Targetted at an early age
As many will have gathered by now, there's a certain TV programme that is a particular favourite mine. Growing up in the 70s, Saturday teatime was sacred, as I sat and watched Tom Baker's face fly at me from the screen, accompanied by just the scariest music imaginable to a small child. It was bliss.

Then, somehow, I drifted away for a few years, not really bothering with it anymore. Until a trip to the library opened up a new world to me. I hadn't known that in those days before video recordings, there was a small but growing selection of books based on the TV stories, but there on the shelves were literally dozens of them, all different, with different Doctors in them, and mostly with 'by Terrance Dicks' on their spines. My curiosity was piqued by this, and if I'm honest, also by the pretty colours on the book covers - some fine graphic illustrations by Chris Achilleos.

I picked a couple up and read the blurb on the back. Two tales from before I was even born - I felt a slight tingle as I read - they sounded so bloody exciting! I got them stamped out, along with a copy of War of the Worlds, and took them home with me, eager to get stuck in*.

Within a couple of hours, the first one had been devoured. So I read the second one, again within a couple of hours - about 130 pages was the norm for these adaptations. War of the Worlds was next - took a bit longer, naturally. Then I went back and reread how the first Doctor stopped the Dalek's invasion of earth in the far future, and how the second Doctor stopped the Cybermen on the moon. Then I went back to the library and got some more out. Then I bought some of my own. Then the BBC ran a series of repeats through the week, just after the news - fucking brilliant, a chance to see old episodes. I was rivetted, for a whole 5 weeks, and found myself sucked back into it all over again.

So, not a book, but a whole series of books based on a TV programme, has, I supposed changed my life in a way. The shelves in our place would testify to that as they groan under the weight of videos, DVDs, reference books, some original fiction, Daleks... and a small handful of Target books novelisations, kept for sentimental reasons... If it wasn't for those Target books all those years ago, I wouldn't have become the demented addict I am today, and we'd have more space.

I'm such a geek. I'm sorry.

*Gratuitous innuendo inserted* for Tourette's benefit

*Also, the word inserted. And sucked.

groan's in there as well
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 16 May 2008, 13:10, 1 reply)

Oh god
You are my clone!
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 16 May 2008, 23:25, closed)