The Star Beast (novelisation)

The Star Beast was the first of three Target novelisations based upon the 2023 specials of Doctor Who,Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials to be novelised for the Target range on doctorwho.tv published on 30 November 2023DWM 597 - Gallifrey Guardian, Page 4 by Target Books and written by Gary Russell.Doctor Who: The Star Beast (Target Collection) on penguin.co.uk
== Publisher's summary ==
to be added
== Chapter titles ==
# The Hunt
# The Star Beast
# The Psychedelic Sun
# Hour of the Beast
# Revenge of the Wrarth
# Countdown to Apocalypse
# Here We Go Again
== Deviations from televised story ==
* The opening sequence of the Doctor and Donna breaking the fourth wall is omitted.
* The Doctor implies that the TARDIS kicked him out.
* The milkman who appeared in , here named as Stew Ferguson, is given a central role in the story.
* The exact state of Donna's memories after having everything related to the Doctor removed is expanded on;
** From Donna's perspective, Lance Bennett simply disappeared on their wedding day, and her family removed all mention of him from her social media.
** Sylvia, Shaun and Wilf banned all mention of science fiction to prevent Donna being at risk of remembering the Doctor.
* The ringleader of the lads who harass Rose is given the full name Callum Wingate.
* Fudge and Rose mention their friend Sharon Allen.
* Fudge notes the Wrath Warriors he encountered came out of Mrs Higgins' garden.
* There is more of Fudge providing a running commentary on events to Sharon over the phone.
* The novelisation includes a female UNIT sergeant named Vaughan, who acts as Colonel Chan's aide and is the one who comes to the Nobles' front door in this version.
* The sleeping man the Doctor and company pass is named as Billy MacPherson, a friend of Stew who has a tendency to sleep through alien incidents.
* Instead of them being cut off, Rose insists her family go back to help and join up with Shirley.
* Shaun and Sylvia witness Rose becoming part of the metacrisis earlier than it is revealed on screen.
* It is mentioned that the Wrarth Warriors are working under the authority of Judge Scraggs.
* Fudge is stated to be working towards a new controller for his PlayStation.
* The Doctor directs UNIT to take the Meep into custody shortly before the second group of Wrath Warriors arrive to take over.
* The leader of the second group of Wrath Warriors is named as Captain Zagran.
* There are a number of fictional documents between the chapters, such as an exchange between Rose and her customer and a Wikipedia-esque article on Meepkind.
* The Doctor pretends to be about to hug Sylvia near the climax.
* Sylvia, Shaun and Rose's reaction to the TARDIS going out of control is omitted.
== Characters ==
to be added
== Worldbuilding ==
* The Nobles' home address is 23 Bachelor Road.
== Notes ==
* The trilogy of novelisations was announced on 14 July 2023.
* The novelisation was released as an eBook on 30 November 2023, and as a paperback on 11 January 2024.
** This novelisation will be released as an audiobook on 1 February 2024,DWM 598 - Gallifrey Guardian, Page 7 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Jacqueline King. However, according to Penguin Books' website, the audiobook will be released alongside the paperback on 11 January.Doctor Who: The Star Beast on penguin.co.uk
* The novel ends with a dedication to every single person to write a Doctor Who book to have passed away.
* A BBC Books spokesperson told Doctor Who Magazine about the excitement of being able to publish ebooks so close to a television event such as the 2023 specials.
== Continuity ==
* Stew remembers the events of /, mentioning "that time all them planets appeared in the sky".
* Stew recalls that his grandfather was a police officer after the war; evidently PC Ferguson from .
* The Doctor sees Megabyte City, the shop that Rose Tyler saw being looted in , which has long since gone out of business and remains boarded up.
* Wilf has since thrown away his copy of Joshua Naismith's Fighting the Future, the book Donna gave him for Christmas in .
== Gallery ==
The Star Beast novelisation TBA cover.jpg|The pre-artwork cover
The Star Beast novelisation cover.jpg|The finalised cover
2023 novelisations TBA.jpg|A promo picture of the unfinished covers for The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle
2023 novelisations covers.jpg|A promo picture of the final covers for The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle
The Star Beast audiobook TBA cover.jpg|The pre-artwork audiobook cover
The Star Beast audiobook cover.jpg|The artwork audiobook cover
== External links ==
* 
== Footnotes ==
=== Notes ===
=== Sources ===
Category:Target novelisations
Category:Fourteenth Doctor novelisations
Category:2024 novels
Category:Beep the Meep sources
Category:Sources set in 2023