And what did you think when you finally saw it?
The biggest letdown was Ice Warrior. The book wasn't nearly as boring.
Colony in Space is a pretty boring watch too, but then, the book wasn't exactly filled with action either. My reading was coloured by the fact that the American cover art was very different than the onscreen version and that I pictured Tom Baker in the role because he was the only Doctor I'd seen then.
The other ones (Daleks, Dalek Invasion of Earth, etc) provided reading experiences a little more faithful to their televised forms.
Of course there's still a bunch I've read that I'm yet to see...
Which ones did you read first and find different?
The only novelizations I read first were of televised stories no longer available to watch.
The ten Pinnacle books, which came out years before the show aired in my region.
1. Doctor Who And The Day Of The Daleks
2. Doctor Who And The Doomsday Machine (Colony In Space)
3. Doctor Who And The Dinosaur Invasion
4. Doctor Who And The Genesis Of The Daleks
5. Doctor Who And The Revenge Of The Cybermen
6. Doctor Who And The Loch Ness Monster (Terror Of The Zygons)
7. Doctor Who And The Talons Of Weng-Chiang
8. Doctor Who And The Masque Of Mandragora
9. Doctor Who And The Android Invasion
10. Doctor Who And The Seeds Of Doom
I was annoyed at the vague descriptions of character appearances. Reading the books I assumed Jo was brunette and Sarah Jane blonde, then I saw pictures of the actresses.
The opening of Dinosaur Invasion had a wonderful sequence that I was disappointed wasn't from the actual episode.
I remember the novelization of Genesis had the "such was the authority of the Doctor's voice" to explain how the Doctor managed to talk to high level Kaled authorities and I wondered what this looked like in the show. Well, it wasn't shown. Oh.
The Pertwee Era is a lot better as Target Novelisations than it is as TV...
Colony in Space is a pretty boring watch too, but then, the book wasn't exactly filled with action either.
You don't need ACTION when you've got such a delightfully detailed future-Earth-background. ('He had a IMC wife and IMC children and a FOUR-roomed IMC home...')
Of course there's still a bunch I've read that I'm yet to see...
WATCH! WATCH! WATCH YOU PHILISTINE!
The opening of Dinosaur Invasion had a wonderful sequence that I was disappointed wasn't from the actual episode.
Oddly, I didn't like that at all first time round - why are you wasting time with some drunken idiot when you should be talking about the Doctor!
Obviously, I came round later.
The Pertwee Era is a lot better as Target Novelisations than it is as TV...
That's cruelly true.
I will never get over the Third Doctor not asking for the political prisoners on the moon to be released, NEVER NEVER NEVER.
Of course there's still a bunch I've read that I'm yet to see...
WATCH! WATCH! WATCH YOU PHILISTINE!
I was referring to the missing episodes.
[as Emily] No excuses!
;-)
The opening of Dinosaur Invasion had a wonderful sequence that I was disappointed wasn't from the actual episode.
Apparently it was filmed but cut from the finished episode, presumably to make room for more interminable chases* and hot glove puppet action.
(* Seriously, Malcolm Hulke has many virtues but writing storylines that weren't basically endless capture-escape-chase-capture sequences wasn't one of them.)
Mmmm *blissful sigh* No one does an capture-escape-chase-capture like Malcolm Hulke. Fifteen years in, I still can't believe how much the new series is neglecting this vital part of Who. (Yeah I know Matt and Capaldi had to have the same knee operation due to them doing all that running-down-corridors but damned if I can see WHEN all that running-down-corridors occurred.)