Publication Information

Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Peter Brookes / Jeff Cummins (1979) / Alistair Pearson (1992) / Jeff Cummins (HB) / Harry Hunt (Junior)
Illustrations: Peter Edwards (Junior)
Publishing date: March 1975

Episode Information

TV serial: Robot
Writer: Terrance Dicks
Transmission dates: 28th December 1974 - 18th January 1975 (4 episodes)

Fact and Findings

First edition cover price – 35p

Classic chapter title: The Giant Terror (and a bonus point for one with an exclamation mark!)

Page 9 contains a footnote referring to the novelisation of Planet of the Spiders - a novelisation not published for another seven months!

The first adventure and the first novelisation for the fourth Doctor - and the first Target novelisation to use the Pertwee / Baker "diamond" logo (without the diamond!).

The March 1975 release was promoted on the cover and within the January 1975 edition of Target Books, a promotional leaflet / booklet sent to book sellers to promote interest in forthcoming titles.

Later editions were numbered 28 in the Doctor Who library.

The original edition of the book was published by Universal-Tandem (ISBN 0 426 10858 2), then Tandem reprinted it in the Autumn of 1975 (ISBN 0 426 11279 2, 40p). It was repackaged by Wyndham / W. H. Allen with a new cover painting in 1979. The first version with the new cover was actually the original pages (listing Universal-Tandem as the publishers, with the original ISBN on the inside) but with the new artwork and a cover price of 60p (the ISBN on the back cover was 0 426 11279 2). Another version was released, listed as the Second Impression, cover price 70p, publishers Wyndham / W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 11279 2. The May 1992 rejacketed reprint was retitled Doctor Who – Robot, in keeping with the original TV show. It was published by Virgin, priced £2.99, and the ISBN was 0 426 20371 2.

In 1979, Terrance Dicks wrote a much shorter version of the novel that was published by Target in 1980. The cover christened the book Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot, but inside the title reverted to the original with the subtitle A Junior Doctor Who Book. The paperback was slightly larger than the standard size and ran to 94 pages. It contained illustrations by Peter Edwards. The same treatment was dished out to Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius.

The novel was the only pre-1980 novelisation to be included in the boxed sets of the early 1980's. It was included in The Fourth Doctor Who Gift Set, alongside State of Decay, Logopolis and Time-Flight.

A hardback edition was finally released in April 1986, although some "home-made" laminated versions are in circulation, produced by libraries at the time of the paperback's first release. The official W. H. Allen release used the Cummins artwork but with a red neon logo. The ISBN was 0 491 03663 9 and the price was £6.95. Producer Barry Letts and director Christopher Barry are credited within.

A hardback edition of Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot was released by W. H. Allen around the same time as the paperback release, priced £2.50, ISBN 0 491 02497 5.

For those wishing to read a more direct representation of the TV serial, BBC Worldwide published Doctor Who - The Scripts - Tom Baker 1974/5 (ISBN 0 563 53815 5, £16.99) in October 2001, edited by Justin Richard and Andrew Pixley. The book contained all of the scripts for Season 12 with extensive production notes and an introduction by Terrance Dicks.

Cover Data

The original cover by Peter Brooks incorporates Tom Baker’s head rather surreally in to the ‘O’ of WHO in a way that makes his forehead appear to be framed in the sights of a rifle. This was actually a design feature planned for all of Brookes' covers, but was dropped after just this one.

The back cover features two of Brookes’ illustrations showing UNIT troops on the receiving end of the giant robot’s boot.

A larger version of Brookes' cover appears in David J. Howe's book Timeframe (Virgin Publishing Ltd, 1993).

The Doctor Who logo for the first edition Junior novelisations was one never used on TV and derived from the Pertwee/Baker logo.

The 1986 hardback release utilised the Cummins artwork but the logo was the neon one.

The artwork for the 1990’s reprint is the same as that used for the BBC Video release.

Alistair Pearson's cover artwork for the 1992 reprint was released as a postcard, free with 'Doctor Who Magazine' (number 205), October 1993. It was also used as the cover artwork on 'Doctor Who Monthly' number 183.