What do you think?
Rate this book
Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #153
Doctor Who: The Pescatons
The Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane battle against some of the most heinous foes to emerge from the outer universe: The Pescatons. The Doctor finds himself in the capital city of London, where the population is bewildered and trembling beneath the violent onslaught of a merciless invader.
Who or what is the mighty Zor, whose green slanting luminous eyes glare out from the dark of night like giant emeralds? What is the powerful alien force that is bringing Earth's civilisation to a standstill, threatening to annihilate everything in its path?
This is the story of a dying Planet, of a Deadly Weed, and the merciless Creatures themselves. It is a Challenge to the Doctor -- a frightening race against time...
Who or what is the mighty Zor, whose green slanting luminous eyes glare out from the dark of night like giant emeralds? What is the powerful alien force that is bringing Earth's civilisation to a standstill, threatening to annihilate everything in its path?
This is the story of a dying Planet, of a Deadly Weed, and the merciless Creatures themselves. It is a Challenge to the Doctor -- a frightening race against time...
124 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 1991
201 people want to read
About the author
Victor Pemberton
46 books7 followersVictor Pemberton was a British writer and television producer. His scriptwriting work included BBC radio plays, and television scripts for the BBC and ITV, including Doctor Who, The Slide and The Adventures of Black Beauty.
His television production work included the British version of Fraggle Rock (second series onwards), and several independent documentaries including the 1989 International Emmy Award-winning Gwen: A Juliet Remembered, about stage actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies.
In addition to novelisations, he wrote many nostalgic novels set in London, prompted by the success of his autobiographical radio drama series Our Family.
In later life he moved to Spain, where he continued to write novels until his death in 2017.
His television production work included the British version of Fraggle Rock (second series onwards), and several independent documentaries including the 1989 International Emmy Award-winning Gwen: A Juliet Remembered, about stage actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies.
In addition to novelisations, he wrote many nostalgic novels set in London, prompted by the success of his autobiographical radio drama series Our Family.
In later life he moved to Spain, where he continued to write novels until his death in 2017.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 20, 2021
An interesting read, but nothing amazing.
(Having finished the classic run, now looking to finish off the rest of the Target novelisations I have - was a bit misled though, in completing the numbered ones first before going to likes of Nightmare Fair, though have now discovered latter was published first, but not numbered for some reason, ah well).
Took a little to get started as initially it was quite a dry read, but did pick up in pace later to become an easier read. Seemed a War of the Worlds type story really, a big threatening alien invasion, ultimately defeated by a weakness that is quite prevalent on Earth, which meant that similar to the War of the Worlds for me, the climax felt a bit flat, and some subplots disappeared without resolution (like whatever happened to Martin).
It had some interesting moments and scenes, and there was one point that despite this being a reread (though after a number of years) I was expecting a twist that didn't actually happen, but the characters were somewhat mixed in treatment, and even a character that may have good characterisation initially could become cardboard cut-out later.
The Doctor and Sarah are mixed here, sometimes having good scenes, other times being somewhat out of character - Sarah especially seeming a bit more of a coward here. And their casual genocide at the end without any guilt seemed very out of character for both.
Overall though, was still an enjoyable read, and certainly a change of pace from the more recent Doctors I had been reading :)
(Having finished the classic run, now looking to finish off the rest of the Target novelisations I have - was a bit misled though, in completing the numbered ones first before going to likes of Nightmare Fair, though have now discovered latter was published first, but not numbered for some reason, ah well).
Took a little to get started as initially it was quite a dry read, but did pick up in pace later to become an easier read. Seemed a War of the Worlds type story really, a big threatening alien invasion, ultimately defeated by a weakness that is quite prevalent on Earth, which meant that similar to the War of the Worlds for me, the climax felt a bit flat, and some subplots disappeared without resolution (like whatever happened to Martin).
It had some interesting moments and scenes, and there was one point that despite this being a reread (though after a number of years) I was expecting a twist that didn't actually happen, but the characters were somewhat mixed in treatment, and even a character that may have good characterisation initially could become cardboard cut-out later.
The Doctor and Sarah are mixed here, sometimes having good scenes, other times being somewhat out of character - Sarah especially seeming a bit more of a coward here. And their casual genocide at the end without any guilt seemed very out of character for both.
Overall though, was still an enjoyable read, and certainly a change of pace from the more recent Doctors I had been reading :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 4, 2017
Considering what Victor Pemberton managed to do with his "Fury From the Deep" novelization, the expectations for this adaptation of his rather mixed LP audio story from the 1970s were high. Unfortunately, this is just not wort the time. Best to simply ignore it and pretend (very easily) that the 4th Doctor & Sarah had other, more interesting adventures.
July 9, 2021
The story is boiler-plate alien invasion, but the supporting cast is pretty 1-dimensional even for Doctor Who, and even Sarah Jane suffers from pretty inconsistent characterization. There are several loose threads that are never resolved and one gets the impression that Pemberton was probably rushing to finish it by a deadline.
January 30, 2018
Another good adventure with the Doctor and Sarah Jane in London saving the world from the Prescaton invasion.
March 27, 2020
pdf, 152 pages
Considerably expanded from the original audio (on LP), with a much larger supporting cast. Not a massive success, Ihave to say - though that opinion may be coloured by the staggeringly inaccurate depiction of the lower Thames estuary, particularly Shoeburyness, and a greater than usual crop of scientific implausibilities...
Considerably expanded from the original audio (on LP), with a much larger supporting cast. Not a massive success, Ihave to say - though that opinion may be coloured by the staggeringly inaccurate depiction of the lower Thames estuary, particularly Shoeburyness, and a greater than usual crop of scientific implausibilities...
July 25, 2011
Doctor Who: The Pescatons started out as the first Doctor Who audio release way back in 1976. As an audio release of its time, the audio story had only three actors (Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Bill Mitchell if memory serves me correctly) and much of it was told in Baker's narration. So that brings us to this book, published twenty-five years later and the question: is it worth buying?
Victor Pemeberton takes the novel as an opportunity to flesh out the audio story and its 45 minute length. Pemberton adds new characters to the story and even manages to give it a bigger scope then the original audio story managed. By adding in new characters and subplots (especially astronomer Professor Emmerson), Pemberton makes this a treat for those who have listened and enjoyed the original audio version of the story.
Yet the expansion of the story is when this novel hits problems. By expanding the story and adding characters, one would expect them (and Pemeberton in effect) to add some depth to the original story. The answer is that they don't really. While they bring something the audio story lacked (which is to say that the story needed development in terms of bringing in more scenes and character to add depth) they don't really endear the novel at all. In fact one reads them and wonders Pembereton added them in at all most of the time.
So back to the question: is it worth buying? The answer depends on a couple of things. If, like me, you listened to Pescatons and enjoyed, this novel is worth checking out as an alternative version of that story. If you have not heard the original audio then get it first then think about getting the novel. Otherwise, you might not enjoy the story as much as you should.
Victor Pemeberton takes the novel as an opportunity to flesh out the audio story and its 45 minute length. Pemberton adds new characters to the story and even manages to give it a bigger scope then the original audio story managed. By adding in new characters and subplots (especially astronomer Professor Emmerson), Pemberton makes this a treat for those who have listened and enjoyed the original audio version of the story.
Yet the expansion of the story is when this novel hits problems. By expanding the story and adding characters, one would expect them (and Pemeberton in effect) to add some depth to the original story. The answer is that they don't really. While they bring something the audio story lacked (which is to say that the story needed development in terms of bringing in more scenes and character to add depth) they don't really endear the novel at all. In fact one reads them and wonders Pembereton added them in at all most of the time.
So back to the question: is it worth buying? The answer depends on a couple of things. If, like me, you listened to Pescatons and enjoyed, this novel is worth checking out as an alternative version of that story. If you have not heard the original audio then get it first then think about getting the novel. Otherwise, you might not enjoy the story as much as you should.
February 9, 2019
Going into this book, I was not expecting much with it. The reason is that is was based off an audio production that was done back in the 70s. I was pleasantly surprised by how much better it was than expected. Though it did have its flaws.
This is another run of the mill story about an alien race trying to take over the Earth. Compared to other stories around this time, UNIT is nowhere in sight. In the televised series UNIT was being phased out. However, it could have shown up in this story. Instead another organization is involved. This does does not hamper the story, but it does not help with the scope. Due to the world wide problem, you would expect UNIT to be involved.
One thing that was the biggest surprise were the Pescatons. For a one off alien race, there was a lot of detail to these aliens. There was a lot of background material and the scope of how dangerous they were was clearly known. The downside to them would be their 'leader'. I won't go into detail since it is a slight spoiler, but it felt out of place with everything else about them.
Victor Pemberton's writing is great. The story flows well, and the descriptions are great. However, the characterization of the Doctor was slightly off. Overall an enjoyable story with some flaws.
This is another run of the mill story about an alien race trying to take over the Earth. Compared to other stories around this time, UNIT is nowhere in sight. In the televised series UNIT was being phased out. However, it could have shown up in this story. Instead another organization is involved. This does does not hamper the story, but it does not help with the scope. Due to the world wide problem, you would expect UNIT to be involved.
One thing that was the biggest surprise were the Pescatons. For a one off alien race, there was a lot of detail to these aliens. There was a lot of background material and the scope of how dangerous they were was clearly known. The downside to them would be their 'leader'. I won't go into detail since it is a slight spoiler, but it felt out of place with everything else about them.
Victor Pemberton's writing is great. The story flows well, and the descriptions are great. However, the characterization of the Doctor was slightly off. Overall an enjoyable story with some flaws.
Read
April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/1046178.html#cutid6[return][return]On the one hand, it scores over the audio version on which it is based by having a larger number of active characters and a wider view of the action. On the other hand, Pemberton's writing style is absolutely dire, with a cringeworthy phrase on almost every page. In addition, he seems unsure which Doctor he is writing for, with the appearance of a flute (ie recorder) at the end, and a confusion about whether we are in the 1960s or 1970s. Not quite the worst novelisation or spinoff fiction I've read, but really one for completists only.
July 12, 2016
The good news is that The Pescatons is a way better story than the 1976 LP audio adventure it's based on.
The bad news is that I'd still rather listen to the LP.
At least with the LP I get Tom Baker and Sarah Jane sounding mildly interested. With the novel I get a hundred pages of character development that will always fail in comparison to bonus Tom Baker. To be fair, most written prose fails to come close to bonus Baker.
The bad news is that I'd still rather listen to the LP.
At least with the LP I get Tom Baker and Sarah Jane sounding mildly interested. With the novel I get a hundred pages of character development that will always fail in comparison to bonus Tom Baker. To be fair, most written prose fails to come close to bonus Baker.
May 15, 2008
Huge disappointment, considering how long it took me to track down a copy.
The monsters are cool, there's a good setting and a decent attempt to explain where this 'lost adventure' fits into Who continuity, but the Doctor and Sarah are written so bland and uninteresting, the book was a struggle to get through.
You've got work hard, as a writer, to make Tom Baker come across as dull.
The monsters are cool, there's a good setting and a decent attempt to explain where this 'lost adventure' fits into Who continuity, but the Doctor and Sarah are written so bland and uninteresting, the book was a struggle to get through.
You've got work hard, as a writer, to make Tom Baker come across as dull.
May 2, 2011
The best thing about this book on CD was the included interview with Elisabeth Sladen. RIP Sarah Jane. Otherwise it was a predictable and boring, if well-acted, story. Fish people invade, mayhem abounds, whole race destroyed by deus ex machina. It was like re-reading the worst of the Venom stories. I would say skip it, but there was that interview with Sarah...
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading.
July 3, 2013
Not a great outing for Tom Baker. His Doctor acts entirely out of character and the plot limps along to a disappointing "climax". There's probably a reason this one wasn't made into a TV series.
May 23, 2016
As a Doctor Who fan this is a great read. The story is really well written. The story is fun and creepy. Great Doctor Who book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews