When the target novelisations started, all the way back in the 60s, only a year after the show began, they existed as a way to let people who'd missed stories on broadcast still be able to experience them. Knowing what happened, catching up on important character details, or even just being able to experience a 'new' adventure. A fact that the author - Jenny T Colgan - mentions in her afterword, commenting on her history with the show, explaining that it's how she first experienced many classics.

When the target range was revived however, it was 2018. Every single episode of Doctor Who was just a few clicks away, just two years prior a Doctor Who spin off had released online only. The media landscape was a completely different beast to what it had been 20+ years prior when the range ended, and the novelisations had to change to reflect that.

Rose, for example, takes the story told on television and expands it in countless ways. It's more adult, there's more character, more details, plot points are expanded on and we really get into the heads of the characters. And The Day of The Doctor?! It's incredible, expanding on everything in so many different ways, adding new sequences, expanding on old ones, using the new medium to it's fullest.

The Christmas Invasion on the other hand, doesn't do this. Sure, we get a new prologue introducing some original characters, and explaining a bit more of the history of Guinevere One, but other than that and a new sentence of explanation or humour here or there, it's basically just a beat for beat retelling of the TV story. There are so many moments where I want to know what a character is thinking and feeling, to really get into their head, and the novelisation just doesn't unfortunately. The book is solely told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, which doesn't have to be a bad thing, but a story as emotionally charged as this one I think would've benefited from a different style of storytelling.

I mentioned the history of the range, and the history of the author, to aid in making this final point: I haven't read any of the classic target range, but this novelisation, to me, very much feels like what I'd expect of those. This book doesn't feel like it exists to expand on the TV story, it feels like it exists to retell the TV story, and I just don't think that's enough in a day and age when the original is literally 5 button presses (new tab, type 'i', click iPlayer, click Doctor Who (2005), click on Christmas Invasion) away.

Like all great Target novels, this breathes fresh life into the Doctor Who story being novelised. It's great being able to dive into Rose's inner thoughts when facing this fresh-faced new Doctor, and really get to grips with the Doctor's anger at Harriet Jones for destroying the fleeing Sycorax ship.