If you've spent any time around me, you'll have picked up on a few key facts. In fact, you'll have probably figured these things out even if we've never met, and you've just read a bit of things I've written. First of all, I am a fan of Doctor Who. Secondly, one of my biggest inspirations in writing is the late, great Douglas Adams, creator of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." So you'd think I'd like a Doctor Who novel based off the script by Douglas Adams, right?
You'd be damn well right to think that.
Now, here's a little history on the Doctor Who serial "Shada." It was originally meant to be the season finale of season 17 of Doctor Who, but was never completed because of a strike at the BBC. Instead, the bits and pieces they did record were used in "The Five Doctors." There have been various attempts to recreate it from the pieces that remain over the years, leading us to this novel.
While the novel itself is written by Gareth Roberts, it's still a Douglas Adams piece through and through. Roberts worked off the versions of the script that Adams wrote, adding in scenes to fill any plot holes that were created in the editing process and generally polishing it up as best he could. The voice of Adams is evident from the very first page, while the rest of the book is equally saturated with his influence.
It's clear that Gareth Roberts has a great respect for the works of Adams, maintaining true to his vision and channeling the same type of tone and amusing commentary that he's known for. There are minor comments that reference other works of Adams, including a well-timed tribute to his most famous work near the end that I won't spoil for you.
Of course, that means it goes without saying how incredibly funny it is. The descriptions, the running gags, the ones that come right at you out of nowhere, all with great timing and a well-written tone.
The book is written for the 4th Doctor, famously played by Tom Baker, as he travels with Romana and K-9. Of course, as the novelization was written well into Matt Smith's run as the 11th, it includes some references to later Doctors, such as mentioning the Corsair's gender-changing regenerations and the Doctor's love of edible ball bearings. In spite of those, there's no breaking character, from the perfectly-voiced dialogue to the internal descriptions.
I hope it's not presumptuous of me to say that Roberts' affection towards Doctor Who and the works of Douglas Adams is at least equal to mine. Either way, his love of the series and respect towards Adams shines through in this novel.
As for the story itself, it's filled with all sorts of wonderful characters, and a story that moves at a brisk pace, tying together various story threads into a cohesive narrative. There are plenty of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, as expected of Doctor Who, culminating in wonderful displays of brilliance from all the characters and an ending befitting a season finale.
At this point, it occurs to me that I haven't even said what the story is about. A brief synopsis: the Doctor, Romana, and K-9 visit Cambridge University to respond to a distress call from the Doctor's old friend, Professor Chronotis (who fans of Douglas Adams might recall from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), a Time Lord who retired to live out his final regeneration in peace. Of course, they arrive right as he's being tracked down by Skagra, a brilliant but bloody crazy alien with a god complex and no fashion sense. He's after "The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey,"which happens to be in Chronotis's possession... or was, until it was lent to Chris Parsons, who mostly tries to use it to impress a girl who actually doesn't need impressing.
This leads to a series of adventures and chases through time, space, and Cambridge, as Skagra attempts to unlock an ancient evil and do something nasty to the universe. And every moment of it was brilliant.
It actually took me a while to complete the book after reading it. It's a large one, at well over 300 pages, but I ended up taking my time just to savor it. Most every chapter had me pause for a minute just to bask in the excellence of Douglas Adams' storytelling, until the end, where I kept going and going to see what would happen next.
Am I a biased reviewer? I'd like to think not, since I set some pretty high standards for Roberts to meet. But they were met and then some, resulting in one of the best expanded universe novels I've had the pleasure to read.
Until next time, this has been whatever I read.
