Climb Aboard The Tardis: Edsel Collects Classic Jon Pertwee “Doctor Who” Audio Adventures on 4-CD Boxset
Edsel has recently released a box set which should be of interest to classic Doctor Who fans. Doctor Who: The Jon Pertwee Collection is a 4-CD set which collects two audiobook versions of novelizations of some of Pertwee’s episodes. The audiobooks are read by Pertwee himself, and the set also includes some other bonus rarities from the BBC archives.
Jon Pertwee took over playing the Doctor in January, 1970 in the first episode of Season 7. The third person to play the role (after William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton), his tenure would continue through June, 1974 and the sixth episode of Season 11, when Tom Baker assumed the role of the iconic hero. Pertwee’s Doctor had several companions joining him on his adventures. For the two serials contained in this boxset, that companion was Jo Grant, played by Katy Manning. The two serials in question are The Curse of Peladon and Planet of the Daleks. Curse originally aired over four episodes from January 29, 1972 through February 19, 1972. The plot revolves around the Doctor and Jo Grant arriving on the planet Peladon as its king wishes to join the Galactic Federation. Naturally, much political intrigue and many complications ensue. This story also featured the Ice Warriors, old antagonists of the Doctor-turned-diplomats. Planet aired over six episodes from April 7, 1973 to May 12, 1973. A more straightforward adventure than Peladon, Planet continued from the serial Frontier in Space. The Doctor was injured during that story and Planet finds him landing on the world Spiridon. Unfortunately for him and Jo, the Doctor’s most famous nemeses, the Daleks, are already on the planet and planning an invasion. Teaming with the Thals (introduced in the very first Dalek serial in 1963), the Doctor and Jo must work to defeat the war machine of the Daleks.
Beginning in 1973, Target Books in the U.K. began releasing a series of novelizations of Doctor Who serials. These would continue until 1994, covering nearly every episode of the program. These two serials were no exception with Peladon becoming an abridged novel in 1974, written by Brian Hayles and Planet hitting shelves in 1976, written by Terrance Dicks. In 1995, BBC Worldwide released audiobooks versions of both of these books on cassette, read by Pertwee. Those 1995 recordings are collected on this new set from Edsel. Each audiobook features the theme and incidental music from the show.
Several bonus tracks round out the package. Seven are taken from several BBC radio programs which aired from 1974-1996. All are drawn from the collection Doctor Who at the BBC: The Collection – The First Nine Volumes. The last bonus track is Jon Pertwee’s single from Purple Records in 1972: “Who Is the Doctor?” It is a spoken word piece with Pertwee as the Doctor speaking over Ron Grainer’s theme music from the show and explaining his purpose; the track’s producer was Rupert Hine, then beginning a career which would lead him to produce hit albums from the likes of Tina Turner, Howard Jones, and Stevie Nicks. Songwriter David MacIver commented in 2014, ” This was recorded on Purple Records because Anthony Edwards, the co-manager of Deep Purple, was a close friend of Jon Pertwee. We tried to get the BBC involved, but they gave us the cold shoulder. Rupert produced the track and played the ARP 2600 synth with Simon Jeffes, our good friend and sometime collaborator who went on to found The Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I wrote the lyric late one night; It took about 20 minutes. Seemed to me that the essence of Doctor Who was his time travel, so the lyric took off from there. Because Rupert was on vacation, Simon and I remixed the track with Steve Nye at Air London. Steve became a great producer and sometimes the pianist with Penguin Cafe.”
The four CDs of The Jon Pertwee Collection are housed in an oversized seven-inch, eight-panel digipak with credits and an image of the famous Tardis. A couple of photo pages are also included. An O-card has Pertwee’s visage on it. A 4-LP, 140-gram vinyl edition is also available from Edsel.
If you would like to experience these classic pieces of Dr. Who history for yourself, we’ve got the full track listing and ordering links for both formats below.
Various Artists, Dr. Who: The Jon Pertwee Collection (Demon/Edsel Records, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Disc 1
- Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon, Parts 1 & 2
- Extract from Doctor Who event at Goodwood Races (5/18/74)
- Extract from Profile (4/1974)
Disc 2
- Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon Parts 3 & 4
- Extract from Newsbeat (3/1/89)
- Extract from Simon Bates (3/1/92)
Disc 3
- Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Parts 1 & 2
- Extract from The Skivers (2/23/95)
- Extract from local Birmingham radio program (1996)
Disc 4
- Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Parts 3 & 4
- Extract from Radio Lives (10/31/96)
- Who Is The Doctor? – Jon Pertwee (Purple Records single PUR 111, 1972)
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Jon Pertwet was always my favorite. I am pretty 😍 sure that I saw a Sean Pertwet 😳. Could be in the United States. In some movies.