Shada (novelisation)

Shada by Gareth Roberts was a novelisation of the TV story of the same name written by Douglas Adams, which was intended to conclude Season 17 but never completed due to labour action at the BBC disrupting production. It was the first novelisation of a Doctor Who TV story since Doctor Who - The Novel of the Film in 1996. Interestingly, it was the first novelisation to predate the release of its television equivalent, with Shada not receiving a television airing until 2017 (though there had been animated and "available footage" home video reconstructions since the 1990s). Although new editions of the other Adams adaptations have been released (in revised form) as part of the modern Target novelisation line, as of 2023 this has yet to happen with Shada.

Hardback
(back cover)

At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways — with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, ''Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.''

(inside front cover)


 * From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, the legendary "lost" Doctor Who story completed at last!

The Doctor's old friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis has retired to Cambridge University — where nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. But now he needs help from the Doctor, Romana and K9. When he left Gallifrey he took with him a few little souvenirs — most of them are harmless. But one of them is extremely dangerous.

The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey isn't a book for Time Tots. It is one of the Artefacts, dating from the dark days of Rassilon. It must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The sinister Skagra most definitely has the wrong hands. He wants the book. He wants to discover the truth behind Shada. And he wants the Doctor's mind...

Based on the scripts for the original television series by the legendary Douglas Adams, Shada retells an adventure that never made it to the screen.

This epic "lost" adventure from 1979 features the Fourth Doctor and Romana as played by Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, written by Doctor Who's then script editor Douglas Adams.

Paperback
Inside this book is another book — the strangest, most important and most dangerous book in the entire universe.

The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey is one of the artefacts, dating from dark days of Rassilon. It wields enormous power, and it must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

Skagra — who believes he should be God and permits himself only two smiles per day — most definitely has the wrong hands.

Beware Skagra. Beware the sphere. Beware Shada.

Chapter titles

 * Part One: Off the Shelf
 * Part Two: An Uncharitable Deduction
 * Part Three: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
 * Part Four: Carbon Copies
 * Part Five: Gallifrey's Most Wanted
 * Part Six: Brought to Book

Characters

 * Fourth Doctor
 * Romana II
 * K9 Mark II
 * Professor Chronotis
 * Wilkin
 * Chris Parsons
 * Clare Keightley
 * Skagra
 * David Taylor

Time Lords

 * In a discussion of Time Lords who broke with traditional Gallifreyan inactivity, Romana and the Doctor mention Drax, the Corsair, the Master, the Rani, Morbius, the Meddling Monk, the Interfering Nun, the Heresiarch of Drornid, Subjatric, and Rundgar.
 * The High Council grant Time Lords in their final incarnation an opportunity to retire to a planet of their choosing. However, very few accept this offer.
 * Romana estimates Chronotis is between 12,000 and 13,000-years-old.
 * The Doctor is 760-years-old, while Romana is 125-years-old.
 * Romana II recalls Zetar, another evil renegade Time Lord who, like Morbius, was executed by vaporisation.
 * Romana is part of the Prydonian Chapter.
 * According to Romana, the Doctor has been travelling in the TARDIS for five-hundred-and-twenty-five years.

The TARDIS

 * The TARDIS contains a cricket pavilion, a cinema, a room of shelves with a scarf, jelly babies and yo-yos, a guest suite and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
 * Chris eats steak and candy floss from the TARDIS food machine.

Music

 * One of the undergraduate students is wearing a Jethro Tull shirt.
 * David Taylor's car radio plays a Cilla Black song, Love of the Loved.
 * Clare jokingly calls the skeleton in Chronotis' study "Boney M".
 * Professor Chronotis owns a Bonnie Tyler cassette tape.

Literature

 * Amongst the books Chronotis owns are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Time Machine, Wuthering Heights, Chariots of the Gods, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Secret Garden, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Box of Delights, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and a travel guide, Alternative Betelgeuse.
 * Chronotis replaced The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey within the Panopticon Archives with a copy of a book whose title began with The Hitch-, written by one of the greatest writers in Earth's history.

Locations

 * Clare believes Gallifrey is in Greece.

Deviations from the original story

 * An opening chapter focusing on Skagra is added.
 * A. St. John D. Caldera is replaced by a female scientist named Daphne Caldera. Her specialty is 6-dimensional wave equations, instead of neurology. Caldera's role as the Think Tank survivor who talks to the Doctor is given to C. J. Acroteary.
 * Chris and Clare have more explicit romantic feelings for each other than were conveyed in the previous releases, and end the story engaged to be married.
 * There is a homosexual subtext to Skagra recruiting David Taylor. The character is given a greater presence than in the original story, thought one that ran differently to the webcast.
 * When trying to remember Chris's name, Chrontis goes through the alphabet himself with bring prompted by the Doctor and Romana.
 * The scene with the Doctor being chased by Skagra's sphere on the bicycle is relocated to nighttime, as was the original intention in the script, before strike action forced them to film it in the daytime, as stated in DOC: Taken Out of Time.
 * Bernard Strong tries to capture the Sphere before it kills him, as opposed to it ambushing him from behind.
 * Skagra tells Romana his backstory and Thorac's decent to Dronid, rather than she and the Doctor speculating it.
 * The Doctor, Chris and Chronotis relax at an beach on Dronid before they return to Cambridge, where the Doctor tells Chris that The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey  had manipulated the entire adventure from the start, and reveals that he saved the victims of the Sphere by uploading their minds into clone bodies. Chronotis' escape from Shada is also explained.
 * The closing of the novel adds a scene of Chris, Clare and Chronotis being escorted to the police station, and a scene of the Doctor and Romana using the Randomiser in the TARDIS.

Continuity

 * Romana I being recruited to assist the Doctor in his quest for the Key to Time by the White Guardian is mentioned. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
 * The Doctor was considering returning Romana to Gallifrey once the quest for the Key to Time was completed, and travel only with K9. However, once the Doctor installed the Randomiser to escape the Black Guardian, he had no choice but to continue to travel with her. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)
 * Earth is referred to as a Level 5 planet. (TV: City of Death, The Eleventh Hour)
 * Skagra reads video texts on the Doctor's exploits on Tara, (TV: The Androids of Tara) Delta Magna (TV: The Power of Kroll) and Chloris. (TV: The Creature from the Pit)
 * Romana recalls meeting Drax on Zeos, (TV: The Armageddon Factor) and the Doctor mentions how Morbius nearly "knocked [his] block off." (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
 * Romana remembers how the Doctor remained unflippant in the face of Davros (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) and the Black Guardian. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)
 * The Doctor explains to Chris that Chronotis willed his deceased body out of existence to stop the body of a Time Lord from falling into the wrong hands. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * The Doctor prepares to send a "message cube" to the Time Lords. (TV: The War Games)
 * While in control of the Doctor's TARDIS, Skagra wonders if Romana II is trying to reach the secondary console room. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)
 * Chronotis is resurrected in part because Clare placed his TARDIS in a temporal orbit. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * When the TARDIS approaches Shada, Romana hypothesises that they are passing through a time lock. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * One of the prisoners in Shada, Scintilla, was sentenced for "conspiring with Carrionites". (TV: The Shakespeare Code) She is referred to as the "greatest of the visionaries". (TV: The End of Time)
 * Skagra plans to take over the mightiest empires; Skaro, Telos and Sontar. (TV: The Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Time Warrior)
 * When Skagra is captured by his ship, he is forced to watch all of the Doctor's adventures, withtThe first video-file showing a policeman strolling in the fog. (TV: An Unearthly Child)

Editions published outside Britain

 * Published in the USA by Ace Books in 2012 as a hardback edition and 2014 as a paperback edition, it was one of three books published by them in the 2010's.
 * Published in Italy by Mondadori in 2013 as a paperback edition, translated by Alessandro Vezzoli, it was one of three books published by them in the 2010's.
 * Published in France by Milady in 2013 as a paperback edition, translated by Olivier Debernard, it was one of three books published in the 2010's.
 * Published in Hungary by Gabo in 2013 as a paperback edition, translated by F Piroska Nagy, it was one of two novelisations published in the 2010's.
 * Published in Brazil by Suma de Letras in 2014 as a paperback edition, translated by Juliana Romerio, it was one of two novelisations published in the 2010's; this was the only foreign edition to create it's own version of the cover design.
 * Published in Turkey by Ithaki Yayinlari in 2014 as a paperback edition, translated by Ulker Uyanik, it was one of three books published in the 2010's.
 * Published in China by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House in 2014 as a paperback edition, translated by Yao Xiang Hui, it was one of two novelisations published by them in the 2010's.
 * Published in Germany by Cross Cult in 2014 as a paperback edition, translated by Claudia Kern, it was one of five books published by them in the 2010's; this edition uses the same cover design as the UK paperback edition.
 * Published in the Czech Republic by Argo in 2016 as a hardback edition, translated by Pavel Cernovsky, it was one of three novelisations published in the 2010's.
 * Published in Russia by AST in 2016 as a hardback edition, translated by Chatherine Lozovik, it was one of eight books published in the 2010's.

Audiobook
This novel was released as an audiobook on 15 March 2012 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Lalla Ward with K9's voice by John Leeson. Unusually, this release uses the series' theme music at the opening and closing, a convention usually not followed in these audiobook releases.

The audiobook was reissued on 2 February 2023 as part of the audiobook anthology The Renegades Collection.