Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)

Twice Upon a Time
Based on:	Twice Upon a Time
Doctor:	Twelfth Doctor
Featuring:	First Doctor, Bill, Archibald, Ben, Polly, Nardole, Rusty, Clara, Cybermen, Thirteenth Doctor
Main setting:	Antarctica, December 1986 Villengard, the far future Ypres, Christmas 1914
Key crew
Publisher:	Target Books
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Read by:	Mark Gatiss
Cover by:	Anthony Dry
Release details
Release date:	5 April 2018
Target novelisations
← Previous	The Day of the Doctor

Twice Upon a Time was a novelisation based on the 2017 television episode Twice Upon a Time.

Publisher's summary

Discover the new Doctor Who classics.

Still reeling from his encounter with the Cybermen, the First Doctor stumbles through the bitter Antarctic wind, resisting the approaching regeneration with all his strength. But as he fights his way through the snowdrifts, he comes across the familiar shape of a blue police box, and a mysterious figure who introduces himself as the Doctor...

Thrown together at their most vulnerable moments, the two Doctors must discover why the snowflakes are suspended in the sky, why a First World War Captain has been lifted from his time stream moments before his death, and who is the mysterious Glass Woman who knows their true name. The Doctor is reunited with Bill, but is she all she seems? And can he hold out against the coming regeneration?

Chapter titles

1. Prologue
2. Unexpected Meetings
3. The Captain
4. Inside the Box
5. Confrontations
6. Cats and Space Adventures
7. The Glass Woman
8. Escape to Danger
9. A Dance to the Music of Time Lords
10. The Ruins
11. Heart of Glass
12. Old Friends
13. The Tower
14. Enter Rusty
15. A Whirlpool in Time
16. The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
17. The Long Way Round
18. Fear Makes Companions of Us All
19. The Doctor Rises
20. Epilogue

Deviations from televised story

• Heather's fate is elaborated upon, and Bill's inability to remember her is addressed. Nardole also reveals what happened to him aboard the colony ship after the events of The Doctor Falls.
• The conversation between the two Doctors on Villengard is extended; the Twelfth Doctor is able to explain to the First what his reasons are for refusing to regenerate. They are also attacked by Dalek mutants before entering the tower, and the First Doctor wards them off with the sonic screwdriver.
• The First Doctor accepts the Twelfth Doctor as a future incarnation much earlier.
• The Testimony reveal that they know the Doctor's name.
• The First Doctor's final words are slightly changed, and more dialogue is added.
• The Captain reveals his first name much earlier, as he introduces himself to Bill as Archie.
• The Twelfth Doctor's ring is identified as his wedding ring in honour of River Song.
• The Doctor recalls meeting all the people whose names he uses as nicknames for his first incarnation.

Writing and publishing notes

Audiobook cover.

• This story was released as an audiobook read by Mark Gatiss.
• Chapter 16, "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years", shares its title with a short story published in The Daily Telegraph in 2007 which was also written by Paul Cornell.

Additional cover images

to be added