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Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #138
Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen
A diamond raid in modern London... a secret base hidden deep in the heart of the city's sewer system... a cold and desolate planet light years from Earth... and a daring plan to alter the entire course of interplanetary history...
On twentieth-century Earth it appears that the Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, has allied himself with the ruthless Cybermen. The Cybermen have devised a scheme which, if successful, could completely destroy the web of time and bring the human race to its knees.
When the Cyber-planet of Mondas was destroyed in 1986 the Cybermen were forced to retreat to the planet Telos. Now they have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world. And for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...
On twentieth-century Earth it appears that the Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, has allied himself with the ruthless Cybermen. The Cybermen have devised a scheme which, if successful, could completely destroy the web of time and bring the human race to its knees.
When the Cyber-planet of Mondas was destroyed in 1986 the Cybermen were forced to retreat to the planet Telos. Now they have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world. And for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...
140 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1989
206 people want to read
About the author
Eric Saward
24 books5 followersEric Saward worked as a writer and later script editor for Doctor Who during the 1980s.
Saward had a particular fondness for the Cybermen. He wrote stories with good action throughout them and stories that connected the Doctor to important events in Earth's history.
He also wrote the short story Birth of a Renegade and the radio play Slipback.
He served as script editor from Time-Flight, the last episode of season 19, to the penultimate episode of season 23 (The Ultimate Foe episode 1). He resigned his position due to a disagreement with producer John Nathan-Turner over the storyline (and particularly the ending) of episode 2 of The Ultimate Foe. Afterwards, he gave a notably scathing interview to Starburst magazine over his falling out with Nathan-Turner, and he became vocal in his criticism of Colin Baker's appointment as the Sixth Doctor.
Target Books failed to secure an agreement that would have seen Saward's two Daleks serials novelised either by Saward himself or by others, with Saward only novelising both of his Dalek stories in 2019. The 1989 publication of Saward's adaptation of Attack of the Cybermen actually post-dated his falling out with the Doctor Who production team by several years. His favourite snack is a chocolate hobnob
Saward had a particular fondness for the Cybermen. He wrote stories with good action throughout them and stories that connected the Doctor to important events in Earth's history.
He also wrote the short story Birth of a Renegade and the radio play Slipback.
He served as script editor from Time-Flight, the last episode of season 19, to the penultimate episode of season 23 (The Ultimate Foe episode 1). He resigned his position due to a disagreement with producer John Nathan-Turner over the storyline (and particularly the ending) of episode 2 of The Ultimate Foe. Afterwards, he gave a notably scathing interview to Starburst magazine over his falling out with Nathan-Turner, and he became vocal in his criticism of Colin Baker's appointment as the Sixth Doctor.
Target Books failed to secure an agreement that would have seen Saward's two Daleks serials novelised either by Saward himself or by others, with Saward only novelising both of his Dalek stories in 2019. The 1989 publication of Saward's adaptation of Attack of the Cybermen actually post-dated his falling out with the Doctor Who production team by several years. His favourite snack is a chocolate hobnob
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 11, 2019
When Eric Saward novelized Paula Moore's only script for "Doctor Who," he went at it with the idea of making it a novel and not just a script with the tag lines removed. However, "Paula Moore" is a pseudonym and it is not fully known who wrote the original script or story outline. Most those involved agree that whatever material Saward originally got when he was script editor for the TV series, he heavily rewrote for broadcast. The script has all the elements of a typical Saward script, being a quest scaffolding on which to hang scenes that proceed with increasing violence. The novel maintains this structure. Pretty much all of the original script is here, with a few lines paraphrased rather than quoted. Additionally, Saward adds some back story, descriptions, and narratorial observations. The largest addition Saward makes in the novel is the increased storyline of small-time criminal Charlie Griffiths, who gets a homelife with his mother, backstory as a man too stupid to be a criminal and not smart enough to be anything else, and for large portions, especially early in the book, the central point of view. Saward zips a reader right through the story. However, when the reader ponders why things happened, then the plot just does not hang together all that well.
April 29, 2024
Short story: The inner monologues, the change to the characters (Griffiths mostly), and some simplification makes this novelization even out the rough parts to score a 3.
Longer story: It’s fascinating yet again to read behind the scenes of how we get to these stories in all their forms. This time John Preddle’s script-to-screen analysis on the New Zealand fan club site helps most.
The time travel aspect of this story, while intriguing, never amounts to anything, and all the finished versions of Attack of the Cybermen wisely spend less time on it. Telos as a setting, topside and underworld, provide environments that could have been anywhere, but is entangled with wanting to do a Cybermen story. Unfortunately that’s immediately muddled by them needing to “destroy” the tombs before we know why, and even once we get an explanation, makes you wonder why they don’t just leave.
Saward’s novelization does a good job minimizing the impact of these weird albatrosses, while deepening the motivations of the characters, and keeping the overall basic story intact. Thankfully the “nastiness” in this era (and Saward’s expression of it on the page) is also minimized in this book, or at least seems to fit the characters themselves. Griffiths becoming more sympathetic (and younger, perhaps) definitely helps make him more believably “green” or naïve.
The pacing is mostly the same as the televised version, but as with Resurrection of the Daleks, this can give the reader minor whiplash. There were a few moments where brief sections of concurrent action were represented by small paragraphs following each other. This can work if those moments are clearly connected, but are disorienting otherwise, especially if you go from dialogue to omniscient narration to inner monologue.
Attack is a story that, as a fan, I really want to make sense and do justice to a fond memory of Tomb of the Cybermen. It doesn’t really do either, even in its most basic form as a plot outline, and no adaptation can really rescue that. Instead, I can enjoy the book riding some of the more interesting and unexplored undercurrents of it.
Had this been more successful, maybe the concept of rabid Cybermen wouldn’t have needed dredging up for the ultimately failed Dark Dimension project. But that is a tale for another time…
Longer story: It’s fascinating yet again to read behind the scenes of how we get to these stories in all their forms. This time John Preddle’s script-to-screen analysis on the New Zealand fan club site helps most.
The time travel aspect of this story, while intriguing, never amounts to anything, and all the finished versions of Attack of the Cybermen wisely spend less time on it. Telos as a setting, topside and underworld, provide environments that could have been anywhere, but is entangled with wanting to do a Cybermen story. Unfortunately that’s immediately muddled by them needing to “destroy” the tombs before we know why, and even once we get an explanation, makes you wonder why they don’t just leave.
Saward’s novelization does a good job minimizing the impact of these weird albatrosses, while deepening the motivations of the characters, and keeping the overall basic story intact. Thankfully the “nastiness” in this era (and Saward’s expression of it on the page) is also minimized in this book, or at least seems to fit the characters themselves. Griffiths becoming more sympathetic (and younger, perhaps) definitely helps make him more believably “green” or naïve.
The pacing is mostly the same as the televised version, but as with Resurrection of the Daleks, this can give the reader minor whiplash. There were a few moments where brief sections of concurrent action were represented by small paragraphs following each other. This can work if those moments are clearly connected, but are disorienting otherwise, especially if you go from dialogue to omniscient narration to inner monologue.
Attack is a story that, as a fan, I really want to make sense and do justice to a fond memory of Tomb of the Cybermen. It doesn’t really do either, even in its most basic form as a plot outline, and no adaptation can really rescue that. Instead, I can enjoy the book riding some of the more interesting and unexplored undercurrents of it.
Had this been more successful, maybe the concept of rabid Cybermen wouldn’t have needed dredging up for the ultimately failed Dark Dimension project. But that is a tale for another time…
June 27, 2021
Somewhere between a 3 and a 4 - much better than the prior effort - isn't based on such a weak story, and the attempted humour seems to be mostly stripped out. Still some degree of skipping of dialogue, but not as bad. Also fleshes out quite a bit the one off characters, making them more sympathetic, and indeed made me care about their fates.
The main story itself is a bit of a strange one, meshes some differing ideas, and tries to reconcile some apparent contradictions about the cybermen in prior stories, but doesn't do it that well, and is itself contradicted by later stories.
The Doctor is in better form than the prior story, still arrogant but shows a bit more thoughtfulness here, and certainly isn't trying to strangle his companion.
Peri felt more of a passenger in this story though, carried along by events and not having too much proactiveness which is a shame, as she can be a strong character.
Overall though, an enjoyable read.
The main story itself is a bit of a strange one, meshes some differing ideas, and tries to reconcile some apparent contradictions about the cybermen in prior stories, but doesn't do it that well, and is itself contradicted by later stories.
The Doctor is in better form than the prior story, still arrogant but shows a bit more thoughtfulness here, and certainly isn't trying to strangle his companion.
Peri felt more of a passenger in this story though, carried along by events and not having too much proactiveness which is a shame, as she can be a strong character.
Overall though, an enjoyable read.
March 26, 2024
Eric Saward's love of unnecessary death always makes me dislike some of his Doctor Who work. The fact that this story kills everyone - although not as nihilistically as Resurrection of the Daleks - has made the TV version of this story one of my least favourite Doctor Who stories. It doesn't help that the cliff hanger to Part One is one of the worst directed and worst acted cliff hangers in Doctor Who history.
It's actually done much more brutally, but much better in this book. Which I really enjoyed. Saward fleshes out some of the minor characters, which makes their deaths even darker. It also helps that the final confrontation between the Doctor and the Cybercontroller doesn't feature an overweight actor cast in the part because he played him in Tomb of the Cybermen twenty years previously.
There's a lot of violence in this book and it is written without cushioning the impact much. But somehow the book works better for me than the TV version.
It's actually done much more brutally, but much better in this book. Which I really enjoyed. Saward fleshes out some of the minor characters, which makes their deaths even darker. It also helps that the final confrontation between the Doctor and the Cybercontroller doesn't feature an overweight actor cast in the part because he played him in Tomb of the Cybermen twenty years previously.
There's a lot of violence in this book and it is written without cushioning the impact much. But somehow the book works better for me than the TV version.
February 25, 2023
If you are not familiar with this story, the Doctor stumbles across a plot by the Cybermen while encountering Lytton from Resurrection of the Daleks. One of the rare times that the classic series follows up on what happened to someone. At the end of Resurrection, Lytton was left stuck on Earth with his two guards, all dressed as Metropolitan police.
Odd how much Eric Saward's writing is between the last story and this one. Gone is the attempt to write like Douglas Adams. He has taken a fairly good story and improved on it. If you are familiar with the televised version, you will see how he has changed the order of some scenes about. If I were to mention a fault, the ending felt a bit cramped as it took place over a final short chapter. Overall a good entry in the Target range of Doctor Who.
Odd how much Eric Saward's writing is between the last story and this one. Gone is the attempt to write like Douglas Adams. He has taken a fairly good story and improved on it. If you are familiar with the televised version, you will see how he has changed the order of some scenes about. If I were to mention a fault, the ending felt a bit cramped as it took place over a final short chapter. Overall a good entry in the Target range of Doctor Who.
October 8, 2023
Doctor Who : Attack of the Cybermen (1989) by Eric Saward is the novelisation of the first serial of season twenty two of Doctor Who.
The Doctor and Peri travel to a distress beacon that is being transmitted from 1985 in London. There they encounter Lytton who the Doctor has previously met as a mercenary working for the Daleks. Lytton is now leading a team of thieves. The Cybermen soon appear and the Doctor, Peri and Lytton travel to Telos where the Cybermen are entombed.
It’s not a bad serial. The conversion of the people into Cybermen gets described and we see failed conversions. It would be interesting to see if the episode and ideas influenced the Borg in Star Trek.
Attack of the Cybermen is one of the better Cybermen episodes. Lytton’s arc is quite good.
The Doctor and Peri travel to a distress beacon that is being transmitted from 1985 in London. There they encounter Lytton who the Doctor has previously met as a mercenary working for the Daleks. Lytton is now leading a team of thieves. The Cybermen soon appear and the Doctor, Peri and Lytton travel to Telos where the Cybermen are entombed.
It’s not a bad serial. The conversion of the people into Cybermen gets described and we see failed conversions. It would be interesting to see if the episode and ideas influenced the Borg in Star Trek.
Attack of the Cybermen is one of the better Cybermen episodes. Lytton’s arc is quite good.
March 18, 2017
Although there is some expansion on the televised story (in terms of character background) this is a less than inspired retelling - though that applies to the original story, as well. There seem to be some things missing - the 'stealth' Cybermen in the sewers, for example. And I'm sure that there was some attempt at showing Halley's comet onscreen as well...
Not my favourite outing for the Cybermen. I'd not realised that the Cybercontroller was meant to be the same one as the Doctor encountered in 'Tomb' (hence the repeat casting of Michael Kilgarrif) and the weapons firing inside the TARDIS jarred a bit. I was saddened once again by Lytton's demise (he would have been a good character to have recurring in the series occasionally. Am I the only person to think Maurice Colbourne bears a striking resemblance to Michael Jayston?) and Griffiths, too In fact i was struck by the cursory treatment of those secondary characters - the henchmen and Stratton/Briggs pairing all had rather brusque endings. As usual the ending seemed rushed as the page count neared maximum...
Not my favourite outing for the Cybermen. I'd not realised that the Cybercontroller was meant to be the same one as the Doctor encountered in 'Tomb' (hence the repeat casting of Michael Kilgarrif) and the weapons firing inside the TARDIS jarred a bit. I was saddened once again by Lytton's demise (he would have been a good character to have recurring in the series occasionally. Am I the only person to think Maurice Colbourne bears a striking resemblance to Michael Jayston?) and Griffiths, too In fact i was struck by the cursory treatment of those secondary characters - the henchmen and Stratton/Briggs pairing all had rather brusque endings. As usual the ending seemed rushed as the page count neared maximum...
September 12, 2021
Sometimes the joy of these Target Doctor Who novelizations is in being able to focus on the story without the distraction of the show's often questionable production value. This is definitely true here, but in this case focusing on the story also makes it's shortcomings more evident. Attack of the Cybermen is a reasonably well-written novel, but it's a very bleak story, in which nearly all of the supporting characters die violent deaths, and very little that the Doctor does has any impact on the story's conclusion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2025
Much better than the televised version, and more tightly written than most of his other books in this range but - as with his other books - I can’t help but think that Saward didn’t really like Doctor Who all that much. The opening is is terrific, but when the Doctor and Peri turn up, they are hardly in it: most of the action goes to Lytton and his depleted gang, who live in a world far more interesting and engaging than that of the Doctor’s.
August 14, 2019
A good novelization, which loses a star for sadly being based on “Attack of the Cybermen.”
November 15, 2024
Nothing happenedddd
February 27, 2024
I still have a lot of muddled feelings when it comes to Attack of the Cybermen. Part of me just can't shake the feeling of being incredibly late to the party I felt when I first watched this one on KTEH all those years ago. I was relatively new to fandom, knew little to nothing about the history of the Cybermen, and was treated to four (US syndication) episodes that reminded me of this over and over again.
Attack works better when you realize what is being referenced in the story -- whether it's callbacks to the destruction of Mondas from the Cybermen's original appearance to the Cyberemen lurking in the sewers from their last 60's appearance. A lot of it ends up feeling like Eric Saward saying to audiences, "Ha, ha, I get to watch the lost episodes and you don't."
This is honestly a story where Doctor Who feels like its doing a lot of navel gazing and throwing in continuity for continuity's sake.
And despite delays in seeing this one hit the printed page, the novelization of it doesn't exactly help much. Saward spends a good bit of time creating character backstories for Charlie and various other players -- but as with his recent Dalek adaptations, this just underscores the incredibly high body count of his stories. Saward seemed to take the wrong lessons from Robert Holmes returning to the series during Saward's tenure as script editor. Holmes found a gruesome threat in the everyday or the seemingly safe. Saward just seems to find the grim and gruesome.
What Saward does well is keeping the plotlines on Earth and Telos fairly well separated. It's only once events finish on Earth and we're headed to Telos that he introduces those threads. But other than that, it's a fairly standard adaptation of his/Paula Moore's script for the printed page. And while Saward is willing to fill in some of the Cybermen's history (we get another allusion to their role in Adric's death), he doesn't fill in enough to fully eliminate the feeling that if you haven't seen the 60's cyber stories (which few of us had at the time), you were missing a vital element of this one.
Disappointing them and still disappointing.
The same can't be said for David Banks' performance of this story. Banks did a solid job last year and his work here is nice, even if the audiobook doesn't always add the Cybermen filters to various Cybermen.
Attack works better when you realize what is being referenced in the story -- whether it's callbacks to the destruction of Mondas from the Cybermen's original appearance to the Cyberemen lurking in the sewers from their last 60's appearance. A lot of it ends up feeling like Eric Saward saying to audiences, "Ha, ha, I get to watch the lost episodes and you don't."
This is honestly a story where Doctor Who feels like its doing a lot of navel gazing and throwing in continuity for continuity's sake.
And despite delays in seeing this one hit the printed page, the novelization of it doesn't exactly help much. Saward spends a good bit of time creating character backstories for Charlie and various other players -- but as with his recent Dalek adaptations, this just underscores the incredibly high body count of his stories. Saward seemed to take the wrong lessons from Robert Holmes returning to the series during Saward's tenure as script editor. Holmes found a gruesome threat in the everyday or the seemingly safe. Saward just seems to find the grim and gruesome.
What Saward does well is keeping the plotlines on Earth and Telos fairly well separated. It's only once events finish on Earth and we're headed to Telos that he introduces those threads. But other than that, it's a fairly standard adaptation of his/Paula Moore's script for the printed page. And while Saward is willing to fill in some of the Cybermen's history (we get another allusion to their role in Adric's death), he doesn't fill in enough to fully eliminate the feeling that if you haven't seen the 60's cyber stories (which few of us had at the time), you were missing a vital element of this one.
Disappointing them and still disappointing.
The same can't be said for David Banks' performance of this story. Banks did a solid job last year and his work here is nice, even if the audiobook doesn't always add the Cybermen filters to various Cybermen.
November 23, 2024
Original rating 3
2024 re read rating 3
Continuation of my November Who re reads of target books.
I do still like this series of tv stories, but the novels are not the best I think.
This one felt too short tbh, and unlike the TD shorter adaptations that can read like a story resume at times, this one’s reads for me quite bitty.
The only real story enhancement that I could recognise was the very tiny back story and inner thoughts given to Griffiths. There might be additional stuff but I didn’t pick it up.
The plot itself also seems at time disjointed and doesn’t make sense when talked over with someone else. For example the time machine that the cybermen have captured, why did the time lords let its development continue for so long if they could project potential futures but very soon after this story send the second doctor to stop other experiments (or where they the same team of scientists?)
The level of violence either shown or threatened for a family/childrens program is quite high, one of the reasons for the sixth doctor’s shortness and unpopularity I expect. The disconnect between the style of storytelling that ES seems to have wanted to do and the insistence of a costume that resembles a clowns coat of many colours boggles the mind tbh.
Overall an okay read that is quite disappointing, an opinion I have for the other ES who adaptations that he has written. Neither caring to expand the stories and make them more interesting to highlight his original ideas or simply to copy TD and write a basic fast paced resume of what happens on screen.
2024 re read rating 3
Continuation of my November Who re reads of target books.
I do still like this series of tv stories, but the novels are not the best I think.
This one felt too short tbh, and unlike the TD shorter adaptations that can read like a story resume at times, this one’s reads for me quite bitty.
The only real story enhancement that I could recognise was the very tiny back story and inner thoughts given to Griffiths. There might be additional stuff but I didn’t pick it up.
The plot itself also seems at time disjointed and doesn’t make sense when talked over with someone else. For example the time machine that the cybermen have captured, why did the time lords let its development continue for so long if they could project potential futures but very soon after this story send the second doctor to stop other experiments (or where they the same team of scientists?)
The level of violence either shown or threatened for a family/childrens program is quite high, one of the reasons for the sixth doctor’s shortness and unpopularity I expect. The disconnect between the style of storytelling that ES seems to have wanted to do and the insistence of a costume that resembles a clowns coat of many colours boggles the mind tbh.
Overall an okay read that is quite disappointing, an opinion I have for the other ES who adaptations that he has written. Neither caring to expand the stories and make them more interesting to highlight his original ideas or simply to copy TD and write a basic fast paced resume of what happens on screen.
Read
April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/1065517.html#cutid2[return][return]I braced myself for more horrors with the next book in sequence, especially given that the TV version was pretty dire; but actually it is nothing like as bad as I feared. Indeed, in some respects it scores over the original - no awful music, no wobbly sets, and a significant rearrangement of the narrative to put (quite sensibly) all the scenes on Telos together in the second half; and even a decent attempt at creating sympathetic viewpoint characters. It still has some awful flaws - again, a lack of proof-reading ("wrung" for "rung" is a particularly good one); too much pointless, inconsistent background rambling; plus, even with structural improvements, the basic story remains rather dire. So I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but a completist. (Unlike Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone at all.)
January 14, 2022
I haven't read Saward's Dalek books, but this was pretty good, sturdy prose. You get quite a bit from Brian Glover's character Charlie Griffith's p.o.v , some back story you don't see on screen. a few issues - I would like to have learned more about the two foot soldiers of Lytton posing as old bill. Possible though Target was really strict in those days about page count, Bates and Stratton get a bit less time in here than they did on TV. Their escape from the chain gang is a bit off screen/ off page. And the Cyber Controller, woulda been nice to see more clarification if he was the same controller from Tomb of the Cybermen. I guess the irony of the Cybermen is they constantly profess to be cleansed of emotion, but they're all drama queens really. Plotting to change time to rescue Mondas has sentiment. Overall, fun read, pretty violent.
February 5, 2009
One of the best of the Colin Baker/ Sixth Doctor stories. Gets just the right mix of humor, seriousness, mystery and bits of the show's past history.
The relationship between the Doctor and Peri has reached a nice, level where they disagree but it's not the constant bickering that hurt some other stories.
The Cybermen come across as thoroughly menacing and there is a real sense of threat. One of those stories where it doesn't feel so much like the good guys win, as they break even and sacrifices are made to protect the greater good.
Makes you feel bad for what a rough run Colin had, as this story shows you how good his time on the show could have been.
The relationship between the Doctor and Peri has reached a nice, level where they disagree but it's not the constant bickering that hurt some other stories.
The Cybermen come across as thoroughly menacing and there is a real sense of threat. One of those stories where it doesn't feel so much like the good guys win, as they break even and sacrifices are made to protect the greater good.
Makes you feel bad for what a rough run Colin had, as this story shows you how good his time on the show could have been.
April 19, 2013
Eric Saward tries to enhance this 1985 TV story with the same style he used to great effect with "The Twin Dilemma". Unfortunately, his heart doesn't seem to be into it -- it isn't quite as funny, quite as witty, quite as exciting. Considering the body horror potential on offer, and the deeper-than-first-glance characters, this could have been something special. Instead, it's merely pleasant, with a few moments of inspiration.
December 31, 2015
Re-read in 2015.
May 6, 2016
A bit slow at first but the pace picked up fast. A very interesting story with enough action and some humour.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews