Art Gallery: The Japanese Edition

Art Gallery 8

The Japanese Edition

It has been estimated that the Target range of Doctor Who books sold more than 13 million copies between 1973 and 1994. That’s a very impressive sales figure for what was essentially a low-cost tie-in licence for a gradually fading BBC TV programme. Over that period, several overseas publishing houses tried to get in on the act and bought the rights to sell the novelisations in their own countries. We’ll cover a few of these over the coming weeks, but I want to start with the fascinating Japanese editions.

In 1980, Hayakawa Publishing Inc. bought up five of the Target novelisations and translated them into Japanese. Japan had initially refused to buy any of the black and white stories, but in 1978 had broadcast some of the colour adventures, although details of which ones are sketchy. It would be reasonable to assume that these included some if not all of the Jon Pertwee era given as four of the translated novelisations are Third Doctor stories. There are no details about how well they sold, at least as far as I could find, but given as they are among the rarest variants of the novelisations it would be reasonably safe to assume that they flopped in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The five books chosen were The Daleks, The Cave Monsters/ Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Doomsday Weapon/ Colony in Space, Day of the Daleks and Spearhead from Space. However their titles were somewhat lost in translation. The Daleks became The Big Bloody Battle in Space-time!, complete with exclamation mark. The Doomsday Weapon was translated as Be Fearful of the Ultimate Weapon!, Spearhead from Space became The Auton Army Invasion. Day of the Daleks was rechristened The Dalek Race’s Counterattack! and The Cave Monsters rather brilliantly became known as Shuddering! The Underground Monsters. Steven Moffat has already spoken about his desire to give the stories shamelessly crowd-pulling names in the upcoming Season Seven. Maybe he should ask a Japanese translator for advice.

Each of the books featured dust covers that listed the main characters on the inside flaps. The umbrella title written in a black box was Doctor Who Series and the author’s name was listed alongside that of the translator. But the best part about them is definitely the covers.

This is the front cover for The Daleks/ The Big Bloody Battle in Space-time! We have what must be Susan emerging from a red public telephone box instead of the usual blue police box. Of course the red version is more synonymous with British culture so it is no wonder that the unknown cover artist, probably having never seen the TARDIS if the only stories broadcast in Japan were the early Pertwees, resorts to the only version of a British telephone box he knows about. Beneath Susan is a depiction of the strangest Daleks ever to trundle out of Skaro. Their method of propulsion appears to be rolling around on a large ball. It’s no wonder one of the poor dears has fallen over and another one is about to go as it is attacked by a cross between Abraham Lincoln and Jack the Ripper. These Daleks have no visible means of defence; all they have is a single R2-D2-like radar dish protruding from the top of their vaguely Dalek-shaped bodies. One can only assume that they were Davros’ first effort before he realised he’d invented space hoppers by mistake. What is quite interesting is the person hanging out of the upturned Dalek. Could this have been inspired by the infamous Dalek mutant in the glass case from the David Whitaker retelling who jumps up and down and bangs its fists on the glass in a tiny Kaled tantrum? Or has Ian had an unfortunate and possibly fatal bad bounce?

Another of the poor beasties plummets from the sky on the cover to Day of the Daleks/ The Dalek Race’s Counterattack! Evidently the counterattack didn’t go very well... What’s more confusing is the identity of the woman holding the smoking gun. The televised Day of the Daleks has the jarring and wrong moment when the Doctor vaporises an Ogron, so perhaps Jo Grant has picked up on that bloodthirsty character trait and has shot Mike Yates for stealing crackers and cheese off poor Sergeant Benton. More likely it is Anat, one of the guerrillas from the future about to shoot the Third Doctor for being too arrogant and pompous, although she was never that glam. Good to see that in between planning raids on Dalek factories and assassinating politicians she has found the time to arrange her hair.

Talking of arranging hair, the third cover comes from The Doomsday Weapon/ Be Fearful of the Ultimate Weapon! Like the mad American novelisation cover, it represents a parallel reality version of Colony in Space that was actually interesting. In fact its image of a girl apparently combing her hair for the entire story suggests an activity that is infinitely preferable to having to sit through that particular snooze-fest ever again. (Wait a minute – it’s ranked 171^st in the DWM Mighty 200. That means I’ll have to watch it again. Noooooooo!!!!). There’s also a man in the background playing what looks like drums whilst another man is on vocals with the world’s longest microphone lead. Perhaps in Japan Colony in Space was improved by turning it into a sing-along-at-home Karaoke. Whatever it is meant to show, the cover for this story is a touch ordinary.

The Cave Monsters, or Shuddering! as it will hereafter now be known, at first glance also features a disappointingly generic cover. However on closer inspection there’s a real cleverness to it. Okay, I’ve no idea who the lady posing with a paintbrush is meant to be, but I like the idea that she is there to demonstrate the human race memory of the Silurians hinted at in the story. By rights she should be a gibbering wreck on the floor, reverting back to being a cavewoman, but it gets the concept across neatly and succinctly. And I rather like the woman’s artistic impression of a Silurian, here re-imagined as a bed-headed Velociraptor with three eyes and a knowing smile.

The best of the covers is definitely Spearhead from Space/ The Auton Army Invasion. Jon Pertwee’s debut story is transformed from an average runaround with one classic moment to a haunting tale of unrequited mannequin love. Forget your Autons bursting through the shop window and Pertwee’s tentacle gurning; this single image of a mannequin reaching out temptingly as her hand moves to strangle you is scarier and more memorable than anything the story actually showed. Mary Whitehouse would have had a fit if this had been broadcast on BBC1 at teatime. The crack in the doorway behind the plastic girl means that she has come into the room when you weren’t looking and invaded a place of safety. Now you’ve noticed her, she throws out her arms in a calculating attempt to lure you in, to kill you with love.  In many ways she’s as scary as the Terror of the Autons horror doll thing.

The Autons have invaded in exactly the same way three times already, with only The Pandorica Opens offering anything fresh. This image indicates the power of a Silent-Hill-esque approach  to the Nestenes, giving them a scare factor that they presently lack. Making them living, thinking, manipulative mannequins would send children scurrying for the back of the sofa. Where the plastic girl’s other arm is waiting...

I wonder what the Japanese book-buying public made of them. Were they a niche market for the knowledgeable, much like manga and anime are in this country? Or were they just ignored, dismissed as strange curios from the West? Hayakawa Publishing Inc’s decision not to make further purchases from the Target range after the initial batch of five would lead me to suggest the latter was true. One thing is clear though; these books are incredibly hard to track down and much-prized for their scarcity, and represent an almost forgotten sidebar in Doctor Who’s ongoing quest for world domination.