Shada: The Lost Adventure By Douglas Adams Written by Gareth Roberts

 Douglas Adams’ Shada has had a strange life. Before being released as a book it was an unfinished Doctor Who serial from the show’s 17^th Season (1979-80).  Some filming of the episode occurred before a work stoppage at the BBC ceased production. Unfinished Adams’ final shooting script appeared to be doomed for a life of limbo.

Despite never being broadcast on television parts of Adams’ incomplete story were utilized for his Dirk Gently series. Despite a hokey VHS release and an audio adaptation fans of the program have not been able to read Adam’s story as it was originally written.

Gareth Roberts, a director, writer and friend of Douglas Adams has come to the rescue. He has taken Adam’s script and novelized it using original source material, carefully cobbling together a variety of information into one coherent narrative that retains the spirit, humor, irony and imagination of Douglas Adams previous work.

Initially the plot appears pretty simple before it deepens into something more complex and epic. The Fourth Doctor, Romana and K-9 visit Cambridge to see The Doctor’s dear friend Professor Chronotis, a fellow Time Lord who left Gallifrey to see the universe. For the last few centuries he has been on Earth masquerading as a retired professor at St. Cedd’s College.

Unbeknownst to The Doctor, Chronotis took several important relics with him when he left the Time Lord’s home planet of Gallifrey including a book The Worshipful And Ancient Law Of Gallifrey, which contains information on the prison planet Shada. Shada is kind like the Guantanemo Bay for Time Lords. It is a mysterious place where the ancient race has sequestered the most deadly beings in the Universe and for good reason; they are insane.

Chronotis, who has no idea that a madman is searching for his book and will stop at nothing to get it, loans it out to one of his pupils, Chris Parsons, an oafish lad who wants to use the book to make an impression with Clare Keightley a departing student who he fancies.

What begins as a pleasant visit from an old friend turns sour when Skagra, an OCD megalomaniac, who possesses a domination complex and bad fashion sense, discovers the location of the book. Skagra needs it to learn the location of Shada so he can enlist the aid of one of its inmates. Skagra knows that the book’s pages hold the secrets of the Time Lords and that could make him invincible. As the story expands the danger becomes deadlier for The Doctor who discerns that defeating Skagra and saving the Universe (this time) may be one of the most difficult tasks he has ever undertaken.

Adams, who was dismissive of Shada, used it as an opportunity to sneak in some of his own experiences and thoughts about Cambridge, where he was born. There are also underlying themes of atheism, academic education and government littered cleverly in the work. In addition to getting into the marrow of Adams’ work Robert has managed to develop The Doctor as a character beyond what fans have seen on the small screen. He gives the Fourth Doctor a bit of a grittier edge, which falls more along the lines of the Doctor seen in the retooled series.

Shada is an engrossing read that reads more like fiction then a Doctor Who story. The plot moves swiftly without being bogged down by a heavy amount of backstory.  Where Roberts really succeeds however is with making Shada accessible to a broad audience. You do not necessarily need to be a fan of the show to understand what is going on since Roberts pretty much gets everyone up to speed early on.

Although originally written as a script for a kids program, Shada holds its own as a novel thanks not only to the creativity of Douglas Adams but also because Gareth Roberts has seamlessly adapted his script in a compelling way to a whole new audience.