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Novelisations that add to or alter the story

posted 8 years ago by paulbeardsley
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As discussed on another thread (on Ghost Light), some novelisations are simply a "reminder" of what happened on TV, which was great in the days before DVDs, before VHS and before repeats of Doctor Who were common.

I like it when a version of a Doctor Who story - especially an early one - hints at a completely different chronology, or else enriches existing chronology.

Novelisations that change perceptions include:

The Daleks/Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. A completely different beginning that deletes An Unearthly Child from continuity (replacing it with a drama on Barnes Common), and changes the character and backstory of the regulars. Susan's surname is English, not Foreman, and she doesn't go to a school. Ian is a scientist, not a teacher, and he has a nicotine addiction. Barbara is a private tutor, not a teacher. The TARDIS (or Tardis without the "the") is an even more exciting place, with coloured pillars, secure rooms, massage showers and so on. We miss out on some scenes because everything is seen from Ian's point of view. The Ship's console does not explode at the end.

The Web Planet/Doctor Who and the Zarbi. The Ship's pilot is called Dr Who. The number of chapters - 6 - is the same as the number of episodes. There are references to past adventures that don't quite fit with what we remember, such as Susan marrying David Cameron (!) and the Ship being magnetised by their encounter with the Daleks. Sadly it's a poorly conceived story, and the writing is not great, and we lose one of the best scenes from the TV serial. Curiously, Ian's recent past as a Coal Hill School teacher has been unretconned, and Barbara (veteran of many adventures on other planets and in France) is surprised that the Menoptra of Vortis appear to speak English.

The Crusade/Doctor Who and the Crusaders. The main plot is much the same, with a few interesting variations. They don't jump a time track at the end. But the most enrichening aspect is the prologue. It's a leisurely moment inside the Ship between adventures. There are references to untelevised past adventures including a trip to a planet of talking stones. Vicki and Barbara play Martian Chess. Ian questions the Doctor about the mutability of time, and the Doctor hopes their next adventure will involve two sides that both think they are in the right - and he gets his wish.

The Chase & The Dalek Master Plan (3 novelisations). I've only read the first of the two Master Plan books, but I understand the three books were restructured to make it a coherent trilogy. So the Marie Celeste is corrected to Mary Celeste, and the Doctor does not break the fourth wall to wish us a merry Christmas.

The Massacre. The novelisation belongs to a different continuity - and is all the better for it. There is a silly bit in which the TARDIS is burnt at the stake (or not), but it's worth getting the book (or the unabridged audio reading from Audible) to get a completely different - and thoroughly intriguing - take on the familiar story. The most interesting part is the Hartnell Doctor meeting the Time Lords in a garden, and speaking to them in French.

The Tenth Planet. In the TV serial, this story immediately follows on from The Smugglers, with a rather odd moment in which the TARDIS interior is unable to stay warm when they arrive in Antarctica. In the novelisation, IIRC, there have been several largely uneventful landings on planets prior to their landing in Antarctica, which means Ben and Polly should be seasoned travellers by now.

The Moonbase/Doctor Who and the Cybermen. The first Cybermen novelisation, and one of the only Doctor Who adventures in which gravitation is a thing. At the time it was a little surprising for an 11 year old such as me for a companion to say, "Doctor, I think it was a Cyberman!" I knew about them - as a very young child I had memories of being terrified of the "Simon men" in the London sewers - but in book terms, they hadn't been introduced yet! Of more interest was their back story, which frankly hasn't been beaten - neither in the Big Finish play Spare Parts nor in the New Who serial Rise of the Cybermen.

Colony in Space/Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon. Jo Grant's fourth story - or is it her first?

Spearhead from Space/Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion. Jo Grant's other first adventure. [ETA I confused Spearhead from Space with Terror of the Autons.]

Other novelisations I intend to eventually read include The Romans (a series of letters by Ian to Coal Hill School for some reason), The Myth Makers (from Homer's point of view), An Unearthly Child (already retconned out by Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks), The Edge of Destruction (novelised twice, apparently), The Mind Robber (reimagined not to follow on from The Dominators), Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric (adds to what we saw on screen).

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.

[–] Simian_Jack 8 years ago

I met Doug Adams once at a book signing, and he said that he had zero enthusiasm for Shada or the chance of writing it up as a novel. This was before any version of it was available for home video - it was his belief that Shada owed its popularity solely to the fact that it remained tantalizingly unseen, as it would surely disappoint otherwise. (Of course bits of it made their way into the first Dirk Gently book).

The Pirate Planet, OTOH, he had very much wanted to write up as he had definite ideas about expanding on that world and it's peoples. Unfortunately the people at Target (he said, and I have no reason to doubt him) couldn't meet his terms. Money was an issue, and he was expected to bow to their guidelines: no deviations, no elaborations, keep to their set page count. He wasn't having it, and rightly so. The Doctor, he said, was the least of his interests. The Mentiads and the villains, now those were rich material to be mined.

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

Yes, I had read interviews in which he talked about the terms for the Pirate Planet novelisation. At the very least, the story is consistent.

I met him in 1980 when the second Hitch Hiker novel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, had just come out. I got him to sign that, and the first book, and talked a bit about the forthcoming TV series. When I asked him if Zaphod would have two heads, he grinned very broadly.

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

I think that very often a story was enhanced by the lack of visuals.

This is true of some of the novelisations, and also the soundtrack+narration of the lost stories. I even quite like the audio version of Genesis of the Daleks.

It's a shame Big Finish don't get it right more often, although sometimes they do.

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.

[–] apostasia 8 years ago

I met Doug Adams once at a book signing, and he said that he had zero enthusiasm for Shada or the chance of writing it up as a novel. This was before any version of it was available for home video - it was his belief that Shada owed its popularity solely to the fact that it remained tantalizingly unseen, as it would surely disappoint otherwise. (Of course bits of it made their way into their first Dirk Gently book).

He may well have been deliberately trying to downplay interest in it, precisely because Shada having been abandoned as a Doctor Who story, he was planning to recycle large parts of it further down the line.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

A thing I always found a bit odd with the novelisations was that Terrance seemed determined to make everyone blond, I remember him referring to both Mike Yates and Harry Sullivan as 'blond haired'

Perhaps Tomb of the Cybermen is proof of that, a lot of people being disappointed when the actually saw it after reading the novelisation, which had the Invasion Cybermen frozen too, according to the cover! So Invasion Cybermen it was in my mind's eye.

I wasn't disappointed by Tomb, I mean (a) I'd seen stills from the show before I saw the thing itself and (b) I kind of like the old chunky looking eary-Troughton cybermen.

The Pirate Planet, OTOH, he had very much wanted to write up as he had definite ideas about expanding on that world and it's peoples. Unfortunately the people at Target (he said, and I have no reason to doubt him) couldn't meet his terms. Money was an issue, and he was expected to bow to their guidelines: no deviations, no elaborations, keep to their set page count. He wasn't having it, and rightly so. The Doctor, he said, was the least of his interests. The Mentiads and the villains, now those were rich material to be mined.

That's interesting, given that Terrance novelised half of the stories I sort of wonder what the legal side of things is because it's not like Douglas' stories were novelised by anyone else.

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New song "Are we green?"

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

That's interesting, given that Terrance novelised half of the stories I sort of wonder what the legal side of things is because it's not like Douglas' stories were novelised by anyone else.

I did hear that the payment for a novelisation was a nominal fee (which wasn't very much). Dicks was okay because he was knocking out loads of them, so the small fees added up. Douglas Adams, however, was a "name", so he knew he would sell a lot of whatever he wrote, and so wasn't prepared to write a novelisation for the chicken feed they'd pay him. Nor was he happy with someone else handling his material, so he wouldn't let anyone else write one either. (This last detail suggests he had control over the story, which I would guess was unusual.)

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

Yeah I seem to remember Terrance talking about how he'd give first option to the original scriptwriter but it sounded like it was more of a nicety than a legal requirement

https://soundcloud.com/coin-sides

New song "Are we green?"

[–] pferreira86 8 years ago

and he said that he had zero enthusiasm for Shada or the chance of writing it up as a novel.

People change. It's possible if he was alive today he may have reconsidered.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

He would have done. Every actor who says they're done with a role goes back eventually, every band who say they'll NEVER reform, eventually do... if you live long enough you'll eventually change your mind about most things ...maybe you'll even grow to love fishfingers in custard?

https://soundcloud.com/coin-sides

New song "Are we green?"

[–] magolding-94772 8 years ago

I remember looking at a Dr. who novelization in a store a long time ago and reading a scene where the Doctor and the Master are revealed to be brothers. For a long time I thought it was canon that they were brothers.

[–] Brynjolf_Bjarme 8 years ago

If Roger Delgado hadn't died, I think he would have been revealed to be the Doctor's brother in his last serial. I think I read that somewhere.

Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody dies.

[–] mindbait 8 years ago

Saw a bunch of the target reprints in a store in Mebourne; they'd done a 1970s style cover for the Visitation that was much better than the original cover (no offence to Pete's pretty smile)

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New song "Breathless Love"

[–] strawberry_switchblade 8 years ago

A more minor example than those mentioned, but I do find the novelization of Destiny of the Daleks a far darker, grittier affair than the TV story, with the right dramatic emphasis on the scenes that came off flatly or blase onscreen (i.e. the hostage scene, the Doctor discovering Romana's grave).

It also takes time to explain a few plot holes that made the original TV story less coherent, such as how Romana survived without her dose of radiation pills (the Daleks gave her some and to the other workers when she was their slave).

Paul McGann IS the War Doctor in my fic
http://dalekwars.blogspot.co.uk/

[–] raventhom 8 years ago

Enhanced, and corners filled in, Yes, Changed completely? NO, What would be the point?
Write your own story n be done with it/

[–] chainsaw_metal1 8 years ago

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks sounds like they took some of their cues from the feature film with Peter Cushing. Interesting.

I never did read any of the novelizations, mostly because my library never had any, and I never had any cash when I would actually come across them in a book store, or I was on the hunt for other books. I remember reading the novelizations of some episodes of Star Trek: TOS (our school library had a ton of Star Trek books, which seemed strange because only two or three of us ever read them), and there was little difference other than some extra fleshing out of characters. I'll have to check out some of the Doctor Who ones.

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks sounds like they took some of their cues from the feature film with Peter Cushing. Interesting.

Unlikely. The novelisation predates the film's release by about 9 months.

I'll have to check out some of the Doctor Who ones.

If you go for the early ones you won't regret it!

This whirlpool's got such seductive furniture
It's so pleasant being drowned

[–] efactorial 8 years ago

The Daleks was the first of the stories to be novelized and at the time there was no expectation that the entire series would turned into book form. That is the reason for the different opening and the first person narration.

[–] mrmoo2001 8 years ago

One that I definitely enjoyed was 'The Twin Dilemma', novelised by what I can only assume was a very angry Eric Saward, filling out the page count with wonderfully sardonic details and asides, such as hinting that the Doctor felt so guilty over Adric's death because he'd never managed to bring himself to even like the little twerp.

Take them to the security kitchen!

[–] paulbeardsley 8 years ago

Hmm, I might actually read that one then!

This whirlpool's got such seductive furniture
It's so pleasant being drowned