Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen by: Douglas Adams and James Goss

 

Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen started life as a proposed Doctor Who film from Douglas Adams early in Tom Baker’s run as the Doctor.  When plans fell through it’s main ideas were rewritten into Life, the Universe, and Everything, the third book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so it was very odd when in 2018 the BBC announced James Goss would be adapting it into a Doctor Who novel.  This may seem like an incredibly odd decision as the story has already been told, until you actually pick up and read the book.  Douglas Adam’s proposal for Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen isn’t a standard short story proposal, it lasts about 30 pages and is included in the back of the published book, unedited.  The basic premise is the same as Life, the Universe, and Everything, but a lot of the ideas didn’t make it into that later book so Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen ends up being a unique reading experience.  James Goss should be praised as he clearly understands Douglas Adams’ specific style of writing, though there is a slight lacking of the depth that Adams usually puts in his scripts.  This is more of a Douglas Adams sendup than something that Adams would always right, though Goss does put in some of his own satire on Doctor Who and the Graham Williams era which makes sense.  Changing a 30 page storyline into a full-length novel means that things must be added, however, some of the deeper Doctor Who references like to the Racnoss, the Vampires, and the Kastrians feel a bit too much like adding references for the sake of references.

 

The first third of the novel is where most of the comparisons to Life, the Universe, and Everything can be made: the Doctor and Romana go to a cricket match which is invaded by the Krikkitmen who steal the Ashes to destroy the universe and a diverting exposition dump to explain who the Krikkitmen are.  Instead of taking place in a time travelling restaurant run by bistronomics, it’s moved to Gallifrey in the Matrix, something that was in the original script.  The history of the Krikkitmen is a chapter which takes paragraphs straight from Life, the Universe, and Everything including many of the famous lines about the universe groaning and the motivation of the Krikkitmen.  It’s just put in a Doctor Who framework, though it is undeniably written by Douglas Adams.  Goss’s inclusion of Borusa, giving him a relationship with Romana as her tutor which Goss uses to reflect on the relationship between the Doctor and Romana.

 

The Doctor and Romana are essentially played here as two sides of the same coin: both sick of Gallifrey and going on to have their own lives, saving the universe one planet at a time.  Romana, while regenerated, is still the calculating and rational one, knowing that she’s going to have to save the universe but not putting up with having to give explanations for why she needs help.  There’s this great portion late into the novel where the Doctor and Romana are apart which is really where each of them shine.  Romana has to try to get some people on Earth to try and save the universe where she has this incredibly direct response to any of the questions.  It makes her one of the most interesting characters, coming straight from the era and Goss uses the opportunity to reflect on how Romana will eventually leave the TARDIS in E-Space before returning to Gallifrey.  There’s a remark where she insists she would never make it as the President of Gallifrey which becomes one of the best gags in the book.  The Doctor is also incredibly well characterized as the over the top Tom Baker performance that fits so well with Douglas Adams’s style of storytelling.

 

There is also an effort to make this feel like a script for a Doctor Who film, taking full advantage of the Doctor Who premise, sending the Doctor, Romana, and K9 all around the universe, fighting a mad computer which makes the Ultimate Weapon, a Krikkitman robot who has broken its programming, and even the White and Black Guardians.  This turns the story into one dealing with the “gods” of the universe, not gods in the religious sense, but in the sense of having power and reputation throughout the universe.  This involves proposing three gods of the universe including the Doctor, which becomes musings and a complete rejection of the concept.  The Doctor isn’t a god, he’s just having fun.  The variety of setting and scenarios are really what make Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen shine.  Overall, Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen shouldn’t work, but ends up being both a tribute act and genuine Douglas Adams story.  James Goss should be praised for his work on creating a fascinating little tale which finally got the chance to see the light of day.  9/10.