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Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel

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A novelisation of the "lost" Doctor Who adventure Shada, scripted in 1979 by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, will be published next March.

Adams wrote three series of Doctor Who in the late 1970s, when he was in his 20s and Hitchhiker's Guide was first airing as a BBC radio comedy.

Shada was intended as a six-part drama to finish off the 17th season, with Tom Baker in the role of the Doctor. Large parts of the story had already been filmed on location in Cambridge before industrial action at the BBC brought production to a halt.

The drama was never finished, and in the summer of 1980 Shada was abandoned.

Adams's Doctor Who series are among the very few that have never been novelised, reportedly because the author wanted to do them himself but was always too busy. Gareth Roberts, a prolific Doctor Who scriptwriter, has been given the job.

BBC Books declared the book a holy grail for fans. Editorial director Albert De Petrillo said: "Douglas Adams's serials for Doctor Who are considered by many to be some of the best the show has ever produced. Shada is a funny, scary, surprising and utterly terrific story, and we're thrilled to be publishing the first fully realised version of this Doctor Who adventure as Douglas originally conceived it."

In the story the Time Lord comes to Earth with assistant Romana to visit Professor Chronotis, who has absconded from Gallifrey, the Doctor's planet, and lives at St Cedd's, a fictional Cambridge college.

Ed Victor, the literary agent representing the Douglas Adams estate, said having Roberts novelise the Adams script was "like having a sketch on a canvas by Rubens, and now the studio of Rubens is completing it".

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  • APA 6th ed.: Page, Benedicte (2011-03-25). Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel. The Guardian p. 13.
  • MLA 7th ed.: Page, Benedicte. "Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel." The Guardian [add city] 2011-03-25, 13. Print.
  • Chicago 15th ed.: Page, Benedicte. "Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel." The Guardian, edition, sec., 2011-03-25
  • Turabian: Page, Benedicte. "Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel." The Guardian, 2011-03-25, section, 13 edition.
  • Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_script_by_Douglas_Adams_to_be_a_novel | work=The Guardian | pages=13 | date=2011-03-25 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=18 November 2024 }}</ref>
  • Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Doctor Who script by Douglas Adams to be a novel | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_script_by_Douglas_Adams_to_be_a_novel | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=18 November 2024}}</ref>