Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child (novelisation)

Novelisation

 * This novelisation is based on the original television serial generally referred to as DW:  An Unearthly Child  which included individual episode titles and was shown from 23rd November 1963 and written by Anthony Coburn.
 * The cover and information shown on the right is for the original Target novel and featured the artwork of Andrew Skilleter. (See below for information on other UK and international editions which published with a different cover).
 * The book was written some 18 years after the publication of the novelisation of the second story, published as Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (aka Doctor Who and the Daleks). As a result, the two books, if read chronologically, do not maintain continuity.

1981 edition
FIRST PUBLICATION OF THE VERY FIRST DOCTOR WHO STORY A strange girl who knows far more than she should about the past – and the future. Two worried teachers whose curiosity leads them to a deserted junk yard, an extraordinary police box and a mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor. A fantastic journey through Space and Time ending in a terrifying adventure at the dawn of history. DOCTOR WHO AND AN UNEARTHLY CHILD THE BEGINNING OF A LEGEND

1990 edition
23 November 1963: The Birth of a phenomenon.

Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are teachers at Coal Hill School in London. One of their pupils, a girl named Susan Foreman, intrigues them: she displays strange knowledge and an uncanny intelligence. They follow her to her home-- and she leads them to a police telephone box, incongruously parked in a junk yard, where they meet a tetchy, white-haired old man. Susan calls him grandfather, but he says he is known as the Doctor...

This was the public's first glimpse of the dimension-hopping Time Lord, and the beginning of a television legend. More than a hundred and fifty adventures and a quarter of a century later, the Doctor and his Tardis are still travelling through time and space.

Terrance Dicks, who was the Doctor Who script editor for five years, has written more than sixty novelisations of Doctor Who television stories. This is a new edition of his novel based on the first Doctor Who story ever shown on television.

Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child is available as a BBC Video, and will be broadcast on BSB television during 1990.

Illustrations
None

Deviations from the Televised Story

 * The Doctor specifically states that his name is not "Doctor Foreman" rather than just implying it.

Author, Writing and Publishing Notes

 * Suggested by the then producer John Nathan-Turner as a tie-in to the broadcast of the serial on TV as part of a series of repeats (The Five Faces of Doctor Who), author Terrance Dicks was given only a fortnight to complete. There were however delays incurred in securing the writer’s permission, given by his widow.
 * A guaranteed success because of the TV broadcast, this title had an increased cover price and the first edition featured a red foil logo.
 * Cover artist Andrew Skilleter starts an unbroken run of 21 covers using artwork, with this title whose artwork he completed over a weekend without being requested to provide any roughs, describing this cover as " a weekends work" in his book Blacklight.
 * It was the first book published in the Target Books Doctor Who novelisation schedules after a six month gap caused by a Writer's Guild strike.

Publishing History (UK)
To be added

First Publication: 
 * Hardback
 * W.H.Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target

Re-issues:
 * Paperback
 * Target / Virgin Publishing Ltd. UK February 1980 Cover by Alistair Pearson (£2.50 UK)

International Editions
To be added

External Sources

 * The Target Book by David J Howe (Telos Publishing 2007)