The Fourteenth Doctor #03

'The Star Beast' (2023) from Target Books.

As my first Target Books novelisation I have to say that The Star Beast was a slight disappointment. Aside from getting a bit more of Sylvia's perspective on the story, this is pretty much a direct script-to-novel adaptation, including a couple of extra moments and a new character that were omitted from the televised story. All of the same pros and cons with the 60th anniversary special aside from that for me, with it being a short and fun story, the Meep is a fun little villain, and the Doctor and Donna's relationship is nice to see unfold, but the forced gender politics and strange "let it go" stuff doesn't work for me at all. Glad that the "non-binary" moment seems to be one of the only omissions from the televised story here, but the scene still plays out the same. It's just odd.

The Star Beast: 7.2/10 - The Star Beast is a TV story I like a lot. This novelization was a somewhat middling one however. The length of this book definitely adds to the reasons why I think this book is worse than many others. There is simply little room for the plot to breathe and the additions, like a lot of other stories, are few and far between. I do, however, really like the milkman from The Stolen Earth returning which adds a nice little call back to that episode. Overall, despite struggling from a lack of pagetime, the story is still very good and is a fun and concise read.