Shada by Gareth Roberts
Douglas Adams famously (at least within Who fandom) would not agree to the novelisation of the episodes he wrote (on the grounds, I believe, that no one else would do them justice and WH Allen couldn't pay him enough to do it himself). His estate, clearly, have no such qualms. This was a source of frustration, at least to completist book fans such as myself. Of the three scripts he wrote for Doctor Who, Shada, was particularly tantalising since the filming of it was never actually completed. A version constructed from the completed parts with linking narration by Tom Baker was released in the 90s, and Big Finish made an audio/animated version from the scripts a decade later starring Paul McGann and Lalla Ward. Based on these fans have generally considered it the least accomplished of Adams' scripts for the show.
Gareth Roberts is a pretty good choice of noveliser. He started out writing the Virgin Doctor Who New Adventures and stood out from a pack of writers who certainly had a tendency towards angst-ridden navel-gazing, by writing quirky, gently humorous stories. He's gone on to write, often well received, scripts for (Nu)Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), NuWho and the Sarah Jane adventures all of which, to a greater extent, reveal his light touch and gentle humour.
Of course, Adams' humour wasn't really gentle, but of all the field of Dr Who authors Roberts is the obvious choice. Roberts wisely avoids making Eoin Colfer's mistake of attempting to emulate Adams' style and he has the advantage of being able to work from Adams' scripts. On the other hand he's saddled with the modern desire for longer books. Where Terrance Dicks could happily compress a six part Doctor Who script into 120 pages (which arguably was a little on the short side), Roberts needs to spread Shada's script out over 400 (which I would argue is too many). Comedy is all about timing (Adams madcap humour arguably even more so), even in novels, and Shada just takes a little too long to deliver its punch lines.
Roberts has written a very interesting epilogue in which he discusses his own opinions of the scripts he had to work from, and he clearly feels that Adams was being forced to write in too much of a hurry, to a plot outline he disliked, and that the dissatisfaction and rush ultimately shows. Roberts has obviously worked hard in an attempt to polish off some of the rough edges but this feels more like the ghost of a Douglas Adams work, rather than the work itself.
Still, as someone, who used to mourn the gaps on her bookshelf where The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada should sit, it is nice to see that filled and by something which, while not of Adams' calibre when at his best, is better than a Terrance Dicks* production-line effort.
*It is popular these days to speak well of Dicks' writing, and some of it is good, but it would be foolish to pretend he was doing much beyond adding minimal description to a script on the days when he was writing a novelisation a month.
This entry was originally posted at http://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/162498.html.
Gareth Roberts is a pretty good choice of noveliser. He started out writing the Virgin Doctor Who New Adventures and stood out from a pack of writers who certainly had a tendency towards angst-ridden navel-gazing, by writing quirky, gently humorous stories. He's gone on to write, often well received, scripts for (Nu)Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), NuWho and the Sarah Jane adventures all of which, to a greater extent, reveal his light touch and gentle humour.
Of course, Adams' humour wasn't really gentle, but of all the field of Dr Who authors Roberts is the obvious choice. Roberts wisely avoids making Eoin Colfer's mistake of attempting to emulate Adams' style and he has the advantage of being able to work from Adams' scripts. On the other hand he's saddled with the modern desire for longer books. Where Terrance Dicks could happily compress a six part Doctor Who script into 120 pages (which arguably was a little on the short side), Roberts needs to spread Shada's script out over 400 (which I would argue is too many). Comedy is all about timing (Adams madcap humour arguably even more so), even in novels, and Shada just takes a little too long to deliver its punch lines.
Roberts has written a very interesting epilogue in which he discusses his own opinions of the scripts he had to work from, and he clearly feels that Adams was being forced to write in too much of a hurry, to a plot outline he disliked, and that the dissatisfaction and rush ultimately shows. Roberts has obviously worked hard in an attempt to polish off some of the rough edges but this feels more like the ghost of a Douglas Adams work, rather than the work itself.
Still, as someone, who used to mourn the gaps on her bookshelf where The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada should sit, it is nice to see that filled and by something which, while not of Adams' calibre when at his best, is better than a Terrance Dicks* production-line effort.
*It is popular these days to speak well of Dicks' writing, and some of it is good, but it would be foolish to pretend he was doing much beyond adding minimal description to a script on the days when he was writing a novelisation a month.
This entry was originally posted at http://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/162498.html.