Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams

Veteran Doctor Who writer Roberts channels Douglas Adams to novelize the long-running show’s famous “lost serial.” Conceived by Adams as the ultimately unfinished final set of episodes for the 1979–1980 season, this adventure sees the Fourth Doctor dusting it up with a renegade megalomaniac named Skagra while fighting over the fate of a legendary Time Lord artifact. Joined by Romana and K-9, the Doctor drops in on Cambridge, 1979, to visit Chronotis, a retired Time Lord masquerading as a professor. Postgraduate students Chris Parsons and Claire Keightley get sucked into a convoluted affair involving would-be universal domination, forgotten Gallifreyan history, mind control, and a sentient spaceship. Roberts clears up continuity errors while seamlessly meshing his original work with Adams’s script, leaving the latter’s trademark whimsy and snappy dialogue intact. The result is a near-perfect Doctor Who adventure in its blend of absurd humor and action. Agent: Faye Webber, the Agency. (June)