The Three Doctors by: Terrance Dicks

 

The Three Doctors was written by Terrance Dicks, based on the story of the same name by: Bob Baker and Dave Martin.  It was the 17^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

There is something to be said about Doctor Who novelizations which make an effort to improve on the visuals of the television serial.  Doctor Who, for as much as everyone loves it and adores it, is a show made on a limited budget, often out of the producers’ control, with a premise that would stop even the most expensive of budgets from fully realizing.  The Three Doctors is one of those stories whose plot involves the entering of an anti-matter universe and creatures from said universe threatening UNIT.  Omega’s realm and the battle in Omega’s mind in particular are aspects which the viewer can see are being done on a set, yet Terrance Dicks’ adaptation actually builds up the script’s inklings of a cave of wonders, emphasizing the great fire which causes the characters to leave the universe when on television it’s just a small jet of steam.  The imagery is beautiful as Dicks’s prose allows for Omega’s character to be more of a tragic figure, separated from Stephen Thorne’s iconic over the top portrayal of the Time Lord.  There is also the Gallifrey sequences of this book which are taken straight from the television serial, but there is this sense of desperation as Dicks removes some of the stoicism of the Time Lords which gives some emotional depth.  There is also an interesting note that this story is the first where the earlier Doctors are referred to as the First and Second Doctor, respectively.

 

Overall, The Three Doctors is a different style of adaptation as it follows the same beats, making the interesting decision not to increase the First Doctor’s participation in the plot while still giving some more depth.  It is however, slightly inferior even with the lush prose and descriptions as nothing can replicate Pertwee, Troughton, and Manning’s chemistry.  8/10.