First look at Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who novels
The pair have novelised their own episodes alongside Jenny T Colgan, James Goss and Paul Cornell
A few months ago, RadioTimes.com reported that ex-Doctor Who showrunners Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies were working on novelisations of some of their episodes of the sci-fi series, with the pair writing The Day of the Doctor and Rose respectively for BBC Books’ Target imprint.
And now, new details about the project have emerged including the covers for the novels, which pay tribute to the popular Target Books that adapted the classic series from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The books, which will be released on 5th April, priced £6.99 each, will be the first time either screenwriter has novelised their own episodes, the first time Target has adapted the revived post-2005 series and will actually mark Steven Moffat’s first novel. Quite the milestone.
You can see Moffat and Davies’s covers in the main image, while below we include the cover for a novelisation of The Christmas Invasion, David Tennant’s first episode, which has been adapted by regular Who novelist Jenny T Colgan.
Another Target adaptation is also coming from Paul Cornell (who has written Doctor Who books and episodes of the series) of Peter Capaldi’s final episode Twice Upon a Time, while James Goss (who previously wrote a book of Doctor Who poems with showrunner Davies’ illustrations) will bring one of classic series scribe Douglas Adams’s stories to the page in City of Death. The covers for these two editions have not yet been revealed.
You can read full summaries for each of the novels, which are available for pre-order now, below. Or you could just rewatch the episodes on Netflix to remind yourself, but you do you.
RUSSELL T DAVIES
In a lair somewhere beneath central London, a malevolent alien intelligence is plotting the end of humanity. Shop window dummies that can move – and kill – are taking up key positions, ready to strike.
Rose Tyler, an ordinary Londoner, is working her shift in a department store, unaware that this is the most important day of her life. She’s about to meet the only man who understands the true nature of the threat facing Earth, a stranger who will open her eyes to all the wonder and terror of the universe – a traveller in time and space known as the Doctor.
STEVEN MOFFAT
The Tenth Doctor is hunting shape-shifting Zygons in Elizabethan England. The Eleventh is investigating a rift in space-time in the present day. And one other – the man they used to be but never speak of – is fighting the Daleks in the darkest days of the Time War. Driven by demons and despair, this battle-scarred Doctor is set to take a devastating decision that will threaten the survival of the entire universe … a decision that not even a Time Lord can take alone.
On this day, the Doctor’s different incarnations will come together to save the Earth … to save the universe … and to save his soul
PAUL CORNELL
Still reeling from his encounter with the Cybermen, the First Doctor stumbles through the bitter Antarctic wind, resisting the approaching regeneration with all his strength. But as he fights his way through the snowdrifts, he comes across the familiar shape of a blue police box, and a mysterious figure who introduces himself as the Doctor …
Thrown together at their most vulnerable moments, the two Doctors must discover why the snowflakes are suspended in the sky, why a First World War Captain has been lifted from his time stream moments before his death, and who is the mysterious Glass Woman who knows their true name. The Doctor is reunited with Bill, but is she all she seems? And can he hold out against the coming regeneration?
JENNY T COLGAN
When a British space probe is intercepted by a sinister alien vessel on the eve of Christmas, it marks the beginning of an audacious invasion of the Earth by the Sycorax – horrifying marauders from beyond the stars. Within hours, a third of humanity stands on the brink of death with not a single shot fired.
Our planet needs a champion – but the Doctor is not fit for service. He’s just regenerated, delirious in a new body and a dressing gown. Forced into his battered shoes is his friend, Rose Tyler, a girl from a London council estate. Will she save the world from this nightmare before Christmas – or see it destroyed?
JAMES GOSS
Visiting Paris in 1979, the Doctor and Romana’s hopes for a holiday are soon shattered by armed thugs, a suave and dangerous Count, a plot to steal the Mona Lisa and a world-threatening experiment with time.
Teaming up with a British detective, the Time Lords discover that a ruthless alien plot hatched in Earth’s pre-history has reached its final stage. If Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, cannot be stopped then the human race is history, along with all life on Earth …
The new Doctor Who Target novels will be released on 5th April, and are available to pre-order now
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
