Quality differences can be ascribed largely to the fact that Terrance Dicks was a professional writer, contributing scripts for the series itself and acting as Script Editor for several years as well as being the unofficial editor of the novelisations, while Ian Marter was an actor first and an author second (as the Companion Harry Sullivan, he co-starred in the episode that this book novelises). Also, this was the first of his nine published novelisations, whereas Genesis of the Daleks was Terry's tenth book in the series and he always did try to add literary flourishes but I suppose that that's why he was the undoubted King of the Novelisation back in the 70s and 80s. Pity he couldn't write an actual Doctor Who novel for toffee, though. Far too hidebound and 'trad' in a new era of the 90s and early 2000s when the only ongoing Doctor Who was in novel form and the audience wanted 'rad' literary experimentation, rather than faithful facsimiles of TV-style adventures
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