1982.

Chapter titles
Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Deviations from televised story

 * The Doctor realises who the Terileptils are because they left their tag on their escape capsule; this was not explained in the televised story.
 * The Squire is named Sir John.
 * Elizabeth is in her room when she spots the Terileptil spacecraft crashing.
 * Tegan's references to the events of Kinda while in her room are removed.

Writing and publishing notes

 * The first book in the range to feature the use of a photographic cover.
 * This was the first title to be referred to in the Target library as book number 74. The number appeared on the cover on a subsequent reprint.
 * Dedication: `For Paula, with fondest love'
 * Cover Flash reads `A BBC TV PROGRAMME WITH PETER DAVISON AS THE DOCTOR'
 * This novelisation was later released as part of The History Collection.

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


 * Paperback
 * Target

Re-issues:

Audiobook
This Target Book was released on 4 October 2012 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Matthew Waterhouse.

The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.