Gave A Go: Doctor Who: the Moonbase written by Kit Pedler, 1967 (TV broadcast), from Overdrive.com.
WPLC bought several electronic audiobook titles of Doctor Who. These are not novelizations, they seem to be the audio of the TV show plus descriptive narration. Pedler is the original writer of the TV script but I'm not sure if he should be the main author. Maybe BBC Audiobooks should be listed.
The Doctor and three companions take a Tardis ride but land in the wrong place and time. The Tardis lands on the moon. They don space suits and go for a walk. One of the companions gets bonked on the head. During the walk they find a moonbase and enter. They find out the year is 2070 and that the moonbase is the Earth's weather control station. Bonked Head goes to sick bay.
Earth weather and all the storms on Earth are controlled by a gravity machine on the moon. But, several crew members have caught sick and are unconscious with black lines on their skin. The Doctor says "I am a doctor" and offers his assistance in the determining the cause of the disease. The moonbase itself is very sterile and no bacteria or viruses should be infecting everyone.
Meanwhile, some things are mysteriously happening and the audience sees Cyber Men on the loose. The Cyber Men have infiltrated the Moonbase with the intention of overtaking the base and using the weather station to start massive storms that will kill everyone on earth.
The Doctor and the companions team with the moonbases's suspicious commander to defend the base and defeat the Cyber Men. Hurrah!
Comments:
1. I've never cared too much about Doctor Who. I only became interested when an older Boy Scout I admired spoke about the program. My fond memories are more wrapped up in late night television on a small black and white TV set with iffy reception.
2. I used to really enjoy the local PBS station's late movie. The host of that show was at a wedding I attended in 1995 or 1996. I wanted to go say hello and that I greatly enjoyed his introductions of the older flicks but was too shy to say anything.
3. The Cyber Men say, "Resistance is useless." I assume the Borg from Star Trek's, and their slogan "Resistance is futile", is a take off of the Cyber Men who capture and enslave moonbase workers.
4. I do like that them music. That tune is as evocative as the Imperial March and the James Bond theme.
5. Screwy science.
6. A weather station on the moon that, when it is shut down, causes all weather to go crazy and drown most everyone? Okay, great idea.
7. There are still shots online from the TV show. When listening to this I was wondering what the famously cheesy special effects and sets were like. Did they go to that empty, black rock quarry or coal pit to film?
8. There is a guide to this TV story arc but I did not read it.
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3 comments:
I was a big fan of DOCTOR WHO when the Tom Baker episodes appeared on PBS in the 1980s. Then I forgot about DOCTOR WHO until I started watching Matt Smith on BBC America. I have a bunch of those DOCTOR WHO novels, but haven't read any of them.
My wife really enjoys the current Doctor Who production on BBC America.
I bought a few Doctor Who related books and novelizations for my library after the new show premiered.
Hokey smokes! The novel Stone Rose has been out 41 times, that is a lot for a small library.
The Doctor Who books began as a way to serialize the TV episodes. Because of this the books are sometimes the only record we have left of the actual TV episodes (many of Doctor #1 and #2 TV shows were destroyed).
During the decade or so when the Doctor was not on the air the character remained alive in a series of paperbacks by Virgin Publishing. During this period the stories were original but featured one of the eight TV Doctors. Spinoffs of original characters such as Iris Wildthyme and (my favorite) Bernice Summerfield still continue as audio books and print books published by Big Finnish.
When the Doctor returned to the BBC, the BBC resumed publishing Doctor Who books. Some of the books are written for young readers (the show is considered a children's show), others have been written by best selling authors such as Michael Moorcock. There has been at least one book that was a prequel to a TV episode and another that was featured in the plot and action of another episode.
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