I don’t know which topic this fits in. It was either this or books but books didn’t feel quite right. Anyways, I had this question pop up in my mind a few days ago when I saw the new target books that were announced. At During that time I thought about making one but it would be a huge commitment and I already have a lot of writing projects . If I did do one it would probably be just a personal thing due to the nature of it but what are your thoughts on this and if you have made one what was your process?
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I’d never thought about it before, but that sounds fun! I’ve really been liking the target novelizations for nuwho so far.
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I’ve never considered doing one, but I would probably try to adapt “The Unicorn and The Wasp” because it’s one of my favorite episodes, and I doubt it will ever have a novelization (which is for a good reason because the episode was written by Gareth Roberts).
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Never done one, though I can imagine first thing would be to grab a copy of the transcript for the episode (Both from The Doctor Who Transcripts and the official scripts, if there: Script Library - Whoniverse ), then watch through a few times, probably taking notes on what all the different scenes on the episode are and important details on each scene…
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I kind of want to do a novelisation slash rewrite of K9 the series mostly because it annoys me how much wasted potential there was in there. If I were to seriously do this, I’d probably bundle several episodes together rather than go through each one
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Well, you know, those transcripts are there, too…
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The only way I’d do a novelization is if I was doing an AU where the episode in question involved different Doctors, companions, etc; or if there as a specific reason why I wanted to write the novelization (as in, I want to redo a scene I don’t like in canon or expand upon a certain plot point). Besides that, I personally don’t see the appeal of writing out an episode beat by beat without changing anything substantial.
I have done rewrites of canon scenes, but that’s as far as I’d go. I’d rather write a novel of my own original idea.
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Thinking about it, if I was novelizing K9, I’d probably keep some of the original bad dialogue, but have people act the way a person would if someone had said that in real life…
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The latter is what I was thinking about doing. The main thing I would be worried about though is knowing whether or not the things I add would fit in with the episode It’s a bit boring when it’s just an episode in novel form.
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Without knowing the details, we wouldn’t know if it would fit in, but I will say that if it sounds exciting for you to write, I wouldn’t concern myself too much on if it fits in with the episode. You’re writing for fun and fanfic is all about testing boundaries and diverging from canon.
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Your right but it’s something that’s in my mind whenever I think about it.
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I was going to say no and then remembered that I once did the reverse and tried to turn the Black Orchid novelisation into a script. There was a very long section of the rules of cricket, I remember. I don’t think I ever finished it.
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As someone who is just starting writing prose, I’m extremely interested in this.
I probably would write a novelisation of Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.
Or Midnight
Or The Parting of the Ways
Or Turn Left
Or Blink
Or… You get the gist!
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To answer your Question: I did actually think about doing one of Dimensions in Time, but never did, since like you said it’s a huge Commitment and rarely does take a Priority for many. Maybe one day I will actually try to do it.
Good luck if you ever decide to give it a proper Go!
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I’ve never tried writing a novelisation but when I was very young (probably about 7 or 8) I did try writing my own Doctor Who ‘novel’. I was reading a lot of the novelisations at the time so my writing style was heavily influenced by the likes of Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke. So, if I were to try writing a novelisation, I’d probably try and write it in that sort of style. The TARDIS would have to land with a ‘wheezing, groaning sound’ and I’d need to include a chapter called ‘Escape to Danger’.
I’m not sure what story I’d choose though. Maybe I’ll try and make sense of ‘Dimensions in Time’.
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I have thought about writing some adaptations, but I think it would be even more fun to write AU versions of stories instead of just straight adaptations.
I have some ideas now…
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Oh, definitely, like a version of Time and the Rani where 6 doesn’t get killed by some light turbulence and survives the whole story…
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Like many here, I’ve never even thought about this but it sounds fun! But I can’t even work on my own planned projects so I definitely won’t be doing this any time soon 
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Of course, you could also start retelling serials after “City of Death”, only with Duggan on the TARDIS team. So “Duggan and the Creature from the Pit”, “Duggan and the Nightmare of Eden”, “Duggan and The Horns of Nimon”…
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Hmm, Doctor Who Magazine 184 has a one page story about Duggan in it…
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