Target: The Sontaran Experiment

This novelisation has the task of expanding two episodes till they stretch to usual Target length, which it achieves by means of long, memorable descriptions of the various holes the characters fall down, and an extended sequence of Sarah being tortured by Styre's hallucination setup. (Styre is spelt Styr throughout).

It also has to get round the fact that the time travellers come to Earth in the TARDIS, not via the transmat, while still needing to keep them there until they've fixed the receptor circle. (The Doctor doesn't know the receptor circle's there - it somehow 'attracts' the TARDIS, which is even more convenient than it just happening to be there in the first place). So the TARDIS has to disappear as soon as they get out of it, but the Doctor isn't overly concerned as he knows it will return to Nerva.

The cumulative effect of all this manoeuvring is to put us back where the screen version of Ark in Space ends. This post-flare Earth, though, is a weird place with mutant berries, savage thorns and a huge red Sun - more reminiscent of the very far future in The Time Machine than the fresh start offered by the screen version. Sinister flapping sounds echo through the mist - we're led to believe that they might be pterodactyls, but it's just Roth's tattered spacesuit.

Harry, on spotting Styre, mutters 'The Golem...' and he knows that the charm that powers a traditional golem is known as a Shem, leading some to speculate that Harry might be Jewish, have Jewish friends or 'just have read a comic book with a Golem in it'. George Orwell tells us that it would have been difficult for a Jewish person to get a naval commission, though perhaps times have moved on in the UNIT future.

Styre's physical presence is repulsive - 'Styr's hog-like nostrils expanded, ejecting a stream of clammy, rancid vapour.' His acrid breath hangs in the air in sticky clouds.

There's much play with the 'terullian' metal, which has various interesting properties, notably the ability to repel gravity so that the Doctor doesn't die when Styre throws him into a ravine (after the Doctor pours Scotch into his probic vent - no, seriously).

There's no remark about the Galsec people having come to Earth to look for a downed freighter, yunnerstan? They may well be attempting to colonise the place - I hope the Arkers are OK with that when they finally arrive.

There are many minor differences about who hits who with what weapon, exactly how they come to fall down the various holes, and how they get out again, but the shape of the plot is basically the same.

Harry sabotages the Sontaran ship by extracting a key component. (He finds two other dormant Sontarans inside). This causes Styre to swell to three times his normal size when he recharges, before exploding. As a bonus, the component Harry stole proves vital in fixing the receptor circle (though this disappoints him as he wanted to put it on his mantelpiece next to his rowing trophies).