(3.5/5)

Jenny T. Colgan had the hardest job of any of the four authors who novelized an episode for this first wave of new Target books: she had to take an episode that I really didn't care for and make it a good novel. I just really didn't care for the televised version of The Christmas Invasion. The Doctor's asleep for nearly 3/4 of the story and I never much cared for Rose and Mickey, so it's near the bottom of my list of favorite Christmas specials. I say this to explain why I didn't adore this book. All the problems I have with it boil down to the problems I had with the original script and not with the actual writing of this novel. Jenny T. Colgan has a gift for prose and her prose is what makes this novel actually enjoyable. The plot is still extremely weak, but the way Colgan describes everything and the way she's able to get into the heads of each of her characters, and deepen our understanding of them, their emotions, and their motivations makes this book a worthwhile read.

On the surface, it's probably the novelization that stays the closest to what we saw on TV. Like Paul Cornell's Twice Upon a Time, she doesn't change a whole lot from the televised story to the novelization, but she does add some new stuff. Most of that new stuff comes in the form of superb characterization. There aren't many new scenes, but the point of view is often different when compared to the TV version. Colgan takes us into the heads of a lot of different characters, and the way she does that really elevates this mediocre story into an enjoyable one. She spends a lot of time with the UNIT folk and Harriet Jones, and the way she fleshes out all of those characters helps us forget the absence of the Doctor for a little bit. It helps that she's able to do the thing that Terrance Dicks (legendary Doctor Who writer who wrote like half of the original Target novelizations) did: she can weave a tapestry with just a few words and make it beautiful.

The Christmas Invasion is a weak story. The Doctor's literally just regenerated and he spends the vast majority of the story completely unconscious. That may have been super interesting and subversive when it aired, but it doesn't hold up all that well. You spend the whole time wishing it could just get on with it and bring the Doctor into the story. But it doesn't until the very end, and sure, that climax is really good, but it doesn't make up for the forty-five minutes that led up to it. Colgan's novelization suffers from this, too, but it's saved, primarily, by her excellent characterization and her beautiful prose. She's able to turn an episode I really dislike into a book I enjoyed well enough. It's easily my least favorite of the four new Target novelizations, but it's still very good. It's a big improvement on the actual episode and an enjoyable read, overall. ( )

I wish this book was more original but I still loved it. ( )

For no better reason than the time of year, I have read this novelisation of the first Christmas special from new Doctor Who, broadcast in 2005. It was David Tennant's first story and established the principle, repeated over the following few years, of a threat to Earth at the festive season (that in reality would rather have put people off this time of year!), presented in a rather more light-hearted vein that many of the main season episodes. That works on screen, for the most part, but this does not really, in my view, work as a novelisation. The story is a fairly pedestrian invasion story, with some visually impressive but ultimately unconvincing aliens. Seeing it written down, the dialogue is very banal. What rather annoyed me at the time of viewing, and again now, was the Doctor's self righteousness at Prime Minister Harriet Jones' destruction of the invading Sycorax spaceship after the Doctor has basically ordered them sternly to leave. While consistent with the Doctor's own morality, I thought it rather unfair to insist that Jones, with an understandably very different viewpoint on an existential threat to her planet, adopt the same approach. This was characteristic of an era where the Doctor was so often described, and indeed described himself, as a near omnipotent figure. ( )

This is exactly what a novelisation should be, I reckon, a pretty straight retelling of the television episode that reminds you why you liked it so much. Actually, "The Christmas Invasion" isn't one of my favorites, but like all Russell T Davies stories, it's chock-ful of brilliant moments, which Colgan usually captures. Jackie Tyler gets all the best lines, and I love the way everyone in the universe reacts to Harriet Jones. Some moments, like a swordfight or an evil Christmas tree, aren't really suited to prose, but she makes up for it by fleshing out the characters. By the end of the book, I really liked Sally Jacobs, the secretary at UNIT I probably wouldn't have even remembered before opening the book. Colgan gives us some nice moments with her, especially the night as the Sycorax ship approaches. Now I want to know when she will reappear in Big Finish's UNIT audios! The fleshing out of Major Blake (surely the shortest lived UNIT-UK commanding officer) was nice too.

Colgan also has a good handle on the regulars. There's a great moment at the book's end, where this new Doctor realizes what's changed about his relationship with Rose Tyler, and he's excited and frightened all at once. It's a good piece of characterization, and some nice foreshadowing of "Doomsday" all at once.

"The Christmas Invasion" isn't a very Christmassy story to be honest; most of the seasonal flavor on screen comes from visuals and music, which don't replicate well on the page. But I liked how Colgan used apt Christmas carols for chapter titles (e.g., "Do You Hear What I Hear?" when Mickey and Jackie hear the TARDIS land), and the closing Christmas dinner is a highlight of mixed emotion, like Christmas dinners so often are. Like the best Doctor Who Christmas books, a nice way to get into the spirit of the season.

(This is the first of the 21st-century Target novels I've read; it's a very nice little retro package. I particularly liked the "CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO" blurb for the tenth Doctor.)

Rose and the Doctor have returned to London for Christmas Eve. What good timing: the UK’s Guinevere One space probe has been intercepted by the Sycorax, who have nefarious designs on the Earth’s inhabitants. (The fact that they refer to us as “cattle” might be a hint that enlightened intellectual discussions are not on the agenda.) But what bad timing: the Doctor has just regenerated and his body is unstable as a result. It may be up to Rose Tyler to save the planet…

This is one of the Target Books novelizing episodes of “New Who” (the 2005 reboot of the series). Jenny Colgan learned her Doctor Who craft from devouring Target books as a child, and she presents this story excellently in print. As a bonus, we also get the mini-episode produced for the 2005 Children in Need Special—it’s the prologue and the first two chapters of this novel. Adding the special gives us more context for the regeneration and why Rose is having trouble coming to grips with it. This is a great addition to the Target library and I recommend adding it to your Doctor Who shelves. ( )