Lake Monster books of the 70s. (+1 from the 80s)

1975                                                                 1976

 

1973                                                            1982

Star Quest Roboworld (1979)

 

1979

1978                                            1981

Star Quest Roboworld was one of my first ever book purchases, chosen from the Bookworm book catalogue that they used to run through middle school. It's actually the second book in the series although I didn't know that at the time, I just fell in love with the cover and the promise of the story within. I seem to remember liking it a lot although I never did get round to reading the first or third books in the sequence. Pocket money was limited and I was in the early stages of putting together a collection of Doctor Who paperbacks which were far more captivating, even if the vast majority of them were also written by the prolific Terrance Dicks and published by Target Books.

Artwork, according to The Target Book by David J Howe is by either Jeff Cummins or Bill Donohoe although it doesn't clarify who did which ones.

 

I passed my first copy of Star Quest Roboworld on many years back, However I have since bought another copy, along with the rest of the trilogy.  Primarily I just want to own them again but I reckon they're a quick read so I might find the time to discover how it all started and where it all ends.

 

Steve

Cybermen - 1975 to 1982

I've been thinking about the Cybermen recently, following a couple of very good articles in a recent issues of DWM. Now I'm old enough to remember watching The Revenge of the Cybermen on first transmission back in 1975 and I was still watching when they made their surprise return in Earthshock in 1982.

 

Somewhere in between that I became a "proper" Doctor Who fan and as such you have to decide who your favourite monster is and for me it was the Cybermen.  Sure the Daleks were good but the Cybermen were much better, much scarier, much more unknown and unknowable.  As a modern fan of the new series, I'm very much of the opposite opinion because the new writers really understand the Daleks, where as the Cybermen have been reduced to tin plated soldiers, looking for a good plot.  And with hindsight, they always were.

 

Anyway my recent thoughts were about how and why the Cybermen had become my favourites back then, especially when there was so little of them on screen for so long.  And we are going back to a time before the internet, video and with little or no repeat of old shows on any of the two BBC channels. How then did they even feature in my younger life.

 

How indeed...

 

Revenge of the Cybermen 1975

 



1975

1975

 

 

1975

 

1976

 

1977

 

1977

1978

 

1978

 

1979

 

Black Legacy - Comic strip 1980

 

Deathworld - comic strip 1980

Throwback - Soul of a Cyberman comic strip  (1980)

 

1981

Earthshock in 1982

 

And there you have it; they were hiding in plain sight.   Interesting though how almost no two are quite the same and at least half are not the correct version for the story they are meant to be illustrating.  And yet the Cyber brand is clearly identifiable and strong enough to carry the race's reputation across the decade.

 

Steve