The King’s Demons was
written by Terence Dudley, based on his story of the same name. It was the 108th story to be
novelized by Target Books.
I envision this review to
be the opposite effect of reading The King’s Demons, that is brief and
not taking over five hours to read a novelization of a 45 minute story. This is something that can work, expanding the
characters, setting, and even plot, however Terence Dudley doesn’t really do
that. The King’s Demons opens
with some extra historical context and only goes downhill from there. The added scene with Kamelion as King John
and the idea of the robot having a conscience is nice, though once the material
adapting the episode itself really begins that gets dropped in favor of Dudley
overwriting every scene. This is a
novelization that revels in lengthening every description of the clothing our
characters are wearing and the setting, but not how the characters are feeling
or their actions are motivated. The weak
plot of the Master using the Kamelion android to impersonate King John into not
signing Magna Carta doesn’t really get an expanded explanation, though the
disguise of Sir Gilles Estram is at least played as a joke here. Every scene drags for far longer than it
needs to and it makes a below average story all the worse. This is a case of a novelization being
redundant when it will take less time and energy to rewatch the television
story and less than 250 words for me to really write this review. 2/10.
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