In 2015, Twelfth Doctor actor Peter Capaldi said that "the ambition and imagination was great but they just didn't have the resources to deliver". Commercial releases The Zarbi received several pieces of merchandise as toy manufacturers hoped that they would become as popular as the Daleks; they featured in several comic strips and in related merchandising in 1965. The serial was originally released on VHS as a double-tape set in September 1990. It was released on DVD by BBC DVD in October 2005, with special features including a making-of documentary, a copy of the Doctor Who Annual 1965, and an audio commentary by Russell, Martin, Lambert, Jarvis, and Gary Russell. BBC Audio released an audiobook of the serial in November 2005, read by William Russell. The serial was released as a vinyl record by Demon Records on 13 December 2019, with linking narration by Maureen O'Brien. The serial was released on Blu-ray on 5 December 2022, alongside the rest of the show's second season as part of The Collection. In print Strutton was approached by Frederick Muller Ltd to create a novelisation of the serial, which he wrote in three weeks; Doctor Who and the Zarbi was published as a hardback in September 1965, with illustrations by John Wood. It was republished in December 1975 by White Lion, retaining Wood's original artwork except for the cover painting, which instead depicted the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). A paperback edition was published by Target Books in May 1973, with illustrations by Chris Achilleos; Achilleos was disappointed by the BBC's insistence that the cover artwork resemble the television counterpart. The Target paperback was reissued several times: with a revised logo in August 1978, with Alister Pearson's artwork in January 1990, and by BBC Books in April 2016 with Achilleos's cover and Wood's illustrations. A facsimile edition of the original 1965 hardback was released by BBC Books in November 2016. The book was translated and published in other countries: Doctor Who en de Zarbis, translated into Dutch by M. Hohage, was published by Unieboek BV Bussum in 1974; and Doutor Who e os Zarbi, translated to Portuguese by Eduardo Nogueira and Conceicao Jardim with cover art by Rui Ligeiro, was published by Presenca in 1986. Notes References DVD resources Bibliography External links 1965 British television episodes Doctor Who serials novelised by Bill Strutton Television episodes about insects First Doctor serials