N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

For a story that was never completed, there seems to be an awful lot of versions of Shada kicking about!

“Well, there’s no chance of anyone else understanding it then, is there?”

Professor Chronotis, Shada: Part One

There’s the 1992 VHS edit (which came bundled with a copy of the original production script), the 2003 webcast, the extended compact disc audio only release of the webcast, Gareth Roberts’ expanded novelisation, Lalla Ward’s audiobook reading of aforementioned novelisation and the 2017 Blu-ray and DVD release containing live action and animation.

And that’s just the official releases!

Following some um-ing and ah-ing, we decided to watch Shada in what should have been its proper place in Doctor Who‘s chronology i.e. after The Horns of Nimon. After all, where’s the fun in watching a show about time travel if you can’t employ a little of it yourself! For this sidestep, my son and I watched the 1992 VHS edit and, mainly because neither of us had yet seen it, the 2017 animated version.

As you’d expect from Douglas Adams, there are some lovely moments. I could watch (and indeed have watched) Tom and Lalla punting on the Cam over and over again. In fact one of the first things you realise about the Blu-ray release is how lovely all of the Cambridge location footage looks in HD. For some reason it seemed more noticeable in the VHS edit but maybe that’s because there also HD animation footage in the new release.

Pop in Disc 3 of the Blu-ray and another thing that’s glaring about the VHS edit is how decidedly un-Dudley-like Keff McCulloch’s music is.

As the story progresses and more blanks need filling in by Tom Baker the Curator the Doctor, it becomes even more noticeable that what you’re hearing is late 80’s-style Doctor Who incidental music, not late 70’s.

Part One feels more or less intact but by the fourth and fifth episodes, you start to notice that all you’re getting are shots of Professor Chronotis’s TARDIS, a bit of the ship and a lot of Tom Baker filling in the gaps.

And this is perhaps where the animated version succeeds most. Both my son and I felt the story was a lot easier to follow and without the ultimately intrusive narration the pacing of the story is much better.

Also it has to be said that Mark Ayres does a much better job of capturing Dudley Simpson’s style meaning the music is not quite so jarring (the nods to City of Death being particularly pleasing).

We’ll never know if Shada would have truly been the belting finale to the Graham Williams / Douglas Adams era we wanted, but at least we are able to get a sense of what it would have been like. And thanks to the multitude of formats it’s now available in – BBC-licensed or fan-created – you can take your pick on how you want to enjoy it.

The new animated version might just have sneaked into being my favourite version but for now I’ll sign off with a few words from Tom Baker’s introduction to the VHS edit.

“Douglas said anybody can design a visible spaceship but to design an invisible spaceship, that needs imagination. I think he said that, or did he say? I think he said genius. Yes, he said genius. Poor old Douglas …”