SFX Doctor Who Special - with free Target novel

[Rob McCow]

SFX have produced a 'Doctor Who Special' (loads of recycled articles I reckons), but each edition comes with a free Target Novel!

I saw some today and they look in lush condition, making me wonder which warehouse still has thousands of mint editions of 70's books! I saw The Green Death (green cover with dragonfly and eggs on the front), 'And The Cybemen' (square eyed cybermen cover) and of course, the ubiquitous The Power of Kroll. Hurrah!

Haven't bought it yet though. Anyone seen any of the other novels on offer?

[Pip Madeley]

They did this last year with the PDAs - as I seem to remember, it was quite a large range... I guess you just have to do look through them all in the shop and choose your favourite.

[Matthew T]

Burtons Books always seem to have plenty so I reckon there must be a warehouse full somewhere. They always seem to be the 1984 reprints.

[Martin Penny]

Oo I was going to report this, I spotted one with Twin Dilemma on earlier.

[Pip Madeley]

I spotted one with Twin Dilemma on earlier.

And that's meant to be a GIFT?

[Rob McCow]

The book of The Twin Dilemma isn't that bad at all.

[Matthew T]

I wonder if any have Wheel in Space

[Pip Madeley]

The hardback?

[WhiteCrow]

It's a Doctor Who special. But knowing SFX they'll still have to mention Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Wheldon.

Maybe saying "RTD couldn't have made Doctor Who if not for the pioneering work of Joss Wheldon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Of course unable to resist mentioning someone from School Reunion might have been in a certain TV series.

And perhaps the odd interview ...

SFX: So David Tennant, back for another series. Tell me, were you always a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
DT: Erm ... I'm here to talk about my role on Doctor Who
SFX: But surely you always wanted to play a part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
DT: No.
SFX: I bet when you got the call from Russell T Davies you were a bit miffed it wasn't that very talented Joss Wheldon with a part for you ...

[Milky Tears]

Burtons always used to have "US STOCK FIND!" in their catalogues. I reckon there's a huge Area 51 stylee warehouse crammed with about half a million Target books somewhere in Nevada. Lyle Stuart (was that the North American distributor?) probably stockpiled far too many when they thought Who was going to go mainstream in the US round about 84-85. Burtons even had loads of mint mid-80s Lyle Stuart stickered hardcovers in stock a few years ago.

[Captain Tancredi]

I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple with the Curse of Fenric in Borders in Leeds today so picked one up as apart from anything, I'll need it sometime around next January...the weird thing is that it's the first edition from 1990 and in absolutely fantastic condition for something which has spent some 17 years in a warehouse somewhere.

[Paul Clement]

My mate gets SFX and gave me A copy of Mutants.

[transvamp]

I've also seen ones for Time Flight and Marco Polo

[P-Bal]

I've seen one with The Yellow Fever And How To Cure It on.

[Milky Tears]

It's all Mutants, Kroll and Galaxy Foreskin round my way. Can't be bothered going to Glasgow or Ayr to check for more.

[Carol Baynes]

Old Target books as gifts??! And it's not an April fools joke?! WOW!

[SiHart]

It's not! We got The Green Death.

The magazine is quite good too. Did you know that The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit has the least use of the Sonci Screwdriver in the whole of the new series so far? Good fact!

Si xx

[Captain Tancredi]

I was reasonably impressed with the magazine too (having bought it at least as much because I knew I'd need a copy of the Fenric novelisation in about 41 weeks' time)- it's far more entertaining than the "approved" DWM specials and somehow manages to be more informative too.

[Milky Tears]

According to posts on other forums, the SFX free books are:

Armageddon Factor
Castrovalva
Cybermen
Galaxy Four
Green Death
Marco Polo
Mutants
Power of Kroll
Tenth Planet
Time-Flight
Twin Dilemma
Seeds of Doom/Deadly Assassin
Curse of Fenric
Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Delta and the Bannerman

[Jonno]

Is The Cybermen the Achilleos cover or the early 80s reprint with the "correct" Cybermen? And is The Green Death the Peter Brookes one with the fly or the early 80s very green one?

[P-Bal]

And we all join in on the zig-a-zig-ah!

[SiHart]

It's the 80's reprint of The Cybermen with the correct Cybermen and the very green Green Death.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

The special itself consists of 3-4 fairly interesting interviews that take a broad overview of things, rather than going into intimate "Scene 5 features a man without a face this was achieved by CGI on Tuesday after tea" details. The bulk of the special is an extremely lazy and cheap episode guide, bulked out with enormous photos and going minute-by-minute through each episode, generally telling you things that are easy to find out elsewhere. But it's still interesting and worth a read for not being so in-depth.

[Milky Tears]

I prefer the hardcore Pixley stuff.

[Jonno]

Me too! And thanks Si above for confirming the cover details - those two are the ones I've already got (as opposed to the 70s originals) so my interest has lessened.