Another self-adaptation - pretty much the norm in the later era - by Kevin Clarke. There's a problem with this comparison - the screen version people are most likely to see is the 'extended' video edition, and comparing to that would be like comparing to the DVDs including deleted scenes, which I've resolutely not done in previous cases. The problem is that I'm not 100% sure which bits are deleted scenes. The Ministry of Truth were hard at work on the history of this story before the 'Restoration' Team were even thought of. So I may have missed some Target additions where those additions are also in the 'extended' version.
There's an opening pan across space to Earth, which appears 'as a backcloth to some small theatrical performance taking place on a limited budget', and the Nemesis meteor.
Then it's straight to the Doctor and Ace at the pub on Sunday afternoon. The weather seen on screen is not very November-like, and here it's definitely said to be summer. (November 23rd 1988 was a Wednesday, so this can't be the same day as the action in Windsor and at the crypt anyway).
If you like jazz and think the Doctor should like it too, there are lots of descriptions of his thoughts in this book that you're going to enjoy. If you preferred it when he liked Buddhism, you're not so lucky. The band aren't famous enough for Ace to want an autograph, she just buys one of their tapes instead.
Intercut with this is the archery scene with Lady Peinforte (aiming at a blackbird not a pigeon) and the scene with the mathematician. The imminent demise of the latter is signalled when Lady P asks Richard, with sinister politeness, to close the door.
(The transcriber points out that the mathematician's prediction doesn't allow for the adjustment of the calendar by omitting 11 days in 1752. I wish that had occurred to me. Perhaps the Doctor included that fact in the information on the card?)
There's an appalling Rocketman-style cheat when the semi-Cybes attack by the river: 'The force of the bullets threw the Doctor and Ace headlong into the water.' Are they wearing bulletproof vests or something?
The Nazi scenes begin here.
'I always liked the Eighties. They were a time of great certainty in England,' remarks the Doctor after his miraculous escape.
Lady P and Richard materialise in the Princess of Wales Burger Bar in Windsor, which is empty. Most of their scenes have extra bits: for example, she mentions not being married, and when she speaks of reckoning with the Doctor, there's a flash of lightning on cue.
The Doctor doesn't put glasses on to hypnotise the royal protection squad. The portrait of Ace bit from the extended edition is included.
Nemesis lands on a building site - this is important later on during Ace's fight with the Cybermen.
Richard's prayers and good resolutions during the Cyber-combat are given at greater length. Very funny dialogue even without Gerard Murphy. The Cyberleader does not know who Lady Peinforte is. At least one policeman survives this scene.
The extended scene where the Doctor and Ace return to 1638 to burn the card that gave the mathematician his start, and to move the chess pieces, is not used.
It's giraffes, not llamas, that terrify Richard in the safari park. The narrator says that neither he nor Lady P can read the warning sign: surely if she has some Latin, she can read English too?
De Flores and Karl are not seen looking at a map. They don't appear until the Ring of the Nibelungen bit. The line about Wagner needing to be rewritten is postponed until they're in the crypt.
The sight gag with the Doctor pouring marbles into Ace's hands in response to her 'Have you lost your marbles?' question is not used. There's an extra line in this scene about having to keep the Cybermen talking.
The extended edition bit with de Flores throwing gold dust at the Cybermen in the crypt is used.
The applause at the end of the jazz transmission stirs long-forgotten memories in the Cyberleader.
Ace and the Doctor's chess moves with the bow and the Cybermen are preceded by a bit where the Doctor taunts the Cybermen for talking in a dull way. 'Everything's always "Kill him," or "Excellent"', he says, doing an impression of the Cyberleader.
There's no further visit to 1638 to fiddle with the chessboard and pick up the gold coins. The ones the Doctor gives to Ace are just produced from his pocket.
The highly amusing American lady is called Mrs Hackensack (not Remington). Having given her a comedy American name, KC has written himself into a corner and has to call her ancestors' house Hackensack Grange. Hackensack, like most stock funny American names, isn't remotely English but Dutch, so that's a very unlikely name for an English country house.
Lady P and Richard are astonished to be going as fast as 30mph in the car, as they would be.
The fact that the statue's landing site is a building site, not just a warehouse, comes into play when the Cybermen pursue Ace through the half-built house, with much plaster dust and shattering brickwork. This does make the fight rather more exciting. She climbs down a drainpipe at one point, which reminds her of sneaking out of her parents' house back in Perivale. 'I've heard of metal fatigue, but you lot are pathetic,' she shouts at the Cybes.
Although Ace seems to place the Nitro-9 on screen, I can't see her actually trying to detonate it. In the book, the detonator is crushed by the Cyberlieutenant before she can use it.
During the Doctor's instructions to Nemesis, he's described as 'the most mysterious being in space and time.'
In the final Lady P/Doctor/Cyberleader confrontation, some of her lines are missed out and shortened. She doesn't mention Gallifrey, the old time, or the chaos. But she also has some extra lines about the statue being the Doctor's creation, and when Ace says that she knows he's a Time Lord, Lady P replies 'And you think that is all.' The Cyberleader, by the way, doesn't say anything about the secrets of the Time Lords meaning nothing to them. Finally, Lady P isn't just dismissed from the exchange, she joins Ace in her horror at the idea of giving the bow to the Cybermen.
Once Richard understands what 'giving him a lift' means, he says 'methinks I hear celestial music.' This leads into the final scene - a return visit to the jazz pub and his referring to the barman as the potman. I much prefer the finish with flute/lute ensemble back in 1638 myself - as I do the Doctor's original response to the 'Who are you?' question. On the page, instead of enigmatically putting a finger to his lips, he winks and smiles as if he's in the opening credits.
I'm not so keen on this Target - it seems to fiddle unnecessarily with the enjoyable bits of the screen version without improving the story. But the extra Richard/Lady Peinforte bits are worth having, if like me you think that the duo are the best thing in the story by miles.
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