Shada by Gareth Roberts

[louisedennis]

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

Comments

[wellinghall]

An interesting write-up - thanks.

[daniel_saunders]

I actually found Roberts' NAs (not his MAs) to be pretty bleak. The first one (no time to look up the name) ends with all the likeable guest characters either dead or in stasis; IIRC, Zamper ends with them all dead. (I think Roberts has said that Zamper was a deliberate attempt to do something more typical of the NAs, which in retrospect he saw as a mistake on his part.)

Anyway, I haven't read this. The BBCi animated version (available as an extra on the DVD) is my favourite Shada if only for some good performances. Nice to hear McGann in something different to what the eighth Doctor got to do in the novels and audios (from what I've read/heard of them), although I can sort of see Shada working as a DWM comic strip.

[louisedennis]

You are write that the first one has this time stasis ending (though its all sorted out at a later point - I think in the Benny's wedding book which is tying up as many loose ends as it can). I don't, to be honest, recall Zamper at all. I'm half tempted to start an NA re-reading project were it not that my to read pile is too large, and worked through too slowly, as it is.

[daniel_saunders]

It is indeed in the 50th NA (Happy Endings, I think), but at the time it seems depressing.

Zamper is not really memorable, as I recall (!) except for predicting that Tony Blair would be Prime Minister, which wasn't hard at the time it was published (circa 1995 IIRC).