It's crazy to think that The Star Beast now has a version in every medium, starting off as a comic from the 80s before being adapted into audio by Big Finish in 2019, then an onscreen adaptation for the 60th anniversary and now a novelisation. I think that's a first in the franchise! My feelings on the novel are more or less the same, unlike most Target novels of the last few years, this one doesn't really add much or takes it's time with the plot, if anything it goes at the same speed as the episode. The only new additions is including the milkman from The Stolen Earth, each chapter ends with varying documentation (i.e. text messages, UNIT files, emails, galactic Wikipedia etc), the novel also gives a brief nod to Sharon, a lead character from the original story and I liked that the book got more in the head space of Sylvia and her constant anxiety throughout the story of the dangers of Donna's memory returning. It's a solid read.

I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Jacqueline King, and what a delight that was. She's done so many voices for Big Finish from Sylvia, to God, to Baba Yaga, I knew she'd be a great narrator and that she was. The voices for the characters, the Meep! Superb. The story itself doesn't diverge a huge amount from the original however I really like the addition of the milkman from the Stolen Earth. Its a surprising return, but it really adds a lovely little bit to the story which I already liked a lot. The story takes quite a lot of time to get to the meat and bones of the tv story, but when it does its full steam ahead. I would've liked perhaps more of Shirley, and the Nobles, but I did still thoroughly enjoy it nonetheless. I never vibed with the placement of the non-binary line it felt odd, so it was removed here which stuck out as one of the only removed lines. The whole "she'd have understood" bit is sadly still there, I still do not like this part of the story one bit.

A good adaptation to this story I think it’s a little slow however I enjoyed it none the less

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.