10 Doctor Who Novels That Would Make Great TV Episodes

4. Sanctuary

Now admittedly this nomination is another straight historical adventure but it is very different kind of story, one of the most mature and moving books in the New Adventures range, and one that fits in well with new emotionally intelligent style of the programme. The setting is Medieval France at the end of the Albigensian crusade, a bloody pogrom ordered by Pope Innocent III against a Christian sect called the Cathars. It was a time when the Knights Templar were rumoured to have hidden much of their treasure, including the Holy Grail if you believe The Da Vinci Code, but that is not what this book is about. The Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield find themselves stranded at Chateau Roc, a besieged fortress. Whilst the Doctor is forced to solve the locked room murder of Castellan Girard, Bernice falls in love with a mercenary knight called Guy De Carnac who has decided to defend the Cathar refugees. This is an adventure that shines a light on an obscure (to UK audiences at least) but dramatic historical chapter. As with White Darkness, David A McIntee builds his fiction upon a rock solid foundation of research. But it is the doomed romance between Bernice and Guy that forms the core of the book and ought to be the focus of any potential episode. The attraction and growing closeness between two careworn people who have both experienced a lot of danger and grief in their own past is beautifully told. Like other companions before and since, Bernice finds her facing terrible historical events, with the Doctor unable to interfere, or worse deliberately choosing not to interfere. Meanwhile the Doctor acting as a detective is always fun to watch. There€™s a surprising amount of gory violence towards the end of the book but it is never gratuitous and could certainly be handled in a sensitive way by the production team. Sanctuary would be sombre and heart-rending episode, but it could also be one that would stay in the memory of the audience for a long while.