History Trivia / DoctorWhoNovelisations

* ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E9TheEvilOfTheDaleks Doctor Who - The Evil of the Daleks]]'' by John Peel

** ''[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast The Star Beast" Beast]]'' is dedicated to every Doctor Who novelist to have passed away.
--> This book is dedicated with love and respect to the memory of the following: Paul Condon, Peter Cooke, Tommy Donbavand, Martin Fairgrieve, Antoni Fletcher-Goldspink, Dave Foster, Stuart Glazebrook, Craig Hinton, Simon Hodges, Martin Holder, Deanne Holding, Jennifer Adams Kelly, Rupert Laight, Shane Lewandowski, Ian Martin, Dominic May, Ian K [=McLachlan=], Stuart Money, Matthew Moore, Stephen Payne, Pol O'Connor-Pryor, Paul Spragg, Sammy Weeks and my old ''Words with Friends'' sparring partner Andrew C Smith.

--> This book is dedicated with love and respect to the memory of the following: Paul Condon, Peter Cooke, Tommy Donbavand, Martin Fairgrieve, Antoni Fletcher-Goldspink, Dave Foster, Stuart Glazebrook, Craig Hinton, Simon Hodges, Martin Holder, Deanne Holding, Jennifer Adams Kelly, Rupert Laight, Shane Lewandowski, Ian Martin, Dominic May, Ian K [=McLachlan, Stuart Money, Matthew Moore, Stephen Payne, Pol O'Connor-Pryor, Paul Spragg, Sammy Weeks and my old ''Words with Friends'' sparring partner Andrew C Smith.

** ''[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast The Star Beast" Beast]]'' is dedicated to [[UpToEleven every Doctor Who novelist to have passed away]].

* InMemoriam: The novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" was dedicated to Creator/JohnHurt.

* AlanSmithee: Stephen Gallagher adapted his serials "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate Warriors Gate]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]]" under the pseudonym John Lydecker.

** In the novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]", the police officers are named Welland, [[Creator/BrianBlessed Blessed]], Ellis and Windsor after the actors from ''Series/ZCars'', a reference to the fact the police station sequence was originally concieved as a ChristmasSpecial crossover with that series.

** The novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]" is another regarded as being better than the televised version. It wasn't written under horrendous time pressure, is free from the handicaps of poor acting and special effects, and the bits that can't be fixed are made fun of.
** The ludicrous LiteralCliffhanger in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire Dragonfire]]" is given an explanation.
** The First Doctor's out-of-character behaviour in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon a Time]]" is explained as him trying to antagonise the Twelfth Doctor, whom he dislikes.

* NamesTheSame: Real-life version: ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' author John Peel isn't the same person as Creator/JohnPeel the DJ.

* ''Doctor Who - The Stones of Blood (2022)'' by David Fisher

* ''Doctor Who - The Androids of Tara (2022)'' by David Fisher

** On a similar note, James Goss' novelisation of Creator/DouglasAdams's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" is based on the first draft scripts, which are much longer, and very different, from what made it on screen.

* OutOfOrder:
** In the early years, the novelisations were written and published according to which stories were considered most popular and suitable, rather than TV broadcast order (the first 73 were originally numbered in alphabetical order of their titles, from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace The Autons]]" to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet The Zarbi"]]). This led to many sixties stories not featuring well-known villains being novelised very late in the day.
** The revival series novelisations also forgo TV broadcast order, instead having no more than one novelisation per Doctor in each release batch.

* SelfAdaptation:
** Creator/TerranceDicks novelized most of the episodes he wrote, also writing junior novels for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot Robot]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]". The only episode he didn't novelize was "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" which was written by the episode's co-writer, Creator/MalcolmHulke.
** Hulke novelized all of his own episodes apart from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes The Faceless Ones]]" which was written by Dicks.
** Creator/RobertHolmes adapted only one of his scripts - "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]". He did write the prologue to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]".

** When the first novelisations of new series episodes were released, the ones for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] were written by the episodes' original writers, Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat respectively. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]" was novelised by Creator/RobertShearman, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror The Crimson Horror]]" was novelised by Creator/MarkGatiss and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders The Witchfinders]]" was novelised by Joy Wilkinson.

* WrittenByCastmember: Several novels were written by Ian Marter, who played Harry Sullivan in the TV series. These included [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace two]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment stories]] he was actually in and the original novel about Harry, ''Harry Sullivan's War''.
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** When the first novelisations of new series episodes were released, the ones for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] were written by the episodes' original writers, Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat respectively. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]" was novelised by Creator/RobShearman, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror The Crimson Horror]]" was novelised by Creator/MarkGatiss and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders The Witchfinders]]" was novelised by Joy Wilkinson.

** When the first novelisations of new series episodes were released, the ones for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] were written by the episodes' original writers, Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat respectively.

* WrittenByCastMember: Several novels were written by Ian Marter, who played Harry Sullivan in the TV series. These included [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace two]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment stories]] he was actually in and the original novel about Harry, ''Harry Sullivan's War''.

** When the first novelizations of new series episodes were released, the ones for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] were written by the episodes' original writers, Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat respectively.

** On a similar note, James Goss's novelisation of Creator/DouglasAdams's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]" is based on the first draft scripts, which are much longer, and very different, from what made it on screen.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Played with in the novelisation of "Shada", as it was written in 2012, and exaggerated a bit to help us relate to the alien main characters who find the 1970s laughably primitive. For instance, there's a scene where Skagra finds it proof of human inferiority that they still consider [[ShoutOut digital watches]] and VCR to be the cutting edge of technology, which would have been played for a fairly straight laugh by Douglas Adams but is played in the book as being just as dated and contemptible as the aliens find it to be. Mocked also in the book's description of K-9, as seen through Chris's eyes. He remarks on the letters on its side being 'clearly intended to look futuristic' and seems to find its aesthetic very dated.

** David Whitaker was due to novelise his script for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld The Enemy of the World]]" before his death in 1980. Ian Marter adapted it instead.
** Ian Marter died as he was planning a sequel to ''Harry Sullivan's War''. His novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue The Rescue]]" was completed by editor Nigel Robinson.

* ContractualImmortality: Ian Marter wanted to kill Harry off at the end of ''Harry Sullivan's War'', but Target wanted him to live in the hope of a sequel. Sadly, Marter's death prevented this from happening.

** When Ian Marter novelised "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", he originally wanted to show the OffscreenMomentOfAwesome rescue of Professor Watkins as a soldier fibbing, and the rescue as actually having been comically easy. He was persuaded not to.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: An entirely new adaptation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]" was written for the [=50th=] anniversary as part of the BBC's audiobook range, to be read by William Russell. Unfortunately, the publisher went into administration shortly before its release, and although another company took over the new version of ''AUC'' has never been released even though the [=CDs=] were ready to be sent out.

** In the novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]", the Jagaroth ship is named the Sephiroth; "Sephiroth" was the name of the Jagaroth species in early versions of the script.

* OutOfOrder: In the early years, the novelisations were written and published according to which stories were considered most popular and suitable, rather than TV broadcast order (the first 73 were originally numbered in alphabetical order of their titles, from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace The Autons]]" to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet The Zarbi"]]). This led to many sixties stories not featuring well-known villains being novelised very late in the day.