Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)

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Scream of the Shalka is the novelisation of the webcast serial of the same title. This book, written by Paul Cornell and published by BBC Books in February 2004, was the first novelisation of an officially licensed Doctor Who story since the 1996 novelisation of Doctor Who. As of 2023, it is the only novelisation based upon a webcast, with the exception of The Night of the Doctor, which is included in the novelisation of The Day of the Doctor.

Publisher's summary

When the Doctor lands his TARDIS in the Lancashire town of Lannet, in the present day, he finds that something is terribly wrong. The people are scared. They don't like going out onto the streets at night, they don't like making too much noise, and they certainly don't like strangers asking too many questions.

What alien force has invaded the town? Why is it watching barmaid Alison Cheney? And what plans does it have for the future of the planet Earth?

The Doctor is helped (and hindered) by his new military liaison Major Kennet and his Royal Green Jacket troop. His old enemy the Master also plays a small part. During the course of this adventure he encounters a brand new race of ferocious alien monsters, and strikes up a friendship with his latest companion, Alison.

While starting with a small community under threat, this old-fashioned, very traditional but very up to date Doctor Who adventure takes in the entire world, from New Zealand to India, Siberia to the USA, and cosmic expanses beyond.

This is the novelisation of BBCi's acclaimed Doctor Who adventure, first broadcast over the Internet in November 2003.

Chapter titles

  1. Unwelcome Visitors
  2. Enter the Doctor
  3. The Underground Terror
  4. The Enemy Revealed
  5. The First Victory
  6. Military Matters
  7. No Escape
  8. Into the Depths
  9. The Shalka
  10. In the Hands of the Enemy
  11. Into the Vortex
  12. A Captive and a Mystery
  13. The Doctor's Experiment
  14. The People in the Forest
  15. The Army of the Shalka
  16. The Doctor Takes a Chance
  17. A World to Save
  18. The Death Principle
  19. The Doctor and the Master
  20. The Final Battle
  21. Farewells

Deviations from the webcast

  • The line to the Doctor, "While you can, be eccentric and superior", is delivered in the webcast as a joke, while in the book it's a scathing put-down.
  • The caretaker is given the name Mitch Stannard, and Joe's last name is identified as Latham.
  • The Master's face is fully detachable instead of just "opening", and it keeps falling off. Additionally, the endoskeleton face is described to be more humanoid, than in the webcast.
  • When the Doctor transports major Kennet and his soldiers in the TADRIS, the scene is extended with an extra dialogue between Kennet and the Master.
  • When the Doctor calls the TARDIS from the mouth of the Shalka, the Master identifies the laugh in the background of the automatic response message, as the one belonging to "her".
  • When Alison talks with the Master after the Shalka defeat, he reveales his nature to her by taking off his face.

Author, writing, and publishing notes

  • The novelisation was published in the same paperback format as the BBC's ongoing Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures lines, which at the time were alternating release schedules. However, Scream of the Shalka was uniquely published between the EDA Sometime Never... and the PDA Empire of Death, making it a part of neither line.
  • The adaptation of the story itself runs 194 pages, making it one of the shortest Doctor Who novels published since the Virgin New Adventures line was launched in 1991. The remainder of the book is taken up by "The Making of Scream of the Shalka", a behind-the-scenes chronicle also written by Cornell.
  • Details about the planned sequels to Scream of the Shalka were published in Obverse Books' 2017 The Black Archive reference book Scream of the Shalka.

Audiobook

The unabridged audiobook of the novelisation was released by BBC Physical Audio on 4 June 2016. It was read by David Collings.

External links

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According to one account, the Master had the appearance of Roger Delgado while on Gallifrey. According to another, he had Anthony Ainley's likeness. According to another one, the one with James Dreyfus's appearance was the incarnation who ran away from Gallifrey.

Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords and The Legions of Death feature, or otherwise acknowledge, the War Chief, but in the process contradicted the notion put forward by other stories that he was an incarnation of the Master.

One account suggests that the incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado may be the same as the one portrayed by Peter Pratt while some others distinguish them.

According to one account, the incarnation portrayed by Gordon Tipple is the one portrayed by Anthony Ainley, while some others state that the Ainley one was already lost by then.

While fighting to extend his life at the end of his regeneration cycle, many bodies were possessed by the Beevers incarnation, but all kept somehow reverting to his real being until he finally regenerated into the MacQueen one. Hence, these sections cannot be strictly chronological
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