This is another adaptation which I've underestimated - again because I saw the screen version before I read it. But once again, Terrance Dicks is putting forth some extra effort with this one - on the first page we have a panoramic view of the 1890s, zooming in to the Palace Theatre where rich and poor alike are gathered for entertainment. (Does their anticipation mirror the reader's?)
There's also a recap of how Jago came to hear of Li H'sen Chang and to book him for the Palace. Authenticity was a key drawing factor - 'After all he really was Chinese, unlike most Oriental magicians who were usually English enough once the makeup was off.' Eh? eh? You sly old dog Mr D!
Jago refers to Mr Sin as a 'ventriloquist's doll', he doesn't use the theatrical slang 'vent'.
When she accompanies the police to the station, Leela thinks she's being taken to the ruler's dwelling. She doesn't think much of it, and the place is unflatteringly seen from her POV.
The bizarre waterfront hag is replaced by a man, but he still makes the 'in all my puff' remark. I wondered if, on the page, a woman would have made the resemblance to the similar scene in Our Mutual Friend too obvious?
There's a bit of back-story for Litefoot - he came to be Limehouse pathologist after being in the Army, and in search of more interesting work than attending to women with the vapours. His relatives think his choice is disgraceful.
The part where Litefoot realises he and the Doctor are talking about gory things in the presence of a 'lady' is more smoothly done - he apologises to Leela, rather than commenting to the Doctor.
When the Doctor first meets Jago, he introduces the 'master hypnotist' bit with a question about Buller - it's Jago's blank reaction that makes him think Jago is under the influence. Later, Jago doesn't faint at the sight of the 'ghost', he trips over and hits his head while running away from it.
At supper, Leela tears her meat 'with strong white teeth', an evocative phrase which I've never forgotten since the first time I read this Target aged about 8. The dining room is initially seen from her POV, although, as the narrator remarks, she doesn't realise that it's a clash of two styles (Victorian and Chinese).
It was Litefoot who spent a long time trying to open the Time Cabinet, not a visitor.
The woman who 'despicable Chang' kidnaps is named Teresa Hart, and she's a waitress in a Mayfair gambling club. (Almost all commentators on the screen version have assumed she was a prostitute, though to be fair to TD, he was hardly going to say so in a book aimed at children and published in 1977).
In the boat, Litefoot doesn't suggest that the gun is unusable, rather that the Doctor has overloaded it.
There appears to be a glitch in the decline of Chang and Greel's relationship: after Leela escapes, Greel tells Chang 'Fail me once more and I shall dismiss you, Chang. I cannot leave my fate in such blundering hands.' The next time they meet, when Greel is packing his bags, he's giving Chang the 'It is far more likely that he will kill you' bit, and dismissing him. (Perhaps the news that the Doctor is coming to the theatre is seen as showing that Chang has failed?)
Jago says that the Doctor won't be wearing a bowler hat and big boots, not 'a brown derby and boots'.
The theatre reminds Leela pleasurably of the tribal festivals of the Sevateem (no doubt involving a lot of chanting to Xoanon, led by Neeva). On screen she doesn't seem to be enjoying herself at all - incidentally, the line about the 'responses', which I like very much, isn't in the book.
When Chang throws him the cards, the Doctor pleasingly holds them over his 'left-hand heart'. Also, he pushes Lee into the cabinet, rather than temporarily hiding so that Lee has to take over his role.
The Doctor does not make the remark to Chang that implies that he'll be able to join his ancestors when he gets hanged for murder.
The narrator points out that Litefoot could have been expected to leave the clearing up to his servants. The comedy misunderstanding with Jago is sped up a bit so that it works better on the page. (Although, as I said, I saw this story before I read the Target, my picture of Jago was influenced by the children's book Rattus Rex by Colin Maclaren, which has various similarities to Talons. I imagined him as a larger, posher, more pompous figure, so the raffish, vulgar screen Jago came as a bit of surprise when I saw him again. Indeed he reminded me of the theatre owner in The Picture of Dorian Gray).
At the House of the Dragon, the Doctor thinks in flashback about the mysterious escape of Greel after the Battle of Reykjavik, and the narrator expands this with a few details about his arrival in China in the Time Cabinet.
Jago doesn't refer to a 'death-ray'. Also, his 'I say, I say, I say' line is uttered after he returns to safety - it's a gasp of relief rather than part of the diversion. I preferred the latter, because it makes us feel clever for thinking 'Yes, that's just how Jago would create a diversion.'
Tea and muffins at Litefoot's intervene before the final scene. Jago doesn't suggest that the TARDIS is the Doctor's 'own personal transport', but that it's a 'portable police station', which is a bit more plausible.
The book excellently concludes with the footsteps of Litefoot and Jago fading into the fog, while Chang's face stares out from the poster. It's unusual for TD to refer so literally to a particular shot, but it works really well here.
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