Malcolm Hulke (1924–1979)

This is an excellent novelisation of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who story The Silurians. Already an excellent TV story, this novelisation adds depth to many of the characters and gives them motivations and back stories that would have been difficult or impossible to show within the confines of a TV story, albeit that at 7 episodes, this was one of the longer ones. The moral dilemmas of the clash between two advanced and intelligent civilisations are quite well explored. I would have liked a bit more detail of the effects of the epidemic on wider British society though if anything this was actually shown better on screen, with passengers collapsing at a London train station. This is an excellent and intelligent read, one of the best Target novelisations.… (meer)

I've seen almost none of the Jon Pertwee episodes of 'Doctor Who,' including 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs,' although I've been told it was a good story. As the next best thing, I've bought and read Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion by Malcolm Hulke. The novelization includes an introduction from the late science fiction great, Harlan Ellison.

There's a brief page about dinosaurs before chapter one opens. We get to meet a layabout named Shugie MacPherson who traveled to London with some friends. He got so drunk that he couldn't be roused enough to get up when one of them, Donald Ewing, tries to get him to understand that London is being evacuated. Another, Jamie, warns Shugie how much time he has to get in the van before he'll be left to die. (They and Ian couldn't drag him to the van?)

Shugie spends four days in a house with the electricity and water turned off. He eats tinned corned beef and drinks whisky. When they run out, he leaves. At least he finds out why London was evacuated. It goes about as well for him as one may expect from a prologue character.

The TARDIS appears with the Doctor and reporter Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane notices things are strange. The Doctor dismisses her concerns. Foolish Doctor. They're soon in trouble. Which is going to be the bigger trouble: dinosaurs or army soldiers mistaking them for something bad?

General Finch is a big pain to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart . (Think Colonel Breen in the 'Quatermass and the Pit' / 'Five Million Years to Earth' movie.) The Doctor makes some interesting deductions, not that Finch believes him.

NOTES:

Chapter 1:

a. Here is where the Doctor speaks in favor of the Vandals. He had met some, of course.

b. The Doctor serves pills for meals. Sarah Jane is not impressed.

c. In British slang, 'I'm whacked' means some one is exhausted, not murdered.

d. A 'jimmy' is a short crowbar.
Mentions: Woolworth's, Wimpy's, and the Marie Celeste mystery

Chapter 2:

a. We meet a jerk named General Finch who wants Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to order his men to shoot to kill looters.

b. Sarah Jane is 23.

c. A looter named Lodge fills the Doctor and Sarah Jane in about the dinosaurs.

d. The Doctor uses the Venusian karate hold.

e. Richard I went to fight in the Holy Land in 1191.

Chapter 3:

a. The reptile men in Derbyshire battle were in 'Doctor Who in the Silurians,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters.

b. The giant maggots in a disused mine in Wales happened in 'The Green Death,' which Mr. Hulke novelized as Doctor Who and the Green Death.

c. The Doctor explains time eddies.

d. See here for which color flag stands for which kind of dinosaur on U.N.I.T.'s map of London.

Chapter 4:

a. We meet the smug Professor Whitaker, inventor of the Timescoop and a creepy man named Butler.

b. We also meet Sir Charles Grover, Minister with Special Powers. The Doctor knows of him.

c.. Captain Yates saves the Doctor.
Mentions: King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde, Noël Coward

Chapter 5:

a. The Doctor tells Sarah about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and time travel.

b. The 'STD' that Sarah Jane is talking about is 'subscriber trunk dialing,' an old British term for long-distance phone calls.

c. General Finch might be referring to John Stonehouse, who tried to fake his death in 1974, two years before the copyright of this novelization.

d. The Doctor saves Sarah Jane, who has been locked in.

e. Sarah Jane has a good idea that she investigates on her own because the men have been dismissive already.

Chapter 6:

a. Sarah Jane meets three persons who aren't using their real names and tell her something she doesn't believe.

b. The Doctor sees some interesting signs on a wall.

Chapter 7: Mentions: Disraeli, Gladstone, Churchill, President Kennedy

Chapter 8: Mention: Oliver Cromwell

Chapter 9:

a. We learn how Butler got his scar.

b. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's final authority is the Supreme Headquarters of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce at Geneva, Switzerland.

Chapter 10 Mention: Foyles bookstore, The Bible's Book of Ezekiel

This is a good adventure, although Operation Golden Age had an insufficient gene pool and were quite wrong about humans being the only species to pray on its own species. The dinosaurs were a good menace. There were plenty of surprises for the characters and good clues before the big revelation. It makes me wish I'd seen the episodes.… (meer)

Malcolm Hulke’s Doctor Who and The Green Death adapts the final story of Doctor Who’s tenth season written by Robert Sloman & Barry Letts, directed by Michael E. Briant, and featuring the Third Doctor as portrayed by Jon Pertwee and his companion Jo Grant, portrayed by Katy Manning. This story was Jo’s final appearance as the Third Doctor’s companion on film. The story takes place in the Welsh town of Llanfairfach, a former coal town now hosting a growing petroleum company. A group of scientists have set up nearby, developing alternative energies – like solar and water – as well alternatives to meat to better protect the environment, especially as the petroleum company’s work creates a great deal of environmentally-toxic byproduct (pg. 26). This sets up a premise in which the storytellers may examine the growing issue of environmentalism. Meanwhile, a series of strange deaths in which the victims turned green attracts UNIT, including Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the Doctor, and Jo. Further investigations reveal the truth of the petroleum company as well as the creatures its careless dumping have created.

Though the story shows a great deal of foresight in its focus on environmental issues, it features several lines that appear to perpetuate stereotypes about the Welsh. They appear anti-intellectual and superstitious (pg. 13-14) and the writer even describes them, “Like many Welshmen he was short and dark eyed” (pg. 37). Though the story acknowledges their relative powerlessness and feelings of English interference, Hulke undercuts this with his use of English stereotypes about the Welsh. The evil computer running the petroleum company resembles elements of modern corporate culture, with its lack of concern for workers. Stereotypes notwithstanding, Hulke writes clearly and his adaptation of The Green Death will find a welcome place on any Doctor Who fan’s bookshelf.… (meer)