Lux

"The best show that had ever been made."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Novel

Released: July 2025

Series: Target 187

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda

Synopsis

Fifteen missing people. A light that hungers. A trip outside reality.

A trip to 1950s Miami takes a dangerous turn, leaving the Doctor and Belinda at the mercy of Mr Ring-a-Ding. A cartoon come to life who wants something that only the Doctor can give him. Can Belinda save the Doctor? Or will they be trapped by a trick of light?

Verdict

Lux was a terrific novelisation of the Fifteenth Doctor episode of the same name! I was very excited to be reading this book and whilst I now usually opt for an ebook version of the latest releases due to price and frankly room for a collection (I mean I now just sell on my Big Finish purchases for the same reason), I had to get the physical version of this novel after listening to the Power of 3 podcast talking about BBC audio releases for 2025. Hearing that some parts of the book had to be specifically tailored to the audio format as they just wouldn't work in that style fascinated me, and after reading I can see why. I thought the use of the three Whovian fans and have them bookend the story with a little tea break in the middle as they were watching the episode we were reading was fantastic. It was really well done and it was marvellous to extend on their background. We learned of the difficulties that face a disabled user of a bus as prams always got the priority on that space in front of the seats, but by hook or crook nothing would stop the trio of Hassan, Lizzie and Robyn from getting together to watch Doctor Who. It's so strange reading a novelisation of a televised episode that depicts the real world within a fictional world as fiction. But that's why we love it. I thought their scenes were presented differently here and were more of a love letter to the show we all love which was wonderful to read. I think the extended easter eggs like a DVD of The Daleks' Master Plan or a VHS of Marco Polo were tremendous. It helped establish more to me that these fans were fictional, but then I think that really made it more of a moment when they were still around after the end credits and subtly given surnames. I liked how well the book captured that this was only Belinda's second adventure after The Robot Revolution, and it's a corker! It was always going to be a difficult task to put an episode that is so full of colour and literally partly animated into prose, but I appreciate the efforts here. We got a large umber of illustrations translated onto the page and that did help. I also liked the playing around with text font and size to illustrate that animated feel, but it was never going to be the same as the achievement on screen. I think this will go down as an all-time classic on screen, and the book is a nice compliment for that. I really appreciated the deleted scene insert, although I must admit I found it a bit strange for it come in the style of what would have been the script. Surely that could have just been inputted into the prose in traditional Target style? Nevertheless, I appreciated getting it at all and I could see this working well on screen as Belinda certainly does command a close up presence. I think the moment the Doctor encounters his fans and believes his life to be a fiction is really emotional and clearly has a big impact on him that I don't think was quite portrayed on screen. The humour about Blink being the best was great, but Belinda's retort seems rushed and doesn't stand out in prose which is a shame. I think the use of art was really good in Lux's final moments and that shadowy imprint as he became light infinitum was excellent. I did think I'd missed a page with it being a shadow or follow through from the previous page, so that was a really nice touch. The explanation of Lux taking on the power of the Sun was good and I think the pace of things was really strong. The sequence with the fans felt massively extended which was nice and it was just love for the Doctor and Belinda to get their flowers. The show obviously means so much to us fans and I thought this novelisation did a fantastic job in highlighting that in a respectful way. Hell, the author even made a mockery of his novelisation of The Giggle which is one of the best Targets ever written, and confirmed that rewatching Legend of the Sea Devils would help in appraising that episode. I look forward to doing so. For now though, this was a really strong novelisation of one of Doctor Who's most unique episodes ever. A really good job. A delightful read.

Rating: 9/10