#novelisation of tv episode

[azazel-dreams]

Rogue (Doctor Who) by Kate Herron & Briony Redman

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[being-of-rain]

So the last few years of TV Dr Who have done a lot of new things with the Doctor's ability to regenerate, and at no point is it very clear what does and doesn't count towards the limit of the Doctor's new regeneration cycle that they received in The Time of the Doctor. You could debate whether a few of the changes are exceptions to the limit, and whether the new regeneration cycle is still something that applies after the retcon that the Timeless Child apparently has more than twleve regenerations in the first place.

But, assuming the new cycle is still a limit, and that each change of body may count to the total, is the Doctor already more than halfway through it? Let's count.

1st incarnation: Old Man Matt Smith. Remember that he counts as the first incarnation out of thirteen, because there are twelve death-saving regenerations in a cycle (so an original body followed by twelve additional bodies). Almost immediately after gaining the new cycle, he starts using it up by dying of old age (because that body is more than a thousand years old by that point).

2nd incarnation: Peter Capaldi, who after a century or so gets electrocuted by a Cyberman and takes two full episodes to die from it.

3rd incarnation: Jodie Whittaker, who seemingly spends most of her decades-long life in prison. Halfway through The Power of the Doctor she's force-regenerated into...

4th incarnation: Sacha Dhawan. This incarnation is artificially created by the Master, not regenerating for any stated mortal wound, but Patrick Troughton regenerated for the same reason and he still counted to the total (...unless you wanted to say that Troughton's change didn't count, and he turned into Jo Martin, who later turned into Jon Pertwee, which is a theory I'm not opposed to). In any case, three quarters of the way through The Power of the Doctor, Dhawan turns into...

5th incarnation: Jodie Whittaker Again. That change might be the least likely to count towards the cycle total, because the Master's tech and the regeneration energy of the CyberMasters are used to "reverse" and cause a "degeneration". I like to count it though, because I think it's funny, because literally ten on-screen minutes later the Doctor is hit by the energy of the Qurunx redirected by the Master, and she turns into...

6th incarnation: David Tennant Again (Again). It literally only just occurred to me that turning back into David Tennant might have been an after-effect of the degeneration ten minutes earlier. The Doctor's body was still set on reverse. Anyway, around fifteen hours later (according to The Giggle's novelisation) the Doctor is shot with a galvanic beam by the Toymaker.

Then the 'bigeneration' happens. Now, it's established in the Tardis at the end of the episode that Gatwa's Doctor is somehow taken from the future of Tennant's retired Doctor (he's "older" than Tennant, after he "fixed himself"). So my question is: is there technically two regenerations between the Doctor at the start of The Giggle and the Doctor at the start of The Church on Ruby Road? See, the bigeneration stopped Tennant from dying by laser beam, resulting in...

7th incarnation: David Tennant Again Again Again, who retires to live with Donna's family and presumably has a series of low-stakes wacky domestic adventures. And possibly at some point in his future he suffers another fatal injury, resulting in...

8th incarnation: Ncuti Gatwa, who is pulled down his timeline to 2023 UNIT tower. This could've been straight away, or a bit later in this incarnation's life, and he could've been the result of another fatal injury or not, we can only speculate.

So at the very most, that's eight incarnations out of thirteen. That's over halfway through the new regeneration cycle. That's like the entirety of Classic Who and the TV Movie, this time over ten years of intermittent TV. To quote Susan when she's reunited with the Doctor in the audio An Earthly Child and asks about his regenerations, "Eight?! How did you manage that! That's just throwing them away!"

[rowanthestrange]

Wait, actually the Master misunderstanding Doctor Who Is A TV Show and thinking he’s in a book would be great. Last time we see Dhawan!Master he’s a storyteller, written loads of books about the Doctor’s life, River parallels Melody Malone etc. there’s a very bookish element there.

So you have the Master come in and he’s like…actively narrating himself.

And everyone in-universe thinks he’s crazy, and we the audience think it’s funny cus he’s got the wrong medium.

But.

He hasn’t. Because there will be a novelisation of the episode. And the times we’ve ever got anything from the Master’s POV or following him, it’s nearly always in book form not the TV show itself. His life is novel-based.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Do you have any recommendations on Dr. Who books/audio format things? I haven't watched the show in a bit because Moffat wasn't my thing and I can't seem to find the old stuff. (If you have any advice on where to find that too I would be very grateful) Following your blog has been a nice reminder of why I liked the show so much. Hope you have a good day!

Aw thank you! Depending on your location, you can find classic who episodes either on BBC iPlayer or Tubi (with ads).

As for books/audios, I'll try to keep this brief as I could write an essay on this.

For books, my favorite author is Kate Orman. Orman writes wonderfully, and my personal favorite is The Year of the Intelligent Tigers. I also really liked Goth Opera, Camera Obscure, History 101, Autumn Mist, Lungbarrow, Divided Loyalties, Somewhere Never etc etc etc etc (so many more but I'm forcing myself to stop here). You can often find free versions of basically every novel (at least all I've looked for) on the internet either as pdfs or epubs or whatever. The Internet Archive is particularly useful. Some examples:

And now for the audios! I personally have sold my soul to Big Finish. I have literally hundreds of recommendations. They do have some audios for free, such as those that came from the Paul Spragg Memorial Competition. You can also find a lot of them (up until Zagreus I think) for free on Spotify. There is also almost always a killer sale going on on the website on top of that too.

As for my recommendations, it's pretty dependent on what Doctor or companion you want to listen to. They even have series centered on UNIT, Romana's Gallifrey, Benny Summerfield, and a ton of other things (including a Masterful special that just had a bunch of Masters fucking around and finding out). I'll put in some of my favorites, one for each Doctor, from what I own (which is far from everything, but I do my best).

One: The Sontarans. It was the first time the Doctor had ever encountered the Sontarans, so he was unfamiliar with them. It takes place during Dalek Master Plan, so Steven and Sara are there.

Two: Lords of the Red Planet! It's a good Ice Warrior origin story and has Jamie and Zoe in it. :)

Three: Terror of the Master. I had pre-ordered it as soon as I heard about it. Three....Delgado Master....what more do you want from an audio? It's narrated by Jon Culshaw.

Four: The Wrath of the Iceni. It was a brilliant historical with Four and Leela and Boudica. Leela gets quite a lesson in this one, first being mad at Four for not helping Boudica and then at Boudica for being cruel.

Okay now we are getting into my favorite Doctors (5-8), so these decisions are going to get difficult.

Five: The Kingmaker! Shakespeare spikes Five's drink to get him absolutely wasted to sneak on the TARDIS, the TARDIS gets hiccups as a result, leading to Peri and Erimem being separated from the Doctor. Shenanigans ensue.

Six: Doctor Who and the Pirates. Six and Evelyn have a really meaningful discussion with one of her depressed students. The third part is a musical!

Seven: The Shadow of the Scourge. Benny Ace and Seven against 8th dimensional eldritch abominations. Seven gets turned into one of these insectoids, and body horror ensues.

Eight: Oh dear I can't choose. At the moment, probably the Great War from Dark Eyes 1. Eight meets Molly and is still grieving here. He is very much doomed by the narrative.

War: The Neverwhen. Lots of the War Doctor is good if you like Time War horror, but this one has a lot of time-as-a-weapon and is well written.

Nine: Battle Scars. A nice short story about that one family Nine saved from the Titanic mentioned in the episode Rose. Has a really fantastic girl in it and a Nine dripping in PTSD.

Ten: The Time Reaver. Ten and Donna! There's this gun that basically slows down time for a single person, so that a few minutes for everyone else is centuries for them. Ten is a self sacrificing dope.

Eleven: The Geronimo boxset is the best in my opinion, but I haven't been able to listen to many of these yet.

Twelve: Another one I haven't managed to buy a lot of yet, but Dead Media is amazing. It's written to sound like a podcast with adverts and everything and is set during his time at St. Luke's. And I cried at the end.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. This was so much fun! Thank you!

[edapparently]

Rogue [Novelisation] by Kate Herron & Briony Redman - My Thoughts

Doctor Who has always been a special thing for me. When I was younger and dealing with a lot of homophobia being directed at me, it was one of my few safe spaces Knowing that for a few weeks, every Saturday, I could escape and indulge in science fiction was a big drive to keep me going during that time So, naturally, it was a very big moment for me to watch The Doctor fall into a gay romance, even just for an episode and even after I had long left that toxic environment behind me I sobbed at the end of the TV episode. It was everything I had been waiting for, if 13 year old me had seen Rogue he probably would have fainted And then, a little while ago, I was in Waterstones with @spiritbox713 (a dangerous combination) and I spotted the Doctor Who books on the shelf. I remember thinking the new blue spines and covers were beautiful and then actually noticing which stories were there All 3 of the 60th specials (get in!), Space Babies (meh), 73 Yards (oh?) and Rogue (OOHH!!!) I was then stuck for a good few minutes deciding which ones I wanted to get. That is aside from Rogue, I knew I was taking that one home I decided on 73 Yards, not that it mattered, as @spiritbox713 decided he would buy the rest of them for me anyway behind my back. Like the amazingly generous and cunning best friend that he is (I love you dude, I owe you a lot (told you it was dangerous)) And so I read the books in order, like the nerd that I am, and finished Rogue last night and I cannot praise it enough I am, as is the case with every one of my book thoughts posts, completely biased towards my own opinions and emotional attachments And I am totally and absolutely biased in thinking that Rogue is one of the best Doctor Who novelisations out there I love the balance of the period piece with the interjections of sci-fi, my particular favs being the flash back at the beginning (along with all of Art's moments ngl) and the chapter that attempts to describe what is known about the Chuldur And I love how drenched in camp everything is with the period characters. The Duchess and Lord Barton (Chuldur and non-Chuldur) are so entertaining to read and it makes perfect sense for the Chuldur to want to invade this particular party Speaking of the Chuldur, I honestly think they're pretty underrated, though there are some lines they have I'm not the biggest fan of. They remind me, funnily enough, of toxic fan culture. Of someone's ego making them feel they HAVE to be the interesting or main character And, as I have already said, I am a huge sucker for The Doctor and Rogue's romance. Even with how brief it is In short, Rogue (the book) is one of my all time favourite Novelisations and I look forward to seeing and reading more from Kate Herron & Briony Redman

[clarasteam]

further spoilery reflections on the Rogue novelisation: post-audiobook random stuff edition

some things I enjoyed in the book that we didn't get in the show, though I see why we didn't:

the highly developed animosity between Ruby and Lord Stilton Barton, including her telling him "Don't hang out in a library unless you wanna get read" and standing him up in the middle of a quadrille, as a result of which he is actively planning to kill her

the description of the Doctor "giving the TARDIS a little comforting tap" in response to her indigestion groan

the Doctor ruthlessly breaking up Rogue's large weapon disseminator (variously described as his precious creation, his favourite gadget, etc) and using bits of it to reprogramme the trap (R: "I can't believe you broke my stuff!") - interesting that in this version Rogue is the one who's incautiously handing over his tech, rather than the Doctor handing over the sonic

the Doctor telling Rogue "Don't pout too much. When we're not trying to kill each other, we're a good team."

Rogue and the Doctor's dialogue in the garden after the Scandalous Gay Dancing/Fake Proposal OR WAS IT:

"Quite the show," Rogue said with a sly grin.

"You did pretty well yourself," the Doctor replied, adjusting his collar.

I hope someone is writing fic about Professor Sarsha Melenney of Capriskia University, the only survivor of the Chuldur invasion; my heart goes out to her. I like the grimness of this chapter, and how it moves from jokes about inheritance tax fraud to the way people would rather claim they'd been duped by a shapeshifter than "admit to being friends with, or related to, someone awful."

Ruby getting a stitch from "running about after eating all those finger sandwiches" and reflecting that you don't see that on tv

the Chuldur butler being fed up that not one person has accused him of murder, and being told it's the wrong era for it AGAIN (see tvtropes: The Butler Did It), and his pleasure when he finally gets to be the murderer (bumping off the vicar in order to perform the marriage)

more Duchess action, and the family tensions between her and [her annoying middle sister] Miss Emily Beckett, including the Duchess's plan to have a fling with Barton at her next event, "just to help her sister realise that their marriage was bogus" (& KH and BR generally having fun with poisonous family dynamics in this story)

in general, it feels as if Ruby gets more to do in the book than she does in the episode - there's more Ruby-and-Emily, more Ruby-and-Barton, more Ruby-and-the-Duchess. Ruby even makes sure nobody else gets killed by the Chuldur, at the point where Lord Frampton threatens to become "a grey-haired gentleman in a gold waistcoat" so that he can act as "father of the bride":

"Can we all stop messing about, please?" Ruby interrupted. "It's my wedding, and I want the Duchess to give me away." (at this point the Duchess still thinks Ruby is her annoying sister aka Emily, but she agrees to it anyway because she wants to be centre stage)

I am still happily cackling at the title and author of the book Ruby whacks Emily with :)

listening to the audiobook brings out different emphases, and changes the pace for me; there were other bits that made me laugh that I now can't remember, and some that made me have something in my eye...

[megamagica1234]

People discussing the cutting room floor of wicked

Im starting to realize oz has a very bad history with the cutting room floor

Like its not unknown that the wizard of oz itself had a lot of scenes cut, few of which survive

Return to oz? Ditto…a lot of the cut scenes are on the dvd, some never made it passed the planning phase,like the ruby slippers being the ruby magic belt instead. Some points made it into the novelisation, others in the comic adaptation on the website. Hell one of the draft scripts is currently still available on the internet archive at the moment.

The wiz is the only one im not outwardly sure of, I know more of the why the cast is the way it is but less of the full history for the movie.

Lost in oz, tim burtons version? Like its on youtube or was, but i swear i saw it on tv it just never got picked up

Legends of oz: Dorothy’s return, honestly has a big cutting room floor for what became a producers style controversial animated film…for what its worth its a decent condensation of the book its based on. Could make a great cult film in the future.

Legends of oz is the one i followed extensively, and honestly considering they included cut lines in the making of on the blu-ray, kept stuff in the trailers until it got closer to theater release, and a lot of the concept art was out in the open for a while.

I dont know too much about any other oz projects or if they even lost content…like i know the 52 episode anime had little scenes cut when they were dubbed for english, like a lot of the episodes are i wanna say a minute or so longer in the subtitle versions but they’re little things that feel inconsequential to the plot.

[cool-video-wav]

Ok but this is hugely slept on

A fan made target novelisation of new earth, he is currently up to the possession of roses body

I’ve shared the prologue here but you can find the rest of the parts of his channel. Please go show him some love!!

[pers-books]

⚡ FLASH SALE ⚡

Save on BBC audiobooks WHILE STOCKS LAST!

Offer ends no later than 23:59 (UK time) 7th November 2024.

BBC Audiobooks (formerly AudioGo) provide a whole universe of stories to explore, featuring all thirteen Doctors, Torchwood and Sarah Jane.

You can discover lost episodes and adventures from the early TV series, go on brand new ones and enjoy dramatic readings of the Doctor's novelised exploits from both the classic Target days and more recent BBC Books releases.

**PLEASE NOTE: we are not able to provide digital downloads for these purchases**

These BBC Audiobooks are available in a limited quantity, and once our allocation has been sold, the offer will be withdrawn.

We have stock on hand for immediate despatch. Please note however that all deliveries - and in particular international orders - may take longer than usual to reach you.

The UK postage cap does not apply - a fee will be applicable for each BBC Audiobooks purchase you make.

Purchase of each bundle is limited to one per customer - additional orders placed will be cancelled and refunded.

[please-attend-carefully]

Terror of the Autons, Book Review

Terror of the Autons (Novelisation) by Terrance Dicks, 1975

Terror of the Autons is the novelisation of the 1971 Serial with the same name. It is the introduction to The Doctor’s new companion, Jo Grant, and also rival Time Lord, The Master. 

This book builds on the already strong premise of the Television serial, expanding it in a way that is both faithful and interesting. Conversations are extended, characters given more depth to motivations and actions in ways that would slow down the snappy pace of a 25 minute episode. Scenes are connected together, and re-written to allow for a flowing narrative on the page, rather than cutting back and forth between multiple scenes like you would see in the visual medium of Television.  The written form allows expanded scenes where characters challenge one another, and don’t just have to accept the orders given to them for the sake of pacing. Characters are able to act in ways that may have been restricted by the physical capabilities of the actors on screen. My favourite example of this is the Master’s introduction. 

Both the Protagonists and Villains of the story are given more rounded characterisation, and have their own internal conflicts amongst themselves. The friction is not restricted to just good vs. evil. Jo and Yates put up a fight when they are ordered to remain on base while the Doctor and Brigadier go out to investigate Farrell’s plastic factory, which feels more natural for the two of them wanting to accompany their superiors instead of sitting around UNIT headquarters drinking hot chocolate together. In the TV serial Jo is seen flirting with a member of the science department to acquire equipment for the Doctor, which the novel brilliantly informs us that she is doing this intentionally to butter up the man on the end of the line, and is not in fact just flirty with her colleagues. For her introductory story, her internal dialogue is key to learning about her intentions and actions, rather than accepting the watered down plight of a woman in a male dominated workplace. Additions like this create a more rounded version of the characters and adds to them rather than just imitating their on screen counterparts. 

Dicks is able to show UNIT in a far more capable light, with their military operations not limited by a pre-watershed time slot and BBC budget restrictions. Their weapons are effective, and they patrol around in appropriate military Jeeps instead of the blue sedan seen on TV. Their anti-tank missiles make quick work of the plastic Autons, with the line ���Firearms won’t work on them!” cut completely. The lack of budget limitations extends to the plastics factory and the Autons, with more sinister visuals of bubbling chemicals and churning production lines bringing the villain's base of operations to life. This imagery creates a greater sense of danger, and shows that the Master is producing a large scale army ready for invasion. The climax of the story even gets an overhaul, with a giant octopus crab monster being drawn through the radio tower signal, rather than just the flashing lights seen in the original broadcast (the recent blu rays have since added the monster in) Again, this helps to give UNIT more to do, bigger and more numerous threats equals more need for heavy artillery and UNIT presence. Illustrations throughout the novel help to highlight some of the creative changes, including an updated version of the Master’s killer plastic doll.

Dicks corrects slight continuity areas, and adds in details that at the time were unavailable to them. The Sontarans wouldn't be on our screens for another two years after Terror of the Autons, but with their creation, Dicks can add details of their weapons into the text of the novel, arming the Master with Sontaran Grenades. This gives a wonderful expanded identity to the Master’s arsenal, bringing together lore from the Universe around him and connecting ideas together that the TV Serial wasn’t able to at the time. 

Ending the novel, Dicks expands the Doctor's thoughts on the Master returning, giving us more than "Actually, I'm rather looking forward to it!". His sentiment in the book mimics the Master's line from The Five Doctors, "The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.” A line that Dick's won't write for another 7ish years. It shows how the Master and the Doctor clearly share the same thoughts about one another, despite being so different. They define their relationship in the same poetic way, and given that the same author wrote both lines, it's clearly intentional.

Terror of the Autons is a strong adaptation, and the standard I will be measuring other novelisations against. It has everything that you would look for in an adaption; character’s interactions and choices explained and expanded, imagination and visualisation unhindered by lack of budget, and additions of lore that connect it to the wider universe of Doctor Who. I couldn’t recommend this enough if you are looking for more Doctor Who content to consume.  

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

Human Nature

Synopsis

""Who's going to save us this time?""

April, 1914. The inhabitants of the little Norfolk town of Farringham are enjoying an early summer, unaware that war is on the way. Amongst them is Dr John Smith, a short, middle-aged history teacher from Aberdeen. He's having a hard time with his new post as house master at Hulton College, a school dedicated to producing military officers.

Bernice Summerfield is enjoying her holiday in the town, getting over the terrible events that befell her in France. But then she meets a future Doctor, and things start to get dangerous very quickly. With the Doctor she knows gone, and only a suffragette and an elderly rake for company, can Benny fight off a vicious alien attack? And will Dr Smith be able to save the day?

Propaganda

the tv adaptation of this has tighter writing but the book has. idk a lot of stuff in it that's interesting that unfortunately didn't make it into the episodes. i think they should fight (October)

Doctor Who and Shada

Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana visit Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord living at Cambridge University. The Professor wants to return an ancient and very powerful book to Gallifrey - but the book has gone missing.

Skagra, an evil scientist, steals the book and the Professor's mind - and also takes Romana and the TARDIS.

In order to stop Skagra, the Doctor must discover the secrets of a notorious Time Lord criminal, and a long forgotten prison called Shada...

Propaganda

The first ever adaption of Shada and one of the only fan novelisations (anonymous)

[exnihilo-etc]

im packing to move soon and i thought as long as im packing i could show off my bookshelf, one row at a time, starting with the bottom: graphic novels, comics, and puzzle books

most of ex nihilo i still have in its original physical form. im not too sentimental for it, but it is hard to throw it away. if theres literally anything ive drawn that you want, just lmk and ill ship it to you 👀

my old notebook

i fucking LOVE this graphic novel. i found it at a thrift shop, signed by the author, which probably means whoever this belonged to was a kickstarter backer for the project. it tells the story of a young artist and his wife being revisited by an old friend just released from prison. a story about drug use, lost friendships, and how your own memory can lie to you, and by extension, lie to your loved ones. maybe the very last line of the novel inspired the name of my comic?

seconds is an amazing graphic novel by bryan lee o'malley, who might be better known for creating scott pilgrim. this is a contemporary fairy tale of the disastrous consequences you might face if you could literally undo anything that might happen to you during the day, and how katie, a restaurant manager learns to abuse that power to send her own world crashing down around her. find it, i know its for free online somewhere but if you buy it thats even better!!

moon moth started as a short story by jack vance (who in his own right created rules for an internal magic system within his stories now called "vancian magic") about a sci fi murder mystery on a utopian planet called Sirene, a planet so accustomed to luxury that crafting and artistic expression are the sole pastime. everyone always wears a mask on sirene, and the social order is complex to learn and navigate...all communication is done through musical accompaniment as well. how will ambassador edward thissel know who is friend or foe??

i havent read 'everything is teeth' yet

a graphic novelisation of one episode of angel where a tv station is sucking souls out of kids and angel becomes a felt puppet

a great graphic novel going over the history of anti scientific conspiracies, like why ppl think the moon landing was fake, homeopathy, the quack history of chiropractics, anti vax, global warming denial, evolution misunderstandings, and fracking

what the hell?

a collection of wondermark, which i would classify as having the old found artstyle of married to the sea, plus the zany writing of oglaf. its a webcomic, look fer it!

part graphic, part novel. the fog mound explores a world of talking animals where humanity's existence is rumored as a legend. but thelonious chipmunk has proof: an old postcard with a human city on it. when thelonious accidentally gets lost and finds himself in the very city on his postcard, he has to wonder...where did the humans go? are there any left?

i met jeremy at an expo a few years ago and regularly visit him every year now whenever hes at a showcase or expo. putting watercolor illustrations to music, writing little creepy poems, fan art of all kinds of franchises, i just really vibe with his artwork.

like isnt she just gorgeous???

issues 3-6 of kingdom of loathing bc ill always be such a die hard fan of the loathing games, especially the stick figure mmo that started it all

[mostlynotwork]

A fun novelisation of an iconic Dr Who story, with a mix of villains, time travel shenanigans, historical references and general Whovian fun.

Another Dr Who story by Douglas Adam? Yes, yes it is.

As a fan of both Dr Who and Douglas Adams, there was no way I could walk past this book and leave it in the store. And yet, it became another book that sat on the shelf for an extended time waiting to be read. 

That’s a pity because the playful adventure that is ‘City of Death’ was the sort of pick-me-up I’ve been in need of to reignite my enthusiasm for reading. Its one thing to be slowly working through a bunch of semi-work related non-fiction books. (More on that in the next few months). But it’s another thing to be racing around Paris with The Doctor and Romana as they try to save the human race again.

City of Death has all the elements that make Who so much fun.

The problem with trying to describe where a Dr Who story starts is that time is this kind of wibbly wobbly ball of timey wimey stuff. Perhaps our story starts when The Doctor and Romana land in 1970’s Paris hoping for a quiet vacation - some sightseeing, some food, and soaking up the atmosphere. Or maybe it began with the sole survivor of an ancient alien race, millions and millions of years ago.

This being Doctor Who, these two things of course overlap. We're treated to an adventure that involves an ancient alien conspiracy, some of humanity's greatest achievements, Romana being tasked with stealing the Mona Lisa and that kind of special  pomposity and playfulness that comes with the the fourth Doctor (as played in the TV version by Tom Baker).

This is strangely familiar 

As I alluded to earlier, it was Douglas Adams’ contribution as a co-author that drew me to this story. When I started reading it, I wasn’t actually thinking about the TV series at all - except for hearing in my head the voices of Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor) and Lalla Ward (Romana). 

As I went further on though, there was a strange feeling of deja vu. Had I read this book already? A quick scroll through my Tumblr posts, and no, I hadn’t read this before. And then one particularly vivid scene had me going - “I’ve seen this before”. 

It was at this point I actually did a Google search on the story. I discovered what I was holding was the novelisation of a TV serial from the Tom Baker era. And that’s why it was familiar - many years ago I'd watched this particular series when one of our tv networks had been doing a “best of Dr Who” event. 

A fun novel for anyone who enjoys time travel and adventure 

So who would I recommend this book to? If you’re a fan of either Dr Who or Douglas Adams then you’re very likely to enjoy this book. The absurd humour of Adams finds its way into the story in various ways, while Who fans get to enjoy the Doctor and Romana having an adventure in a setting that is both familiar (Earth) and yet also alien to most contemporary readers (1970’s Paris). If you’ve not seen the TV episodes, then I’d recommended grabbing the book first, as it does contain additional elements that were in the original story but not in the TV version.

For everybody else, this is still a light, fun and well paced adventure that almost anyone can enjoy. It might not be something you go looking for, but if chance should bring it into your orbit, it will deliver its asking price in entertainment and joy, despite its grim title.  

[bobbyinthegarden]

March & April Reading Wrap-Up

Just like my February Reading Wrap-Up, here’s March & April

Fiction

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 

Might be my favourite Jane Austen novel? Maybe? I love the relationship between the sisters, and I hard relate to Marianne in an “I’m in the photo and I don’t like it” kind of way.

The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter

This book is really weird. I think I liked it, but I’m still working through my thoughts on it. I saw somebody on Goodreads say that this book is a bit like a hybrid of Mad Max: Fury Road and The Handmaid’s Tale, and that is pretty accurate. It’s bizarre at times, I was trying to explain some of the plot to my partner who was extremely bewildered by it. Major trigger warning that there is a lot of sexual violence in this book, and it also features forced surgical transition as a major plot point, so, do with that what you will.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Did a whole review of this one

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Absolutely adored this book, I am now a full fledged George Eliot stan.

Axoim’s End by Lindsay Ellis

I don’t know if this will be a surprise or not, based on my blog, but I do actually like sci-fi. Not so surprising, considering my lifelong X-Files obsession, I like stories about aliens and weird conspiracies to cover them up, so this definitely appealed to me for that reason and this was pretty decent, I will be continuing the series when I have time.

The X-Files: Fight the Future by Elizabeth Hand, adapted from the screenplay by Chris Carter

I thought it would be fun to check out some of the X-Files novelisations. As with most TV shows that get novel tie-ins, some are adaptations of episodes and some are original stories, with X-Files, they seem to mostly be original stories, but this one is a novelisation of the first movie. It’s a very faithful re-telling, it doesn’t really add anything, but it doesn’t detract anything either, it’s a very straight re-telling of the movie. I like the movie (the first one anyway), so that was fine for me, and the books pretty short so it only took me two days to get through.

The X-Files: Cold Cases by Joe Harris and Chris Carter 

Debated if I should include this in my wrap-up or not, since it’s an audiodrama, not a book, BUT I listened to it specifically for my 2023 Reading Challenge (the audiobook category). Full review incoming.

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

Read this one for my reading challenge too, this time the children’s literature category. Despite really loving the movie when I was a kid, I’d never actually read the book, so it was nice to finally sit down and read it. Full review incoming.

Colonel Brandon In His Own Words by Shannon Winslow

I read this purely because I was curious to learn what self-published Jane Austen fanfiction is like, and I chose this one because I had read Sense and Sensibility so recently (for the unaware, this book is a re-telling of that one). It’s basically exactly what you expect. I saw somebody on Goodreads say that they liked this book better than Sense and Sensibility, which is definitely not an opinion that I share. The depictions of the Indian characters and the British Army in this book was quite questionable, in my opinion.

Non-fiction:

The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan

I read this book several years ago, when I was doing my BA at university, and it totally blew my mind. I have far too many thoughts about this book to express in one short paragraph, other than to say that it’s amazing that this book was written in the 1960s, Marhsall McLuhan was out there, writing about the internet 20 years before it was even invented.

First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

Did a whole review of this one too

Poetry:

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky 

This one too

Zines/comics:

The Fisherman’s Wife by @grendel-menz

A re-telling of the tale of the fairytale with absolutely gorgeous art that truly took my breath away. [LINK]

Two Pounds of Flesh by @thequeenofbithynia

I’ve talked about other comics by this user in my February wrap-up. This one is a beautiful and complex tale about gender, blended with horror - it’s extremely cool. I love everything that Andreas makes, and am planning on buying his most recent comic as well when I can. [LINK]

[charminglygrouped]

"'An AU describes anything that doesn't happen in canon' bestie that's what fic is. You're literally describing fanfiction. Is there a huge category of fics that just summarize canon that I'm missing?"

Yes, there are entire categories of fics that summarise canon! Perhaps they're less common in some fandoms than in others (I mostly read Jane Austen fanfiction; I used to read a lot of Doctor Who and Dragon Age fic)?

Consider:

Fics that retell the canon story from the point of view of another character (Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view; or "outsider pov" stories which tell the story from the pov of a minor character).

"Missing scene" fics (in the Austen fandom these are historically called "interstitials"), which give a more detailed description of a scene that happens in the background of the narrative and is only described very glancingly (like, in his letter Frank says that he and Jane argued after the Box Hill picnic; or, Darcy tells Elizabeth that Lady Catherine had told him that Elizabeth hadn't promised not to marry him—so a lot of people write fleshed-out versions of those scenes).

Some fics work like novelisations, in that they take an episode of a TV show (for example) and write it out in prose. This can be fun to read because people can have very different takes on what characters are thinking and what they're motivated by, even though their dialogue and actions are the same.

In the Dragon Age fandom there are a lot of fics that tell the canon story (I guess, one of the canon stories, given that it's an RPG so you can make various choices) from beginning to end, because people want to describe their player character's motivations and things.

I'm not sure if this counts as what you mean when you say "summarise canon," but it's what I would consider a "canon" fic versus an "AU" one. (Something that isn't described as happening in canon, but could have, I suppose I'd call "canon-compliant." Prequels and sequels usually fall into this category.)

Is it just me or has a lot of fandom forgotten what "AU" means? It's short for Alternate Universe. I keep seeing people talking about, like, "fake dating AU" or "only one bed AU." Unless your characters exist in a world where a) beds don't exist or b) beds exist in such abundance there could not POSSIBLY be only one of them, that's not an AU. It's just a regular degular story.

[camestrosfelapton]

Smith Rewatch: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

As an adult fan of Doctor Who, I’ve never really engaged with non-TV spin-off media. I’m not into Big Finish audio dramas and even things like restored lost episodes of the classic series don’t really interest me. As a kid though…the Target novelisations of Doctor Who were things I just gobbled up. At the time that was really the only way to engage with the show’s history and stories like The Web…