Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
- greatbigquiveringp
- Jul 22, 1976
- 2 min read
This is a fiercely faithful novelisation and, whilst a prelude of Target books to come, feels like a definite step in the proto-DVDification of the range. Why now?
Well, ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ had been repeated roughly seven months before Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks was published. This makes it the earliest shortest gap between BBC1 repeat and Target novelisation on the list on the left bar 'The Sea Devils', the repeat of which was unscheduled (and 'Day of the Daleks' but only by three days and I don't really know what to do with that information).
Now, that's still a longer gap than between original transmission and prose adaptation of 'Robot', 'Terror of the Zygons' and 'The Web Planet' before it but I'd argue that repeats are more important here. A decision to rush a novelisation to print suggests a desire to cash in on short-term recognition of the title (yes, I know all three of these titles were changed for the books but the new titles traded in on the most sensational and presumably most memorable aspect of the broadcast episodes [0]); the decision to repeat a story suggests a belief that that story has somehow lingered in the minds of the audience.
'Genesis' would go on to become the most-repeated of all Who stories in the analogue TV era [1] and it was the only TV story to receive an LP release [2]. All in all, it seems to have been judged to have lingered best.
On top of that, it seems to have heralded a reappraisal of Doctor Who's revisitability. Its repeat was the prelude to what would be a bumper crop of repeats in 1976 [3], suggesting, assuming BBC1 didn't simply feature more repeats in general in 1976, the Hinchcliffe stories were seen as less ephemeral and interchangeable than previous episodes, as more deserving of an opportunity to relive specific moments than just to enjoy a bit more Doctor Who during holiday seasons.
For more tedious speculation on how closely Dicks follows the broadcast episodes, click on the novelisation cover to the right...
0 - actually, The Zarbi probably was an onscreen title
1 - repeated 27 December 1975, as part of Doctor Who and the Monsters on 26 July & 2 August 1982 and on BBC2 from 8 January to 12 February 1993 and again from 1 February to 29 February 2000 [
http://gallifreybase.com/w/index.php/Airdates_in_the_UK_(BBC_repeats)]
2 - released October 1979 [http://www.timelash.com/tardis/display.php?2394], reissued in 1998 alongside Slipback and again in 2001 with Exploration Earth: The Time Machine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_of_the_Daleks#Broadcast_and_reception]
3 - ‘Planet of Evil’ – repeated 5-8 July 1976; ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ – repeated 9 July 1976; ‘Pyramids of Mars’ – repeated 27 November 1976; ‘The Brain of Morbius’ – repeated 4 December [1976http://gallifreybase.com/w/index.php/Airdates_in_the_UK_(BBC_repeats)]
TABLE - Gaps are given in months (excepting 'The Five Doctors'); repeat dates taken from http://gallifreybase.com/w/index.php/Airdates_in_the_UK_(BBC_repeats) and publication dates taken from http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki
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