Gareth Roberts Is Novelising "City Of Death"

Doctor Who scribe Gareth Roberts has confirmed on Twitter that he is writing a novelisation of Season 17 story "City Of Death".

The story, regarded by many fans as one of the finest from the original series, was credited to "David Agnew" - otherwise known as Douglas Adams, who extensively rewrote David Fisher's original script. The City Of Death novelisation follows on from Roberts's well received Adams adaptation of the uncompleted "Shada" in 2012.

We're excited about this news for a number of reasons: one, "City Of Death" really was a fine story; Roberts's Shada book was enormous fun; and, most of all, we're one step closer to having all of the original Who stories being novelised! If City Of Death is a success, which we imagine is highly likely, surely "The Pirate Planet", the other un-novelised Adams story, from Season 16, would soon follow (and complete the Key to Time novels).

That would just leave two Dalek stories: "Resurrection Of The Daleks" (the Davison one), and "Revelation Of The Daleks" (the Colin Baker one). Eric Saward refused to novelise his original scripts because it would have meant giving too much money to the Terry Nation estate. But could he be persuaded now? Maybe he would allow another writer to do the duties? (Roberts?) We can but hope. But we're optimistic that one day, one fine day, our Doctor Who novelisations collection will be complete!

As for all the new Who stories since 2005, um...