The Lost Adventures by Douglas Adams) - Shada (Doctor Who

Shada fully dramatizes a story that was killed by labor difficulties during Season 17. This production makes a few minor changes to the story so that it fits comfortably with the Eighth Doctor, most notably there's a brand new prologue.

Overall, the story works quite well. In my opinion, it's a notch below City of Death and Pirate Planet (Douglas Adams' other Doctor Who stories) as the six part length adds some filler, and this feels like it could have been an episode shorter. Still, the story delivers mystery, wit, and the sort of clever science fiction you expect from Adams.

Andrew Sachs is great as the villain and James Fox delivers the charm of eccentricity that makes Professor Professor Chronotis such an interesting character. Paul McGann turns in a very beautiful performance, as he gets to perform some absolutely luscious material here and he shows great comic timing throughout Shada.

Overall, a solid script and great acting make this full dramatization of Shada a great listen.

In 1979, Douglas Adams was working as the script editor on Doctor Who. Having written or co-written two stories for the series all ready (including the fan favorite City Of Death) and on the brink of his own creation The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy becoming a worldwide success, Adams wrote his Doctor Who swansong, Shada. The story was partially filmed before a BBC strike led to the story being left uncompleted and thus never shown on television. Now, over 30 years since those events and more than a decade after Adams' own untimely passing, a novelization of this "lost" Doctor Who story is available at last.

Shada features the Fourth Doctor (the one with the scarf who was all teeth and curls), female Time Lord Romana and robot dog K-9 and is set in 1979. It begins in Cambridge, one of Britain's most famous universities, where the time/space travelers have answered the summons of the retired and somewhat forgetful Time Lord Professor Chronotis. It turns out that the Professor took a rather dangerous book with him when he left the Time Lord's home world of Gallifrey and he wants them to return it. The problem is he's accidently loaned it out to a young graduate student named Chris Parsons, who is trying to impress his would be girlfriend Clare Keightley with it. To make matters worse, there's a nefarious alien named Skagra who's arrived at Cambridge with a sphere capable of sucking out a person's mind who is also after the book as part of his own plans. From there the story becomes a universe hoping adventure set on space stations, asteroids and eventually to the mysterious Shada itself.

This novelization has been written by Gareth Roberts, writer of such episodes as The Shakespeare Code and Closing Time for the current TV series of Doctor Who. Roberts' perfectly captures the distinctive style of Douglas Adams' prose be it the book's opening paragraph or the closing lines of chapter sixty two to name but two examples. The book is also filled with Adams' trademark style of absurd humor yet the humor never overwhelms the story but rather heightens and enhances it. Much of the book's success comes from the original Adams' scripts but kudos must go to Roberts as well for making the script into a fully functioning novel.

My only real complaint about the book stems from Roberts' own additions. Roberts makes his own stamp on the story in places and most of them aren't bad. He's good at expanding scenes with references to post-1979 Doctor Who that fits in perfectly with the original Adams script such as in chapter fifteen for example. Where this expanding runs into issues in the final third of the novel (parts five and six of the TV version) where he often rewrites complete chunks of the story. This includes an additional chapter (chapter seventy three) where the book feels like it's being drug out for an additional fifteen pages rather unnecessarily. Overall though, the changes work more often than not.

To be fair as well, Shada isn't really that "lost" is it? The filmed sequences were edited together, along with linking narration by the fourth Doctor himself Tom Baker, for released on VHS in 1992 for example. The complete story is available on audio CD from Big Finish Productions (the company who have been doing Doctor Who audio adventures since 1999) and has been since 2003, though it stars Paul McGann's eighth Doctor since Tom Baker wasn't interested in taking part. So is there any point in buying the novelization than?

To my mind, the answer is yes. This is as close to a completed version of the original story you're likely to see with the intended TARDIS crew for one thing. The changes, both great and small, made by Roberts also makes this version of Shada stand on its own as well. So while Shada itself might not be quite as lost as it's been claimed, this book version completes it nicely nevertheless.

Though I read a few of the Target novelizations when I was a kid, I've never been much of a reader of Doctor Who novels. In fact, with some rare exceptions, I'm not much of a reader of novels based on characters from movies and TV. In this case, however, the novel is based on a famous Douglas Adams script whose production was shut down half-done because of a workers' strike of some sort, as I recall. I remember seeing the surviving clips (with linking narration for the missing bits by Tom Baker) many years ago but not really being impressed or following much of it. As it is, I remember little about it, but I was interested in reading this to see how the story works out.

Turns out, it's a pretty strong tale. By his own admission, Gareth Roberts, though working from a shooting script of the story, has made some changes and developments. I would be hard pressed to figure out what's what, however, because the story hangs together very nicely. And, even though he's written a lot for the recent series, I was struck by how well he captured the old series during the Tom Baker era. It really felt like old school Doctor Who to me. One of my disappointments in the revival of the show is how it's abandoned the Doctor's Gallifrean roots, for the most part. It was fun to dig back into the history of the Doctor's homeland in this novel.

I don't see myself reading a lot of Doctor Who novels in the future; however, I'm glad I took the time for this one. It was a nice stroll down memory lane and filled in some gaps of the Doctor's history that should have played out in the original series. Gareth Roberts, author of two of my favorite episodes of the new series--"The Lodger" and "Closing Time"--should be commended for his work here. He did Douglas Adams proud.

This story was originally written by Douglas Adams and was planned to end season 17 with Tom Baker as the Doctor. But due to a BBC strike, this story was sadly never completed. Now Lalla Ward returns as Romana and John Leason returns as the voice of K9 to complete this story at long last with Paul McGann as the Doctor (who originally played the Doctor in the 1996 TV movie). It's still a shame that "Shada" wasn't completed for season 17, but this is the next best thing. This is a great story about a mad man named Skagra who wants to make the universe his own by stealing people's minds and implanting his own mind in their bodies. But to do this he needs the power of great Time Lord criminal Saliavin who is suppose to be imprisoned on the Time Lord prison planet Shada, and to get to Shada he needs an ancient book dating back to Rassilon himself. Now it's up to the Doctor, his old companions Romana and K9, and his old friend Professor Cronotis to stop him. The story is packed with action and filled with excitement that keeps you on the edge of your seet. It's nice that Douglas Adams' great story can finally be enjoyed - even if it's just on audio. Highly recommeded!

City of Death also by Douglas Adams has always been my all-time favorite Doctor Who episode. My favorite companion has always been Romana II. So to say I enjoyed this book is an understatement. Had it gone to the screen I think it would have edged out The City of Death as my favorite episode. I haven't read a book this fun since I read Ready Player One.

As a kid I remember a couple of life altering moments. One was reading Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" series and the other was discovering Doctor Who. At the time, it was the Tom Baker era airing on our local PBS station well past my bedtime on Sunday nights. Thank goodness for VCRs and Sony Watchmans, which I'd often sneak in under the covers to watch the adventures unfold in not so glorious black and white on the little 3 inch screen.

Finding the existence of this book blew my mind and I have to say that the author, Gareth Roberts, did a great job bringing this story to print. The spirit of the late Douglas Adams is in this book, especially in the dialog. The villain's ship especially resonates with what made Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers" series so much fun.

Beyond that, it is a fast paced and fun Doctor Who adventure. I do enjoy the new Doctor Who, but this one just brought the Tom Baker doctor back to life and reminded me why I enjoyed those early adventures so much.

The bottom line is if you like Doctor Who, especially the Tom Baker years, or Douglas Adams you have to give this book a try. If you're luck the book will behave just as a book should.

I was brought to the book from my favorite Tom Baker story and the Wheel Of Ice, which many of my friends have read and enjoyed. I was also tempted to buy the book for my trip to Gallifrey One this year. I had planned on reading it on the plane but ended up reading it the week before instead.

So here's the thing. It's supposed to be the Fourth Doctor and Romana, along with K-9. Yay for our favorite trio. At times, I couldn't hear the legendary Tom Baker/Fourth Doctor voice, it didn't seem to hit the character with any clarity at all. This bothered me. I came to the conclusion that Douglas Adams and Gareth Roberts got "inside" the Doctor's mind, and made the character deeper emotionally and spiritually.

One format that this book is set up in that I REALLY enjoyed was that it was set up in "episodes". Split up into five or six different sections that become similar to episodes in the novel. Really classic. :D

If you're interested in reading it, and you're a huge Baker fan, I hugely recommend picking up this book and giving it a whirl. This is only my opinion. It's an incredibly quick read, and chock full of adventure.

This is a novelization of a television story that was never completed due to a labor strike. Gareth Roberts, who has written for the revived Doctor Who series, takes the late Douglas Adams' notes and scripts, and produces a very good book. I could hear Tom Baker's voice when I was reading The Doctor's words. Roberts keeps the same level of humor that Adams brought to "The City of Death", one of my favorite 4th Doctor adventures. This was a tough job, trying to match Adams' style. Roberts pulls it off. We'll never know how close this novel matches up with what would have been the finished product. The book has an advantage of not having to deal with late 70's BBC Budgets. Good book, any fan of the old series should like it.

The story line was great, and would have made a good episode. However, I only gave the book four stars since the narrative of The Doctor and Romania did not follow what they would actually say or how they would react. A lot of changes would be needed to make this to production. But, despite these short comings, the book is a good read with twists and turns.

This is my first Doctor Who novel, and I chose it because the original story was written by Douglas Adams. I thought it was ridiculously silly but I enjoyed it.

"Chris staggered in an ungainly fashion after the Doctor and Romana. So it was Sunday morning, and he was carrying a robot dog up some slippery steps into an invisible alien spaceship. Nobody was ever going to believe this."

I enjoyed the Oxford setting, and the Adams humor is definitely present. I'm a Doctor Who latecomer and have never seen any episodes with the Fourth Doctor, so I just imagined him as the Tenth (although that definitely made for some continuity errors). The Doctor as seen in this book seemed more like the Tenth than the Ninth or Eleventh. Definitely worth a read for a Whovian or Douglas Adams fan.

I am vaguely aware that there exists a whole world of in-universe Doctor Who texts and series prior to the reboot that is going on now. When I was a lad at the library, I remember one of the racks of paperbacks always had Doctor Who books, the cover picture looking like some off version of Gene Wilder from his 70’s heyday. That was not why I bought this book

I bought this book because of the name on the cover - not Gareth Roberts, not Doctor Who, but Douglas Adams. I was unaware that he had a record putting together screenplays for the Doctor Who series, but I guess it makes sense that the Hitchhiker's Guide had to come from somewhere.

The problem was that reading it didn’t really feel like a Douglas Adams doing Doctor Who book, but it felt more contemporary. I was about halfway through when I had to look at the front and see that is was much more contemporary - Roberts adapted this book much closer to now than when Adams was tragically struck dead by a treadmill.

So it did feel more contemporary - I read into it the manic edge of Tennant, who is my favorite Doctor of the current crop - and there were some references that struck me as anachronistic for the late 70s. But for the most part this was a fun romp and and enjoyable read; it is just an interesting artifact.

After seeing the version presented recently on BBC America, I wanted to buy the dvd featuring my favorite Doctor -Tom Baker. Unfortunately, it will not be released until November - so I decided to read Gareth Roberts novelization. I think he did the legacy of Douglas Adams proudly. I happily read how he filled in a lot of the blank spaces left in the long lost uncompleted episode. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it from first page to the last. Well done...

Gareth Roberts, already experienced writing Doctor Who novels, has adapted Douglas Adams' scripts and notes for the Tom Baker adventure 'Shada' into a novel. From the perspective of a Doctor Who adventure, it's great; enough banter, plot twists and science fiction ideas to satisfy anyone. The writing isn't exactly Adams-ish, but you can see his genius shining through in the characterizations and grand ideas. If you're solely looking for more Douglas Adams writing, you MIGHT be disappointed? But if you just want a science fiction adventure, give Shada a try.

Well, first, you really need to be a Dr Who fan to understand the story. Second, I did not know that Douglas Adams wrote a number of Dr. Who stories. It is fascinating just reading the history of this one, and now I need to go back and watch a number of episodes that he wrote. And finally to the book. Very much classic Dr. Who. Gareth Roberts did an outstanding job working with the original and turning it into a novel. There are a couple of slow spots at the beginning but it is quite a ride once it gets going. Just about any Dr. Who fan will like this.

One of Douglas Adams' (yes, THAT Douglas Adams) few Doctor Who stories, "Shada" was supposed to be filmed in the late 70s, but labor disputes stopped filming before it was completed.

Now a six-part story for the Eighth Doctor and Romana II, "Shada" has been given loving treatment by Big Finish, and it's terrific. The supporting cast--which includes Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood in the "Harry Potter" movies)--is uniformly excellent, with dramatic chops as well as sparkling comic timing.

Fans of Douglas Adams' other works may enjoy spotting the plot elements that Adams recycled into "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".

I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
As a huge fan of both Douglas Adams and Doctor Who I would say that Mr. Roberts did an incredible job in bringing the vision of Adams to the fore in printing this story. The characters that played in the story were well-developed and offered uniqueness and made for an exceptional story line.
The Fourth Doctor was exceptionally well-written, playing off his usual mannerisms; Romana was also written well and who doesn't love anything K9 appears in?

Doctor Who's friend, Time Lord Professor Chronotis, has retired to Cambridge University. He assumes his eccentric elderly peers will not notice someone living amongst them for a few centuries or so. Although he knows better, Chronotis took mementos of his time traveling days; all of which is junk except The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey tome.

He unwittingly compounds his error when he thinks boys will be boys so he lends this powerful arcane to post-graduate student Chris Parsons. Like most males his age, Chris figures he can score with the females by using The Worshipful and Ancient Law book though he would not mind his peer Claire Keightley as his first pick; he is unaware of how dangerous this artifact is. Time Lord Skagra knows the tome is in 1979 Cambridge so on platform shoes he heads to the university town with plans to grab the tome so he can dominate the universe and as a by-product eliminate his opponent Doctor Who, who he expects will go there too. Who with Romana and K-9 arrive in Cambridge circa 1979.

Novelizing a Douglas Adams' script that never was filmed, Gareth Roberts provides a great Dr. Who adventure. The storyline is fast-paced and filled with whimsy from the moment the audience meets Skaga who at five concluded not only God did not exist but a vacancy did and he was perfect to fill it. The Adams' trademark satiric comedy of the hyperbolic absurdity continues from there to Chris who borrows one of the deadliest forces in the universe to pick up girls. Series fans will relish Shada as Dr. Who and his associates take on the Time Lord who would be God.

Harriet Klausner

Or at least something very much like it by Douglas Adams himself. When Shada didn't see the light of day, Douglas took the basic plot, removed the Time Lord bits, and wrote his first Dirk Gently's Detective Agency novel.

I'm a HUGE Douglas Adams fan, and I really, really like this recent addition to the Dirk Gently series along with Doctor Who in a combination style. If you first read "Dirk Gently's Wholistic Detective Agency", you'll enjoy this book even more by learning other truths about Doctor Chronotis as well as what a couch could be doing stuck in the wall in his hallway.Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

This was such a great read, and I could hear Douglas Adams' unique imprint in every line. Really, really great. Don't bother with the cobbled together DVD, this is infinately better.
I don't usually enjoy novelisations of my fave TV shows coz they're usually rather rubbish. But this is the exception.

This novel is developed from a Dr Who script written by Douglas Adams. It has Dr. Who of course and the TARDIS in the form of the blue police box. The plot takes a number of twists and has a strange bad guy and clueless humans. Overall, it's a good story, but Adams's humor is missing.

Zaftan Miscreants