Reviews

"Perhaps the most timely advice that one could give to anyone about to open the novel for the first time is to forget the other six books that Mac did, where they paid careful attention to people's thinking. On staring to read the book I naturally expected the same and was, to a certain extent, disappointed. While what has been done is very good indeed, many of the characters did not show the trait of thinking."
- Martin J. Wiggins, 'Fendahl' (number 6), August/September 1979

"If you had an above-average knowledge of Doctor Who and collected the Target series at the time this book was published, I'm fairly certain that either immediately before or immediately after buying it, you flicked it open at the back to see how many pages Target had allowed for the retelling of Patrick Troughton's last adventure, on television for more weeks than any other story available in novel form at the time, and indeed still the longest story to be adapted for Target, and experienced slight - or perhaps more substantial - disappointment that the book finished on page 143, making it considerably shorter than for example, Doctor Who and the Daemons which related only half as many television episodes. The next thing to do would have been to read the book and find out which parts of the action had been 'cut'. It seems to me that scenes have been considerably shortened and/or removed entirely all the way through; though the changes have not really affected the flow of the story. I think, however, that it was a great pity that room could not be found for relating more of episode ten, particularly the Doctor's trial and defence... Otherwise though Malcolm Hulke retained the best dialogue and scenes of the TV adventure, and the written content was much more enjoyable than the previous few books to come from Target."
- Paul Williams, 'Doctor Who Views, News and Reviews' (number 9/10), May 1982

"Sadly, this book will be the last new work to bear the name of Malcolm Hulke... As much as I deeply regret to say it, I feel that his adaptation of The War Games is not a fitting testament to his great and undeniable talent... The fault lies almost certainly with the original script. The opinion has been voiced several times in the past, by both Mr Hulke and his co-author for the teleplay, Terrance Dicks, that The War Games was too long and drawn-out and even though it was obviously well-edited in order to fit into the confines of a comparatively short novel, that impression still remains...
It is not a good book. It is not a good story. It is not the book it should have been, and it is certainly not the work that I shall remember the genius of Malcolm Hulke for."
- Paul Mount, 'The Doctor Who Review' (number 2), 1979

"The War Games was published shortly after Mac's tragic death in July 1979, not his best book by any means, and, sadly, not a fitting tribute to a man who both as script writer and novelist gave a great deal to Doctor Who and is sadly missed."
- 'The Official Doctor Who Magazine' (number 91), August 1984

UK Editions

1979, 25th September (first edition, W. H. Allen, Geary cover, yellow curve logo, white spine, colour Target, Wyndham W on back, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, 75p)*

1980 ("second impression", W. H. Allen, Geary cover, yellow curve logo, white spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, 85p)*

1982 (W. H. Allen, Geary cover, yellow curve logo, white spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, £1.35)*

1983 (W. H. Allen, Geary cover, yellow curve logo, white numbered spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, £1.35)*

1984 (W. H. Allen, Geary cover, yellow curve logo, white numbered spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, £1.50)*

1990, 15th February (re-jacketed using the 1984 contents, retitled Doctor Who - The War Games, Virgin, Pearson cover, McCoy banner, dark blue numbered spine, outline Target, ISBN 0 426 20082 9, £2.50)*

Miscellaneous

Author

Malcolm Hulke

Malcolm Hulke has written for the 'Doctor Who' television series since 1965. As well as seven 'Doctor Who' books, he has written several adult novels based on the television series 'Crossroads', and has recently completed Cassell's Parliamentary Dictionary, a new analytical guide.
The author lectures frequently at schools and professional gatherings on the subject of writing. He enjoys travelling abroad as a relaxation from writing, when time allows it.

Malcolm Hulke's first script contribution to Doctor Who was The Faceless Ones for Patrick Troughton's Doctor. This was followed by the epic The War Games (co-writen with Terrance Dicks), leading into a prolific run of adventures for Jon Pertwee's Doctor. He adapted all of his own scripts (with the exception of The Faceless Ones) and even adapted a script by Robert Sloman (The Green Death).

Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils
Doctor Who and the Green Death
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
Doctor Who and the Space War
Doctor Who and the War Games

Before he began his run of Who adaptations, he wrote, assisted by Terrance Dicks, The Making of Doctor Who for Pan books. It contained imaginative first person re-tellings of the Doctor's adventures from various "official" perspectives. The book was later rewritten and updated by Dicks for Target.
He was a prolific script writer, contributing tales to Danger Man, The Avengers (co-written with Terrance Dicks), Ghost Squad, Gideon's Way, Crossroads (the original series), The Protectors (1964), and Sergeant Cork as well as Doctor Who. He co-created (with Eric Paice) the science-fiction serials Target Luna, Pathfinders in Space, Pathfinders to Mars and Pathfinders to Venus. Also with Paice, he wrote the 1960 British black and white film, The Man in the Back Seat, directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren (Tegana) Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner.

As well as adapting his Who serials, Hulke was also busy in the mid-70s adapting stories from the long-running British soap opera Crossroads. The books were A New Beginning (1974), A Warm Breeze (1975), Something Old, Something New (1976) and A Time for Living (1976), all Everest. The books were also published in hardback by White Lion, who, around the same time, had reprinted the original Frederick Muller Doctor Who novelisations with new Fourth Doctor covers.

Non-fiction included compiling Cassell's Parliamentary Dictionary and then in 1974, Hulke wrote Writing for Televison in the 70s, an indispensable handbook for those seeking to write successfully for the medium. This was reprinted in 1976 and reissued in 1980 as Writing for Television. Of particular interest to Doctor Who fans is the section on the making of Carnival of Monsters, and the contributions from Barry Letts, Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, Dennis Spooner and Peter Ling (there's also a retelling of the "real"-exploding-church-in-The-Daemons story).

He also devised and edited The Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine and Self-Help, published by Rider and Company in 1978.

In 1976 he spent six months in the USA researching a novel about an airship.

In 1977, Alpine Books released a series of six children's adventure books called Roger Moore and the Crime Fighters (yes, that Roger Moore - in 1977 he was at the height of his Bond acclaim). Alpine was an imprint of Everest Books Ltd line (who also published Hulke's Crossroads novelisations). The authors were Hulke, Robin Smyth, Fielden Hughes, Dulcie Gray, Deben Holt and Anthony Wall. The books were illustrated by Ray Mutimer. Hulke's contribution was The Siege, which was the first in the series. It tells how youngsters Bill, Bonnie and Darren foil an embassy siege and get invited by Roger Moore to form a crimefighters club. Of much interest (and fun) are the book's references to Doctor Who. Firstly, Darren's scruffy dog is called Dalek because his bark sounds like a Dalek saying "Exterminate", only worse. At the book's climax, the villain Grimwood goes to Studio 3 of the BBC Television Centre, where they just happen to be recording a certain SF show. Grimwood has gone to steal a policeman's uniform but he bumps into Roger Moore (!) who's suspicions are aroused when he reasons that Doctor Who probably doesn't require any policemen. The paperback edition had ISBN 0905018 354 and cost 50p.

In 1980 (after Hulke's death), UK publishers Purnell released Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space (SBN 461 044070, 1980), a large format hardback anthology of SF short stories. The contributors on the writing side were Hulke, Fred Baker, David Meredith, John Grant, William Hall, Sydney Bounds, George Beal and Jim Storrie. The book was richly illustrated by several artists including Target cover artist Andrew Skilleter. Hulke wrote six of the short stories and Skilleter illustrated six also, but a story called Mutiny was the only joint collaboration. The book was also released in America as Galactic Adventures, published by Rand McNally. It had SBN 528 82374 4 and was released in 1980. The cover was painted by by Brian Edwards.
(Cover scan of Purnell's Book of Adventures in Space courtesy of Jon Preddle)
Malcolm Hulke died on the 6th of July 1979.