Notable differences/expansions: the war that General Williams started killed 500 million people. The incident that sparked it off is mentioned quite early on, which works better than the way the screen version leaves it till the plot machinery needs to be unstuck in episode 5.
The mind probes anecdote is omitted, though the machine itself is still used on the Doctor. Patel (the new prisoner on the Moon) is replaced by one Doughty, but he still gets his chocolate confiscated. A lot of the scenes that demonstrate the prison governor's tyranny are omitted (I think Hulke feels that the point about Earth having political prisoners is strong enough by itself). The amusing list of crimes supposedly committed by the Doctor on Sirius IV is cut short.
Jo and the Master have an interesting conversation on their way to the Moon to pick up the Doctor. 'Why are you so nasty?' she asks him ineffectually - he responds that his badness is a necessary universal counterweight to the Doctor's goodness. It is the Master who takes the sonic screwdriver, not the prison authorities. The Master thinks about the Daleks while reading War of the Worlds, thus revealing their involvement much earlier than on screen.
The captured Ogron eats a foil-wrapped food item foil and all, rather than a banana in its skin. The Master's exasperation with the Ogrons leads to a series of amusing remarks, culminating in the sarcastic suggestion that he and the Ogrons all have a tea party together.
When Jo arrives on the Ogron planet, she's shown an Ogron hanging in chains. 'Him bad Ogron,' explains her guide. When the food arrives later, the guard suggests 'Eat well, get big. Soon you be Ogron wife.' 'There's a thought,' she replies tactfully.
The bits where the Master tries to hypnotise Jo, and then subdue her with the fear device, are both missing, but he already knows he can't hypnotise her. (Did I miss something?)
There's no malfunction with the spacecraft carrying the Doctor, Williams and the Prince. The Prince displays some fine logic - they should look for the lizards in order to find the Ogrons, as the former eats the latter and the latter have enough sense to hide - and some fancy shooting on the planet. The monster is a lizard, not a bouncy castle - and a real whopper too, more of a dinosaur.
The Master doesn't shoot the Doctor, accidentally or otherwise. 'There's always tomorrow,' he thinks philosophically as the TARDIS vworps away. It's all right for him, he doesn't have to explain why the Doctor is going off into Planet of the Daleks totally uninjured.
This is only the second time I've read this one, I enjoyed it much more than on first reading. It seems to flow a lot better than the screen version. In that case it's a shame that the back cover blurb says:
But it's only when THE MASTER appears on the scene that events really start moving.
which could be read as a warning not to expect any excitement before page 76.
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