Shada [Novelisation]

Shada was originally going to be a six-part Doctor Who serial to end series seventeen but thanks to strikes at the BBC only half of Douglas Adams' story was filmed and the story was never broadcast. There have been various attempts to complete the story but this is the best one by a long way.

The story sees The Doctor, Romana and K9 attempt to stop the villainous Skagra from taking over the universe using an ancient Time Lord book stolen from Cambridge Professor Chronotis, who happens to be a retired Time Lord. It is quite complicated for a Who story of the age and with the addition of students Chris Parsons and Clare Keightly, obviously in love but yet somehow not together, it almost feels like too much. This is probably because it was intended to be a six episode story, rather than the more common four-episodes, and often these six episoders have to complicate the plot to make it last for the extra episodes and Shada does this.

Many elements of the story are classic Douglas Adams, from the forgetful retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis to Skagra's desperate to please spaceship. It is also a particularly original story being a Time Lord story yet not being set on Gallifrey and the revelation about what Shada actually is, is wonderful.

Credit must be given to Gareth Roberts here though for turning it into such an effective book. He matches the Adams style well and manages to fix a few of the weaker plot points. There's a very late '70s feel to the setting and lots of fun mentions for die-hard Who fans from the Doctor and Romana's past adventures to a few subtle nods to the revived series.

Overall this is a really successful novelisation of the missing story and compare it to the likes of The Creature from the Pit, a story from the same series, and it is wonderful. But for a work by Douglas Adams it is a little disappointing- this story is nothing on the virtually perfect Doctor Who serial City of Death. It remains a must read for all fans of this era of Doctor Who though!