I don't want to defend Chibnall, but are the novels really a useful way of promoting the show or just a way of getting cash out of the people who'll buy anything connected with it, and then buy it again if you put it out with a new cover? How many of the people who need persuading to watch would even be aware of the novels' existence at any time since 2005?
I used to go around collecting New Series tie-in novels in charity shops, and read quite a few of them in lockdown. These are the original adventures by the likes of Justin Richards. I quite liked them. Your mileage may vary, and some may be better than others, but I had fun with them, and it was nice to go back to 2007 or thereabouts, while immersing myself in stories from that era that were new to me. They're more fleshed out and slower-paced than stories on screen, which was nice. And of course it was great fun to visualise them in my head. David Tennant's audiobook reading of Justin Richards' 'The Resurrection Casket' is etched on my childhood subconscious, used to play the free copy that came with the Radiotimes to death. Ought to listen to it again, I remember a really nice foreboding mystery with EMPS and steam-powered pirates.As tie-ins go, they were pretty cool at the time.
Of course, the Target novels they're doing nowadays based on existing TV eps are a different story. Jesus that 2018 logo on The Witchfinders looks horrid. It's not even that bad a logo, if a bit too Harry Potter; it's just a very wide logo that's designed for magazine mastheads, and not narrower paperbacks. It would perhaps work if it wasn't stacked, but even then it lacks the boldness of Bernard Lodge's timeless logo. Does anyone else think they could've just made that the logo back in 2018 and stuck to it for all of Who?
Agree with Replies on View re Saward by the way; his era was hit and miss but certainly had some nice flourishes that were more dramatic than what we're getting now...