Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin

"The Doctor is never more dangerous than when the odds are against him."

Writer: Terrance Dicks

Format: Novel

Released: October 1977

Series: Target 19

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor is suddenly summoned to Gallifrey, the home of the Time Lords, where his ghastly hallucination of the President's assassination seems to turn into reality. When the Doctor id arrested for the murder, there is a hideous, dawk, cowled figure gleefully watching in the shadows. 

Faced with his old enemy, the Master, Doctor Who approaches defeat in a battle of minds in a nightmare world created by the Master's imagination. But the Master's evil intentions go much further - he has a Doomsday Plan. It is up to the Doctor to prevent him from destroying Gallifrey and taking over the Universe!

Verdict 

Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin was an outstanding little novel! I really did love this from start to finish! I think it's certainly taken a claim to being my all time favourite Target novelisation and I think I was possibly somewhat surprised by my own reaction to what I was reading. Now it's not often at all that I mention the cover of the novel in my verdict but I just had to say something this time! The cover is absolutely tremendous and really suits the name of the story. Speaking of which, I liked the start with the reference to The Hand of Fear and Sarah's sudden and bundled departure from the TARDIS just after the Doctor has received his summons to return back home. I loved the way the Doctor arrived back to Gallifrey by landing the TARDIS in an unrestricted zone of the Capitol. I really liked how his TARDIS being a type-40 was mocked at. The Doctor wouldn't have any of it though and consoled his "old girl". I liked how the Time Lords were amazed by the TARDIS still being operational due to it being quite antiquated and the chameleon circuit being jammed! But the TARDIS was (and still is) going strong. The Doctor's wish to get out of the TARDIS unnoticed was good and I liked how he went about achieving that. He eluded everybody into thinking that he was in a 53-storey building when actually he'd just sent the lift back up and slipped around the corner. Brilliant. I liked how the Master though tried to frame him for murder after the Doctor almost immediately had arrived. I liked the build up to the Master's return and in terms of the TV story it must have been a very difficult decision to bring the renegade Time Lord back following the death of Roger Delgado. But due to the brilliance of the actor, the character had to live on. I loved the premise of the story with the Master coming to the end of his regeneration cycle and he was desperate of finding a way to restart or renew the regenerative cycle. The Master was desperate to survive and was prepared to steal the Eye of Harmony which would destroy Gallifrey just in the hope of gaining enough energy to reboot his regeneration cycle. I loved how there was a lot mentioned about Time Lord history and my particular highlight regarding that was Rassilon and how he founded Time Lord society. I also liked the references to the Doctor being a Prydonian. The idea of a political assassination on Gallifrey is staggeringly good and I loved the way the Master went about framing the Doctor. After sending the premonitions through the vortex to the Doctor, the Master was once again after revenge. Decayed, rotting and barely surviving, he did though still have his tissue compression eliminator and was leaving his trademark subtly on Gallifrey. I thought it was a great twist having Chancellor Goth being the pawn controlled by the Master and the scenes in the Matrix were fantastic with him, whilst hidden, being referred to as the Hunter. The reveal at the end of the battle was terrific. Spandrel, Hildred and Engin were all great characters in their own little ways. I loved the references to The War Games and The Three Doctors and it kind of goes unnoticed in novelised format how important this story is in that it establishes the life limit of a Time Lord. The climax was exciting and dangerous and I loved how the grandfather clock was eluded to at least twice before the Master somehow survived his fall before escaping in the clock which was actually his TARDIS. Overall, a wonderful read! 

Rating: 10/10