I am aware that every time Malcolm Hulke swings around, I get noticeably less snide. This isn't a diss on Dicks, whose output I doubt Hulke could ever have dreamt to match and who tackled stories I'm certain would have made Hulke wilt with despair, but it's worth noting here because Doctor Who and the Space War is Hulke at his most Dicks.
This is fun and fast, skipping across many of Hulke's concerns from previous novelisations but never really dwelling on them, not even the overarching one of wars and how to avoid them, before setting off on a fun, pacy romp with the Master and his bumbling Ogron sidekicks instead.
So why still the broad absence of snide? I think the main noticeable difference between Dicks and Hulke isn't to do with quality or thematic attack or plotting for prose but actually simple in their turns of phrase. Dicks has a habit of sounding very dated at key moments, whether it be introducing all female companions as basically young and pretty or peppering the speech of any Doctor with relentless instances of 'old chap', and those are very easy phrases to pick up on, lump a bit of sarcasm at and move on.
Hulke is more prone to actual big, worrying missteps, like his ambiguous presentation of Whitaker's sexuality in Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion or the 'stupidly savage' Ogrons here. I end up adopting quite a positive reading of these details (which is possible, it just doesn't always feel likely) because the alternative would actually break those stories. But, as I celebrate Hulke yet again (and bearing in mind we all know Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks is coming next), I just want to stress how grateful we probably should be that it was Dicks who so wholly took on the mantle of Target writer-in-chief.
Click here for another total whitewash...
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