Doctor Who And Shada

New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club #1

by Paul Scoones

THE LEGENDARY 'LOST' DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURE

The Doctor and Romana visit Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord living at Cambridge University. The Professor wants to return an ancient and very powerful book to Gallifrey — but the book has gone missing.

Skagra, an evil scientist, steals the book and the Professor's mind — and also takes Romana and the TARDIS.

In order to stop Skagra, the Doctor must discover the secrets of a notorious Time Lord criminal, and a long forgotten prison called Shada...

This is an unofficial and unauthorised fan publication. No profits have been derived from this book. Not for resale.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

88 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Paul Scoones is a New Zealand fan of Doctor Who. Neil Lambess and he were instrumental in the recovery of the "The Lion", a missing episode of Doctor Who: The Crusade. He was the person who literally mailed the episode back to the BBC Film and Videotape Library.

Reviews

[Ms_prue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Scoones novelises better than official DW novelists. I heartily approve of this book.

[no · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shada was the final Doctor Who story written by Science fiction mastermind Douglas Adams. During the shooting of the episode, however, tree was a a strike and it was forced to be abandoned.

Multiple attempts have been made at trying to complete the story. One attempt was made to have Tom Baker narrate the missing scenes. While this is enjoyable to watch, it still lacks the feeling of a full episode. Another attempt was made to do a webcast of the show, but spence Tom was unwilling. To do so, Paul Mcgann stepped forward to complete the webcast. Although I love Paul, he just seemed out of place and the price only made fans over which version of the story was canon.

A more recent attempt has been made by life time Dr. Who fan (and also famous musician no ones ever heard of) Ian Levine. He animated the story and recast all of the original cast albeit Baker and two deceased actors, but 2|entertain has denied him release.

Which means, right now, this book remains the only complete Tom Baker version open to the public. And, to give it credit, it does a good job at that. I simply wants to tell the lost story, while still being in the writing tone of Adams. At many points in the book I found my self laughing out loud, particularly where the Doctor given Romana a I AM A GENIUS badge. I should also note that it really helped me understand the plot, and that I had not known when the sphere took a copy of the Doctor's brain before. One day I should try reading it whilst watching the episode, for that would surely clear things up.

Next year Gareth Roberts will try his hand at an official BBC version of this book, and I plan to read that to. But until that book is released, I would suggest reading this version; it's funny, it's short, oh, and IT'S FREE! Check out the free e-book here: http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/shada/

Update: I've listened to the new book and... This version is much better. Seriously, just keep you're money and read this one.

[stormhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

And at last, I know what happens in the missing episode! It's a shame it never was completed, would have been a real corker. The Doctor and Romana visit Cambridge at the request of an old friend, go pointing, and the fate of the universe is at stake. I do wonder, though, is that the Chesterfield from HHTG?

[RC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This adaptation reads like one of the better Target novelisations, despite the original scripts being rather average.