The idiosyncratic prose of Barry Letts

'The Brigadier and Jo Grant assist DOCTOR WHO in this exciting confrontation with the forces of black magic!'

Is it just me who thinks this is false advertising?

This is lovely. Odd, very odd, but lovely. Barry Letts might be the first noticeable writer in the Target series. I mean, Whitaker, Hulke and Dicks have all been identifiable in their work, with different emphases in how they tell the tales of Doctor Who, but there a bits in this, odd phrases and even odder choices of words that really draw your attention to this as something with a specific prose writer. What Wood (and maybe Miles) refers to as 'Free Indirect narrative' in About Time 3, including phrases like 'If it were to turn out to be a monster it simply became a question of whether the anteater’s tongue was longer than the jelly baby', feels incredibly idiosyncratic.

For an attempt to peer more deeply into this madness, click here...