Pete McTighe, in these pages, does the best job of recapturing the feel of a classic Target novelisation that I’ve ever seen out of the new range. It could have been Terrence Dicks novelising a story he cared about, which is a delight.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the episode in question, but the book did a great job of evoking the best of the era and punching up the guest characters by giving them additional back story and motivation - exactly what you want from this range.

The first two thirds of Kerblam! are very strong but it does start tripping itself up somewhat when the sympathetic antagonist (made even more sympathetic in the novelisation) starts his terrorist / freedom fighter activity against the giant Amazon-esque corporation. The book goes to some lengths to reaffirm that Kerblam! (Amazon) should have better working practices as it wrap ups and it makes all the right political points but it isn’t as elegant as the rest of the story. Perhaps while the antagonist was actually carrying out his scheme would have been the time to look at both sides of the argument in more detail, rather than in the closing pages.

It’s a lovely quick read though. One of the essential target books which earns its place independently of the programme itself.