Publication Information
Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Andrew Skilleter
Publishing date: August 1980 Episode Information
TV serial: Nightmare of Eden
Writer: Bob Baker
Transmission Dates: 24th November - 15th December 1979 (4 episodes) Fact and Findings
With this novelisation, Terrance Dicks completed the adaptations of every Bob Baker (and Dave Martin) script, bar The Sontaran Experiment, which was adapted by Ian Marter. Dicks had actually first commisioned "The Bristol Boys" to work on the show during his tenure as script editor in the first half of the seventies.
First edition cover price - 85p
Classic chapter title: Monster Attack
Originally published by W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 20130 2. Reprinted in 1982 and 1983 (£1.35).The 1983 edition falsely claims to have been originally published in 1978.
Later editions were numbered 45 in the Doctor Who library.
The W. H. Allen hardback edition followed in September 1980. The inside cover labelled it A Children's Book and it was priced £3.95, ISBN 0 491 02118 6 Cover Data
The only cover for Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden shows Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor apparently unmoved by the giant Mandril lumbering up behind him.
The back cover was the first of a run of Target novelisations to list half a dozen or so recent Target Doctor Who publications: Among the many Doctor Who books available are the following recently published titles... First up was all of 1980's new output from Doctor Who and the Underworld to Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus, and a reprint of Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon. Reviews
"Some parts which were not clear in the TV version are clarified in the book, the main one being that the little white spot which emerged from the Eden projection and 'struck' Romana was in fact an insect which escaped from the unstable projection... The worst scene from the TV version is missing, namely the dreadful "Oh, my arms, my legs, my everything!", which is replaced by There was a moment of total silence... Perhaps with Tryst's annoying accent gone, the Mandrels not appearing so tatty, the omission of certain 'jokey' scenes, people will begin to appreciate Nightmare as an interesting story with some good touches, even if it is no masterpiece."
- Ian K. McLachlan, 'The Doctor Who Review' (number 7), 1980
UK Editions
The Target editions were published as follows:
1980, 21st August (first edition, W. H. Allen, Skilleter cover, green curve logo, green spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20130 2, 85p)*
1982 (W. H. Allen, ISBN 0 426 20130 2)
1983 (W. H. Allen, Skilleter cover, green curve logo, green numbered spine, colour Target, ISBN 0 426 20130 2, £1.35)*
1988 (re-jacketed using 1983 contents, W. H. Allen, Skilleter cover, green curve logo, green spine, outline Target, ISBN 0 426 20130 2, £1.95)
* copy in site owner's personal collectionMiscellaneous
Author
Terrance Dicks