Doctor Who: The Two Doctors

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #100

by Robert Holmes, John Nathan-Turner (Introduction)

Disturbed by the time travel experiments of the evil Dastari and Chessene, the Time Lords send the second Doctor and Jamie to investigate. Arriving on a station in deep space, they are attacked by a shock force of Sontarans and the Doctor is left for dead.

Across the gulf of time and space, the sixth Doctor discovers that his former incarnation is very much alive. Together with Peri and Jamie he must rescue his other self before the plans of Dastari and Chessene reach their deadly and shocking conclusion...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Audiobook

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1985

About the author

Robert Holmes was script editor of Doctor Who from 1975 to 1977 and the author of more scripts for the 20th-century incarnation of the programme than any other writer (64 episodes in all). He created or reimagined many key elements of the programme's mythology.


Holmes was, at the end of World War Two, the youngest serving officer in the British army. He became a police officer, graduating top of his class. He grew disillusioned with the job and became a journalist. By the 1960s he had branched out into writing screenplays for films and television series. In 1968 he received his first commission for Doctor Who. Over the next few years, he became one of the series' lead writers.

When Terrance Dicks resigned as script editor in 1974, Holmes took over the position. He continued to write scripts. After leaving the post, he wrote a few more before taking an extended break from the series. In 1983, as one of the series' most celebrated writers, Holmes was the first person asked to write the twentieth anniversary special, The Five Doctors. He declined but expressed an interest in writing for the series again.

Over the next three years Holmes contributed several scripts and was heavily involved in the planning of Season 23. However, he passed away before he completed the script for The Ultimate Foe and the planned ending of the story was altered.

After his death, his estate licensed the Autons and the Sontarans for use in independent video spin-off productions by Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions, most notably for the Auton Trilogy and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. Since 2005 the revived Doctor Who has featured the Autons in Rose, and the Sontarans in the two-parter The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, A Good Man Goes To War and two two-part storylines in The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Last Sontaran and Enemy of the Bane. They both appeared in The Pandorica Opens.

In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine conducted a reader's poll that named Holmes' The Caves of Androzani the best Doctor Who story of all time.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the fourth serial of the twenty-second season of Doctor, which was broadcast in February and March of 1985. It was written by Robert Holmes based upon his own teleplay. It starred The Doctor in his sixth regeneration and his companion Perpugilliam Brown (Peri), as well as former companion Jamie McCrimmon and the second version of The Doctor. It's a rather recursive story centering on the sixth Doctor rescuing the second version of himself in order to keep the secret of time travel safe from a consortium of baddies headed by one of his old enemies, the Sontarans. The story is set on an alien space station, and then shifts a little uncomfortably to Seville, Spain. It's markedly more violent and bloodthirsty than was usual for the franchise, leavened somewhat by Holmes' dark and dry infusions of humor; this is one of the stories that I've both seen and read and prefer the novelization.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the strongest story, but to have two Doctors meet and fight the Sontarions, I was willing to cut them some slack.
The TV show did have to coast quite a bit on the personalities of Doctors two, six and Jamie and that doesn't come across as strongly in the book.
The Sontarions are suitably threatening, the androgums are an attempt at a different kind of alien and there are some nice bits of Robert Holmes' famous humor mixed in nicely with the serious bits.

[Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who – The Two Doctors, by Robert Holmes. Target, 1985. Number 100 in the Doctor Who Library. 159 pages, paperback. ISBN: 0-426-20201-5. Original script by Robert Holmes, BBC 1985. Illustration by Andrew Skilleter.

This adventure features the 6th Doctor and Peri, and the 2nd Doctor and Jamie.

SPOILER WARNING: This review does contain spoilers.

The 2nd Doctor and Jamie are sent by the Time Lords to Space Station J7 to investigate attempts at time travel made by the station scientists. The Doctor talks to his old friend Dastari, among whose specialties is genetic engineering, who is appalled that the Time Lords want him to stop the research, even temporarily. When the station comes under attack by forces unknown, the Doctor and Jamie are swept up in the violence. The Doctor is taken prisoner by the attacking force and an Androgum named Chessene, whom Dastari has genetically augmented to astounding intellect. Jamie watches from hiding as the Doctor is killed and the invaders evacuate the station, leaving him alone.

Across time and space, the 6th Doctor feels something is wrong but can't put a finger one it. He brings Peri to space station J7, in hope of talking to his old friend Dastari. They arrive to find the station half destroyed, but its defense system active. The station seems bent on killing the Doctor and Peri. The Doctor outwits the station defenses while Peri stumbles across an almost feral Jamie. When Jamie describes the Sontarans as the attackers, the Doctor follows them to Earth, having discovered that his earlier self is alive and probably being held prisoner. And, with the time travel experiment in play, he has a good idea why the Sontarans need a Time Lord.

I've never been a huge fan of the 6th Doctor era. The Two Doctors is only story from the era that I actually like. I thought the number of pieces in play worked well in concert with the plot. I liked Robert Holmes's novelization of his own script. I thought his narrative captured the characters and settings very well. His added insight into the characterizations of the Chessene and Shockeye brought some life to them. While I think this is a good adventure for the Doctors (their interaction is sparkling), I don't think it's all that great for Peri or Jamie. Shockeye keeps trying to eat them.

I think, unless I've gotten my writers confused, Holmes was sometimes know for writing interesting character pairings. Jago and Litefoot from The Talons of Weng-Chiang come to mind. I thought it was great that in The Two Doctors, we get not one, but two such pairings. Oscar and Anita aren't in the book for all that long but their interaction endeared them to me as a great pairing. The other interesting pairing is that of the 2nd Doctor and Shockeye after the Doctor is nearly turned into an Androgum. It was unfortunate that it's their culinary adventure at Oscar's restaurant that led to Oscar's demise. His dying lines, though... Brilliantly over the top.

The Two Doctors is a good adventure for the 6th and 2nd Doctors but maybe not so much for Peri and Jamie. I think it's good storytelling and a well-written narrative, but I also think it is somewhat let down by the sheer amount of violence portrayed.

[Bart Lammey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh so Robert Holmes’ typewriter didn’t explode? Excellent.

Holmes probably uses as many 50 cent words as the Bakers did in Mark of the Rani, but I actually enjoyed this. I enjoyed it as much as the televised story, which is saying a ton, because there’s really no easy way to capture one of the best things about it, Troughton’s performance. Instead we get some good internal monologues from most of the main characters, some corrections to botche(by)d action, and a more threatening Shockeye.

Generalizing about races/species and other things that didn’t age well, even at the time (“mongrel dialect?!”) are also there in the novel, yet still can’t take away from how weird and good this story is. I can’t figure out why “Scientists” are getting a general lambasting in this era, yet imprimaturs and nebulizers and recognizing sedative chemical groups are just dandy terms to throw around. The power imbalance between The Two Sontarans and Dastari’s crew is also puzzling, but their scenes don’t stay around long enough to wear out their welcome. The War Games Doctor and this Doctor are very different characters, but I bet Troughton could have pulled off the change between the two in a single session anyway - he feels authentic either way, and Holmes makes them feel like the same character on the page. Peri manages to balance out the “I don’t get it” moments with several improvisations that actually work, and every last thing Jamie does, says, or thinks is a delight. ( Yes, even the weird failed pass he makes at Anita. )

Greater than the sum of its parts!

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite 5 stars, but definitely more than 4, a very enjoyable tale. Brings back the Second Doctor and Jamie, which are both great to see again, and they interact well with the Sixth and Peri.
The Sixth is perhaps a bit toned down, but still somewhat abrasive / arrogant, but the Second is very much treated as an equal nonetheless, and is just as abrasive / arrogant back, which makes for a good balance to the story.
Jamie and Peri are good in this story as well, bouncing well off both the Doctors, as well as getting a fair bit of action of their own as well.
A good range of one off characters here as well, even if most of them are on the less nice end of the scale, they all add to the plot well and have quite a few interesting interactions of their own right.
One of my favourite scenes is with the Second Doctor and one of the main antagonists going into town for a meal, good mix of horror and humour throughout that escapade.
Overall, a very enjoyable read, like all the multi Doctor stores seem to be :)

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who : The Two Doctors (1985) by Robert Holmes is the novelisation of the fourth serial of the twenty second season of Doctor Who. It was also the one hundredth Doctor Who novelisation published.

The second Doctor and Jamie travel to a space station to stop scientists developing time-travel. There they also meet the brilliant geneticist Dastari. The cook on the station is an Androgum, which is a species obsessed with food. The geneticist Dastari has also taken an Androgum called Chessene and made her super intelligent. Before long everything is going very badly and the Doctor is kidnapped and more villians from the Doctor’s past appear. Meanwhile the sixth Doctor and Peri travel to the same station and see the damage and start to piece together what has happened.

The Two Doctors is a strong serial and a good story. It doesn’t have too many characters and they are all well done. The TV serial was good too with the excellent Jacqueline Pearce playing Chessene.

[David Layton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robert Holmes is one of the most beloved of classic series script writers. His scripts are best, though, when he does not take to trying to lecture the audience through the story. Sadly, "The Two Doctors" is one of the lecture episodes. His novelization of it only intensifies this aspect. The lesson here is "don't eat meat," a lesson that gets pounded into every scene, just about. Thus, the story is lost in ham-fisted allegory. The novelization clears up a couple of things. One is that Androgums are supposed to be great hulking monsters, much bigger and stronger than what we got in the TV episode. There is a bit more of Botcherby's background. The restaurant name is different, and there is no joke at the expense of "thick" Americans who cannot pronounce Spanish names. Still, the fundamental flaw of the story remains.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp. Like many TV adaptations, it is highly action- and visual- focused; as it happens, I know what a Sontaran looks like anyway (and recognise the one on the cover), and I can picture both the Doctors involved when they are described, but if you didn't have that background knowledge I think you would find some aspects of this confusing. Some aspects of the plot are also of the time, although the presence of Jamie as a companion nuances the gender politics and some of the Androgum attitude to food could be read as a satire pointing towards the morality of veganism. Or as the sort of standard sci-fi stuff which Douglas Adams ripped off so well in Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got the audio book as narrated by Colin Baker.
The Two Doctors is my favorite Classic Doctor team-up.
Yes, it has non-sensical plot, but it always makes me smile because it is evident how much fun everybody had doing it.
The book version expands on the plot and makes some of it more clear and it is easier to follow.
It also adds much more depth to the cannibalistic Androgums (they would make a terrifying New Who monster if they were played straight!).
I do love Colin Baker, and he does a very good job reading and gives distinct voices to all the characters. It is a joy to listen to.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I vaguely remember liking this episode when I was a kid. I love it when the Doctors crossover into each other's timeline. Although the plot felt overly complicated, I still enjoyed revisiting this story.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com...

[Paul Charles Radio Show · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliciously dark tale,which is well written. This is one of the best Doctor Who books I have read in years.
Interestingly , there is very little direct interaction between the two Doctors but this is an enjoyable effort nevertheless.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story made better by the appearance of the Second Doctor and Jamie

[Julian White · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing novelisation of a poorly executed televised story.

[F.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more fun than watching the TV version.

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Two Doctors, as a TV story, has the reputation of being amongst writer Robert Holmes least successful scripts for Doctor Who. That fact, along with the story being the weakest of the three multi-Doctor stories of the classic series, makes its 1985 Target novelization all the more surprising. The story's novelization was to be the first, last and only contribution Holmes would make to that long running series (not including a small contribution to the novelization of The Time Warrior). In a way it's a shame because The Two Doctors works better as a novelization and does so in large part thanks to Holmes.

Holmes seems to relish the chance to novelize one of his own stories. The story is full of vivid characterizations that expand much on the character's seen in the TV version (which gives Holmes the chance, through the memory of Oscar Botcherby, to poke fun at the 1953 film of The War Of The Worlds). The Sontarans for example come across much better in the novelization as Holmes actually gives them a sense of presence though that might be due to ejecting both the over the top performance of Clinton Greyn as Stike (which one would expect in the novelization anyway) and the fact the novelization firmly reestablishes them as clones to the point of saying that the only way to tell the difference between the two Sontarans is Stike having a bit more gold on the shoulders of his uniform. Holmes has something of a reputation for the character's in his TV scripts and this novelization shows that gift could have extended to prose as well.

Another gift Holmes brings is pacing. The TV version of the story is almost pedestrian in its pacing but the novelization moves along at quite a pace. It races along, never staying in one place for too long and managing to bring a sense of tension to the Sixth Doctor and Peri's visit to space station Chimera. In fact, once everyone arrives in Spain the pace picks up as it builds towards the ending. Holmes takes a middling TV story and turns it into a page turner.

Which isn't to say that Holmes make The Two Doctors really a better story. The story still suffers from the weakness that it's a multi-Doctor where one Doctor just lies around for much of its length. The plot is still every bit of a jumble as it was on TV as it moves along without really any purpose or threat. In fact the novelization makes the attempt to make it look like the second Doctor died on space station Chimera make even less sense. The ending also still feels like something of an anti-climax but it oddly seems to work just a tad bit better here. As said previously, Holmes keeps the story moving though at a pace that puts the TV story to shame which helps but it doesn't fix the plot problems.

The novelization of The Two Doctors proves two things. The first is that while the plot of the TV version definitly had issues, the novelization shows that the writing behind it was solid. The second is that it makes a sad fact all too clear: Robert Holmes would have been a fine novelization writer. Reading this, it's hard not to wonder what he might have made of say The Deadly Assassin or The Talons of Weng-Chiang. For just being the single Target book by arguably the best scriptwriter of the original series, The Two Doctors novelization is well worth a read.

[Joel Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit biased because The Two Doctors is one of my top episodes with my second favorite Doctor:



And my favorite companion:




While reading, I can hear the dialogue and recall the scenes. However, since this is a novelization, I could also get more insight into the thoughts of the characters and expansion on specific settings or occurrences.

Hence, I do give this a high rating. Although, I'm curious where that rating would be if I never saw the episode?

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1068930.html?style=mine#cutid3[return][return]This is much the best of the Sixth Doctor novels, and it's a shame that Holmes didn't write any other novelisations. Somehow he seems very much in control of his material, especially filling out the background of the Androgums and the Shockeye/Chessene relationship. This is basically the only Sixth Doctor novelisation that one could recommend to a non-Who reader with confidence.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Holmes' only adaptation of one of his own Doctor Who television stories. It comes as no surprise that he chose one of his most controversial tales...and turns it into something brimming with wit and black humour. A book definitely worthy of celebrating the then-100th novel in the Target range.

[Reuben Herfindahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this isn't everyone's favorite Bob Holmes story but I've always loved it. I read the book before I saw the episode and both held up well. Sure the Doctor is violent, but it's not as if this is a surprise coming from Bob Holmes. The only real shame here is this is the only novelization we ever got out of him.

[Taksya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anche se scritta da Robert Holmes, come novellizzazione risulta più piatta dell'episodio tv.
I personaggi sono poco caratterizzati. Si riconoscono i tratti dei due Dottori (2 e 6) e dei companion (Jamie e Peri) perché si sa cosa si sta leggendo. Ma se il volume capitasse in mano di qualche neofita forse non coglierebbe le sfumature.
Alla fine risulta una trascrizione della puntata e poco più.

[Adam James · Rating 1 out of 5]

The episode of "The Two Doctors" is so awful that I figured the novelized version (by Robert Holmes, no less) would offer SOME insight into some of the original's misguided ideas.

It doesn't.

Holmes's novel is somehow even more ludicrously awful than the televised version.
And I'm not wasting any more of my life even thinking about this story, let alone writing about it.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Note: Reading novelizations while re-watching episodes.]

Solid. The best 6th Doctor episode yet. The Doctor's dialogue seems more natural and there's a nice mix of humor and action. A nicely written novelization of the show.

[Leela42 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixth Doctor and Peri, second Doctor and Jamie. The only novelisation Robert Holmes wrote. The TV show and novelisation supplement each other nicely, but the violence is quite frank.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny little novel. It is great for a rainy afternoon.

[Joseph Bristow ii · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an awesome book, me being a doctor who fan. read it a long time ago, worth reading again.

[Becci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book long before I saw the episode....