Sunday, August 01, 2010

Target: Pyramids of Mars

There are many rather good extra bits in this book, it really is one of TD's best efforts. I'm surprised that I didn't remember most of them - I think this one was very much in demand at the library, and by the time I had my own copy I knew the screen version well, so I didn't read it much. More fool me.

A prologue has been added, describing the events on Phaester Osiris that led to Sutekh's imprisonment, before we join Marcus Scarman at the semi-legendary Black Pyramid. Finding it has taken him years, and he's spent 'many English sovereigns' in the bazaars to get information.

The Doctor calls Sarah 'Victoria', not the annoying and wrong 'Vicky' used on screen. Sarah reflects that he's still annoyed by being called back to deal with the Zygons - and she thinks at some length about her association with the Doctor, and the way that all her adventures, and all the years that the Brigadier's known him, are just a small part of his travels, and that he's had 'many lives and many companions'. Lovely stuff.

Namin also has a lengthy reverie, about his work as a priest of the secret cult that the Osirans set up to maintain the Black Pyramid. Reading between the lines, it's clear that they couched the secret writings in religious terms so that the ancient Egyptians could grasp them. By the way, the labourers seen in the opening scene don't escape - Namin and his associates killed them all, making this a story in which everybody dies (except Horus).

Collins (the manservant) doesn't plead that it's hard to find jobs at his age. His motivation is purely loyalty to the Scarman family.

Sarah doesn't mention to Laurence that she comes from 1980 (nor does she say it in the TARDIS later). The 'preposterous' exchange flows better, too - it runs 'Yes it is, isn’t it,' agreed Sarah sympathetically. 'I’m sorry.' I think it's funnier that way.

Ernie Clements is first seen at dawn the day after the Doctor, Sarah and Laurence hide in the 'priest-hole' - they spend all night there. Ernie used to take the Scarmans 'poaching' on their own land when they were boys, and he sells rabbits to Dr Warlock too. When the mummies are chasing him through the woods, 'for the first time in his life he felt some sympathy for the animals he hunted and trapped.' (Cf the comment about fox-hunting in Android Invasion).

Sarah once researched an article on Egyptology for an educational magazine, which is why she knows about the 740 gods etc.

The narration goes to some lengths to make it clear that Ernie's hut wasn't, and never had been, his home. There really is a ferret in the cage - it escapes. Sarah doesn't throw the box of sweaty gelignite, but she does poke the contents with her finger, horrifying the Doctor.

When Marcus Scarman grabs his brother, there's the same 'smoke' effect as is seen in the episode one cliffhanger.

The Doctor already has the detonation plan worked out when they stash the gelignite - it isn't an improvisation.

After the Doctor's 'Human?' line he adds, 'You forget, Sarah, I'm not.' I think it works better without the explanation. 'Five men, six' have been murdered, not 'Four, five'.

We see Sarah's capture by the mummies. When the Doctor appears in the time tunnel on his return journey, he's sitting cross-legged, not standing up.

In the pyramid, Sarah wonders why Scarman didn't order her killed as well as the Doctor. Sutekh says that they're in an antechamber under the pyramid, not that there is an antechamber as he seems to on screen. He also calls the switch a switch, not a solenoid (on screen he delivers it as if he's insulting Scarman - 'extreme right, solenoid' - perhaps Gabriel Woolf didn't understand the line?)

There are some minor swaps between lines and thoughts in the Cretan paradox scene, but nothing special. The switches are on the wall, not the glass bell.

The opposing mummies hit each other with great swinging blows (rather than ineffectually bumping into each other) - eventually achieving mutual destruction. When Sutekh breaks free, Marcus Scarman does not get to proclaim his own freedom before dying - I thought it was a shame to omit this.

When the Doctor has Sutekh trapped, he says 'You forgot that Time is the weapon of the Time Lords. I have used Time to defeat you.' Sutekh lives another 7000 years, whereas on screen it sounds like he lived 7000 years in toto.

There's no joke (?) about 1666, but there is a TARDIS bookend where Sarah's weariness and horror at all the deaths is well conveyed. She says that surely the events at the Priory will get out - the Doctor tells her that Time takes care of these things, 'when we get back home, you can look it up and see!'

Even better, there's an Epilogue, a really nice account of how 'later, much later' Sarah does just that, and is consoled. I won't spoil it for you by quoting it - it's a real Target high point. Well done TD.

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