Doctor Who: Reappraising The Day of the Doctor’s novelization

Some books benefit from a second reading. Is Steven Moffat’s novelization of Doctor Who’s fiftieth-anniversary story The Day of the Doctor one of them?

Back in 2018, I read the novelization of Doctor Who‘s massive anniversary story, The Day of the Doctor. At the time, one major issue I had with it was the way the story was told, particularly with the number of “twists” that Moffat included.

For example, there are many times when you have to guess which character is actually narrating each chapter. Some of the reveals felt a little repetitive and even predictable after a while, and as a result, while I liked the story, I didn’t exactly love it. To be honest, it often felt like Moffat was trying too hard to show off how clever he was. It didn’t help that I had just read the novelization of Rose by Russell T Davies just weeks before, which expanded on the original episode while keeping the storytelling nice and easy.

However, due to a good friend’s sheer love for the book – perhaps even more than the TV episode itself – I decided it was worth taking another look. So, after listening to the audiobook version of the story (as read by Nicholas Briggs), has my opinion on the novelization improved? Yes, actually, and quite a bit, too. Here are a few key reasons why.

Expanding the story

One thing that stood out on experiencing the novelization for the second time was how the numerous “twists” of the book became considerably less problematic than they did on the first reading. There are some twists that lose a lot of power once you know what they are. Sometimes, that can decrease the enjoyment of the story upon revisit, but in this case, it enhanced it. Because it stopped being a distraction from the story itself.

I had actually forgotten exactly how much Steven Moffat had expanded on the original story. If the TV episode was just seventy-five minutes long, then the expanded version that Moffat gives us could’ve been two hours on television, at least.

There’s so much more that we learn about in the novelization. How did the Tenth Doctor find out about the Zygons in the first place? How did he gain the Queen’s trust and (ahem) affection? How did the War Doctor steal the Moment? Major plot details that were only briefly touched upon in the original episode are fleshed out much more in the book.

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Emotional depth

But it’s not just the expansion of the story that makes the novelization work so well. It’s the increased amount of emotional depth, too. One of my favorite chapters focuses on the three Doctors trapped in a prison cell. It was great in the TV series, but Moffat makes it an even more personal moment for the Doctor by having that cell haunt him across 400 years and 3 incarnations.

In fact, the whole novelization is filled with beautiful little moments. Whether it’s finding out more about Cass before her tragic fate in The Night of the Doctor, or learning about Kate’s last memories of her father, Moffat really throws some genuinely touching moments into this novel.

The first time I read The Day of the Doctor, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. That’s definitely changed on my revisit of the book. While Moffat crams in perhaps one or two too many twists, they’re a very small portion of the book and are far outweighed by the rich amount of depth, both in terms of the story and in terms of emotional impact, too. In short, The Day of the Doctor is a fantastic book, and certainly worth checking out.

Have you read The Day of the Doctor? Did you enjoy it as much or possibly more than the original episode? Let us know in the comments below.