DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams

DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams

by Gareth Roberts

Ace Books

paperback / January 2014

Book description:

"From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, legendary author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes Shada, a story scripted for the television series Doctor Who but never produced—and now transformed into an original novel...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Imagine how dangerous a LOT of knowledge is...

The Doctor’s old friend and fellow Time Lord, Professor Chronotis, has retired to Cambridge University, where among the other doddering old professors nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs—harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

The hands of the sinister Skagra are unquestionably the wrongest ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac bent on universal domination. Having misguessed the state of fashion on Earth, he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor..."

Just a quick round of random musings on the latest book I've finished.

DOCTOR WHO: SHADA: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams is apparently a novelization of a Doctor Who script originally written by Douglas Adams for the show during the run of Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor. I say apparently, because I'm far from a Who expert and am just going by the info in the book itself. It seems a strike resulted in the story never being completed, tho home video versions using storyboards and narrations to complete the tale have been released.

I picked this up far more for the 'Douglas Adams' part than the 'Doctor Who' part, even tho I have memories of watching some Tom Baker episodes on PBS when I was a kid and have been following the revival since it started.

Douglas Adams, if you don't know (and if you don't....you have my deepest condolences) wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy; the BBC radio series, the BBC television series, and the first five books in the trilogy. (Several years back, Eoin Colfer wrote And Another Thing..., the sixth book, which I just recently started on.) He also wrote two books featuring an eccentric detective named Dirk Gently and other works, all worth checking out. His death in 2001 was a great loss that still makes me sad to this day.

Gareth Roberts took on the unenviable task of transforming Adams's script to a novel and completing it in a way that Adams (who is said to have expressed his displeasure over how the whole affair turned out) maybe would've approved. 

I don't know how Adams would react, but I quite liked it. I don't know specifically which bits are Douglas Adams and which bits are Gareth Roberts and that's a good thing. The whole thing has the general sound of something Adams could've written, with plenty of phrases that definitely sound like the way he wrote, but the tone is consistent throughout. It doesn't come across like person A wrote this bit and person B wrote that bit. The story is a fun Doctor Who tale at its core, and the Adams touches are just icing on the cake. Nothing about it plays against my (hazy, to be sure) memories of Tom Baker's Doctor, and I could hear his voice and see his face while reading it. And K-9 is on the scene, too. K-9 rocks! 

If you're a fan of Adams or the Doctor, I'd say it's worth a read.