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Shada novelisation in 2012: BBC Books

2

23skidoo

Admiral
Admiral
BBC Books has announced that it has commissioned Gareth Roberts to write a novelisation of Douglas Adams' never-finished Fourth Doctor story "Shada" for release in 2012:

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/03/dwn220311192616-novelisation-of-shada.html

http://www.dwin.org/expressionengine/index.php/site/a_novelization_idea_part_2_doctor_who_and_shada/

File under "hot damn!"

So does this mean City of Death and The Pirate Planet might follow soon after?

Between the reissue of the earlier Targets and BBC Books finally getting back into the past Doctor business, I think we're in for some fun times as the 50th approaches...

Alex
 
Cutter John said:
Which reminds me, did Target ever finish novelizing all the classic episodes?
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All but 5:

Shada
The Pirate Planet
City of Death

...were the Douglas Adams stories they could never get agreement on because Adams' price got too high after Hitchhiker's got big.

Resurrection of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks

...were two stories by Eric Saward that were all set to be novelised in the mid-1990s but Virgin Publishing and Saward couldn't come to terms.

Terrance Dicks was also planning to novelise his stage play The Ultimate Adventure for Target, but it never happened, so I guess you could call that the 6th "lost" book.

The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club published unofficial novelisations for all of these (except the stage play) about a decade ago which can be found online if you look around.

The big hope, of course, is that now BBC Books is doing Shada, it's possible they might do the others (with City of Death the most likely candidate to follow Shada since it's a standalone). There's also the exciting possibility of some sort of Key to Time thing being done if you consider that a new novelisation of The Stones of Blood has been written for BBC Audio's talking books (replacing the Dicks' original) as well. So there's hope that the classic series collection may eventually be completed!

Alex
 
There's been a lot of talk over at Gallifrey Base about Tom Baker a Shada Lost Story now that he has finally signed up with Big Finish. Personally, I don't see the need because I love the Paul McGann version.
 
Emh said:
There's been a lot of talk over at Gallifrey Base about Tom Baker a Shada Lost Story now that he has finally signed up with Big Finish. Personally, I don't see the need because I love the Paul McGann version.
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Yeah, but since the McGann version was a stopgap, and that this would be the original version without the need for "timey wimey" story acrobatics, I definitely see the need. Only problem is whether they would be able to get Baker and Lalla Ward in the same studio together.

Akex
 
Interesting, I can't say the news is hugely thrilling but it should still be a good read. Roberts is a better Who novelist than TV writer.

The ironic thing is that what with the old BBC release, the BF version, Ian Levine's (private) one, this novel and even a second possible BF adaption (though I'd be surprised if that was in their plans) we might end up with more versions of Shada than practically any other story...
 
I see no compelling reason for Big Finish to mount another production of Shada, even if it were just a rerecording of the Doctor's lines by Tom Baker to be edited into the McGann version. I'll call it what it would be -- pointless.

I am curious if Roberts' novelization might, in some way, reference the McGann production. Perhaps an epilogue in which McGann's Doctor realizes that "Shada" has unhappened (thanks to Borusa and "The Five Doctors"), so he has to go and get the old team back together for another run. Or, perhaps, the fourth Doctor and Romana have a moment where they think they see their older selves.
 
Allyn Gibson said:
I see no compelling reason for Big Finish to mount another production of Shada, even if it were just a rerecording of the Doctor's lines by Tom Baker to be edited into the McGann version. I'll call it what it would be -- pointless.
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I wholly agree it'd be a waste of time, but I'd imagine they will have at least considered it. The market value of a complete Shada starring Tom Baker is arguably greater than most of their productions.
 
OmahaStar said:
Atticus said:
Ian Levine's (private) one,
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I'm unfamiliar with this. Please to be explaining.
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Levine is doing an crowdsourced animated reconstruction of "Shada" and an animated version of "The Dark Dimension." For the former, he's gathered all of the original cast, except for those who have died and Tom Baker, to provide voices. For the latter, several of the actors who would have been involved have already recorded lines, like Sylvester McCoy.

Whether or not these see light of day, whether or not these are even finished, is an open question. Levine's plan appears to be to finish the work and present it to 2|Entertain as a fait accompli, "Take it or leave it," basically.

Levine is also having new footage with Sylvester McCoy made for "Downtime," a mid-90s spin-off film starring Nicholas Courtney, Lis Sladen, and Deborah Watling in their original roles, to make it even more Doctor Who-ish. (I don't understand why "Downtime" hasn't had a proper DVD release; with the right marketing campaign, it could sell decently.)
 
Allyn Gibson said:
(I don't understand why "Downtime" hasn't had a proper DVD release; with the right marketing campaign, it could sell decently.)
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I think there was a DVD release at some point, but I know what you mean. I think there are signs that 2 Entertain might be willing to look at doing some sort of release, especially as the "official" episode well runs dry. We've already seen the excerpts from Devious on a 2E DVD, and there were a surprising number of clips from Reeltime and BBV productions on the TV movie DVD. I'd be very surprised if something "official" doesn't get done with not only Downtime, but the other "creator-licensed" spinoffs such as Wartime and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans and the PROBE series featuring Caroline John as Liz Shaw.

I am curious if Roberts' novelization might, in some way, reference the McGann production. Perhaps an epilogue in which McGann's Doctor realizes that "Shada" has unhappened (thanks to Borusa and "The Five Doctors"), so he has to go and get the old team back together for another run. Or, perhaps, the fourth Doctor and Romana have a moment where they think they see their older selves.
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I don't know if that would work. The webcast, with no offence intended to anyone involved, rather quickly fell into the "obscure" category. I didn't even know until a few weeks ago that Big Finish put out an audio version. Unless 2 Entertain includes it with its planned Shada DVD release, it's likely to stay that way. So the majority of readers likely won't be familiar with the webcast and so a reference to it in the novel would just be confusing. I am expecting to see a Five Doctors reference of some sort, though, since that's much more widely known.

Starkers said:
It's the 21st Century, they probably wouldn't even need to be in the same country...
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From what I've heard, even that may not be far enough! ;)

Alex
 
23skidoo said:
Allyn Gibson said:
I am curious if Roberts' novelization might, in some way, reference the McGann production. Perhaps an epilogue in which McGann's Doctor realizes that "Shada" has unhappened (thanks to Borusa and "The Five Doctors"), so he has to go and get the old team back together for another run. Or, perhaps, the fourth Doctor and Romana have a moment where they think they see their older selves.
Click to expand...
I don't know if that would work. The webcast, with no offence intended to anyone involved, rather quickly fell into the "obscure" category. I didn't even know until a few weeks ago that Big Finish put out an audio version.
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To each their own. I first saw the webcast not long after it originally aired, and at the time, I wasn't following Big Finish at all (largely out of stubbornness that Tom Baker had joined in at the beginning). That being said, repeated viewings of Shada over the years is what convinced me to finally delve into Big Finish's library despite how large and vast it had grown over the years (that and some not-so-gentle nudging from a certain former co-moderator).

23skidoo said:
Unless 2 Entertain includes it with its planned Shada DVD release, it's likely to stay that way. So the majority of readers likely won't be familiar with the webcast and so a reference to it in the novel would just be confusing. I am expecting to see a Five Doctors reference of some sort, though, since that's much more widely known.
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I don't see how a sly reference along the lines of The Doctor and Romana thinking they saw older versions of themselves wouldn't work or be that confusing to readers. Just look at the Star Trek novels over the last 10+ years. There's a plethora of examples of such instances of happening and I'm certain it didn't confuse the readers that much.
 
Allyn Gibson said:
Levine is doing an crowdsourced animated reconstruction of "Shada" and an animated version of "The Dark Dimension." For the former, he's gathered all of the original cast, except for those who have died and Tom Baker, to provide voices. For the latter, several of the actors who would have been involved have already recorded lines, like Sylvester McCoy.

Whether or not these see light of day, whether or not these are even finished, is an open question. Levine's plan appears to be to finish the work and present it to 2|Entertain as a fait accompli, "Take it or leave it," basically.
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His Shada audio is finished. Animation completion date is end of the year I believe.

Now of course with the Novel being written, it's possible Tom could read it. for audio. But given Lalla did the TV version, the Big Finish version and Ian's she'd probably grab the book job too! She was friends with Douglas, in fact he introduced her to Richard Dawkins.
 
23skidoo said:
Allyn Gibson said:
(I don't understand why "Downtime" hasn't had a proper DVD release; with the right marketing campaign, it could sell decently.)
Click to expand...

I think there was a DVD release at some point, but I know what you mean. I think there are signs that 2 Entertain might be willing to look at doing some sort of release
Click to expand...

It's not theirs to release. They could buy the rights, but it could be released without them.

One of the reasons Wartime, Downtime and Shakedown aren't out is the people involved wanted to do a decent job; including a full 5.1 remix from Mark Ayres. He's been kept rather busy with the offical DVDs. But there have been rumbles of releases soon.

One of the other reasons - Downtime in particular - is the rights aren't straight forward. Ian Levine is one of three financers of the original production (he also did the music) He insists he has DVD release rights.
 
Rarewolf said:
23skidoo said:
Allyn Gibson said:
(I don't understand why "Downtime" hasn't had a proper DVD release; with the right marketing campaign, it could sell decently.)
Click to expand...

I think there was a DVD release at some point, but I know what you mean. I think there are signs that 2 Entertain might be willing to look at doing some sort of release
Click to expand...

It's not theirs to release. They could buy the rights, but it could be released without them.
Click to expand...

As indeed has been the case - I believe if you check the TARDIS Library website you'll find virtually all of the BBV and Reeltime spinoffs (including the Stranger and even a huge pile of the Myth Makers interview series and the Myth Runner spoof) were all released on DVD at some point. Problem is these small companies have no distribution to speak of, so once the rights were ironed out I'm sure they'd love to have 2 Entertain/BBC Video give their work wide distribution (and perhaps even contribute to some of the improvements you mention). Of course they could go on their own quite easily - as they have in the past when they have only used creator-licensed characters like the Autons and Sontarans and the like, and not the Doctor. But once THE DOCTOR is brought into the mix, the playing field changes completely. There's no way Levine will be able to achieve an independent release in the UK or anywhere else so long as the BBC has ownership of that character, which is why once I saw that he was adding the Seventh Doctor to Downtime, the assumption on my part is this is for a 2 Entertain-related release.

Now of course with the Novel being written, it's possible Tom could read it. for audio. But given Lalla did the TV version, the Big Finish version and Ian's she'd probably grab the book job too! She was friends with Douglas, in fact he introduced her to Richard Dawkins.
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I doubt it, as Ward has never done any of the BBC Audio book readings, whereas Baker just spent the last 2 years doing the two Fourth Doctor minseries for them, and he's recorded several book readings, and Big Finish and AudioGO have a distribution agreement (go to their site and you can buy the complete range of AudioGO releases, including the Baker stories). If they do any audio book of Shada, it'll be Tom Baker reading it, with John Leeson doing K-9's voice where applicable. Or they could decide to be clever and bring in someone like Stephen Moore from the original Hitchhiker's radio series, who also guest-starred in last year's Sontaran two-parter, or even Simon Jones, for that matter.

Alex
 
The Reeltime Mythmakers - baring one or two exceptions - were all not much more than homepressed DVD-Rs, I'm sort of dreading trying to watch any of the ones I own again! Their actual distribution is no different to how the videos were treated - specialist shops only.

I'm hoping Return To Devil's End is just being held back to coincide with the BBC's Daemons release.

Ian does things for himself, with the intention a wider audience will get to see them. He despises red tape gets in the way.
 
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