It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide

Doctor Who Target Novels – Classic Era

20 books in this series
#1 - Doctor Who: Rose (Target Collection)
#1 - Doctor Who: Rose (Target Collection)

Discover the new Doctor Who classics.


“Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!”


In a lair somewhere beneath central London, a malevolent alien intelligence is plotting the end of humanity. Shop window dummies that can move – and kill – are taking up key positions, ready to strike.

Rose Tyler, an ordinary Londoner, is working her shift in a department store, unaware that this is the most important day of her life. She’s about to meet the only man who understands the true nature of the threat facing Earth, a stranger who will open her eyes to all the wonder and terror of the universe – a traveller in time and space known as the Doctor.
#2 - Doctor Who: City of Death (Target Collection)
#2 - Doctor Who: City of Death (Target Collection)

Discover the new Doctor Who classics
.

The key to Earth's destruction lies buried in its past.

Visiting Paris in 1979, the Doctor and Romana’s hopes for a holiday are soon shattered by armed thugs, a suave and dangerous Count, a plot to steal the Mona Lisa and a world-threatening experiment with time.

Teaming up with a British detective, the Time Lords discover that a ruthless alien plot hatched in Earth’s pre-history has reached its final stage. If Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, cannot be stopped then the human race is history, along with all life on Earth…
#3 - Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (Target Collection)
#3 - Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (Target Collection)

Discover the new Doctor Who classics.


Earth is under attack by power-hungry aliens. This is no time for the Doctor to be out of action.

When a British space probe is intercepted by a sinister alien vessel on the eve of Christmas, it marks the beginning of an audacious invasion of the Earth by the Sycorax – horrifying marauders from beyond the stars. Within hours, a third of humanity stands on the brink of death with not a single shot fired.

Our planet needs a champion – but the Doctor is not fit for service. He’s just regenerated, delirious in a new body and a dressing gown. Forced into his battered shoes is his friend, Rose Tyler, a girl from a London council estate. Will she save the world from this nightmare before Christmas – or see it destroyed?
#4 - Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (Target Collection)
#4 - Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (Target Collection)

Discover the new Doctor Who classics.


When the entire universe is at stake, three different Doctors will unite to save it.

The Tenth Doctor is hunting shape-shifting Zygons in Elizabethan England. The Eleventh is investigating a rift in space-time in the present day. And one other – the man they used to be but never speak of – is fighting the Daleks in the darkest days of the Time War. Driven by demons and despair, this battle-scarred Doctor is set to take a devastating decision that will threaten the survival of the entire universe… a decision that not even a Time Lord can take alone.

On this day, the Doctor’s different incarnations will come together to save the Earth… to save the universe… and to save his soul.
#5 - Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks (Target Collection)
#5 - Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks (Target Collection)
The universe is at war. Action takes courage.

The TARDIS is ensnared in a time corridor, catapulting it into derelict docklands on 20th century Earth. The Doctor and his companions, Tegan and Turlough, stumble on a warehouse harbouring fugitives from the future at the far end of the corridor – and are soon under attack from a Dalek assault force.

The Doctor’s oldest enemies have set in motion an intricate and sinister plot to resurrect their race from the ashes of an interstellar war. For the Daleks’ plans to succeed, they must set free their creator, Davros, from a galactic prison – and force the Doctor to help them achieve total control over time and space. But the embittered Davros has ideas of his own…

35 years after its first TV transmission, Doctor Who fan-favourite Resurrection of the Daleks is novelised at last, by the author of the original script, Eric Saward.
#6 - Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (Target Collection)
#6 - Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (Target Collection)
Beware the hands that heal.

The Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros to visit the funerary home Tranquil Repose – where the dead are interred and the near-dead placed in suspended animation until such time as their conditions can be cured.

But the Great Healer of Tranquil Repose is far from benign. Under his command, Daleks guard the catacombs where sickening experiments are conducted on human bodies. The new life he offers the dying comes at a terrible cost – and the Doctor and Peri are being lured into a trap that will change them forever.

At last, the only classic-era Doctor Who adventure never to be novelised is here, and by the author of the original script, Eric Saward.
#7 - Doctor Who: The Witchfinders (Target Collection)
#7 - Doctor Who: The Witchfinders (Target Collection)

I am an expert on witchcraft, Doctor, but I wish to learn more. Before you die, I want answers.’


The TARDIS lands in the Lancashire village of Bilehurst Cragg in the 17th century, and the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz soon become embroiled in a witch trial run by the local landowner. Fear stalks the land, and the arrival of King James I only serves to intensify the witch hunt.

But the Doctor soon realises there is something more sinister than paranoia and superstition at work. Tendrils of living mud stir in the ground and the dead lurch back to horrifying life as an evil alien presence begins to revive. The Doctor and her friends must save not only the people of Bilehurst Cragg from the wakening forces, but the entire world
#8 - Doctor Who: Dalek (Target Collection)
#8 - Doctor Who: Dalek (Target Collection)

‘The entire Dalek race, wiped out in one second. I watched it happen. I made it happen!’


The Doctor and Rose arrive in an underground vault in Utah in the near future. The vault is filled with alien artefacts. Its billionaire owner, Henry van Statten, even has possession of a living alien creature, a mechanical monster in chains that he has named a Metaltron.

Seeking to help the Metaltron, the Doctor is appalled to find it is in fact a Dalek – one that has survived the horrors of the Time War just as he has. And as the Dalek breaks loose, the Doctor is brought back to the brutality and desperation of his darkest hours spent fighting the creatures of Skaro… this time with the Earth as their battlefield.
#9 - Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror (Target Collection)
#9 - Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror (Target Collection)

‘We must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business, no matter what the cost!


Something ghastly is afoot in Victorian Yorkshire. Something that kills. Bodies are washing up in the canal, their skin a waxy, glowing red… But just what is this crimson horror?

Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax are despatched to investigate the mystery. Strangely reluctant to assist their enquiries is Mrs Winifred Gillyflower, matriarch of ‘Sweetville’, a seemingly utopian workers’ community.

Why do all roads lead to the team's old friends Clara and the Doctor?

Who is Mrs Gillyflower's mysterious silent partner Mr Sweet?

And will the motley gang be in time to defeat the mysterious power that threatens all the world with its poison?
#10 - Doctor Who and The Pirate Planet (target collection)
#10 - Doctor Who and The Pirate Planet (target collection)
This all-new Target novelisation is based on the televised version of The Pirate Planet

The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces. With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet - Zanak.

Ruled by the mysterious 'Captain', Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age and they fill up again. It's an economic miracle - so obviously something's very wrong...

For a much expanded version based on Douglas Adams' first draft scripts, check out BBC Books' hardback edition of The Pirate Planet".
#11 - Doctor Who: The TV Movie (Target Collection)
#11 - Doctor Who: The TV Movie (Target Collection)
‘Who am I…? WHO AM I?’

It's December 1999, and strange things are happening as the new millennium nears. A British police box appears from nowhere in San Francisco’s Chinatown and the mysterious man inside it is shot down in the street. Despite the best efforts of Dr Grace Holloway, the man dies and another stranger appears, claiming to be the same person in a different body: a wanderer in time and space known only as the Doctor.

But the Doctor is not the only alien in San Francisco. His deadly adversary the Master is murdering his way through the city and has taken control of the TARDIS. The Master is desperate to take the Doctor’s newly regenerated body for himself, and if the Doctor does not capitulate, it will literally cost him the Earth… and every last life on it.
#12 - Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii (Target Collection)
#12 - Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii (Target Collection)
"My masters will follow the example of Rome... our mighty empire bestraddling the whole of civilization!"

It is AD 79, and the TARDIS lands in Pompeii on the eve of the town's destruction. Mount Vesuvius is ready to erupt and bury its surroundings in molten lava, just as history dictates. Or is it?

The Doctor and Donna find that Pompeii is home to impossible things: circuits made of stone, soothsayers who read minds and fiery giants made of burning rock. From a lair deep in the volcano, these creatures plot the end of humanity - and the Doctor soon finds he has no way to win...
#13 - Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion (Target Collection)
#13 - Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion (Target Collection)
"We will die in the fire instead of living in chains."

For years, 20 million shape-changing Zygons have lived among us in secret. They wear human form, hiding in plain sight. Now a fanatical Zygon splinter group seek to expose their own kind and provoke a conflict that will force both sides to the brink of Armageddon to ensure their own survival.

It took three Doctors to broker a fragile peace between Zygons and Humans. Now the 12th must face the fallout alone. With his allies compromised and his companion believed dead, can he stop the world from plunging into war?
#14 - Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara (Target Collection)
#14 - Doctor Who: The Androids of Tara (Target Collection)
"Why is your first impulse to reach for your swords and never a screwdriver?"

The Doctor and Romana's search for the fourth segment of the all-powerful Key to Time leads them to the planet Tara, where courtly intrigue and romantic pageantry employ the most sophisticated technology.

Within hours of arriving, Romana is mistaken for a powerful princess and the Doctor forced to dally with robotic royalty - and both are quickly embroiled in the scheming ambitions of the wicked Count Grendel. Finding the segment of the Key is easy enough, but escaping with it in one piece will prove an altogether more colourful affair...
#15 - Doctor Who: The Eaters of Light (Target Collection)
#15 - Doctor Who: The Eaters of Light (Target Collection)
"To protect a muddy little hillside, you doomed your whole world!"

The Doctor takes Bill and Nardole back to 2nd century Scotland to learn the fate of the 'lost' Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman Army. 5,000 soldiers vanished without explanation - how?

The search for the truth leads the Doctor and his friends into a deadly mystery. Who is the Guardian of the Gate? What nightmare creature roams the wildlands, darkening the sky and destroying all in its path? A threat from another dimension has been unleashed on the Earth, and only a terrible sacrifice can put things right...
#16 - Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood (Target Collection)
#16 - Doctor Who: The Stones of Blood (Target Collection)
"We won't find Dracula hanging around the Manor. But we may find something equally disturbing..."

The Doctor is delighted when his quest for the Key to Time leads him to his favourite planet, Earth. But his friends are less enchanted: Romana is nearly lured to her death by a sinister apparition, and K9 is all but destroyed by a belligerent boulder with the power to move - and a thirst for blood.

An ancient stone circle becomes a battleground as the Doctor must outwit the deadliest alien criminal this side of hyperspace - and her bloodthirsty silicon servants...

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more