Publication Information
Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Andrew Skilleter / Alister Pearson (1993) / Penichoux (Éditions Garancière)
Publishing date: 5th May 1983 Episode Information
TV serial: Meglos
Writers: John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch
Transmission Dates: 27th September - 18th October 1980 (4 episodes) Fact and Findings
The Earthling (as he is known in the TV script), gets a name in the novel - George Morris. Through the novel we actually witness some of his, admittedly mundane, lifestyle back on Earth: On this particular evening he telephoned his wife just before he left the bank and told her, as he told her every weekday evening, that he would be home in twenty minutes. Mrs Morris said 'Yes, dear', went to the drinks cabinet and poured him a glass of medium-dry sherry. Twenty minutes later she would hear his key in the lock. Sometimes she found herself wishing George would be a little less predictable.
This was the final Tom Baker serial to be novelised, the two stories by Douglas Adams remain unadapted.
The scene which, legend has it, persuaded Bill Fraser to play the part of General Grugger (where the General gets to boot K9) is absent from the novel.
Number 75 in the Doctor Who library.
The hardback had been released in February the same year. It featured the same Skilleter artwork on a laminated cover. The ISBN was 0 491 03150 5 and the cover price was £5.25. It was published by W. H. Allen.
First edition cover price - £1.35
Classic chapter title - The Ultimate Weapon
The novel was included in an unnumbered Doctor Who Gift Set.
The original Target edition was released by W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 20136 1. This version was reprinted at least once in 1984 (and, given a price of £1.95, the 1984 interior pages were re-covered at a higher price post 1984, with the new Target logo) with the ISBN having changed on the back cover to 0 426 20316 X (but retaining the original ISBN on the inside). The book was reprinted with a new cover for a final time, by Virgin Publishing under their Target label, on the 15th of April 1993, priced £3.50. Unusually for the Virgin reprints, the producer, director and actor playing the Doctor go uncredited on the inside cover.
Unusually for the Virgin reprints, the producer, director and actor playing the Doctor go uncredited on the inside cover of the final edition.
Although this was the last Fourth Doctor TV adaptation to be released by Target, the bescarfed one was to return right at the very end of the series, in Victor Pemberton's novelisation of the Argo LP Doctor Who and the Pescatons. Cover Data
The original cover features the likenesses of both Baker (in Meglos mode) and Bill Fraser as General Grugger.
The only change in the later 1980's reprints was the use of the simpler target logo (i.e. no colour).
The cover by Alister Pearson, that replaced the original in 1993, portrays Tom Baker as both the fourth Doctor and Meglos, with the Dodecahedron in the foreground. Foreign Editions
The novel was translated into French as Docteur Who - Meglos, published in August 1987 by Éditions Garancière as part of their Igor et Grichka Bogdanoff presentent... series. It was translated by Corine Derblum with a cover by Penichoux. Reviews
"As with the book of The Sunmakers, Terrance Dicks makes the most out of the scenes of comic dialogue which exchange mainly between General Grugger and his light-fingered accomplice Lieutenant, Brotadac. In particular emphasis is given to the latter's overwhelming obsession with the Doctor's burgundy coat, which, like its wearer, gets duplicated by the Zolpha-Thuran early on in the book."
- 'Doctor Who Monthly' (number 72), January 1983
"Scattered throughout the book are other attractively expressed lines which indicate that Terrance Dicks has delved a little deeper into his mental store of diverting phrases than usual. For example Meglos smiled the Doctor's smile or the great bony fool was so dazzled by Meglos - both simple but effective."
- Roger Craker, 'Tardis' (volume 8, number 3), September 1983
"In Meglos, Dicks appears to stop at nothing to avoid such painstaking little details as characterisation, description or explanation, in what must be one of his least adventurous books to date. You may claim that you have very little of that on the TV, especially in Meglos, but if Dicks' book described as little as a tenth of what we saw on TV, then I would be more than happy. The fact that Meglos tells next to nothing of what we saw on TV, being, as it is, a faithful reproduction of the script, is rather a sad reflection on the man's writing ability. The descriptive passages that he does use are short, unimaginative and, most importantly, unoriginal. Many can even be paralled with his 'standard' phrases: in describing the Gaztaks he calls their clothes vaguely military looking (the Doctor's vaguely bohemian), he describes their ship's clanking, grinding sound (wheezing, groaning of the TARDIS), to name a couple; and he uses his stock phrase: a tall man, with wide staring eyes and a mop of curly hair."
- Alec Charles, Steven Redford & Robert Franks, 'Shada' (number 14), March/April 1983UK Editions
| YEAR | DATE | PUBLISHER | COVER ARTIST | LOGO | SPINE COLOUR | SPINE NUMBER | TARGET LOGO | ISBN | PRICE | NOTES | OWNED |
|---|
| 1983 | 5th May | W. H. Allen | Skilleter | blue neon | blue | - | colour | 0 426 20136 1 | £1.35 | first edition | Y |
| 1984 | - | W. H. Allen | Skilleter | blue neon | blue | 75 | colour | 0 426 20136 1 | £1.35 | - | Y |
| 1987 | - | W. H. Allen | Skilleter | blue neon | blue | 75 | outline | 0 426 20316 X | £1.95 | re-jacketed using 1984 contents | Y |
| 1993 | 15th April | Virgin | Pearson | McCoy banner | dark blue | 75 | outline | 0 426 20136 1 | £3.50 | - | Y |
Miscellaneous
Author
Terrance Dicks
Proofs
Cover proofs were used to promote the books to potential sellers
Gift Set
The novel was included in an unnumbered Doctor Who Gift Set, released in 1986. This was the final set in a run of gift sets comprising four recently released (or re-released) novelisations in a cardboard slip case. The novels in the boxed set were The Keys of Marinus, Meglos, The Keeper of Traken and The Mind of Evil or Terror of the Autons (depending on stock). The box featured a photo of Colin Baker(!) on both sides (identical to the fifth set), and had ISBN 0 426 32410 8. In all there were nine gift sets released between 1982 and 1986 (the first eight were numbered).
Foreign Countries
France
Un milliard d'admirateurs à travers le monde!
Seigneur du Temps, héros de l'Éternité, le Docteur Who connaît aujourd'hui une fantastique popularité. Le succès inégalé de la série télévisée qui lui a donné naissance, la fascination qu'il exerce sur un immense public à travers plus de cent pays contribuent à faire de ce personnage un véritable mythe pour la premiere fois révélé en France.
A la recherche du mystérieux cristal de planète Tigella le Docteur Who échapera-t-il au piège machiavélique que lui tend Méglos?
The novel was translated into French as Docteur Who - Méglos, published in September 1987 by Éditions Garancière as part of their Igor et Grichka Bogdanoff presentent... series (ISBN 2.7340.0227.2). It was translated by Corine Derblum with a cover by Penichoux. The translation was the final one in the series, bringing the total to eight. There were four First Doctor translations (starting with Docteur Who entre en scène), three Fourth Doctor and one Second Doctor.
with thanks to David Howe
Cover artist: Jean-François Penichoux
1987 Éditions Garancière
Cover Artist
JEAN-FRANÇOIS PENICHOUX
French artist Jean-François Penichoux painted the covers for the eight French Doctor Who translations from Éditions Garancière, published in 1987.
Docteur Who - Le Docteur Entre En Scène
Docteur Who - Les Croisés
Docteur Who - Les Daleks
Docteur Who - Les Daleks Envahissent la Terre
Docteur Who - Le Cerveau de Morbius
Docteur Who - Le Masque de Mandragore
Docteur Who - L'Abominable Homme Des Neiges
Docteur Who - Meglos