Doctor Who Book of The Month - June: Doctor Who and The Loch Ness Monster

[Rob McCow]

OK, I know I said original fiction only at the start, but that seems not to count these days - anyway, I need something easy to wipe the bitter taste of Terraphiles from my mind.

Why is DOCTOR WHO suddenly summoned to the shores of Loch Ness?
Terror and panic spread as the third oil rig is smashed into the sea by a mysterious force... the monster?
The controlling power must be the ZYGONS - alien creatures who have lived hidden on Earth for thousands of years, and now feel strong enough to take over the planet... The Doctor, Sarah and UNIT have different ideas - but can they outwit the supreme cunning of the ruthless ZYGONS?

What are your thoughts on this 1976 Target Novel?

[Andrew Curnow]

Well I certainly like Broton's beehive hairdo on the reprint cover... I have this one, so will definitely be joining in for June!

[SiHart]

Must dig our copy out. I can have it read in an hour!

[Andrew Curnow]

I'm two chapters in, and it's a pleasant enough read so far...

[Andrew Curnow]

Finished it a couple of weeks back - it's probably the first time I've read it since watching the video, so it's a slightly different experience now. There were some nice 'extra' bits, scenes which Dicks adds in to give the story more of a sense of time - so for example, there are nighttimes and breakfasts, so it doesn't all happen in one day (as so many stories apparently do). There's a nice little moment where, having given the Skarasen the slip out on the moor, the Doctor is walking the several miles back to the pub, before being picked up by the Brig & Sarah out looking for him. It just fleshes the people out a bit more, as well as making the story flow more 'naturally' from event to event.

[Rob McCow]

It's good stuff this one, a solid adaptation.

In a way it's a real shame that it's now so familiar on video, because it takes something away from the novelisation! I'm not saying that it would be better in the imagination, but the joy of reading these was always picturing what it could be like. Unfortunately it's become swamped for me because I now know what it's actually like. And as Terror of The Zygons was one of the first stories I saw on video, well before I read the novel, it's impossible for me to detach the two!