Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters by: Malcolm Hulke

 

Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters was written by Malcolm Hulke, based on his story Doctor Who and the Silurians.  It was the 5^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Target novelizations provide an interesting opportunity for authors to expand their serials and in Malcolm Hulke’s novelization of Doctor Who and the Silurians, Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters somehow adapts a seven episode serial into the standard Target novelization length while expanding many of the elements.  Hulke’s structure of the book spends nearly a third on the first episode meaning that the majority of the story doesn’t actually have a lot of page space, yet manages to pace out the story wonderfully.  There is some brilliant tension as the mystery of the Silurians and what exactly they are and are attempting to do.  The plot doesn’t actually deviate from the televised version much, the plague is released and the interactions between Quin and Dawson are still there, Masters is still irresponsible in releasing the plague, and Major Baker (here Major Barker) is still killed.  The political undertones of this story are built up even more, with Major Barker being more of a nationalist throughout, out and out advocating Britain for the British and power for the British Empire.  Hulke clearly wants to make the audience hate the character and it’s something that really works.  The relationship between Quinn and Dawson is also fleshed out incredibly well as Quinn is motivated by a desire to be known for unravelling the past while Dawson has unrequited love for her coworker.  There’s also a lot about their personal pasts which wasn’t necessary, but was a welcome edition as it made all of the characters feel like well-rounded people.  There is also an incredibly important sequence where the Silurian culture is fleshed out with each getting names.  This is where fandom got Morka and Okdel as characters which would be used in Blood Heat and other VNAs involving the Silurians.

 

Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters manages to somehow improve on the already classic television story by bringing the reader some more depth to an already deep story.  Hulke is unrestrained by television and allows his political messaging to excel further in book form.  The audiobook read by Caroline John is also an excellent performance.  10/10.