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In February 1985, Doctor Who was canceled...temporarily, at least. The premiere of Season 23 was pushed back from January 1986 to September, and the original slate of stories was all scuttled. As Doctor Who fans like to do, even stories that were junked and scrapped and lit on fire, are worthy of resurrection, such that you can find much of that canceled Season 23 done up as full-cast Big Finish audios... and three of them done up as Target novelizations in 1989 and 1990. The Nightmare Fair is the first of those. Dan Hollingsworth, one of Jason's Trap One Podcast co-hosts, makes his Doctor Who Literature debut to help quantify just how much a Nightmare this story is (or isn't!). Mark from Trap One adds a dramatic reading and audio essay. This week's non-Doctor Who essay is a tribute to the recently deceased American entertainer "Uncle" Floyd Vivino. The DWM backup strips, including the Celestial Toymaker, can be found (and discussed on Trap One) in Return of the Daleks and Black Sun Rising. One of the more accessible clips from "The Uncle Floyd Show" can be viewed here. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – The Nightmare Fair" features cover art by AlisterPearson. E-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes athttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Doctor Who Literature's final season continues with the great Dave Rennie from the A Kettle and Some String podcast. This week we are discussing the penultimate (canonical) Colin Baker novelization, Eric Saward's gruesomely violent yet oddly touching novelization of a Season 22 Cybermen story...of heavily disputed parentage. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who –Attack of the Cybermen" features cover art by Colin Howard. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes athttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Doctor Who Literature extends a warm welcome to Anthony and Alasdair from the brilliant Too Broad and Too Deep podcast, which covers Jason's beloved Doctor Who New Adventures novels of the 1990s. This week we are discussing Dragonfire, the final story of Doctor's 24th season, the swan song for Bonnie Langford's Mel (until the 21st century), and the debut of Ace. There's a lot to discuss here, and Anthony & Alasdair bring their "A" game. You can find Alasdair here and here, and you can find Anthony here. Jim Sangster wrote and recorded this week's song. Graeme' Burk's The Comics Code is well worth its seven episodes, and not only because Jason's voice acting is featured. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – Dragonfire" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes athttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

The AI Revolution comes to Doctor Who Literature, via the 1989 novelization of 1966's The War Machines. Mark McManus from Trap One joins Jason for a (very) pre-recorded interview, and Jim Sangster provides the song that opens and closes the episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – The War Machines" features cover art by AlisterPearson and Graeme Wey. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes athttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Welcome back to Doctor Who Literature: The Final Season, as we cover the final run of Target novelizations from January 1989 through the eventual end of the line in the early 1990s. Joining Jason this week is a first-time DWLit guest but no stranger at all to Doctor Who podcasting in general, it's the prolific and legendary Melvin Pena. Jim Sangster is extra busy this week with three separate musical/comedy additions to the episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – Delta and the Bannermen" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes athttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Welcome to a special episode of Doctor Who Literature. This week we pay tribute to former Doctor Who script editor, TV writer, and novelization author Christopher H. Bidmead, who passed away in August 2025. Joining Jason for a new interview this week is "Full Circle" writer Andrew Smith. We are also pleased to present three excerpts from our archives: --An interview with Jonathan Blum from our Logopolis episode. --An interview with Graeme Burk from our Castrovalva episode. --Jason's review of the Frontios novelization. Doctor Who Literature is produced by Jim Sangster and Jason Miller. We will return with the first episode of our final season in November 2025.

Doctor Who Literature is on break until the New Year, but Jason and Callie come back for one night to discuss this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special: Joy to the World, by Steven Moffat. Warning, this is a FULL SPOILER chat so don't listen until you've watched the episode first. Callie as always does not hold back on any opinion, and Jason as always has slight trouble staying on topic. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Happy American Thanksgiving to my listeners in the States. For a Sylvester McCoy novelization on Doctor Who Literature, ya gotta have two guests, not just one. Jim Sangster and Jason Davis, both huge behind-the-scenes influences on the show, come together for the first time as we tackle Paradise Towers, the second serial from Doctor Who's controversial, divisive -- and delightful -- 24th season. The vocals for this week's opening number are by Antony Owen. Music arranged by Jim Sangster. Please visit Jason Davis at Humanity Is My Business and consider supporting his Patreon. An interview with J.G. Ballard. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – Paradise Towers" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Having a first-time guest last week worked so well, that we've done it again this week: Jim Allenby from the What's in the Box? podcast, makes his Doctor Who Literature debut. Our story for the week is The Smugglers, but Jim A. and I also recorded our conversation on November 23, 2024: Doctor Who's 61st anniversary, and, coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of Jason discovering the show to begin with. Jim A. and I discuss An Unearthly Child, our respective fandom origin stories, and the special edition announced on the anniversary and being released in December 2024: The War Games, in color, and with new footage! If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – The Smugglers" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Remember, Doctor Who Literature's primary social media presence is now on BlueSky. Welcoming to the show this week Geoff Wessel, comic book writer (I may have misstated this in the intro) and radio DJ. Geoff's been an online friend for nearly 30 years but we'd never spoken face to face before this recording. It's a wild one! Those curious about "The Uncle Floyd Show" can find his limited online presence here. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. Doctor Who – The Edge of Destruction" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

Our third of four episodes in our Trial of a Time Lord season features the conclusion of the Trial arc... but not the conclusion of the novelizations of the Trial arc. The traditional American protest song "John Brown's Body", sampled in this episode, is from the ⁠Pete Seeger recording⁠. And, with that out of the way, let's talk Doctor Who Literature with Mark and Conrad from ⁠The Trap One Podcast⁠. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at ⁠https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels⁠. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels⁠. "Doctor Who – The Ultimate Foe" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the ⁠Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network⁠. Please e-mail the pod at ⁠[email protected]⁠. You can catch all past episodes at ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit⁠.

Stacey Smith? joins me from another exotic locale to discuss a rare bird -- the highly-sought-after novelization of "The Wheel in Space". Is the book worth the exorbitant cover price on the secondary market? Is the TV serial a fitting capstone to David Whitaker's legacy? If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – The Wheel in Space" features cover art by Ian Burgess. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.

We remain off the boards for one more week, to discuss not a Target Doctor Who novelization, but rather a new publication from ⁠Panini Comics⁠. It's The Return of the Daleks (purchase link: ⁠here⁠), a compilation of the Doctor-less backup strips from the earliest days of Doctor Who Weekly/Doctor Who Monthly/DWM. The compilation features commentary from Paul Scoones -- who joins us this week to discuss not only this new book, but also ⁠the TSV novelizations⁠, high-quality fan-made novelizations of five 1970s/'80s Doctor Who TV serials which, for rights reasons, were never novelized by Target during the line's original run. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at ⁠https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels⁠. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels⁠. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the ⁠Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network⁠. Please e-mail the pod at ⁠[email protected]⁠. You can catch all past episodes at ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit⁠.

This week Doctor Who Literature takes a week off from the Target novelizations to explore the rest of Jason's childhood bookshelves. I started reading the Target Doctor Who titles when I was 11, but I started reading just before turning 5. That's a lot of reading long before I found Terrance Dicks. So let's take an hour and walk through what Jason loved before Doctor Who. We'll discuss the Dutch-language children's fiction of Dick Bruna; the magic of Little Golden Books; the Big Three comics lines of the 1970s: Marvel, DC, and Gold Key/Whitman; baseball annuals aimed at children; and, of course, the Hardy Boys, the Choose Your Own Adventures, and the pictorial novelizations of Peanuts TV specials. We hope you'll join for this week as we walk not just through Jason's childhood bookshelves, but also, really, his brain. EDIT: I found that version of "The King" on YouTube. It's amazing. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at ⁠https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels⁠. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels⁠. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the ⁠Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network⁠. Please e-mail the pod at ⁠[email protected]⁠. You can catch all past episodes at ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit⁠.

This week we extend a warm Doctor Who Literature to author Nigel Robinson, who penned this week's Doctor Who novelization, an adaptation of the infamous -- but also wonderful -- 1967 Patrick Troughton adventure, The Underwater Menace. Nigel also walks us through the rest of his prolific career as a writer and editor, as we cover almost 60 years of fandom in just under 60 minutes. Thanks so much to Nigel Robinson for his time in the recording of this episode. This week's opening number was recorded by Jim Sangster. You can also hear Jason, Si, and Frazer on Trap One discussing the animated release of Underwater Menace earlier in 2024. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, subscribe, and rate us! Find Doctor Who Literature at https://linktr.ee/DrWhoNovels. Watch this episode and all previous episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@drwhonovels. "Doctor Who – The Underwater Menace" features cover art by Alister Pearson. Doctor Who Literature is a member of the Direction Point Doctor Who podcast network. Please e-mail the pod at [email protected]. You can catch all past episodes at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/doctorwholit.