Twice Upon a Time is possibly my favourite Doctor Who Christmas special, and I think it’s one of the best episodes overall. I was quite surprised to see it get a novelisation, when it is so heavily tied to the World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls two-parter that preceded it, but I’m very pleased it did. I’m also very happy that Paul Cornell (one of the best Doctor Who writers) was the person to end of doing it, because everything I’ve read by him has been fantastic.
For those who need a refresher, the original Doctor Who episode that this is based on (written by Steven Moffat) is about the Twelfth Doctor coming to the end of his life and refusing to regenerate because of the amount of pain and trauma he’s experienced beforehand. He encounters the First Doctor, at the end of his own life, who, to his surprise, is also refusing to regenerate – the two of them then get caught up in an adventure involving a time-displayed captain from the First World War and a mysterious woman made of glass.
The novelisation doesn’t make any huge deviations to the storyline, but it does flesh certain things out quite well – especially the First Doctor’s motivations. It reveals that part of his reason for not wanting to regenerate is that he wants to see his granddaughter Susan again in the same body that he originally knew her in and also strongly suggests that the uncharacteristic misogynistic nonsense he comes out with during this story is purely said for the sake of winding up the Twelfth Doctor (rather than being what he actually believes).
Another excellent addition, which I won’t spoil, is that it gives a detailed account of what happened to both Bill and Nardole after the end of The Doctor Falls. I was especially glad that we got some closure for Nardole, since his fate was left pretty open-ended. These were probably the biggest new revelations in the book, but throughout the whole thing there are countless nuggets of information which are just absolutely delightful if you’re a Doctor Who fan.
Although I would recommend watching the original episode first (it’s fantastic) this is a great way to re-experience it and is sure to be a fun read for anyone who’s especially fond of the Twelfth Doctor. It’s probably the best Doctor Who novelisation I’ve read so far.
Rating: 8.9/10
