Doctor Who and the Space War
- greatbigquiveringp
- Sep 23, 1976
- 2 min read
I am aware that every time Malcolm Hulke swings around, I get noticeably less snide. This isn't a diss on Dicks, whose output I doubt Hulke could ever have dreamt to match and who adapted stories that would probably have made Hulke wither with despair, but it's worth noting here because Doctor Who and the Space War is Hulke at his most Dicks.
This is fun and fast, skipping across many of Hulke's concerns from previous novelisations but never really dwelling on any, not even the overarching one of wars and how to avoid them, before settling on a fun, pacy romp with the Master and his bumbling Ogron sidekicks instead.
So why still the broad absence of snide? I think the main noticeable difference between Dicks and Hulke isn't to do with quality or thematic attack or plotting for prose but actually simple turns of phrase. Dicks has a habit of sounding very dated at key moments, whether it be introducing all female companions as basically young and pretty or peppering the speech of any Doctor with the clause 'old chap', and those are very easy phrases to pick up on, lump a bit of sarcasm at and move on.
Hulke is more prone to actual big, worrying missteps, like the presentation of Whitaker's sexuality in Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion or the 'stupidly savage' Ogrons here. I end up adopting quite a positive reading of these details (which is possible it just doesn't always feel likely) because the alternative would actually break those stories. But, as I celebrate Hulke yet again (and bearing in mind we all know Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks is coming next), I just want to stress how grateful we possibly should be that it was Dicks who so wholly took on the mantle of Target writer-in-chief.
Click on the cover to the right for a total whitewash...
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