Monday, August 16, 2010

Target: The Hand of Fear

This is one of my most well-read Targets, battered and with the pages falling out. Good cover picture too, with the symbolic shadow of the Hand (Sarah has the wrong costume on though).

Terrance doesn't say anything about the ethnicity of the doctor who cleans the Doctor's cuts at the hospital - but he's a 'keen young student', and I got the impression that the man seen on screen was more experienced than that.

Dr Carter doesn't do the 'Just like Andy Pandy' line. He drives a vintage Bentley (not an Austin Maxi) which would have made the shots of the journey to Nunton much more impressive on screen.

Professor Watson's appearance 'reflected the rugby field rather than the laboratory.' There's lovely!

Tom Abbott (the quarry foreman) gets an extra appearance - he watches the Doctor, Sarah and 'a tall woman in some kind of fancy get-up' arrive in a car and get into the TARDIS. On the Doctor's earlier visit, Abbott is impressed by his presentation of UNIT credentials - this is the last survival of the original intention for the story to be UNIT's final hurrah.

Sarah does not fetch herself a banana from the TARDIS interior. Her 'It's very nice' remark about Kastria is purely tactful, not sarcastic.

The dog that Sarah pats is 'a small shaggy dog.' Shaggy dog story eh? Sarah whistles 'to keep up her spirits', and sets off to catch the bus home.

Thus bringing the Sarah Targets to an end: she was always a much better character on the page, resourceful and intelligent and without that gulpy delivery. I once drunkenly read the Targets of Time Warrior and Hand of Fear twice each in one night in an attempt to 'recreate the SJS era' - probably the best use of being drunk I've ever found.

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