'Doctor Who and the Three Doctors' – Terrance Dicks (Target)

I watch enough of the stories, I figured it was past time I read a few as well... ;o) 'The Three Doctors' is another one of those books that made it into the 'August TBR Pile' as I've been picking at a few pages here and there... It was way past time that I finished it, especially as it's only a hundred and twenty seven pages long (this will be a short post then...) so on the pile it went and I polished it off last night (hunting mice at my ex's house, but that's another story).

If you're a certain age, you'll know what I mean when I say that the Target novelisations were a life saver to me when I was a kid. I'd already missed a lot of 'Doctor Who' by the time I was old enough to realise that it was a thing on TV, and the BBC hadn't got round to releasing the stories on video, but the Target novelisations helped me fill in the gaps as well as going on to become one of those nostalgic, warm and fuzzy childhood memories that we all have. When I saw this book on a market stall, I didn't hesitate in picking it up. Just a shame that I wasn't as quick at reading it...

Never mind, we're here now :o) Lets talk 'The Three Doctors' (I really don't want to call it 'Doctor Who and the Three Doctors' as that makes it sound like there were actually four Doctors and there really weren't).

Once a Time Lord himself, now exiled to a black hole in space, Omega is seeking a bitter and deadly revenge against the whole universe... With their planet's energy almost drained away entirely, the Time Lords are in no position to resist Omega and an exiled Time Lord, on Earth, might just be their last hope. Or is he? When the situation becomes truly desperate, the First Law of Time is broken and the Doctor now has his two previous incarnations to help him battle a Time Lord out of the most ancient history of Gallifrey. Nothing less than the fate of the universe is at stake...

The main reason that you won't see me post too much about 'Doctor Who' Target novelisations is that they can be a little too faithful to the story to make for an interesting post. I owe Terrance Dicks (amongst other 'Doctor Who' writers) an enormous debt but there's no escaping the fact that the novelisations can very often be a dry recounting of what took place on the screen. Having said that, when you're a little kid with no access to the original stories on tape, it's not like you're going to know any better is it? ;o)

I finally watched the 'The Three Doctors', a few years ago so can say that the book is guilty at times of just recounting what happened on the screen with no passion, just the facts. It's not a worse novelisation for this, it's a good story which gives the book a bit of a head start if you know what I mean, just feels a bit dry in places. Every now and then though, Dicks gives his reader a little hint of what he could do if the reins were loosened a bit. The stakes are raised when Dicks shows us that the Third Doctor is doing his utmost not to be scared witless by Omega; Dicks also shows us that the Doctors may be more sympathetic to Omega's plight than we might have thought once we'd seen the story on TV. And the initial battle with the blob creatures takes on a new, scarier, light when it's seen through the eyes of inexperienced soldiers.

Little moments like these inject the book with more life and that means it gets to be a story in it's own right, not 'just' a novelisation. Is the balance, between recounting the story and giving it little more sparkle (you know what I mean...) right though? Your mileage may vary but I polished this book off, in short order, so would say yes, it was for me. 'The Three Doctors' was a very entertaining tale that stays true to it's subject matter but doesn't take the easy way out, adding to the story rather than just telling it.. I might just have to see if I can find the DVD again...