Publication Information

Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Chris Achilleos / Alister Pearson (1991) / David Mann (Pinnacle) / Gary Viskupic (Doubleday)
Publishing date: May 1976

Episode Information

TV serial: Revenge of the Cybermen
Writer: Gerry Davis
Transmission dates: 19th April - 10th May 1975 (4 episodes)

Fact and Findings

Despite having personally adapted his own scripts from the 60's into novelisations, Davis didn't do Revenge largely on the grounds that script editor Robert Holmes had completely altered his story and the scripts were merely his in name. However the book does contain his one page introduction - The Creation of the Cybermen.

First edition cover price - 40p

Classic chapter title: 'The biggest bang in history' (well, it had to be, didn't it. And a healthy 3 / 12 on the exclamatiometer!)

The May 1976 release was promoted on the cover of the April 1976 edition of Target Books, a promotional leaflet / booklet sent to book sellers to promote interest in forthcoming titles.

Later editions were numbered 51 in the Doctor Who library.

A hardback edition was released by Allan Wingate (also in May 1976). It used the same Achilleos artwork on a white dustjacket. It had ISBN 85523 071 1 and cost £2.25.

The original edition was published by Tandem (ISBN 0 426 10997 X). A second impression came in 1978 (Wyndham, 60p, amended cover). It was printed for the third time in 1979 (W. H. Allen), and again in 1981 (W. H. Allen, 95p) and 1983 (W. H. Allen, £1.25). The ISBN was retained throughout.

The book was reissued for a final time, retitled Doctor Who - Revenge of the Cybermen, published by Virgin, in May 1991 (£2.50, same ISBN, new cover). It was released simultaneously with Doctor Who - The Ark in Space, the other adventure set on Space Beacon Nerva. Although the director is correctly credited on the inside cover as Michael E. Briant, the producer is named as Barry Letts (it was Philip Hinchcliffe).

In 1977, Book Club Associates released a hardback compilation of Doctor Who and the Web of Fear, Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen and Doctor Who and the Space War, entitled The Doctor Who Omnibus, available only through book clubs.

The Virgin reprint was released simultaneously with Doctor Who - The Ark in Space, the other adventure set on Space Beacon Nerva. Although the director is correctly credited on the inside cover as Michael E. Briant, the producer is named as Barry Letts (it was Philip Hinchcliffe).

The book ends with the Doctor receiving his summons for help from the Brigadier and contains a direct plug for Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, published earlier the same year.

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 front cover actually names the book Doctor Who - The Revenge of the Cybermen, but this was purely down to space available and font size, the spine and interior refer to Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen.

The second edition of the cover (effective from 1978) has minimal changes from the original. The border is gone and the full title is given.

Alister Pearson's 1991 cover was designed to complement that of Doctor Who - The Ark in Space.

Foreign Editions

The American Pinnacle edition was number 5 in their series. It was first published in June 1979 and finally for a seventh time in January 1989. There were minor alterations to the cover throughout the run.

In October 1979, the Doubleday Book Club in America published a hardback compilation entitled The Adventures of Doctor Who. It used the Pinnacle versions (i.e. with Americanisms) of Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen and Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster. It included the introduction by Harlan Ellison and was available only to book club members.