Yuku free message boards

This could be the last Doctor Who novelisation, since there are no plans to novelise the Ninth Doctor stories.
If so, the genre has neatly returned to its beginnings, with Paul Cornell writing a pastiche of an early Terrance Dicks book. He does it very well, copying Dicks' strengths as a storyteller, with neat little insights into the characters and fast no-nonsense descriptions of places and action sequences. We also get a wheezing, groaning materialisation and a Dicks-esque Doctor description, the REG Doctor described as having "a curious, elegant face".
Cornell appears to be writing in the hope of reaching a new, younger audience, so there are explanations of the Doctor, the TARDIS and the Master. The latter comes off paticularly well, his 'odd couple' friendship with the Doctor coming more to fore here than in the cartoon.
The author has resisted the urge to fill in the mystery of what has happened to the Doctor prior to this story to make him so cold. His main additions to the story are more background on the Shalka's slaves elsewhere in the world and what happens to them, and deeper insights into Alison and Major Kennet.

Surprisingly the novelisation only takes up 3/4 on the paperback. The remaining quarter features an honest and detailed Making-Of article by Paul Cornell, featuring contributions from the rest of the production team. It's an excellent piece with some amusing stories. It's particularly resonant for fan audio folk, who'll find a lot of parallels in the story discussions and studio days. Finally we get the first draft of the synopsis which has some curious differences from the final product. Not least, as the author admits, because it bears a strong resemblance to the plot of - The Twin Dilemma!

Gaz