10 Doctor Who Novels That Would Make Great TV Episodes
7. Alien Bodies
Admittedly a couple of the coolest parts of this novel have already been used by the programme. Early on in the story the Eighth Doctor dives out of skyscraper window and into the TARDIS parked on the side of the building, a stunt borrowed by River Song in Day of the Moon. Much is made of the importance of the Doctors dead body, killed as a result of a future battle and the scenario of his enemies gathering to take possession of it, something also raised in the Eleventh Doctors story arc. Yes Alien Bodies would sit very comfortably in Steven Moffats version of Doctor Who. Its story that puts the Doctor under examination, whilst delivering an exciting adventure, and along the way it puts a clever spin on a couple of old enemies. The Doctor and Sam, a teenage girl from 90s, visit a famous lost jungle city in the East Indies, only to discover it has been specially created by a shady intergalactic entrepreneur to host the auction of a unique, horrifying weapon. Delegates from all the major powerful time-travelling races are attending, plus a Kroton who has arrived by almost by mistake. Author Lawrence Miles makes these infamous 60s monsters both more powerful, emphasising their Transformer-like ability to grow specialised crystal bodies including one the size of a tank, and yet simultaneously hilarious, their pedantic minds completely out of their depth and behaving like an embarrassing friend at a reunion. Lets face it, sneers the Time Lord agent, even the Voord laugh at you! Not content with that, Miles also brings back the Raston Warrior Robot from The Five Doctors, or rather the Raston Lapdancer Robots! If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears, does it make a sound? If the Doctor saves the universe and nobody witness him, is it really saved? Now thats a line you could easily imagine Clara saying. Later on, in the middle of battle with cosmic forces, a frustrated UNIT soldier and temporary companion shouts at the Doctor, Why am I here? to which he answers after a pause, I think it,s something to do with a tree falling in forest. The new series has been dealing in those kind of questions quite a bit. Alien Bodies pits the Doctors philosophy against a selection of aggressive, cynical and powerful opponents, yet sees him emerging triumphant and saving everyone. The Name of the Doctor may have given us the canonical answer about when and where the Doctors grave ultimately is, but the version in Alien Bodies much more moving, with the Doctor burying his own corpse on a lonely nameless planetoid and musing ruefully that hed have expected more people to turn up.
