Alister Pearson is an English artist and illustrator. He is best known for his work on the covers of Doctor Who novels, novelisations and videos.
Pearson was born on the Isle of Wight. While still a student, he sent sample covers to Target Books, the publishers of Doctor Who novelisations. His first published work (an illustration for 1984's Doctor Who: The Key to Time by Peter Haining) was commissioned while he was still at school.
Pearson went to art college, left after only one term, and spent the next three years submitting Doctor Who covers to then Target editor Nigel Robinson and art director Mike Brett. His first cover commission was for the novelisation of The Underwater Menace . Pearson went on to produce many more novelisation covers, including first edition covers for all of the seventh Doctor adaptations (excluding Time and the Rani for which he later supplied a reprint cover) and a number of first and second Doctor covers such as the first edition of The Edge of Destruction .
Pearson continued to create covers for Target, including new covers for reprints of Doctor Who novels - some using artwork originally painted for the BBC Video releases - including An Unearthly Child and The War Games . When the novelisation line ended, Pearson was commissioned to create covers for the Doctor Who Missing Adventures; Pearson provided 22 of 33 covers for this novel line, working from the series' inception until Virgin lost the Doctor Who publishing licence in 1997.
Pearson's Doctor Who work was not limited to books. From 1986 to 1993, he provided covers and fold-out posters for Doctor Who Magazine and Doctor Who Classic Comics. He also produced sixteen covers for BBC Video VHS releases of Doctor Who serials.
In 2005, Pearson provided a frontispiece for Panini Books' Doctor Who Annual 2006. The next year, he created a cover for the same publisher's Doctor Who Storybook 2007, and other covers the following years for Doctor Who Storybook 2008 and Doctor Who Storybook 2009.
Between 1993 and 1995, Pearson also provided twelve covers for Titan Books' "Star Trek Adventures" line. There were reprints of Star Trek novels originally released by Bantam Books.
In 2007 Alister Pearson illustrated the cover for The England Quiz Book which was compiled by his old friend and fellow Doctor Who buff, Adam David Pearson (no relation) who also lives on the Isle of Wight.
Pearson is known for inserting initials into his artwork; his own ("AP" or "AJP") as well as those of his friends and colleagues in fandom. [1]
The Virgin New Adventures are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989.
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the second serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in six weekly parts from 21 November to 26 December 1964. In the serial, the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan Foreman, and teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright discover that the Earth in the 22nd century has been occupied by Daleks. They work with a human resistance group to stop the Daleks from mining out the Earth's core as part of their plan to pilot the planet through space.
Peter Darvill-Evans is an English writer and editor.
Terrance William Dicks was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working as a writer and also serving as the programme's script editor from 1968 to 1974. The Doctor Who News Page described him as "arguably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who". He later became a script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC.
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of novelisations and other assorted books based on the popular science fiction television series Doctor Who. Their first publications based on the serial were reprints in paperback of three novels which had been previously published as hardbacks: Doctor Who and the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Crusaders by David Whitaker, and Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton. As these sold well further novelisations of the show were commissioned. In 1975 Universal-Tandem was sold by its American owners, the Universal-Award group, to the British conglomerate Howard and Wyndham. The company was renamed Tandem Publishing Ltd before being merged with the paperback imprints of Howard and Wyndham's general publishing house W. H. Allen Ltd to become Wyndham Publications Ltd in 1976. However, during 1977 and 1978 the Wyndham identity was phased out and, until 1990, Target books were published by 'the paperback division of WH Allen & Co'.
A novelization is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of home video, but continue to find commercial success as part of marketing campaigns for major films. They are often written by accomplished writers based on an early draft of the film's script and on a tight deadline.
John Peel is a British writer, best known for his TV series tie-in novels and novelisations. He has written under several pseudonyms, including "John Vincent" and "Nicholas Adams". He lives in Long Island, New York. While his wife is a US citizen, Peel continues to travel under a British passport.
James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 by John Pearson, is a fictional biography of James Bond, first published in 1973; Pearson also wrote the biography The Life of Ian Fleming (1966).
Ghost Light is the second serial of the 26th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 to 18 October 1989.
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and featured the First through Sixth Doctors. The Missing Adventures complemented the Virgin New Adventures range, which had proved successful.
The Past Doctor Adventures were a series of spin-off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. For most of their existence, they were published side-by-side with the Eighth Doctor Adventures. The novels regularly featured the First through Seventh Doctors. The Infinity Doctors had an ambiguous place in continuity and featured an unidentified incarnation of the Doctor. The Eighth Doctor co-starred with the Fourth Doctor in one novel (Wolfsbane) and, after the Eighth Doctor Adventures had ceased publication, a novel featuring the Eighth Doctor and set between two earlier Eighth Doctor Adventures was published within the Past Doctor series.
James Swallow is a British author. A BAFTA nominee and a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 best-seller, he is the author of several original books and tie-in novels, as well as short fiction, numerous audio dramas and video games.
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. He has also worked on various comedy series and soap operas.
Martin Day is a screenwriter and novelist best known for his work on various spin-offs related to the BBC Television series Doctor Who, and many episodes of the soaps Fair City, Doctors and Family Affairs. Having worked previously at Bath Spa University, he is now visiting lecturer in creative writing at the University of Winchester and the Wessex regional representative of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.
The Nightmare Fair is a story originally written for the 1986 season of Doctor Who, but never filmed. A novelisation based on the script was published in 1989 by Target Books, as the first volume of its Missing Episodes series. The script and novelisation were written by former series producer Graham Williams, and would have been directed by Matthew Robinson had it gone to air. It is the first novel-length text featuring The Doctor not to be based upon a previously transmitted production, although being a novelisation it is not strictly speaking an "original" novel.
In 1966, Bantam Books acquired the license to publish tie-in fiction based on the science fiction television series Star Trek.