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The Dr Who novelisations were loved in part because they were the only way pre-video for the show's decades of output to be experienced. (And still are for som

The Dr Who novelisations were loved in part because they were the only way pre-video for the show's decades of output to be experienced. (And still are for some lost episodes.) I'd hardly ever seen an episode (as a late 70's 10 year old) but had read all the books I could find in the local library. (I suspect they also inspired many kids to read for similar reasons.)

dharmab 5y ago
My parents were not movie people- never went to the theater, rarely rented movies. So my introduction to Star Wars was the Expanded Universe novels at the local library.
handrous 5y ago
Novelizations and (less commonly) comic-adaptations of films filled this role generally, before home video releases were common & affordable. The Star Wars novelization, for example, didn't sell well because it was a great book, but because most kids couldn't re-watch the movie every single day like they could when the VHS releases came out, so they'd instead read a $1.25 mass-market paperback until it fell apart. They were chiefly memory-refreshers for the actual film. There was even a brief span of time in which audio versions (often of the film itself, not necessarily of the novelization, so, not exactly an "audio book") helped filled this role for some films, because audio cassettes & stereos/walkmans were more widely available & affordable than video decks. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I wanna say there were things like re-cap books for seasons of shows like The X-Files, even, because home-video copies of entire shows were prohibitively expensive for all but the craziest fans. That's also part of what coffee-table type books about shows & movies were for—lore & encyclopedic content mixed with stills and what were effectively plot and episode summaries.
AndrewStephens 5y ago
I loved the Dr Who novelisations, like you say they were the only way to experience the show except through the odd repeat. In many ways the books were better than the actual episodes, unconstrained by budget and time. I have been disappointed by many stories of Dr Who that I originally experienced as a child in book-form, what was filmed just doesn’t compare to my imagination.
- vmilner 5y ago
  In at least one case - "Warrior's Gate", the final Romana story, there was a "2001"-style vibe between the show and the book - i.e. both very good, but it was a lot easier to tell what was going on having read the book!
  - AndrewStephens 5y ago
    That was certainly one of the books I was specifically thinking about. From memory, the book starts somewhat before the show and explains the setup better. The best of the books reworked the plots significantly, even when they were written by the original screenwriter. Sometimes what works on the screen doesn't fit the page and vice versa.

dharmab 5y ago

My parents were not movie people- never went to the theater, rarely rented movies. So my introduction to Star Wars was the Expanded Universe novels at the local library.

handrous 5y ago

Novelizations and (less commonly) comic-adaptations of films filled this role generally, before home video releases were common & affordable. The Star Wars novelization, for example, didn't sell well because it was a great book, but because most kids couldn't re-watch the movie every single day like they could when the VHS releases came out, so they'd instead read a $1.25 mass-market paperback until it fell apart. They were chiefly memory-refreshers for the actual film. There was even a brief span of time in which audio versions (often of the film itself, not necessarily of the novelization, so, not exactly an "audio book") helped filled this role for some films, because audio cassettes & stereos/walkmans were more widely available & affordable than video decks. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I wanna say there were things like re-cap books for seasons of shows like The X-Files, even, because home-video copies of entire shows were prohibitively expensive for all but the craziest fans. That's also part of what coffee-table type books about shows & movies were for—lore & encyclopedic content mixed with stills and what were effectively plot and episode summaries.

AndrewStephens 5y ago

I loved the Dr Who novelisations, like you say they were the only way to experience the show except through the odd repeat. In many ways the books were better than the actual episodes, unconstrained by budget and time. I have been disappointed by many stories of Dr Who that I originally experienced as a child in book-form, what was filmed just doesn’t compare to my imagination.

vmilner 5y ago
In at least one case - "Warrior's Gate", the final Romana story, there was a "2001"-style vibe between the show and the book - i.e. both very good, but it was a lot easier to tell what was going on having read the book!
- AndrewStephens 5y ago
  That was certainly one of the books I was specifically thinking about. From memory, the book starts somewhat before the show and explains the setup better. The best of the books reworked the plots significantly, even when they were written by the original screenwriter. Sometimes what works on the screen doesn't fit the page and vice versa.