Eric Saward's Dalek Novelisations

Tanmann wrote:
I described Clara's opening motorbike journey from school to the Tardis, with her getting a bit wet from the vibration of her motorbike seat was a tad inappropriate.

I dunno, I find that to be a very pleasant visual

So did I, but still they seemed to want me to tone it down.

Tanmann wrote:However it got rather unfavourable feedback because I think the readers felt the way I described Clara's opening motorbike journey from school to the Tardis, with her getting a bit wet from the vibration of her motorbike seat was a tad inappropriate.

Is this fanfiction still up by any chance?

No, sadly not. I took a lot of my stuff down in the end.

I might have a draft of it saved somewhere on one of my older hard drives though.

Tanmann wrote:No, sadly not. I took a lot of my stuff down in the end.

I might have a draft of it saved somewhere on one of my older hard drives though.

You wouldn't mind sending the draft here, I have a feeling that some members might need it for 'educational purposes'...

Ok, I'll see if I can dig it out.

Mercury wrote:

Tanmann wrote:No, sadly not. I took a lot of my stuff down in the end.

I might have a draft of it saved somewhere on one of my older hard drives though.

You wouldn't mind sending the draft here, I have a feeling that some members might need it for 'educational purposes'...

Yeah...


Send it to me first, please. I really, REALLY need it for educational purposes.

Well I finished it just now.

It improves in some ways on the TV story, it flows and connects better, cuts out certain bits of fat, and has enough subtle differences to make a familiar story riveting. There's nice extra bits of characterization in there, making it feel a lot less misanthropic than the TV story.

It takes a few liberties I don't entirely buy. Suggesting the Doctor already had a history with Lytton beforehand, which feels like a sloppy retcon. Also there are a few glaring grammatical errors and gaps that I would've hoped an editor would've spotted and corrected.

The final added epilogue with Tegan I thought was a bit crap, and really feels like a Marvel movies mid closing credits teaser for the next film, that tries to add a real 'girl power' moment but just jars incoherently with the rest.

That put a bit of a downer on what was otherwise quite a nice read.

Another review on Amazon:

"An exciting novelization from the pen of the legendary Eric Saward"

Somehow I don't think you wrote this one either

If it didn't go on a tangent about Warriors of the Deep, it's not mine

My copy arrived this afternoon.

Mercury wrote:My copy arrived this afternoon.

How exciting.

Zarius wrote:I read a spoiler about Tegan and I think Eric's been watching Whoflix's fanedits.

I got curious and checked out that fanedit just now.

It's an improvement in some ways, making the first half a lot more pacey and coherent (particularly concerning making the twist about Stien more lucid).

On the other hand there were some scenes I was certainly sad to see left absent, like Davros choking on the realization that Lytton was talking about Dalek casualties of the war, Stien explaining why the bomb disposal squad were duplicated and why the cannisters were stored on Earth, the Doctor nearly executing Davros (even if it feels a bit of a plot development pulled out of a hat) and Turlough urging Mercer to abandon his friends for dead.

Ultimately I still think the end's a violent mess. Also cutting out the moment where the Doctor rationalizes to Tegan why Davros must die, I think was a mistake. It gave us an understanding of the imperative for the Doctor to decide he had no choice but to resort to using the virus, and that future millions could be at stake if he didn't act. Without it, something feels missing from his motivation to plague bomb an already in-fighting Dalek army.

Mercury wrote:My copy arrived this afternoon.

Have you got far into it yet?

Yeah, nearly finished.

So far, its surprisingly decent, not as convoluted as the TV story, but far from Saward's best writing...

Just finished it an hour ago.


The story wasn't as nonsensical and ballsy as the original TV episode and did have some good moments, however it was a rather generic novelization in comparison to TTD and AOTC.

The less said about the epilogue, the better. Hopefully Revelation will be better.

3/5

Yeah, I think it's around the point where Davros is revived, where it seemed to gradually stop being an interesting, expanded, improved new take on the original, and just downgraded into a generic, patchy rehash of the TV script.

It almost felt like he started with some ambitions and then was told the deadline was due, and so half-assed the rest.

Yeah that epilogue was very weird. Felt very tonally out of place.

Tanmann wrote:Yeah, I think it's around the point where Davros is revived, where it seemed to gradually stop being an interesting, expanded, improved new take on the original, and just downgraded into a generic, patchy rehash of the TV script.

It almost felt like he started with some ambitions and then was told the deadline was due, and so half-assed the rest.

Yeah that epilogue was very weird. Felt very tonally out of place.

Are you interested in Revelation?

Yeah I'm still looking forward to it. At worst it'd be a difficult story for him to screw up.

I have to say though, as a long-sought after book release, Resurrection doesn't seem to have generated half the talk among fans online I thought it would. Even on Gallifrey Base, discussion seems to be strangely muted and reserved.

I remember Saward creating a fictional alcoholic beverage called Voxnic in his earlier novels. I doubt anyone drinks it in his new novel?

Tanmann wrote:Yeah I'm still looking forward to it. At worst it'd be a difficult story for him to screw up.

I have to say though, as a long-sought after book release, Resurrection doesn't seem to have generated half the talk among fans online I thought it would. Even on Gallifrey Base, discussion seems to be strangely muted and reserved.

It's about 25 years late, that's why.

And yet it somehow still felt like a rush-job.

I'm about three-quarters of the way through this and can't say I'm really enjoying it.  The book is messy and disjointed - is Saward taking the piss or just a poor writer?  'Resurrection' isn't anywhere near my favourite story, nor am I particularly mad about the Davison era in general but still, the whole tale feels sloppy and rushed and Saward's attempts at Douglas Adams-style humour often fall flat:

"If Daleks could smile, this might have been the occasion to do so. But they couldn't. So they didn't."

Still, at least Jodie Whittaker's Doctor hasn't shown up yet: .

My advice to fans of this story or the morbidly curious - wait for the cheaper paperback edition to be released.

Sorry, Eric.

I never much rated Saward as a writer, and less so as a script-editor. But I was hoping for his sake that him doing this belated novelization would be his chance to vindicate himself against even critics like me, redeem something of his torched career, and prove that he could've made Resurrection and the Davison era something great, and from a distance could see and improve where it went wrong.

It is a bit saddening to see him stumble and fail again, I must admit.

I've got the money for it now. Should I just risk it? If anything it's something to read.