The Day of the Doctor (Target novelisation) by Steven Moffat: Review

Watching The Day of the Doctor in the cinema (that’s movie theater, transatlantic readers!) with my then six-year-old daughter, complete with sonic screwdriver, definitely ranks among my best Doctor Who-related memories. In fact, it’s pretty high up there among my best anything-related memories. Along with many others we laughed, gasped and sat on the edge of our seats throughout (Doctors! Zygons! Eyebrows! John Hurt!! Tom Baker!!!), and joined in the spontaneous round of applause from the audience at the end. It was quite an experience. I’ve watched it numerous times since, but needless to say nothing will ever match that first time.

So there was no way in the universe that I could possibly resist the Target novelisation, especially when written by – who else? – Steven Moffat himself

In true Moffaty style, this is far from a straight re-telling of the story. From the beginning (The Night of the Doctor) onwards, there’s lots added, some noticeable changes, a lot of timey-wimey-ness ("as an idiot once wrote" – his words, not mine), plenty of similar little writerly asides, an intriguing narrative voice (who’s telling the story?) and a fair bit of Osgood. Or Petronella, as no-one will ever call her. Oh, and a pretty good running joke involving the Silence.

We get plenty of background – how the Doctor’s relationship with Elizabeth came about, for instance. And there are lots of other additions - lines one suspects Steven previously either hadn’t thought of or more likely had to cut for reasons of time. ("Queen Elizabeth the only. She didn’t like being numbered, and I sympathise entirely.")

On that note the author, probably wisely, avoids the whole numbering business, referring to them all as the Doctor (that’s who they are, after all), and deftly navigates the obvious potential pitfalls.

We see a lot here from the Doctor’s point of view and the War Doctor, in particular, gets a lot of time. As is only right

The on-screen scene where all the Doctors team up to save Gallifrey never fails to bring a tear to my eye (don’t judge me). The version here is a bit different – expanded – but equally if not even more emotive. Like various other elements of the story it takes full advantage of the written word’s ability to describe what would be difficult to put on screen. There’s no "Oh for God’s sake – Gallifrey stands!" moment, though.

You can’t improve on perfection… but this book adds a lot to the story and is an utter delight from start (the cover!) to finish (a lovely nod to the future).

On a final note: "Osgood lives – and so long as the fangirls stand guard on the gates of humanity, so will we." Can’t argue with that!