Monday, May 31, 2010

Target: The War Games

An unusually economical effort from Mac Hulke here - some bits are compressed, omitted or merely reported. For instance, Zoe's interrogation is just reported after the fact, and the bit where the War Lord tries to hijack the TARDIS on Gallifrey is omitted.

Nor is there space for the usual extensive character back-story - he has to content himself with shorter stuff, like describing Carstairs' reluctance to mention to Lady Jennifer that his family's wealth comes from commerce, and giving Capt Ransome (the officer Lady J suckers into going to Number 17 command post) a preference for reading books over conducting wars.

The Viewmaster 3D interrogation machine is replaced with a pain-inducing torture helmet. The Chief Scientist doesn't have the bland manner that he does on screen, instead he's eager for praise from the War Chief. Nor is he left in his own deprogramming machine by the rebels, as doing so would have 'reduced him to an idiot'.

The sergeant-major is much more aggressive at the court martial, threatening to smash the Doctor's teeth in.

There's no ban on humans from eras after 1917: there's at least one soldier from 1953 (the Korean war presumably) and another from the Chinese/Japanese conflict in 1937.

Couple of mistakes: Romans did not use chariots for warfare, nor did they practice human sacrifice in the era depicted.

This is a good 'un on the whole, though: the most frequent complaint about the screen version is the length and repetition, and the book reduces those both quite skilfully.

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