Target - The Keeper of Traken

We open with the Doctor reflecting on his latest escape: from E-Space. I've just noticed that 'escape' is an anagram of 'E-Space' - is that the point of this bit? He also thinks about Romana: she'd never been really happy as a wanderer through time and space, apparently.

This the first TD novelisation to include Adric, so meet his Homeric epithet: 'a smallish, round-faced, snub-nosed lad with an expression of cheerful impudence.'

The region of Mettula Orionsis intrigues me: its name is very close to Mentula Orionis or 'Orion's Cock'. Just saying.

The Fosters in the Grove are carrying out 'all the many activities that go to the maintenance of a successful garden'. Later in the Keeper's presentation, the Doctor reflects that 'a wedding was a wedding, anywhere in the galaxy' - rather like his thoughts about the lift in Sun Makers. I wonder if TD feels a general need to apologise for things in the stories that are too much like their contemporary equivalents.

This reading is the first time that I've picked up the significance of Tremas being named as Keeper-Designate: it makes him and Kassia unhappy because it means their marriage is effectively over as soon as it's begun. I wonder how I managed to miss this before?

We see the demise of the Foster whose body is found in the Grove. He'd slipped away from the wedding party early as the noise was too much for him.

Neman suggests that the Fosters should be armed again, and Luvic responds that they haven't been armed for generations.

The Doctor adds a mention of Capability Brown to his line about gardening when he and Adric see the Grove on the scanner. When we see them next, we're told that there's been an argument about whether Adric should accompany him out of the TARDIS, which resulted in an agreement that Adric should come along for the first part of the exploration. When they reach the gates, the Doctor tries to get Adric to go back in accordance with this agreement.

When the Doctor says 'Well, I hate name-dropping...' (itself a slight change from the screen line), actually he's 'obviously enjoying the whole thing tremendously'.

Tremas' interest in science is regarded as an eccentricity on Traken, where everything is done through the Source. His atmosphere safe is initially referred to as such, but then as a vacuum safe.

Nyssa and Adric get on well because she's starved of younger company, being constantly surrounded by old people. Adric himself thinks that 'from the Keeper downwards, practically everyone on Traken was old, eminent, and bearded.'

The scene where Nyssa bribes Neman to move the crowds on is preceded by one where she hints to Adric what she's going to do, using 'A weapon that opens most doors — even on Traken.'

This is the same in both versions - but poor Foster Neman gets knocked out three times in this story, before being killed. Surely a record.