Doctor Who: Logopolis

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #41

by Christopher H. Bidmead

In theory the TARDIS should be able to change its appearance to blend in unobtrusively wherever it happens to materialise. In practice, however, because of a fault in the chameleon circuit, it always looks like a police box — a minor inconvenience the Doctor now hopes to correct.

Fixing the mechanism involves a visit to Earth and a trip to the planet Logopolis — normally a quiet little place that keeps itself to itself.

But on this occasion the meddling presence of the Doctor's archenemy, the Master, ensures the disruption of normality. And even the Master is horrified by the threat of total chaos he unintentionally precipitates — until he finds a way to turn the imminent destruction of the universe to his own advantage...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Audiobook, Time Travel, Adventure

127 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 1982

About the author

Christopher Hamilton Bidmead is a British writer and journalist who wrote several Doctor Who TV serials, all of which he also novelised. He was also script editor for Season 18.

He was attached (agreed, but without a contract) to write several serials that were ultimatelly cancelled. They were In the Hollows of Time, a two-part (forty-five minute) story for the cancelled season 23[1], and a four parter, Pinacotheca (a.k.a. The Last Adventure), which would have been the third part of the The Trial of a Time Lord arc[2].

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Bakers final outing as The Doctor is pretty action packed.
Whilst introducing new companion Tegan, a showdown with The Master and a regeneration. The story also includes many scientific and mathematical theories that actually makes more sense in this novelisation!

Christopher H. Bidmead excels at the more complicated nature of this serial but is still an odd choice of narrator for this release (I personally perfect an actor who's appeared in the story for this range).
Some of his impressions are certainly suspect but felt he added real menace to Ainleys Master.

One gripe is how quickly the regeneration is at the end, especially as Tom is the longest serving Doctor.
Bidmead also wrote Castrovalva so I'm curious to see how much is covered in the opening chapter.

One of them Target's/Episodes that some sections are better in print, whilst the TV story itself also has some really striking moments - like The Watcher.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the seventh adventure of the eighteenth year of Doctor Who, which was the final serial of the season as well as the final outing of the fourth regeneration of The Doctor in the title roll; the story ends with the introduction of his fifth iteration. The episode was broadcast in February and March of 1981, and was written by Christopher Bidmead, who adapted his own teleplay for this book. The companions were aristocratic Nyssa of Traken, mathematical genius Adric from E-space, and contemporary Australian stewardess Tegan Jovanka joins the TARDIS crew. The Doctor's long-time fellow Time Lord and nemesis, The Master, sets one of his evil plots in motion which threatens the imminent destruction of creation (he never thought small in those days), and it's up to The Doctor to save the day. There's some science soup gobbledygook that's no more comprehensible to me in the book than it was on screen, but it ends with The Doctor triumphing, but falling from a great height. The novel ends quite harshly and abruptly with the fourth transforming into the fifth and then sitting up to deliver a Monty Python-like line; ""Well, that's the end of that," said a voice they had not heard before. "But it's probably the beginning of something completely different."" It was a pretty good story up to that spot, but the passing of the torch should have been observed with a little dignity.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor and Aldric go to Logopolis to fix the chameleon circuit on the TARDIS. There they find another of the Master's plots they need to thwart.

I love classic "Who" and this is an important story in the center of the transition from Tom Baker's 4th to Peter Davison's 5th Doctor.

I enjoyed listening to it on audio and I inspired me to have a Doctor Who Marathon and watch The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis and Castrovalva to enjoy the whole arc!

[Melenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read

[Alain Lewis]

I read this all the way back in 1982 I think. It was part of a great trilogy of Doctor Who stories, the Keeper of Traken, this and Castrovalva which was possibly the most mystical time of the whole show. It’s about entropy, cause and effect, Paradise Lost and block mathematical computations. At the age of 15 I lapped all of that up, as well as there being a great confrontation between the Doctor and the Master of course. I still enjoy it today.

[Jason Arbuckle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 338 - Christopher H. Bidmead - Logopolis

‘It’s the end…but the moment has been prepared for.’..with those words the Fourth Doctor releases his next incarnation…the novel is…inevitable… the darkness that encompasses the whole story is suffocating. Another very grown up version of the Doctor in a story about the death of a hero…the death of a beloved Aunt… the death of a father…the death of a planet and the ultimate death of the universe through entropy…. It is so dark.

With the return of a rejuvenated Master played on television with such finesse and panache by Anthony Ainley we have the stakes raised to a new, truly grandiose level … has he ever been so evil… so powerful… so cold.

And at the heart of the story…we have sacrifice and heroism… our Doctor… is truly inspiring and in Bidmead we have the magnificence so summed by that first line which is the Doctor’s last… and as we know… there is so much more to come in the so prepared future.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Bidmead's most melancholy novelization -- suitable, considering it's the most funerary of his three "Doctor Who" stories. He takes some interesting liberties, but it's all for a good cause...as it actually enhances the disturbing, end-of-an-era feeling to Tom Baker's finale as the 4th Doctor.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this episode and this novelization compliments the show well. The technobabble about block computation is still beyond me. :)

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Baker’s final television story is kind of an interesting one. Season 18 was from a completely new production team and the entire season essentially dealt with the idea of entropy increasing somehow. Logopolis was the conclusion and directly dealt with the Master taking control of the titular planet which has kept entropy at bay which destroys a large part of the universe including the home planet (and solar system) of new companion Nyssa of Traken. It’s also a very slow story, intentionally taking its time to drape itself in an atmosphere of dread with some brilliant imagery even if the plot doesn’t quite explain itself. Some of these problems are still present in the novel, especially since the events are the same and the sequence of the Doctor flooding the TARDIS in particular goes on for far too long here. Novelizing it Christopher H. Bidmead actually has a really good opportunity to go back to the script and make some of the things just explored in the script without really making it onto television. The novel itself doesn’t diverge from the television serial, but like many of the best novelizations it is one where things are expanded upon especially in terms of characters.





Tegan Jovanka was certainly not a 1980s companion without character, but her appearance in the novelization of Logopolis goes a long way to explore her desire to become an air stewardess, with subtle hints that she will eventually wish to become a pilot due to her life as a child on a farm in Australia where her father instilled a love of flying. She also knows how to fly a plane, which is something that is exclusive here and I don’t think has even been used in Big Finish Productions, but here it allows insight into why she would stay on the TARDIS. This also implies that the continuing drive to get back to Heathrow in Season 19 is more to do with being unable to cope with the regeneration or just being an act to throw the Doctor off which I actually really like. Bidmead also does an excellent job of making the Watcher more than just the mysterious looming figure, there are actual scenes making explicit the character as this transitory thing that’s appearing outside of time itself. Adric gets an extra scene where he talks to the Watcher and can’t quite recall just how that conversation ended up happening, though there is this certainty that information was relayed, but not by whom. It’s a really interesting idea to explore that also makes the Watcher a more active participant in the plot while not taking away the nature of this spectre.





Overall, Logopolis may be a slightly better version of the television story in novel form since Christopher H. Bidmead’s clinical and scientific prose help retain the feeling of dread while there are genuinely excellent character additions that make things feel more well rounded. 8/10.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

あらすじ
故障したままだったターディスのカメレオン・サーキットをロゴポリスで修理してもらうことにしたドクター。しかし、アドリックはドクターがどこか上の空であることが気になっていた。

ドクターの様子がおかしくなったきっかけは、ターディスの中でクロイスラーの鐘の音が鳴り響きだしてからだ。ドクターは地球にまず寄ってからロゴポリスに行くことにするという。しかし、二人はターディスの中にカメレオン機能を使って紛れ込んでいるマスターのターディスの存在にまるで気がついていなかった。



感想
4thドクターの最後の物語。つまり、いよいよ4thドクターがリジェネレーションの時を迎えるわけだ。リジェネレーション回はどうしたって楽しくなりようがない。先行きの不安感と刻一刻とお別れの時が近づいてきていると悲しさがどんどんと募ってくる。追い打ちをかけるようにマスターの罠にはまってしまうドクター。ドクターを肉体的にも精神的にも容赦なく追い詰めてくるマスターに対しての苛立たしさ度合いはもう頂点に。宇宙を消滅から救うためにマスターとドクターがとりあえず協力関係を結ぶくだりはスリリングで興味深くなりこの辺りから読むのを止められなくなる。それから5thとおぼしき謎の存在が物語の途中で何度も出てくるのだが、これと対峙した時のドクターや、コンパニオン達からこの存在と遭遇したという話を聞かされるドクターがすごく切ない。自分には違いないけれど、自分ではない未来の自分に自分の運命を悟らされ、プレッシャーをかけられながらも世界を救うために全力を尽くす。これもいつもながらのこととはいえ、あまりにも哀しい最期だった。リジェネレーション回はわかっていても本当に精神的にこたえる。こればかりは慣れるということがない。当分4thドクター・ロスに落ち込みそうだ。



Doctor: It’s started already. The Master’s attack. I was vain enough to believe it was me he was after.


Doctor: I can see only one possible course. As Time Lords you and I have a special responsibility.
Master: No. I refuse to contact Gallifrey. Doctor: I’m not very keen on the idea myself. But I was going to suggest we pool our request.Master: If we do that there will be no question of your returning to Gallifrey. Perhaps for ever.

Doctor: I’m happy to leave that problem for the future. If there is one.


Master: My dear Doctor. You’re a poor scientist. It’s easy to see why you make so many mistakes.
Doctor: And why you make so few friends.


Doctor: I envy you your Tardis, Master.
Master: Excellent, Doctor. You’re improving. Envy is the beginning of all true greatness.


Master: I gave you that to demonstrate my trust, Doctor. But I do not take foolish risks.
Once again the Doctor had to admit admiration for the Master’s ingenious practicality.


4th: This is the end... but the moment has been prepared for.
5th: Well, that’s the end of that. But it’s probably the beginning of something completely different.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably around a 2.5 for me. Has some good points story / plot wise, but the writing at times lets it down.
As a final story for the Fourth Doctor, it is quite a melancholy one really, with lots of foreshadowing for what was going to occur, and it feels like the Doctor himself is aware of it, and a bit grim / sad because of this, not being his normal cheerful self.
The Ainley Master is a good menace in this story, in his new body and a bit of a shift in personality from his 'crispy' incarnation as such - still quite villainous and menacing, but a little bit more of a pantomime villain in some respects and not in a bad way, lots of evil chuckling that he gets to have, and a sense of having a bit more fun again like the Delgado Master, though not as suave.
Adric, Tegan and Nyssa all get some good moments in here, though we already start to see that annoying clashing that occurs between Adric and Tegan, as the worst aspects of their personalities rub badly against each other. We get to see a fair bit of their thoughts and feelings as well that help fleshes it out.
What detracts from it all though, and pulls it down, is outside of the good points across, I find the writing quite dry and hard to get into, and important sections of dialogue seem to be skipped over, just passed through in a similar fashion to Nightmare of Eden, which also annoyed me in how it did that.
It also seemed to give away more of what was happening at times with the likes of the Watcher, and Logopolis itself, more than necessary and reducing the impacts of the eventual proper reveals, compared to the TV story where there was more of an impact.
So good story and plot ideas in here, just not presented as well as it could be.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who : Logopolis (1982) by Christopher Bigmead is the novelisation of the seventh serial of the eighteenth season of Doctor Who and the final serial for the Fourth Doctor.

The Doctor and Adric take the TARDIS to earth where they seek to materialise around a police box so they can get the exact dimensions and use this information to repair the chameleon circuit in the TARDIS so that it can change form again. However, when they do this they discover that the Master has already done this and this creates an instability. Meanwhile nearby a young air hostess is driving with her Aunt and they break down. Tegan enters the police box. The Doctor’s TARDIS navigates the instability and they travel to Logopolis, a strange planet where the inhabitants perform verbal calculations which are block-transfer computations. This is where Doctor Who foreshadows Bitcoin. On Logopolis is also a model of the Pharos Project from earth that is to be used to transmit messages to aliens across the universe. Also on Logopolis is Nyssa, who is searching for her father.

It’s all a bit strange, Logopolis is something of a disappointment for the final Fourth Doctor serial. But as a regeneration episode where a new companion appears and another joins it’s worthy of note for fans of the Doctor.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot to explain, with the addition of a new companion and the final story with Tom Baker as The Doctor. As was usually the case with these short Target editions, the writer had trouble fitting everything in, even though I think he was also the writer of the original script.
I'm still baffled by the concept that entropy has a finite speed that is still much faster than light, and that its effects work in a radial fashion that is definitely contra-logical.
I mean, okay, so you have an effect that would happen at point A, but it is being held in check by something being done at point B. The thing at point B stops, and so somehow the effects at point A start up again, but radiating outward from point B, and the changes happening at faster-than-light speeds. And I'm still not sure why some objects were affected by the changed rate of entropy, but not others.
Still, a fun story, and a creepy version of The Master at his best/worst.

[Kian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite having watched the televised serial a few times on DVD I still couldn't understand the plot in its entirety. This novelization elaborates further on a few of the details that were skimmed over on the show and definitely gives a clearer picture of what's going on, although my easier comprehension may just be down to the fact that in this medium there's time to absorb all of the information and jargon as opposed to the TV serial which from my recollection was a little bit frantic.

Be warned though, as others have said this isn't a self contained story. It's part of a trilogy featuring the return of the master (Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, Castrovalva) and makes reference to a few plot elements from the previous trilogy of the season - "The E-Space Trilogy" e.g. the CVE and the general theme of entropy.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rest in peace, Christopher H. Bidmead. It was and spooky to find out he had died only a few weeks before I read this book.

I love Bidmead's novelisation style. He takes the condensed page count, and rather than desperately cramming in as much of the original script as possible, he finds a way to retell the whole story by speeding up and slowing down scenes based on their relevance to the plot - And this is the main benefit of getting the original scriptwriter to novelise their story, as they know how to take their work and run a mile with it in prose.

Of course I do still enjoy Terrance Dicks' many Targets, but I wish Bidmead had been able to write more than the 3 novelisations of his own TV stories for the Target range - I'd love to have seen him rise to the challenge of novelising other writers' work.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty faithful retelling of the fourth Doctor’s final story. It’s a tad longer than the regular novelisations (in word count if not page number) and it manages the trick of introducing new characters, retelling the story and giving some weight (I hesitate to say “gravity” given what happens to the Doctor) to this era-ending story. It’s a little shaky at the start but becomes a rather gripping tale at the end.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wee bit disappointed with this. The author appears to have taken artistic licence to a new level. Specifically the regeneration at the end of the book is terribly rushed and again he's changed things from the actual televised version. I much prefer Logopolis' televised version as opposed to the novelization

[Hasselhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great example of how a novelisation can further your enjoyment of the TV version. Getting inside the mind of Adric, and following the thoughts of Tegan as she enters the world beyond her little boble of existence is great! Both elements have help me to enjoy a storyline more, which I did not really like in the TV version.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I enjoyed the first quarter and it was fun reading from a different Doctor's perspective and just fun in general reading a Doctor Who story.

However, it just suddenly dipped and I constantly found it hard to engage with and enjoy the story. I was also finding it hard to visualise and understand what was going on.

[Sara Habein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one! Bidmead really captured everyone's character well, and this story has more tension built into it than some of the other novelizations. My son thought the ending was a bit abrupt, but he otherwise enjoyed it.

[Ivana Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

A faithful adaptation of Tom Baker's final story. Unfortunately, this makes the part covering ep 3 even more dull than the tv episode was, given that we lose the wonderful performances from Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding. Stick to the dvd or bluray.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Hans Thyssen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually quite a good one.

[Gabor Hernadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logopolis, the last Tom Baker adventure is a classic Doctor Who story. The book faithfully follows the tv episode so I liked the thing here I liked there and vice versa (I`m looking at you Watcher).

[Colin Hoad · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best Target novelisations, outstanding writing and originality from Christopher H Bidmead.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bye bye 4th doctor 😪😔

[Damon Habbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as love reading TD books it's nice to have another author, Logopolis is an okay read, again better than the show.

A nice end to the TB era and into PD.

[Julian White · Rating 3 out of 5]

pdf 116 pages

While not as opaque as the televised version this takes a long tome to get going - and then accelerates into a headlong rush to the end. As usual the Master's plan for universal (in this case) domination seems hopelessly ambitious but some of the detail explains one of the science problems that has previously troubled me.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christopher H. Bidmead's novelization of his four-part serial "Logopolis" is a standard adapt the script for the printed page affair that was common to the Target novelizations of the time. Bidmead does take the opportunity to try and iron out some of the inconsistencies in his script but except for a few limited passes, he rarely expands the story beyond what we saw on-screen.

The novelization itself is a three-star read. But the audio adaptation is only a two-star listen. A lot of that has to do with Bidmead as a narrator. He does well enough when the story is at its most descriptive, but when it comes down to imitating on-screen characters, Bidmead falters. His impression of Tegan is shrill and difficult to listen to while his fourth Doctor sounds more like Christopher Lee than Tom Baker. A good audio reading can be enhance or detract from a story--in this case it detracts.

Also, it's odd that the audio is produced by BBC Audio but that it's limited in which sound cues it can utilize in the story. I understand that it won't use the same incidental music, but the story can afford to have the TARDIS materializing sound effect but yet uses a new one for the cloister bell. The new effect is far less ominous and too light for the story, which took me out of the story as I was listening to it.

Not the best effort from the BBC Audio range of Target novelizations on CD.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor finally decides to fix his Tardis chameleon circuit, and the Master is back and intent on unleashing a crafty plan upon the universe.
At the same time, a young woman named Tegan Jovanka parks her car by a blue police box and on the planet Logopolis something has gone wrong with the system that keeps the universe stable.

The Fourth Doctor's last story is a bit more low key and tinged with an atmosphere of sadness and that all things must end. It seems like there are three things going on all at once and that the Doctor either knew the end was coming or had decided it was time to regenerate and set things in motion.

A decent story, but as so much is going on, I seemed to spend a good chunk of the book trying to figure out what it all meant and if it would all connect or if it would all fall apart.

On the bright side, the fourth Doctor's interaction with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan, all companions more famous for traveling with Doctor number 5 was so nicely done that I wished they'd spent more time with him.

Not a great Who story, but an important one, as Tom Baker's leaving was a huge deal and it was the first regeneration story I ever saw on TV.