Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders

In his first-ever Doctor Who novel, Tom Baker’s incredible imagination is given free rein. A story so epic it was originally intended for the big screen, Scratchman is a gripping, white-knuckle thriller almost 40 years in the making. The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane Smith arrive at a remote Scottish island when their holiday is cut short by the appearance of strange creatures - hideous scarecrows who are preying on the local population. The islanders are living in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all.

For many thousands of years, the Suthekh had waited... trapped in the heart of an Egyptian pyramid. Now at last the time had come - the moment of release, when all the force of his pent-up evil and malice would be unleashed upon the world. The TARDIS lands in the year 1911, and the Doctor and Sarah emerge to fight a terrifying and deadly battle...against Egyptian mummies, half possessed humans - and the overwhelming evil power of Sutekh!

Katy Manning reads this exciting classic novelisation of a Third Doctor TV adventure. The Doctor and Jo land on a cargo ship crossing the Indian Ocean in the year 1926. Or so they think. Far away on a planet called Inter Minor, a travelling showman is setting up his live peepshow, watched by an eager audience of space officials. On board ship, a giant hand suddenly appears, grasps the TARDIS and withdraws.

Jon Culshaw reads this gripping novelisation of a classic adventure for the Third Doctor. The Time Lords send the Doctor and Jo on a mysterious mission to Skybase One in the late 30th century, from where the Earth Empire governs affairs on the primitive planet Solos. Yet on the eve of their independence, something is happening to the Solonians: their hands are becoming claws, and their skin is changing to scales. Why are they gradually turning into monsters? The Doctor and Jo soon discover that the natural order on Solos is threatened by the ruthless Marshal and his scientist Jaeger. 

An unabridged reading of this classic novelisation featuring the First Doctor's original encounter with the Cybermen. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ben and Polly to a space tracking station in the Antarctic - and into trouble. A space mission is going badly wrong, and a new planet has appeared. Mondas, fabled twin planet of Earth, has returned. But while its inhabitants used to be like the humans of Earth, now they are very different. Devoid of emotions, their bodies replaced with plastic and steel, the Cybermen are here.

Jo peered through the panel and saw - nothing. Yet someone had entered the cabin. She could hear hoarse breathing and stealthy padding footsteps. A beaker rose in the air of its own accord, then dropped to the floor... After pursuing the Daleks through space, Doctor Who lands on the planet of Spiridon, in the midst of a tropical jungle... and finds more than Daleks. Vicious plants spitting deadly poison, invisible Spiridons attacking from all sides and, in hiding, a vast army waits... for the moment to mobilise and conquer.

The Doctor and Sarah arrive back in the TARDIS to find London completely deserted: except for the dinosaurs. Has the return of these prehistoric creatures been deliberately planned and, if so, who can be behind it all?

An unabridged reading of this exciting novelisation of a First Doctor television adventure. It is 10 million years in the future, and the Earth is about to plunge into the Sun. A gigantic Space Ark has been launched, to take the last of humanity to a new life on the planet Refusis II. Accompanying the humans on their journey are the Monoids, strange reptilian creatures from an alien world. When the TARDIS materialises on board, the Doctor and his friends are greeted with suspicion, which soon turns to open hostility....

In this exciting reading of a Doctor Who novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1986, the Doctor and his companions materialise near a North Sea gas refinery, where they encounter a terrifying foe in the dark, uncharted depths of the Sea.

"Look, Brigadier! It's growing!" screamed Sarah. The Brigadier stared in amazement as the Robot began to grow...and grow...swelling to the size of a giant! Slowly the metal colossus, casting its enormous shadow upon the surrounding trees and buildings, began to stride towards the Brigadier. A giant metal hand reached down to grasp him.

From the moment they land on the planet Androzani Minor, everything goes wrong for the Doctor and his new young companion, Peri. They become involved in the struggle between brutal gun runners, ruthless Federation troops, and the hideously mutilated Sharaz Jek, who lurks in the depths of the caves with his android army. Key to the struggle is spectrox, the most valuable substance in the universe. Suitably processed, spectrox is an elixir of life, but in its raw state it is a deadly poison - a fact which will cost the Doctor another of his Time Lord lives.... 

An unabridged reading of this classic novelisation of a 1968 TV adventure featuring the Second Doctor, as played on screen by Patrick Troughton. For 40 years the Yeti had been quiet, a collector's item in a museum. Then, without warning, it awoke and savagely murdered. At about the same time, patches of mist began to appear in Central London. People who lingered in the mist were found dead, their faces smothered in cobwebs. The cobweb seeped down, penetrating the Underground System.

The year is 2540, and two powers loom large in the Galaxy - Earth and Draconia. After years of peace, their spaceships are now being mysteriously attacked and cargoes rifled. Each suspects the other, and full-scale war seems unavoidable. The Doctor, accused of being a Draconian spy, is thrown into prison. And only when the Master appears on the scene do things really begin to move.

A group of palaeontologists have been savagely attacked while carrying out a study of fossilised dinosaur remains in an underground cave system on twenty-fifth century Earth. A party of troopers and Professor Kyle, the only survivor of the attack, are investigating the deaths of her colleagues when they discover the Doctor and his companions at the site of the massacre. The time-travellers are immediately suspected. In trying to establish their innocence and find out who - or what - was responsible for the killings, the Doctor is confronted by an old enemy.

For the first time on audio, this is an unabridged reading of a classic Doctor Who novelisation, based on a serial from the original TV series. All is not well at the Wenley Moor underground atomic research station. There are unaccountable losses of power-output, nervous breakdowns amongst the staff, and then - a death!