Doctor Who: The Well

Doctor Who: Target Books

by Gareth L. Powell

A terror from the past is rising from the darkness five miles deep.

Joining a military rescue mission to an isolated mining colony, the Doctor and Belinda find a single survivor of a violent catastrophe. What killed the colonists? Why is every mirror in the base smashed? The chilling truth spells horror and death...

This spinetingling space adventure from Sharma Walfall and Russell T Davies is novelised by award-winning SF and horror writer Gareth L. Powell. It features the Doctor and Belinda as played by Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 2025

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/doctor-who-the-well-by-gareth-l-powell/

I was a bit surprised by the news that Gareth Powell had been assigned the job of writing the novelisation – I don’t think he has published any other tie-in literature, instead developing his own complex universes. But it makes perfect sense – Powell’s writing is definitely on the more advanced side of military SF, and The Well is the most military Doctor Who story for years; the Doctor and Belinda even change into military uniform, before the horror part of the story gets going.

And of course it’s a good piece of work. A lot of the appeal of the episode was visual, which can be difficult to translate onto the printed page, but Powell actually uses this for freedom to explore the rather small world of the Well and its visitors a bit more. The story is broken up by brief bios of the military characters, fleshing them out a bit more than we got on screen. The tension of the plot is effectively maintained. I felt pretty satisfied.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novelisation expands significantly on the televised script, with background profiles on Captain Shaya and her troopers, more insight on how the Entity tormented the Doctor, and a few expanded/new scenes not in the episode. There's even a prologue which gives us a little more insight on the Midnight Entity but not to the point that any of the mystery is lost.

I can tell a lot of passion went into writing this one, as Powell frequently shared his excitement on Instagram, and that's something I love - when an author has no restraint and wants to shout and rave about their work. And, in fairness, I think Powell had good reason to. This is a true Target novel, so far as it captures the spirit of and is faithful to the original episode, but also expands on it and offers new treats exclusive to the book.

Parts of Chapter 9 recount the events of "Midnight" and this is good for two reasons; firstly, it makes the story feel more complete and whole, with cameos from the Tenth Doctor and Donna as well, and secondly, it also makes it more accessible to newer fans whose Target novel this may be their first.

I think at times the exposition would get too 'chunky'. As I said, I love the expansions in the Target novels, but in this case, paragraphs and paragraph of exposition would be sandwiched between two continuous lines of dialogue, and sometimes by the time we got back to the dialogue I'd forgotten what the conversation even was. So perhaps the exposition could have been broken up a little better, in the same way that classic series Target novels did.

In the audiobook version specifically, there are a few notable editing mistakes where Dunne's reading skips ahead a couple of seconds, but I acknowledge this is not at all a fault of the book itself so it does not impact my score.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adapting the third episode of the Fifteenth Doctor's second season, Gareth L. Powell's  Doctor Who: The Well takes one of Doctor Who's most tense and suspenseful episodes and crafts it into a taut psychological thriller that stands strong against the competition. Like the rest of the most recent wave of Doctor Who novelizations, The Well plays out nearly identically to its televised counterpart. But what makes The Well stand out from the other recent Fifteenth Doctor novelizations is that its story is the rare one that works exceedingly well as both a novel and an episode of a TV series. Here, Powell expands the world of the story by offering brief glimpses at the histories behind the various members of the rescue crew, giving some of the tertiary characters some much-needed depth.

But mostly, The Well is just a darn effective bit of psychological tension. Powell's novelization is every bit as good as the original episode was, making excellent use of the story's inherent tension. And since the story's villain is inherently unknowable, Powell's given free rein to really lean into the inherent horror in the unknown. It's a quick shot of terror wrapped in a very Doctor Who package that stands as a lovely complement to the original episode. It doesn't necessarily offer anything strikingly new to the story, but it's an immensely enjoyable way to experience the story nonetheless.

Reviewed as part of Geek Vibes Nation's July 2025 Book Round-Up.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adaptation of a scary episode produces a very atmospheric book, an improvement on the original. Horrors work better in the mind than before the eyes. There are some nice expansions on events and backgrounds for the troopers. We even get to know what the Doctor signs to Aliss which was left untranslated on television. In the episode this served to demonstrate to the rest of us what it must be like for deaf people when we turn our backs or don't take care to ensure they can see our faces when talking. However, it was good to finally know what was said. I especially liked the character of Shaya, with her ruthless dedication to service finding room for compassion and doing the right thing. All too rare in the real world

[Alli_aye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great novelisation of the episode. Great episode. The extra info on the soldiers works well. The prologue showing the entity off the planet is done super well, nice and creepy

I’ve never thought about how a sonic works, so I liked this explanation;
p80 if he tried to explain that the sonic worked via a psychic connection that fed his wishes through an internal computation matrix the size of a planet yet encased in something no larger than a mobile phone

[John]

It was never going to be able to replicate the sheer spectacle of the episode but I was impressed with how it managed the psychological element. Lots of expanded character work. A solid way to experience the story with great narration from Dunne

[Mori]

I figured after watching the episode like 30+ times that I should also read the novelization of it