Sunday, July 18, 2010

Target: Genesis of the Daleks

In the examination of the dead soldier, the 'modern synthetic fibre' and 'animal skins' clauses are swapped round. Harry does his 'rock music' joke twice to make sure the others get it.

His question about why the dome inhabitants are fighting such an old-fashioned war leads to Sarah asking the Doctor to explain what's going on: we don't hear the exact words, but he is 'genuinely distressed' that Sarah and Harry have been dragged into his mission. 'If these Daleks are as bad as you say, it'll be a pleasure to help scuttle 'em,' says Harry stoutly.

I like the idea that the Doctor apologises, but I don't know if the explanation is necessary. The story still works without it, we can believe (as I always did when listening to the LP) that when the Doctor says 'That Time Ring is our lifeline' later on, that's the first time Harry hears about it.

The Doctor uses Venusian Aikido in the fight in the trench.

At Ravon's HQ, the Doctor treads on Harry's foot to alert him to the upcoming trick with the map board and the gun - I like it better on screen where Harry instantly catches the gun without knowing what's going to happen. We see Ravon's thoughts when he decides to go along with the Doctor and Harry at gunpoint. It's Harry, not the Doctor, who has the line about the medals.

Nyder wears jackboots, and the Doctor immediately clocks him as a copper, not a soldier, from the look of his uniform. He doesn't have guards with him, and does all the shooting for himself with a pistol.

When Sarah comes to, covered in blood under a pile of 'rapidly stiffening corpses', it's 'one of the most horrifying awakenings of her life.' I kind of hope it was the most horrifying one, poor girl.

Both the test Dalek in the ruined building, and the one in the Bunker, lack sucker arms. The 'undeniably a Dalek' remark is transferred to the narration.

Ronson's invitation to the Doctor and Harry to sit down is 'the first kind words they'd heard on Skaro.' Harry's physiology is basically similar to that of the Kaleds. It's only the Doctor's which is totally different except in appearance.

All the Thals have fair hair, all the Kaleds dark hair (and most of them have an intense, thin-faced look).

The grille leading to the ventilation shaft is down a short, rocky tunnel in a deserted part of the Bunker (so much so that the guard Ronson encounters is surprised to see him coming out of there). The exit from the cave is via a barred window looking out onto the Wastelands (not a doorway).

We're told, via Harry's reflections, of how he and the Doctor got into the Kaled dome (sheer front, and arguing their way up the chain of command). Mogran wears robes, not an overall. Ravon doesn't volunteer the information about Sarah, Harry has to question him aggressively - and then says 'That sounds like Sarah', not the deliciously resigned 'That'll be her' that he does on screen.

We're also told how Ravon's agent ('a weasel-faced man who spoke only when strictly necessary') gets them into the Thal dome. Harry and the Doctor cooperate in the 'I'm a spy' trick. The hatch that Sarah, Harry and Severin escape through is not the same one that the Doctor and Harry arrived through.

The narrative follows Bettan two or three times, to better establish her as a character. She's more fighty on the page generally.

There's a mistake just after Ronson's death scene - Terry refers to 'the Thal scientists' in the Bunker, when they are of course Kaleds. But he makes up for this by fixing the Kavell/Gharman scene: he has Gharman walk over to Kavell's desk to ask a question, which makes Kavell's line about wanting 'no part of it' make a lot more sense. On screen Kavell starts the conversation - why would he do that when he doesn't want to do anything?

The second clam attack is caused by Harry vengefully kicking one of them. When the travellers enter the ventilation shaft, the narrator reassures us that the Doctor would not have let Harry go in first if he'd really thought there was anything lurking in there.

Davros takes a whole squad of guards with him when he goes to join Nyder and Gharman in the detention room.

Davros asks the Doctor 'Why did you come here from this future of yours?', an interesting change which makes him sound almost friendly. Sarah and Harry do not nobly urge the Doctor not to give Davros any information. The Doctor guesses the purpose of the switches controlling Davros' life-support, he just makes him confirm it.

Gharman is tall and thin (on screen he's quite broad-shouldered, I thought) and is part of the Scientific Elite (not the black-uniformed guys). Kavell, confusingly, is short and plump, rather than tall and thin.

Sevrin does not give a report on the state of the Thal city when he meets Bettan.

It's much clearer that the cupboard in which the travellers find the explosives is in the armoury - not something I'd picked up on screen. Sarah doesn't get a pair of trousers.

The Doctor's big moral dilemma speech is phrased slightly differently, and flows better. He also doesn't say that the decision is his alone, which on screen injects a jarring note of egotism into the moment.

Nyder takes some convincing to open the safe in Davros' office - Harry has to put on a show of looking aggressive. The office has an internal window looking onto the laboratory, through which the action is seen. This avoids having two scenes in which the action in the laboratory is watched on monitor screens. The Doctor uses a bit of wire to try to pick the lock, not the sonic screwdriver.

During the massacre, it's one of the Davros loyalists who tries to stop the carnage, not one of the rebels. Nyder pushes him away from the 'charmed group' to be killed. Nyder also takes the initiative in trying to stop the Dalek production line, rather than waiting for orders.

The speech that the Dalek leader makes to the monitor camera is explicitly said to be addressed to the other Daleks, not those watching.

The Doctor's line about a thousand years not being very much is delivered properly - he says 'no more than that' and snaps his fingers, whereas on screen he says 'no more than that' as if he's saying the delay will not exceed a thousand years.

Sevrin is surprised to see the travellers disappearing when they use the Time Ring: Sarah just manages to say goodbye to him before she vanishes.

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