Robot

Target novelisation Doctor Who and the Giant Robot

Author	Terrance Dicks
Published	1975
ISBN	0 426 11279 2
First Edition Cover	Peter Brookes

Back cover blurb: 'Look, Brigadier! It's growing! screamed Sarah. The Brigadier stared in amazement as the Robot began to grow... and grow... swelling to the size of a giant! Slowly the metal colossus, casting its enormous shadow upon the surrounding trees and buildings, began to stride towards the Brigadier. A giant metal hand reached down to grasp him. Can DOCTOR WHO defeat the evil forces controlling the Robot before they execute their plans to blackmail - or destroy - the world? The first adventure of DOCTOR WHO's 4th incredible Incarnation!

• A respectable adaptation by Tim Roll-Pickering

A respectable adaptation by Tim Roll-Pickering 13/12/03

On screen Robot is one of the fastest debuts for any Doctor, with Tom Baker quickly finding his feet and in the later episodes there is no indication whatsoever that a regeneration has recently taken place. Appropriately this was the first Tom Baker story to be novelised, and is also the first occasion when Terrance Dicks novelises one of his own stories. Reading through the book there is a strong sense that this is closer to what Dicks wanted on television, with a far more dramatic battle between the enlarged robot and the military, including an RAF attack (shown on the original cover). The television story looks impressive even to this day (bar the odd model shot) but here Dicks works hard to produce an alternate take on the story that works well.

One curiosity is why this novelisation is called Doctor Who and the Giant Robot when the robot doesn't become giant until the very last chapter, over 100 pages into the text. Despite the title there is a strong emphasis on Thinktank and we get a sense of how Miss Winters views the world around her and routinely seizes the moment. There is less character exposition in this novelisation than in some of its contemporaries by other authors but instead we get a strong action story that tightens up onscreen plot weaknesses (for example the details of the world's weapons of mass destruction are no longer stored in a mere safe but in a tough vault with a strong security presence) although the tendency to send up the Brigadier does continue from this era of the television programme.

The Doctor is portrayed a little weaker here than on television, with several references to his recent regeneration throughout the book and there is a sense that Dicks is working more from his scripts written before Tom Baker had recorded any scenes than from the actor's onscreen performance. Nevertheless this does not detract from a good solid read. It may not be the weightiest of novelisations but it does the job. However the original cover feels a little too much like a comic page for me, with the use of two panels, whilst placing the Doctor's face over the logo just doesn't work either. Fortunately the latter was dropped immediately (though in the 1980s Target tried something similar and equally dropped it overnight). Otherwise this is a respectable novelisation. 7/10