Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Target: The Horror of Fang Rock

This is a notoriously short Target - although it has the standard page count, the print is huge. But TD is keen to give value for money, so he opens with a Prologue, which is in the present tense and talks about horrific events at the turn of the century, so we think it's set in our present day and is referring to the events of the story we're about to read. But it then does a pull-back-and-reveal to show that the present day is the early 1900s. Now, this is either a clever way to unsettle us, or a really confusing way to start a book.

Ben is much older than the thirtyish (?) man we see is on screen - in his early fifties.

The Doctor is not on the point of returning to the TARDIS when he sees the inoperative lighthouse - a shame, that, I enjoy the suggestion that he and Leela nearly missed the whole thing. He also gets the whole 'big in some ways, smaller in others' line, rather than sharing it with Leela.

Leela doesn't pick up a table knife to use as a weapon: she finds a sailor's knife in Ben's sea-chest (where she gets the spare clothes from).

Pleasingly, we accompany the Doctor, Reuben and Vince to the tiny shingle beach at East Crag where the lifeboat comes ashore. Palmerdale falls into the sea in his haste to jump out of the boat. (It's during this scene that the light comes on again and the Doctor deduces that the creature needs electricity).

The Doctor doesn't do the exaggerated 'We haven't been introduced!' bit, he just suggests that the castaways introduce themselves. He deconstructs the Beast of Fang Rock myth to Leela in terms of murder, suicide and trauma respectively among the three keepers in the legend.

When Harker refuses to take the boat back to sea, Palmerdale looks as surprised 'as if a chair or table had found a voice'. He's used to the 'lower orders' doing as he tells them.

The Doctor is put out by Reuben's interjection of the Beast story into his warning speech to the castaways, because it undermines the credibility of his warning.

Reference is made to the Doctor's 'staring eyes' as evidence that he's mad, and it's suggested that Leela is probably his nurse.

When Leela and the Doctor go to find out what's happened to Reuben, the Doctor says 'Don't step on any jellyfish,' not 'Don't talk to any strangers.' The tone of Leela's comment about the creature not being bold is different - more of a question.

Palmerdale shows his 'insurance' diamonds to Vince in the lamp-room, when he says 'I'm a businessman'. (He's trying to prove that £50 is nothing to a man like him, so it isn't a suspicious amount to be offering Vince).

There's no oak/hickory business between Leela and Harker. The Doctor does not quote the Malicious Damage Act 1861 - he just mentions malicious damage, and he does it after Leela has left, not as an opener. Nor does he mention lycanthropy in the 'chameleon factor' cliffhanger speech. (By the way, each episode lasts exactly 3 chapters).

Rutans have little concept of individual identity, so they always speak in the plural, the narrator tells us. (I think this was my first encounter with the word 'plural'. 28 years old I was...)

'That does not concern you,' says the Rutan, not 'doesn't'. Yes, I've omitted lots of larger changes in these lists but this one is more significant than it seems - it's an example of how the Target Rutan's diction and voice ('weird, high, shrill, totally alien') are not like what we hear on screen. I had a shock when I watched Fang Rock for the first time since 1977 and heard its fussy, Arthur Lowe-esque tones. Not totally inappropriate for a militaristic species, but still.

'I should have realised I was dealing with a Rutan,' thinks the Doctor. He also reflects that Rutans are so strange and savage that even the Sontarans are preferable.

Skinsale specifies that he's questioning the advisability of so much gunpowder in a confined space (professional qualms?) On a similar theme, the Doctor adds 'You know what these old soldiers are once they get talking' to his comment about military chit-chat.

I've often wondered exactly why the early Schemurly is 'no good' - in the book, the Doctor explains that Rutans can seal wounds made by (individual) projectile attacks. They have to be blown to bits. He also outlines the background of the Rutan-Sontaran conflict, and the Rutan plans for Earth, so at least Skinsale gets to know the nature of the war he's fighting (if not for very long). He's also definite about the Rutans concluding that this sector of space was too dangerous - they are, he says, a cautious species. (This point used to concern me with the screen version).

The reason that the Doctor and Skinsale have time to make the trip down to the crew room is that the Rutan is climbing the stairs slowly - it fears further attacks, being, I suppose, cautious as the Doctor has just said. Palmerdale's body is on a bunk, not the floor.

Skinsale's obituary is differently handled - the Doctor says he's dead, Leela asks 'With honour?'

The Doctor hesitated, thinking of Skinsale scrabbling for the diamonds. It was no way for a man to be remembered. 'Yes,' he said firmly. 'With honour.'

That's good Terrancing. And an example of the Doctor writing his own adventures.

The poem scene is more involved - it's introduced by Leela asking what the local people will think has happened, and the Doctor replying that someone will probably write a poem about it. 'What litany is that?' interrupts Leela after the first line. I like the litany reference, but I think the poem works better without all the business.

However, TD isn't going to leave us on a weak point, because after the TARDIS has dematerialised, the narrator gives us the thundering of the waves. 'No one was left alive to hear them.'

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