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| Mass market paperback, 161 pages Published 2018 Acquired and read December 2019 |
by Paul Cornell
"Twice Upon a Time" is one of the least Christmassy Doctor Who Christmas specials; just a couple scenes of it take place at Christmas (though there are a couple more scenes in the snow). As a tv episode, I felt it left a lot to be desired: a couple good jokes, of course, but the episode begins with a character dilemma (will each Doctor give in to regeneration?) that it seems to forget about in favor of a not very interesting mystery (as the Doctor points out, the evil plan is a complete lack of an evil plan).
Cornell's novelization can't change the plot (or doesn't anyway), but the arc of the two Doctors' resistance to moving on is better explained, better explored, and better resolved. I also really liked what we learn about Bill Potts and her life after the Doctor-- and what we don't learn. It's not a great novel, but it is a very good novelization, and probably the best one this source material could sustain, to be honest, without major rewriting. Cornell does a great job pastiching the Terrance Dicks prose style, though he seems to lean less on that and get more introspective as the story goes on. The regeneration speech still isn't great, but it's better without the bombast of the episode, and I really liked the final chapter from the new Doctor's perspective.
There are some good jokes; my favorite was the one about Mary Berry of Great British Baking Show fame. It's not very Christmassy, but Cornell does bring out the poignancy of the Christmas armistice moment, and makes it more significant to the characters than it was in the episode as broadcast. All in all, another solid installment in this line of books.
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