BBC Books is set to publish Doctor Who: The Six Doctors, a “lost classic” Doctor Who story adapted by Simon Guerrier from a newly discovered script and treatment by the late Terrance Dicks.
The special edition book, which is due to be released on 21 January 2027, reveals Doctor Who writer Dicks’s original and radically different conception of the story that would eventually become the 20th-anniversary special The Five Doctors.
The Five Doctors was first broadcast on the show’s 20th birthday in 1983, and remains hugely popular with fans.
The feature-length special sees the First, Second, Third and Fifth Doctors placed and trapped in Gallifrey’s Death Zone, where they must face classic foes, while the Fourth Doctor ends up stuck in a time vortex.
The synopsis for Doctor Who: The Six Doctors is as follows: “Fireballs tear through time and space. Each one hunts down a different incarnation of the Doctor… ready to erase them in an instant.
“But one Doctor is offered a terrible alternative. He can not only survive but live forever – if he agrees to help destroy his other selves. One Doctor. One timeline. One victor.”
It continues: “The Fourth Doctor would usually refuse without hesitation. But after escaping E-Space he feels his life running out and knows he is nearing the end of his time. With nothing to lose, he accepts his role in the deadliest game of all…”
Doctor Who: The Six Doctors will also be released as an audiobook and CD, published by BBC Audiobooks and distributed by Penguin Random House Audio.
Read more:
For all the latest RT Book Club news, interviews, Q&As with the authors, reviews of previous books and more, visit The Radio Times Book Club.