Who Novelisation Quest 9: "Rose" by Russell T. Davies

When the relaunch of the Target imprint was announced, there was a brief period of wondering which episodes would be adapted. There was one story, however, that was never in question. "Rose" began the resurrection of Doctor Who on screen in 2005, and so it was quite right that it would be part of the resurrection of the Target novelisations. Technically, this is the first release in the new run, although in practice they all came out together. Nonetheless, it still feels like the first. Even after thirteen years, "Rose" feels like a beginning.

It's a bit of a coup to get Russell the T back onboard to novelise his own story, but equally it's hardly surprising that he jumped at the chance. After all, he's a dyed in the wool Who fan who grew up reading these books. Even he has said in an interview that he feels like he really "counts" as a Doctor Who writer now. Davies has written for a DW book line before: Damaged Goods for the New Adventures back in the 90s. There are some similarities between the two books - the alien life meets council estates approach of Damaged Goods clearly signposted how Davies would retool Doctor Who later - they are very, very different books. Don't expect heavy drug use or gay sex from a Target novelisation, even in 2018. Nonetheless, Davies goes further with his novelisation than he ever did onscreen, with asides to Rose's abusive criminal ex-boyfriend and a much more LGBT-diverse cast of characters than were ever on television.

"Rose" the episode was a breathless affair, deliberately straightforward to make it as accessible as possible to new viewers, many of whom had never seen Doctor Who. The novelisation is a completely different animal, released into a different environment and for a different audience. Davies elaborates his original story in great depth - essential to make a forty-five minute episode into a novel-length story - and gives far more backstory to both major characters and walk-on parts. The episode began with Rose looking for Wilson to give him the lottery money, before being told that "Wilson's dead." The novel makes Wilson a character in his own right, before describing how the bastard has been creaming money from the Lotto fund, before leaving him to the mercies of the Autons. 

There's a lot of this in the novelisation; tweaking characters so that we're happier with their fates. Mickey comes off best; his backstory is cleared up, and he is made into something of a local hero, central to his little estate community with a band of close mates whom he looks out for. Given that he's a more positively written character in the book, Rose's dismissal of him as we saw on TV would have made her seem even harsher than before. In turn, then, her reaction to Mickey's actions and her final goodbye to him are kinder and more understanding. It's a complete reworking of the story, keeping the same story, with only a handful more plot beats, but bringing so much more depth that it feels almost completely new.

Given that the novelisations are aimed at established fans, Rose in book form is far more steeped in Doctor Who mythology than the episode ever was. Not only is the intended audience different, the series has moved on to the point where the first Doctor can co-star alongside the current incarnation at Christmas. The 2005 episode went to lengths to avoid looking back at earlier iterations of the series, with only the basic trappings - police box, sonic screwdriver - and the choice of the Autons as the monster to link it back to the classic series. 

One bit that really stood out for fans in the original episode was Rose's visit to Clive in his obsession shed. Aside from one line - "That's your Doctor there, isn't it?" - nothing suggested that the Doctor had ever looked like anything other than Christopher Eccleston. Of course, it's easy to understand why RTD didn't want to chuck in a bunch of old men in funny clothes and confuse new viewers, but there's no way that scene would be written the same way today. And so it's not. In the book, Clive files his documents by incarnation, kept in strict order as best he can figure out. Rose is shown photos of various Doctors, not only recognisable incarnations (although she does see the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth Doctors) but even potential future incarnations. The novels have been introducing possible future Doctors since Battlefield but it still adds a little something to the expanding expanded universe, and RTD really flies with it. Apparently, some day in the future the Doctor will look like a dark-skinned woman and wield a flaming sword, while in another life they'll be childlike and use a wheelchair, and own a robot dog (K-9 mark five?) In fact, it makes it clear that Davies was displaying admirable restraint when he wrote the script for "Rose."

Also, hats off to him for managing to incorporate Graham Norton's unintended voiceover from the original broadcast. Now that's novelisation.

Data: 
First published by BBC Books (Target imprint) in 2018
Based on "Rose," first broadcast in 2005
Audiobook read by Camille Coduri