UPDATED 18th January 2018

And then things went even quieter! Life, you know...

The reason for this update now, six years after the last, is to finally finish the tale.
And by 'finally', I do mean FINALLY.

Last September, I heard the infamous Mr Edward Russell was finally stepping down,
along with all the other people going from the Steven Moffat or Russell T Davies eras that had hung on in.

I thought 'Great, a clean sweep, I can really try again now.' Let's see what 2018 brings...

Well now, in 2018, the screaming starts!

Although, to be fair, it should have started toward the end of last year, but I missed this news story -
so much for the DOCTOR WHO NEWS PAGE which I always go to for official news -
which really puts an end to my novelisations once and for all.

A YouTube video I was watching - thank you, MrTARDISreviews ! - happened to mention as an aside something he'd talked about in an earlier post.
A post about Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies doing Target novelisations of some of their episodes!

!"£$%^&*()_+ !!!!

I went and ferreted out the original article, which appeared on RadioTimes.com on 15th November.
I have no idea if it got a mention in the magazine itself for that week, but anyway, here below is the text -
minus episode synopsises - of the article (which remains their copyright of course, no dispute):


Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies
are writing special Doctor Who novels

Both the current and former showrunner are adapting their own episodes for the iconic Doctor Who Target Collection, alongside novelists Jenny Colgan and Paul Cornell

Though Steven Moffat may be exiting as Doctor Who showrunner this Christmas,
that doesn’t mean he’s done with the wonderful world of the Whoniverse.

RadioTimes.com has learned that the screenwriter is teaming up with former
Who boss Russell T Davies and novelists Jenny Colgan and Paul Cornell to
write a series of Doctor Who novelisations.

Based on the iconic Target novelisations that retold classic Doctor Who episodes
from the 1970s to the 1990s, this new ‘Target Collection’ will be published
by BBC Books and Penguin Randomhouse, and will see Davies and Moffat
adapt one of their own episodes each while Colgan adapts the first full episode
featuring David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and Cornell adapts Peter Capaldi’s final episode.

Davies will adapt Rose, the very first episode of the revived Doctor Who, which aired in
2005 and introduced the world to Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler and Christopher Eccleston’s
Ninth Doctor. Meanwhile, frequent Who novelist Colgan is penning the
novelisation for Davies’ 2005 festive special The Christmas Invasion, the first full outing for Tennant’s popular Tenth Doctor which saw the Time Lord
face off against the Sycorax.

Following on from this, Moffat is set to adapt one of his own episodes –
2013 50th anniversary spectacular The Day of the Doctor, which united
Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors with John Hurt’s previously-unseen War Doctor.

And old series hand Cornell, who wrote Doctor Who episodes Father’s Day,
Human Nature and the Family of Blood (the latter two-parter based on his own 1995
tie-in novel Human Nature) as well as numerous novels and other spin-off media
based on the series, will adapt upcoming Christmas episode Twice Upon a Time,
which airs this December and serves as both Moffat and Peter Capaldi’s
Doctor Who swansong.

All four titles will be released on the 2nd April 2018.

Based on this exciting return, it seems that both Davies and Moffat
have found it tricky to say goodbye to Doctor Who.

But given the weird and wonderful universe they got to play in,
can we really blame them?


To be honest - no, we can't, but at the same time, yes, we can!

It seems the idea of doing novelisations has always been on the cards.
Perhaps partly to bolster the sales figures of the re-issues, as I don't know how well they've been selling.

However, it seems patently obvious that if the work of doing them is going to go anywhere,
it's going to be 'jobs for the boys' (and in this case girl where she's also already known)
Just like with submitting scripts - don't you just love the 'open door' policy they have these days?

Bring back JN-T!

Anyway, as far as re-submitting my novels to BBC Books,
that's obviously going to result in a resounding 'NO', followed shortly by a 'Oi, that's our copyright!' again.

So, this is now my final post on the matter.

I will not be updating this site again,
nor making any of my novelisations available ever again, even if you beg!

Sorry, but this is where me and this part of my love of DOCTOR WHO part company.

I would ask that you support the new books when they finally appear,
but I'm afraid I can't in all honesty do that.

I don't hate the authors - I hate the system.

And of course, I won't be buying the books.

Best wishes,

Martin

Please e-mail at martin@artofinfinity.co.uk