Doctor Who: The Novel of the Film by: Gary Russell

 

The Novel of the Film was written by Gary Russell, based on Doctor Who: The TV Movie by: Matthew Jacobs.  It was the 164^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

The TV Movie is one of a handful of Doctor Who serials to have multiple novelizations, though one of the very few to be novelized by the same author twice.  Gary Russell wrote the initial version in 1996 before the film even finished filming, based on Matthew Jacobs’ script, and then did extensive revisions for a 2021 reprint.  This review is of that 1996 edition, and not the 2021 reprint simply because it is the copy I happen to own.  The TV Movie as a story is one of those Doctor Who stories that is largely a mess of ideas wrapped up in an attempt at a pilot for something that would have been a very different version of the show than what it was and what it would eventually become.  The Novel of the Film as an adaptation has a similar number of issues, but by the very nature of being in prose it can actually communicate the ideas far better than what Jacobs and director Geoffrey Sax communicated on-screen.  The greatest benefits of this are Bruce before he is killed and his body is stolen by the Master generally feeling like an actual character and not just some guy played by Eric Roberts because the producers wanted something close to a big American star for the role.  The same can be said for so many of the minor characters, as a writer Gary Russell really does like to give each character just a little backstory and at the climax when the film cuts back to the party, the novel actually has made us care about the little people on the ground, however small making the stakes actually feel much larger than they are.

 

What is perhaps most interesting is that despite being an author largely known for his continuity references, Russell is fairly restrained throughout.  The chapter titles are split into sayings that vaguely describe each of the previous Doctors, and of course there is the fact that the film centers the Seventh Doctor because they were insistent on a regeneration yet so much of this lacks them.  The oddest reference to me is perhaps a reference to Saul and Cheldon Bonniface, explicitly tying in the New Adventures to something that happened, odd because in between publication and the launch of the Eighth Doctor Adventures the mandate would come to largely ignore those adventures in favor of simply doing the in house adventures.  The Novel of the Film is a novel that is at least partially hampered by the fact that Russell is working on an earlier draft of the script, while Paul McGann was cast there isn’t nearly as much of what he brought to the role of the Doctor in this book.  The character is there but is more of a generic characterization of the Doctor, who also happens to flirt and kiss.  The same can be said of the Master, Russell when describing what he does clearly falls back on the Delgado and Ainley portrayals and not Eric Roberts’ over the top idea, ‘I always dress for the occasion’ is treated like any other line and not the camp statement that even the script hints at it being.  It also means the book ends on a simple note of the Doctor just going on to more adventures potentially and it opens with an actual prologue of the Master’s trial.  The Daleks are there and described as Daleks making me wonder if at one point until very late the plan was to also get the license for the film to use them from Terry Nation.

 

Overall, The Novel of the Film is actually a better experience than watching The TV Movie in a lot of ways.  While it still suffers from a lot of the messy aspects of the script, Gary Russell has actively worked to convert it to a novel and tries making the plot work by deviating from what would eventually be laid on-screen making it an incredibly enjoyable time, though probably not for people who aren’t already fans.  7/10.