Aliens of London

by Joseph Lidster

The Doctor brings Rose home a year after she left… to find London in chaos. A spaceship has crashed into the Thames and an alien body lies in the wreckage. The Doctor uncovers a chilling conspiracy at the heart of Downing Street as ruthless alien invaders take control – members of the Family Slitheen.

The Doctor, Rose, and the MP for Flydale North must fight to expose the Slitheen infiltration – before the Earth falls prey to a deadly interstellar con that will ignite World War Three.

Starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose, Russell T Davies’s blockbuster action-adventure was the first two-part story of the modern series in 2005. It is novelised by playwright and screenwriter Joseph Lidster.

Genres: Doctor Who

240 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2026

About the author

Joseph Lidster is an English television writer best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

His debut work was the audio play The Rapture for Big Finish Productions in 2002. Numerous further audio plays and prose short stories followed for Big Finish, for their Doctor Who line, spin-offs and other series (Sapphire & Steel and The Tomorrow People).

In 2005, he started working for the BBC, writing tie-in material for the new Doctor Who television series. He made his television writing debut in 2008 on the second series of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood and subsequently wrote three two-part stories for The Sarah Jane Adventures. He has written the two-part story "Rebel Magic" for the new CBBC series Wizards vs Aliens.

Lidster wrote the content for the tie-in websites relating to the fictional world of the television series, Sherlock. Alongside co-producer James Goss, he has produced Big Finish Productions' dramatic reading range of Dark Shadows audio dramas since 2011.

In 2012, he won the 'Audience Favourite Writer' award for his first play Nice Sally in the Off Cut Theatre Festival.

Reviews

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Doctor brings Rose home, but instead of twelve hours, twelve months have gone by. While trying to explain the situation to her furious mother, Rose and the Doctor see an alien ship fall from the sky and crash into Big Ben. An invasion has begun, but not everything is as it seems.

Lidster adapts the scripts cleverly and manages to fold the narrative nicely around events that hadn't happened yet at the time the episodes aired, adding a true sense of time travel to the story.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really hope Lidster writes many more Target novels. He nailed this one.

He managed to make the story his own, develop the side characters and add depth to the plot!

It was everything I could have asked for.

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite target novel so far! The tv story as a novel is great, but the added Easter eggs & further back stories added to characters and plot points (mentioned later in Who history!) just make this a solid 10/10.

Love love love !!

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

The farting comedy of “Aliens of London” and “World War Three” is something that largely pulls the first half of the story down due to the tonal dissonance of commentary on the Iraq War and the search for weapons of mass destruction. When it was announced as one in a batch of novelizations for 2026 there was ever so slight apprehension that Aliens of London would lean further into this comedy. Joseph Lidster taking the helm, however, is one of relief because Lidster’s style is exclusively dramatic. If Lidster was to write a comedy, it would be a black comedy. Aliens of London is a story that does not actually change much to story, like many of the Target novelizations for the revival it’s far easier to add to the story than take away. Tonally, however, much of the fart jokes are outright removed. They are still a part of the story, the Slitheen still fart because of the compression into the human suits, but Lidster aims this as unsettling. It happens at largely bad times and Lidster keeps these scenes in the perspective of stressed characters, emphasizing the general disrespect that politicians can have for their underlings which adds quite a bit to the commentary against the government that Davies included in the television story. There’s still the issues of the fart jokes happening, the over the top camp lines are still there, but they are underplayed in the prose and added with a purpose. Sure it’s enough to stop this from being one of the best novelizations, but it certainly goes a long way to make the half adapting “Aliens of London” more bearable.

Joseph Lidster is also a writer who understands how to make the reader see how dark the Slitheen are. One of the additions is a prologue scene from the perspective of the pig who the Slitheen use to fake their crash landing. The pig is named Barry and was just living his life on a farm before he was plucked by the Slitheen for their plans, with Lidster also having the Doctor tribute him in the epilogue. The Slitheen themselves are also positioned far more as dangerous hunters, Lidster’s darker tendencies being added as the individual Slitheen spending a year on Earth means victims of people who would be overlooked by society. They have a need to hunt and kill, it adds this extra sinister layer to the aliens. It’s more in line with what Davies would do with “Boom Town” but with Lidster’s prose it’s explicitly dark with carefully placed descriptors of the adrenaline and the blood. There’s also this added layer of hedonism to the Slitheen, the one being Oliver Charles had several affairs with men and women, killing Oliver’s wife and his liaisons when the plan is put in motion because he is found at the last minute. It’s presented as one of the first moments of alien activity in the novel, creating a gruesome yet callous first impression that just works. The high emotions is something Lidster chases, letting Jackie Tyler get room to break down silently in an added scene because she was in fact ready to give up after a year of Rose being missing.

There is a little bit of expanded fan references, however, that are focused on to various degrees in the telling of this novelization. The most obvious is the use of Toshiko Sato, given some scenes at both Torchwood Three and Torchwood One. Lidster cannot help but include Jack Harkness and Yvonne Hartman in various capacities. Jack’s scenes do work to expand that little continuity snafu in Torchwood with Owen as the medic, but more importantly it actually helps Tosh be a bit of a better character. The Yvonne scenes are just a touch too indulgent, it’s filling in things that are made issues by future stories. In the televised story there is a minor character credited as Muriel Frost, a character from the Doctor Who Magazine comics that is confirmed to indeed be that character by Lidster, referencing meeting the Seventh Doctor explicitly which is slightly better than the Yvonne appearances. It at least is just expanding a character on television slightly and making the reader care just a little bit because the Doctor actually remembers and acknowledges her, something that makes sense to avoid on television since this is a story from the first series of the revival.

Overall, Aliens of London is a novelization that reads more like a political thriller while maintaining the integrity of the original scripts. The couple of trims are in aid of creating a less comedic tone, emphasizing the drama and anguish of even the regulars. There is an emphasis on humanity even if Lidster occasionally lets the fan brain take over and add in a couple of cameos, though mostly cameos with some substance to them. There are still some weaknesses inherent in the story being told, but it is a great little read. 8/10.

[Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first ever Doctor Who novelisation I've read, planned to read in full over the course of a day or two but then life happened. Have been waiting on this book for about two months, pre-ordered it as soon as I discovered it was being published along with The Satan Pit, two of my favourite stories from NuWho.

A good read! Really liked the inner monologue of Jackie Tyler, her story in season one is so tragic so it was nice to see it expanded. Also Toshiko and Jack's appearance was super cool, Lidster really captured Toshiko's character well in the brief moments she was included. Did find that there was a lot of unnecessary details and some odd language choices, but overall was an enjoyable read.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a whole spectrum of Doctor Who novelisations. Some capture the original story with originality and panache. Others fall way short of the bar.

Joseph Lidster's novelisation of the two part story Aliens of London and World War Three, from 2006 Season of Doctor Who ,very definitely falls into the former category. He ably narrates the action, expanding upon what was seen on screen, and individually captures the essence of each of the characters.

It's a joy to read; reminiscent of Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke at their best. A positive addition to the catalogue.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

some bits were changed in ways that weren't necessary BUT all the bonus scenes and rewrites for World War Three? beautiful. really emphasised what a dark story this is at heart. jackie's inner monologue, molly from the estate, mickey, yvonne and torchwood, jack?? loved it. please release more of these nuwho target novels.

[Ndrwjns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent novelisation of a good story. Joseph Lidster builds on what was on screen, carefully weaving in new connections to past and future stories, both on-screen and elsewhere. Character-driven and gently changing the shape of the story to better make it work on the page, this is a good model for what 21st century target novelisations should be.

[Ben Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fast paced read, with a lot of cameos from other characters from series 1-2, plus one cameo that’s obvious if you’ve seen the TV story. I hoped for a slightly bigger tie-in/bridge between World War Three and Boom Town, however that may be better placed in a novelisation of Boom Town as this already had to adapt two episodes.

[safety not guaranteed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great additions to the story but also some changes I didn’t care for but overall a great time.

[Liam Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great adaptation with added pig details. RIP Barry and please can I visit the pigs' planet?