Twice Upon a Time (novelisation)
Twice Upon a Time was a novelisation based on the 2017 television episode Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"]. It was published simultaneously with Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (novelisation)"], The Christmas Invasion [+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], and The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"] in 2018 and thus was tied with those stories as the first release under the Target Books banner since The Paradise of Death in 1994.
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
- Prologue
- Unexpected Meetings
- The Captain
- Inside the Box
- Confrontations
- Cats and Space Adventures
- The Glass Woman
- Escape to Danger
- A Dance to the Music of Time Lords
- The Ruins
- Heart of Glass
- Old Friends
- The Tower
- Enter Rusty
- A Whirlpool in Time
- The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
- The Long Way Round
- Fear Makes Companions of Us All
- The Doctor Rises
- 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 [+]Loading...["The Doctor Falls (TV story)"].
- The Doctor mentally swears by "the Rivers of Rassilon".
- 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 mention 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. In narration, his first name is revealed even earlier.
- The Twelfth Doctor's ring is identified as his wedding ring in honour of River Song.
- The Twelfth Doctor recalls meeting all the people whose names he uses as nicknames for his first incarnation.
- Nardole's glass avatar mentions that Nardole's death would arrive ultimately at the age of 728 years old.
- The First Doctor's exaggerated behaviour is explained as him deliberately annoying the Twelfth Doctor, as he initially didn't like him.
- Archie inspects the Doctor's VHS recording of "the Daleks' master plan". The Twelfth Doctor considered that "they'd dearly love to get that back, having lost their own copy centuries ago."
- More detail is given on the battle which took place before Archie ended up in the crater with the German soldier.
- The First Doctor is explained to have deliberately taken a passive role towards the Cyberman invasion in The Tenth Planet [+]Loading...["The Tenth Planet (TV story)"] because he knew beforehand how the events would play out.
- When the First Doctor is shown images of his future, the Twelfth Doctor is reminded of how his previous selves destroyed Skaro, fought in the Time War, and drove Captain Adelaide Brooke to suicide, as well as of the fates of Adric, Donna Noble, and Bill.
Writing and publishing notes
- 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.
- This is the most recent novelisation to not be written by the original scriptwriter.
Additional cover images
to be added
Audiobook
This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 21 June 2018 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Mark Gatiss.
Audiobook cover
