The King's Demons by: Terence Dudley

 

The King’s Demons was written by Terence Dudley, based on his story of the same name.  It was the 108^th 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.