DOCTOR WHO NOVELISATIONS

, which calls for the Doctor to decide whether to save all of humanity or condemn 20,000 people to death, was always a bit of a heartbreaker. In bringing it to prose he’s made little embellishments here and there: there are further ominous signs of Vesuvius’s coming eruption, like the sounds of grinding rock and poisoned birds raining down from the sky. Moran is also very good at getting inside Donna’s head, revealing her thought processes – which are not quite as self-assured as you might expect.

There’s a faint whiff of Douglas Adams – Ford Prefect is back in the day.