This is my first Target novel review in quite a while with the novelisation of Doctor Who’s first episode of the revived era, Rose. I always found the original episode to be massively overrated, everyone holds this to such a high standard being the big return of Doctor Who and the start of a new era, and I think it’s just alright. I do see where people are coming from and there are things it does excel at, the scenes with Eccleston and Piper are excellent, I think it does a great job with the mystery angle around the Doctor being viewed mostly from Rose’s perspective and how her curiosity pushes her to look deeper and deeper into who the Doctor is. There is a lot to love about this episode, but there is also a lot of really stupid awkward moments; the belching dustbin, plastic Mickey and his…I don’t even know what the hell that was in the restaurant scene, the Nestene Conciousness being a roaring blob of CGI that makes faces, the Autons themselves moving around like they’re in a disco during their rampage through London scene, not even close to being on par with the original invasion scene from Spearhead from Space! The music is also really corny with some odd choice of instrumentation. Also I’m just gonna say it, I don’t like Rose, she has so many moments during her time in the show where she’s just so unlikable. She hangs up on her terrified mother without saying anything after a city-wide massacre then leaves her boyfriend literally in the gutter to run off with the Doctor. But I can let a lot of it slide with it being the early stages of Modern Who, there’s always that finding your feet period with any new show.

So with that summary of how I feel about the first episode of the revived show, the novelisation is a much improved adaptation. I talked about this earlier in my previous reviews of the Target books, while at their most popular during Classic Who, the Target novels are at their best when adapting Modern Who stories. Because of the shorter runtime of the episodes, the writers really have to think outside of the box and properly build on the original work. Here we have the original writer himself Russell T. Davies, his first written work for Doctor Who since Torchwood Miracle Day, and he really ups the development from the original episode.

Some highlights of what makes this stand out from the original, obviously being focused on Rose we get some insight into her way of thinking and some of her previous mistakes in life like how she originally cheated on Mickey and dropped out of school for another boy. Our opening prologue centres on Wilson, the chief electrician who died offscreen in a very cold line from the Doctor, revealing that he was not quite an innocent man himself. Russell even addresses and rewrites some of the logic holes in the episode like why the lift doors didn't open during that first chase scene. We get some new characters and friends of Mickey and Rose who are starting out a band that they debate on the name of, eventually settling on Bad Wolf cos oooo subtle.

Clive's segement is another notable highlight, I remember watching the episode thinking it would be cool to have shown at least one or two photos of Classic Doctors, but looking at what Russell adds in this scene, I honestly think it was better having it be a subtle line about the title of Doctor being passed down. It was neat for the book to have all these photos of the different Doctors (including post-Nine Doctors and even a couple new Doctors Russell creates), but it would've been a bit much for a show acting as a reboot and predominantly catering to a new generation. It does go into what inspired Clive's obsession with the Doctor and his tragic life story.

The plastic Mickey scene was much better in this one, less awkward and more unnerving. I'm surprised just how much the story goes into the Time War and the Doctor's "bad day" which he speaks to Rose about, it almost makes a Target novel for The End of the World kind of redundant. But I do like that Russell addresses why the Nestene is so different compared to previous depictions as a result of the war devolving it. Where this story really shines is the creativity around the Autons, previously just being bland shop window dummies, a horrible CGI dustbin and plastic Mickey being goofy. Not to mention the original invasion scene being a lame and sanitised remake of the iconic scene from Spearhead from Space. In the book however there's a lot more variety with the Autons, separated top and bottom half of shop dummies taking on a life of their own, living statues you see all over London, plastic Mickey even comes back with a vengeance, plastic dogs, and the invasion is so well adapted, it's downright gory in some places! It's like Russell also felt the TV version was so lame and he wanted to compensate with a bloody massacre! And he gets more creative with the invasion showing how it plays out in different parts of the world with different plastic objects coming to life and becoming homicidal, collections of plastic water bottles coming together to form a giant! Then he writes about the plastic inside people, and my mind immediately flashed to Rose's line about breast implants and while the sadistic side of me was relishing the notion, I also let out a "Oh please god no Russell you sick bastard!", thankfully it doesn't go down that route. There's even a quick cutaway and a cameo from Donna Noble in one of her "Donna missed the whole thing" moments.

This book is a lot of fun to read, it's so alike yet completely different from the original episode, it does have some of that Russell self indulgence and ego, as well as being over the top and stupid as Russell usually is with his writing. I still think the episode is overrated but I did come away from the book appreciating more from it. If you're a fan of Series 1 it's well worth the read