Reviews

"Time-Flight offers one of the best opportunities yet for readers to appreciate the different ways any given storyline can be handled depending on the slant the person responsible for its final presentation chooses. On TV, [director] Ron Jones opted to use the four-square pure drama approach. In his book, Peter Grimwade - well, why not wait and see and perhaps make up your own mind as to whether any differences exist."
- A rather non-commital 'Doctor Who Monthly' (number 72), January 1983

"As Warriors' Gate the book had helped in explaining several misunderstood points inherent in its television version, Grimwade's Time-Flight novel could possibly cover up some of the screened story's plot deficiencies. In this respect the novel is not entirely successful...
The plotline adheres faithfully to the television version, right down to the division and interelation of individual scenes, and the dialogue rarely differs from that heard on the screen...
A vague explanation is given of the Master's need of disguise - apparently it was influenced and maintained by the Xeraphin power. There are plausible explanations given for the bodies Nyssa saw on arriving at the fake Heathrow and why Hayter decided to accept the knowledge of the Xeraphin for more than just greed. But still faults occur; co-ordinate override later becomes co-ordinate overdrive; Nyssa has to sacrifice herdself to the Xeraphin to allow the Doctor to leave the Sanctum but no reason is given why; and there is still no explanation of how the Master escaped from Castrovalva. Nevertheless, Time-Flight is an immensely enjoyable book and an undoubed success for Peter Grimwade."
- Alec Charles, Steven Redford & Robert Franks, 'Shada' (number 14), March/April 1983

"The way in which he (Peter Grimwade) describes the parts concerning the technical problems of running a plane, such as landing, are not only drawn out, tedious and in some parts wrong, but unfortunately account for too large a part of the book. For example, where he describes the landing procedures of Concorde, whereby every ounce of skill was used. Well on seeing QED (BBC documentary) on Concorde, we all know that parts of the landing procedures can be left in automatic. Most are not, except for the throttle, so the line about adjusting the auto throttle is not only wrong, but surely a contradiction in terms!"
- Howard Bull, 'Tardis' (volume 8, number 3), September 1983

"The display of technical detail so notable in the TV version, is even more impressive in print."
- Robert Craker, 'Tardis' (volume 8, number 3), September 1983

"I suppose I am biased in my opinions on this debut Doctor Who novel of Peter Grimwade's, because I thought the original script of Time-Flight was lousy. Disregarding the appalling storyline however, this makes quite good reading."
- Alan Early, 'Will's Eye View' (number 3), 1983

Miscellaneous

Author

PETER GRIMWADE

Peter Grimwade served at the BBC as a production assistant on dramas such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and All Creatures Great and Small (alongside future Who-producer John Nathan-Turner), and directed an episode of The Omega Factor ("Out of Body, Out of Mind", starring Louise Jameson and written by Anthony Read) before moving on to Doctor Who as a director for four stories (Full Circle, Logopolis, Kinda, Earthshock).

He went on to write for the programme, including creating and writing-out the character of Turlough.

Doctor Who - Time-Flight
Doctor Who - Mawdryn Undead
Doctor Who - Planet of Fire

In 1986, Grimwade wrote and directed The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt for the Dramarama slot on tea-time ITV. It was about making a long-running TV science-fiction show!

Grimwade went on to write one further novel for W. H. Allen / Star Books before his untimely death in 1990. The book was an SF adventure simply called Robot (ISBN 0 352 32036 2, priced £2.35). The book was offered to Grimwade by way of a good will gesture on the part of W. H. Allen - they had licensed from the BBC the rights to produce an original fiction piece based on the character of Vislor Turlough (The Companions of Doctor Who - Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma), rights which the BBC did not own to give - the character was the copyright of Grimwade. Robot can provide hours of entertainment spotting the Doctor Who influences and references throughout: the programme gets explicitly mentioned on page 45; the action takes place around the town of Turlow; one of the characters is called Derek Bidmead (Christopher Bidmead was script editor when Grimwade was first directing and writing for the show), another is called Courtney (Nicholas Courtney played the Brigadier in Mawdryn Undead) and another is called Keith Barnfather (Keith Barnfather filmed Grimwade for the Myth Makers series of video interviews); the headmaster of the school is called Attwood and it was Tony Attwood who wrote Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, the book which ultimately gave Grimwade the opportunity to write Robot - unlike Bidmead, Attwood survives the robot invasion! Despite what has been written elsewhere, the book is not a dig at megalomaniac SF TV producers/stars, that point was made in Grimwade's TV show for Children's ITV - The Comeuppance of Captain Katt.

Peter Grimwade died, following a battle against leukaemia, in May 1990. He was survived by his partner Keith.

Gift Set

It was included in The Fourth Doctor Who Gift Set, released in 1983. These gift sets comprised four recently released (or re-released) novelisations in a cardboard slip case. The four novels that made up the fourth set were The Giant Robot, State of Decay, Logopolis and Time-Flight. The box featured a photograph of Peter Davison, taken on location for The Visitation. The gift set had ISBN 0 426 194306 and it sold for £5.75. In all there were nine gift sets released between 1982 and 1986. The first and second were flimsy cardboard slip cases but the remainder were quite sturdy.