“Shada” Gets Novelization

Before the advent of VHS and DVD, repeats of Doctor Who stories in the U.K. were few and far between.  Young fans had to experience the stories again via the printed page in the form of novelizations from Target books.

The Target novelizations covered just about all of the classic Doctor Who serials are fondly remembered by many Doctor Who fans today.  Some are even a bit of a collector’s item.

But for years, five stories have not seen the printed page.  Three of them were by Douglas Adams and two of them featured the Daleks.   And while the stories by Adams were famously meshed for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, many Who fans assumed that was as close as we’d ever get to novelization versions of the three Tom Baker era stories.  (Each of the stories has been novelized by fans who sell them at conventions and on-line, though they’re not officially licensed)

Now comes news that “Shada,” the “lost” story from Adams season as script editor will come to the printed page next year.  This six-part story was abandoned due to a strike at the BBC with only a few location segments filmed.  Those were collected on video and released with linking narration by Tom Baker years ago.  The entire story has been dramatized for audio with Paul McGann as the Doctor as well.

But now the lost story is coming to the printed page.  The story will be adapted by Gareth Roberts and hit shelves in hardcover next year.

(At this time, it’s reported that “Shada” will come to DVD during the next two years.  This novelization could be part of the release of the story on DVD. )

And that’s not all the news out there about Doctor Who novelizations coming to shelves.  Fans of the classic series will be happy to hear that six classic Target novels are set to hit store shelves in reprinted form later this year.  The stories will feature new introductions by some famous names associated with the new series as well as celebrity fans.

The stories getting a reprint are:  Doctor Who and the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters (transmitted as Doctor Who and the  Silurians), Doctor Who and the Crusaders, Doctor Who and the Cybermen (transmitted as “The Moonbase”) and Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion (transmitted as “Spearhead From Space”).  The six new novelizations hit stores in July.