It’s a bit of a shock. After “Shada” (2013), “City of Death” (2015) and “The Pirate Planet” (2016), “Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen” is going to be the fourth Doctor Who story written by Douglas Adams to be adapted into a novel.
The previous books were in fact quite good and were well received by critics and audiences alike. For this new adaptation, the BBC hired again Jammes Goss who penned the three previous adaptations. So why the shock? Well, “Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen” is a story submitted by Douglas for the fourth doctor and Romana but refused by the BBC. Douglas decided to re-use most of the plot to write the third Hitchhiker book : “Life, the universe and everything” (1982).
So the question is: the BBC is going a bit too far with this one, isn’t it? I mean the story mostly already exists. Is this just going to be a Doctor Who version of “Life, the Universe and Everything”?? Well, probably not. I am confident in the work of James Goss. But let’s keep our fingers crossed!
Intergalactic war? That’s just not cricket … or is it?
The Doctor promised Romana the end of the universe, so she’s less than impressed when what she gets is a cricket match. But play is soon interrupted by eleven figures in white uniforms and peaked skull helmets, wielding bat-shaped weapons that fire lethal bolts of light into the screaming crowd.
The Krikkitmen are back.
Millions of years ago, the people of Krikkit learned they were not alone in the universe, and promptly launched a xenophobic crusade to wipe out all other life-forms. After a long and bloody conflict, the Time Lords imprisoned Krikkit within an envelope of Slow Time, a prison that could only be opened with the Wicket Gate key, a device that resembles – to human eyes, at least – an oversized set of cricket stumps…
From Earth to Gallifrey, from Bethselamin to Devalin, from Krikkit to Mareeve II to the far edge of infinity, the Doctor and Romana are tugged into a pan-galactic conga with fate as they rush to stop the Krikkitmen gaining all five pieces of the key. If they fail, the entire cosmos faces a fiery retribution that will leave nothing but ashes…”
“Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen” will be available on 18 January 2018.
