Interview by ALISTAIR McGOWN
Alister Pearson’s artwork for the front cover of Doctor Who – The Chase (1989), John Peel’s fi rst novelisation for Target.
Although Target published several successful Dalek novelisations in the 1970s, following the release of Destiny of the Daleks at the end of that decade, an agreement couldn’t be reached with Dalek creator Terry Nation to release new titles. When the deadlock was fi nally broken a decade later, the breakthrough came from an unlikely source – a British ex-pat who had watched 1960s Doctor Who in Nottingham from the age of nine. “I missed the fi rst story but came in with the Daleks, so that was perfect timing really,” says author John Peel from his home in Long Island.