Book Review: Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder by Mark Morris

Book #34 of 2024:

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder by Mark Morris

This is a stronger novel than Gary Russell’s adaptation of The Star Beast, but only because Wild Blue Yonder is the superior episode of Doctor Who. Author Mark Morris’s novelization of the Russell T. Davies script faithfully captures the familiar plot beats, yet there’s very little new material that he brings to the task in the way of character interiority or additional scenes, which would seem to be the main benefit of reproducing an existing TV story into the written medium. It’s also sadly the case that this particular show special is pretty heavily driven by its eerie visuals and talented performances, which do not translate well to the page at all.

It is still a fine tale: the Fourteenth Doctor and his friend Donna Noble, reunited and traveling together once again, encounter a derelict spaceship on the literal edge of the universe and eventually discover that it’s populated by two malevolent entities from the other side who have copied their appearances (when they’re not losing control of their bodies and warping grotesquely). The TARDIS has temporarily dematerialized, taking the hero’s handy sonic screwdriver device with it, leaving the pair of time-travelers stranded with only their wits to somehow outmaneuver their doppelgänger enemies as the ship’s corridors slowly transform around them.

It’s a great premise. Any hypothetical reader who hadn’t already watched these events play out on-screen would probably enjoy it, but for those of us who can draw the comparison, the tension and dramatic reveals whenever one of the protagonists isn’t sure if the other is an imposter just fundamentally work better when we can see the actors’ faces and can’t see inside anyone’s mind. The book also inherits without change the weakest part of the original version, the Doctor’s almost-disastrous mistaking of the false Donna for the real one near the end. In a storyline about reestablishing the characters’ old trust and partnership, that’s not necessarily a bad development, but it’s one that should have been addressed with emotional consequences and earned rapprochement, rather than simply shrugged off as it is here/there. That moment is likewise a missed opportunity for the Time Lord to notice something actually wrong with his putative companion’s behavior or comments — thereby demonstrating that he does truly know her — instead of apparently spotting at the last second that one of her arms is infinitesimally too long.

My contention remains that these 2023 Doctor Who novelizations were released too early, all within a week of their respective episodes airing on television. With greater time and distance, the writers could have dug more into the finished works and their critical audience reception, reflectively iterating and tweaking in a way that might have improved matters. Without that possibility for this title, the result is a bit of a not-thing itself: close enough to the genuine item at a glance, but only an inferior facsimile on closer inspection.

[Content warning for body horror and suicide.]

★★★☆☆

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