While driving up the Wye valley on Monday morning I listened enthralled to Christopher Jefferies at the Leveson inquiry getting to use the phrase 'recusant priest'. There was also this great exchange:
Jay: Described as "posh, loved culture and poetry". You probably do still love culture and poetry...
Leveson: If you love culture and poetry, does that make you posh?
Jay: No. Two separate propositions.
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearing/2011-11-28am/ c. 36:30
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Target: Battlefield
Marc Platt adapting an Aaronovitch script, and the result is exactly as you'd expect.
Like with Remembrance of the Daleks, there are very few changes to the central story, but there are a lot of extra background details.
A prologue shows us Arthur at the lake. Basically right, anything in this book that looks like mediaeval weaponry is a sophisticated technological device. I'm only going to tell you once, MP tells us hundreds of times. Likewise, the 'sisters' are from the Thirteen Worlds, etc etc etc. We see Arthur's meeting with Merlin, who talks rather like the Third Doctor but probably isn't him, what with wearing a brown felt hat and a tatty Afghan coat and having finger cymbals about his person.
Bambera gets the standard NA combatwank treatment. I can't stand characters who give distances in 'clicks'. She's also undergone the standard grittification process, spending for example a night on the whisky in her quarters at UNIT HQ.
The screen version takes place in 'the future' but that's handled pretty lightly - the Target is still coy about the exact year (1998/99) but goes into far more detail about everything else. Inevitably some of this stuff has been overtaken by history (few modern-day readers will be impressed by EPROM cartridges, or the reference to the ECU) but some of it isn't bad, like the idea that the 2CV runs on methane and the further developments in crisp flavours. Also thrown in are references to the warming climate, a colony of wild wallabies near the hotel and the Russians as top international cricketers.
We get Excalibur's POV during the gale when it signals to the falling TARDIS (yes, literally falling through the atmosphere due to gravity).
Mordred is first seen on the piss in a tavern - one of his problems is that, being immortal, he outlives all his drinking companions and has to find new ones. His current one is starting to bore him, and when he is summoned by Morgaine he leaves him excellently 'asleep among the last dregs of their friendship.'
The Doctor speculates that UNIT is 'probably coldly technological and characterless' without the Brigadier; a fair assumption from what follows.
Dr Warmsly has a big comedy dog called Cerberus, who is very funny indeed.
Ace notices that Liz Shaw's UNIT card expired on the 31.12.75, which favours the 'few years in the future' UNIT dating theory. The Doctor tells her to act like a physicist (not think like one).
Bambera has attended lectures at Sandhurst given by 'Chunky' Gilmore.
Doris got back together with the Brigadier after seeing a TV documentary about UNIT. I don't really like this sort of thing but I grudgingly enjoyed the presenter's remark about the 'terrible ecological accident at Llanfairfach'.
The Doctor notes that Winifred is a form of the name Guinevere (vice versa really).
The TARDIS is described as a 'Seventies type' police box - well, future or not, we know Ian & Barbara came from 1963 so it can't possibly be, unless '70s' is some internal police coding.
There's some soldierly characterisation for Bambera: for example, when confronted by the armed knights she immediately appreciates the construction and defensive capacity of their armour.
Ancelyn is explicitly said to have a mischievous expression on his face when he says 'I don't talk to peasants': this is not apparent (to me) on screen where it jars with the rest of the way he's portrayed.
I'd never noticed the 'Let this be our last battlefield' quote before. The reference stands out more strongly on the page somehow.
In flight over London, the Brigadier spots various landmarks where he saw action with UNIT - Covent Garden and St Paul's. (He wasn't actually at St Paul's when the Cybermen appeared, but never mind).
Ace becomes very resentful of the Brigadier when he mentions that the Doctor has had other companions. It's all about her, isn't it? (This is hinted at in one of the deleted scenes). She and Shou Youing get eyed up by a couple of UNIT squaddies, which probably doesn't help.
The Doctor refers to Ancelyn as a 'perfick' gentil knight. Chaucer said 'parfit', this isn't the Darling Buds of May.
He also has an 8th-century Arthur fighting the invading Saxons. Only a fool would try and argue about what century Arthur came from, but the Saxons had finished invading by about AD 600.
And he says 'There will be no battle here' but it's explicitly stated that 'he did not shout.'
When the Destroyer first appears he's rather coolly wearing a modern suit. Soldiers attack him from the hotel lobby, but are promptly destroyed.
Shou Yuing half expects another demon to turn up for her to deal with - the Monkey King.
The Doctor mentally compares the Destroyer against the 7,405,926 demons on the Talmudic table - a rare Target appearance for Jewish mythology, following Harry Sullivan's ideas about the Golem in Sontaran Experiment.
The Doctor consults a pocket watch given to him in return for supplying a 'couple of one liners in The Marriage of Figaro'.
When Bambera is last seen, she's wearing a ring with the emblem of Ancelyn's noble house. What a romantic image.
I feel about this Target as I do about Remembrance: if you're going to adapt a story in NA style, this isn't too bad a way of doing it. And similarly, the differences from the screen version are largely in the background details, so at least it doesn't give too misleading a picture of the original story.
Like with Remembrance of the Daleks, there are very few changes to the central story, but there are a lot of extra background details.
A prologue shows us Arthur at the lake. Basically right, anything in this book that looks like mediaeval weaponry is a sophisticated technological device. I'm only going to tell you once, MP tells us hundreds of times. Likewise, the 'sisters' are from the Thirteen Worlds, etc etc etc. We see Arthur's meeting with Merlin, who talks rather like the Third Doctor but probably isn't him, what with wearing a brown felt hat and a tatty Afghan coat and having finger cymbals about his person.
Bambera gets the standard NA combatwank treatment. I can't stand characters who give distances in 'clicks'. She's also undergone the standard grittification process, spending for example a night on the whisky in her quarters at UNIT HQ.
The screen version takes place in 'the future' but that's handled pretty lightly - the Target is still coy about the exact year (1998/99) but goes into far more detail about everything else. Inevitably some of this stuff has been overtaken by history (few modern-day readers will be impressed by EPROM cartridges, or the reference to the ECU) but some of it isn't bad, like the idea that the 2CV runs on methane and the further developments in crisp flavours. Also thrown in are references to the warming climate, a colony of wild wallabies near the hotel and the Russians as top international cricketers.
We get Excalibur's POV during the gale when it signals to the falling TARDIS (yes, literally falling through the atmosphere due to gravity).
Mordred is first seen on the piss in a tavern - one of his problems is that, being immortal, he outlives all his drinking companions and has to find new ones. His current one is starting to bore him, and when he is summoned by Morgaine he leaves him excellently 'asleep among the last dregs of their friendship.'
The Doctor speculates that UNIT is 'probably coldly technological and characterless' without the Brigadier; a fair assumption from what follows.
Dr Warmsly has a big comedy dog called Cerberus, who is very funny indeed.
Ace notices that Liz Shaw's UNIT card expired on the 31.12.75, which favours the 'few years in the future' UNIT dating theory. The Doctor tells her to act like a physicist (not think like one).
Bambera has attended lectures at Sandhurst given by 'Chunky' Gilmore.
Doris got back together with the Brigadier after seeing a TV documentary about UNIT. I don't really like this sort of thing but I grudgingly enjoyed the presenter's remark about the 'terrible ecological accident at Llanfairfach'.
The Doctor notes that Winifred is a form of the name Guinevere (vice versa really).
The TARDIS is described as a 'Seventies type' police box - well, future or not, we know Ian & Barbara came from 1963 so it can't possibly be, unless '70s' is some internal police coding.
There's some soldierly characterisation for Bambera: for example, when confronted by the armed knights she immediately appreciates the construction and defensive capacity of their armour.
Ancelyn is explicitly said to have a mischievous expression on his face when he says 'I don't talk to peasants': this is not apparent (to me) on screen where it jars with the rest of the way he's portrayed.
I'd never noticed the 'Let this be our last battlefield' quote before. The reference stands out more strongly on the page somehow.
In flight over London, the Brigadier spots various landmarks where he saw action with UNIT - Covent Garden and St Paul's. (He wasn't actually at St Paul's when the Cybermen appeared, but never mind).
Ace becomes very resentful of the Brigadier when he mentions that the Doctor has had other companions. It's all about her, isn't it? (This is hinted at in one of the deleted scenes). She and Shou Youing get eyed up by a couple of UNIT squaddies, which probably doesn't help.
The Doctor refers to Ancelyn as a 'perfick' gentil knight. Chaucer said 'parfit', this isn't the Darling Buds of May.
He also has an 8th-century Arthur fighting the invading Saxons. Only a fool would try and argue about what century Arthur came from, but the Saxons had finished invading by about AD 600.
And he says 'There will be no battle here' but it's explicitly stated that 'he did not shout.'
When the Destroyer first appears he's rather coolly wearing a modern suit. Soldiers attack him from the hotel lobby, but are promptly destroyed.
Shou Yuing half expects another demon to turn up for her to deal with - the Monkey King.
The Doctor mentally compares the Destroyer against the 7,405,926 demons on the Talmudic table - a rare Target appearance for Jewish mythology, following Harry Sullivan's ideas about the Golem in Sontaran Experiment.
The Doctor consults a pocket watch given to him in return for supplying a 'couple of one liners in The Marriage of Figaro'.
When Bambera is last seen, she's wearing a ring with the emblem of Ancelyn's noble house. What a romantic image.
I feel about this Target as I do about Remembrance: if you're going to adapt a story in NA style, this isn't too bad a way of doing it. And similarly, the differences from the screen version are largely in the background details, so at least it doesn't give too misleading a picture of the original story.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Target: Greatest Show in the Galaxy
The return of Stephen Wyatt, once again adapting his own script.
The Ringmaster is never specifically said to be rapping, just 'declaiming'. He has the air of a professional - but perhaps one who's been doing the job too long. The prologue has a whole list of these suggestions of things that the audience might find disturbing about the Psychic Circus, or on the other hand, might not. The final one is that we might wish we'd decided to stay at home and watch television instead.
The Doctor isn't bothered by the disappearance of his juggling ball, nor does he go looking for it in the ceiling; but he's properly concerned about how the advertising satellite manages to materialise inside the TARDIS. All the pictures it shows of Segonax are of a green, verdant landscape.
The hearse and funereal clothes are a considered choice by the Chief Clown, partly because they give an impression of legitimacy.
Nord is not seen until the Doctor and Ace are at the stall. His bike is not said to have more than two wheels. He likes sandwiches rather than burgers, and threatens the Doctor's nose rather than his face.
The 'nice walk in the countryside' joke is not used; instead Ace complains about the distance between the Circus and the place where the Doctor chose to land the TARDIS. He on the other hand has some new lines about Segonax having once been green and pleasant, and having friendly inhabitants (Ace's line about being 'chuffed', which seems like a non-sequitur on screen, might be a remnant of this passage?)
When we meet the Captain and Mags we hear the earlier part of his lecture about the valley, which on screen is delivered when he arrives at the Circus in his jeep later on: the valley he's talking about is on Neogorgon and was full of electronic dogs' heads submerged in mud. The robot head in the sand on Segonax can speak, pleading for release, and then issuing threats.
Like his counterpart Nord, we don't meet the Whizzkid till he arrives at the fruit stall, and this happens several intercuts earlier than it does on screen.
Nord is still some distance from the Circus when he asks the clown for directions: the latter is on a high wire in the middle of nowhere.
It takes a couple of extra scenes to get from the robot head to the bus; I think their purpose is to show us the Captain's selfishness in not giving the Doctor and Ace a lift there in his jeep. He refers to Ace pointedly as 'your young "friend"', I have no idea what's being aimed at here. The bus's hippy interior makes Ace think of her Aunt Rosemary's interminable, Captain Cook-style reminiscences of the Sixties.
The Doctor doesn't include a crocodile sandwich in his list of requests to the bus conductor robot.
Captain Cook got his double-headed coins in return for a supersonic pencil sharpener.
'Let me entertain you,' says the Chief Clown to Ace as the robots drag her away.
In the Doctor's remarks to Mags at the pit, there's a reference to his advising Rameses II on traps.
We do not see the Whizzkid being picked out of the audience by the Ringmaster - this is merely anticipated by Morgana. There is however an extra scene at the cage, where the Ringmaster, Morgana and the Chief Clown are discussing the importance of finding a new act. The Whizzkid interrupts the Chief Clown with an eager request for an autograph, causing him to stare incredulously.
When the Whizzkid has met his end, his smashed glasses are excellently described as 'the sole remaining souvenir' of the Circus' greatest fan.
Mags is upset by the Whizzkid's demise, partly because it's forcing her to give up her illusions about the Captain, who she'd previously admired. After the silver bullet line, by the way, he boasts that he's played whist with the Card Carrying Dervishes of Tyrade, and won.
The werewolf transformation gets an extra bit of declamation from the Ringmaster, declaring that it's quite a surprise.
Ace thinks of using Nord's bike to get her and Deadbeat to the bus, but it isn't working again.
Morgana and the Ringmaster's disappearing act is slightly different: each box turns out to contain a series of concentric smaller boxes inside it, the last box being empty (not even the top hat).
Just before going into the arena, the Doctor explains to Mags that the Chief Clown is after the medallion now as it's his only hope.
The hearse actually crashes into the end of the fruit stall, rather than just being delayed by it. I expect the hearse hire company wouldn't have stood for that on screen.
'You know what I really like about you, Kingpin? ... you've stopped singing,' Ace tells him on the way back from the bus.
After the Doctor challenges the Gods by reminding them that he's fought against them all through time, the narrator adds that 'other free-wheeling and questioning spirits' have joined the same fight.
Mags is horrified by the final demise of the Captain.
At the denouement, the circus tent sinks into the ground (rather than just collapsing). Leaflets are scattered for miles around.
There's a nice coda in which Kingpin's invitation to stay is followed by the Doctor's reflection that this moment has come countless times before: 'The moment of farewell when others wanted him to stay. The moment of going gracefully.'
This is one of my favourite stories, and, like Kinda and Castrovalva, one which the Target first showed me the real virtues of when the screen version had gone right over my head on original broadcast.
The Ringmaster is never specifically said to be rapping, just 'declaiming'. He has the air of a professional - but perhaps one who's been doing the job too long. The prologue has a whole list of these suggestions of things that the audience might find disturbing about the Psychic Circus, or on the other hand, might not. The final one is that we might wish we'd decided to stay at home and watch television instead.
The Doctor isn't bothered by the disappearance of his juggling ball, nor does he go looking for it in the ceiling; but he's properly concerned about how the advertising satellite manages to materialise inside the TARDIS. All the pictures it shows of Segonax are of a green, verdant landscape.
The hearse and funereal clothes are a considered choice by the Chief Clown, partly because they give an impression of legitimacy.
Nord is not seen until the Doctor and Ace are at the stall. His bike is not said to have more than two wheels. He likes sandwiches rather than burgers, and threatens the Doctor's nose rather than his face.
The 'nice walk in the countryside' joke is not used; instead Ace complains about the distance between the Circus and the place where the Doctor chose to land the TARDIS. He on the other hand has some new lines about Segonax having once been green and pleasant, and having friendly inhabitants (Ace's line about being 'chuffed', which seems like a non-sequitur on screen, might be a remnant of this passage?)
When we meet the Captain and Mags we hear the earlier part of his lecture about the valley, which on screen is delivered when he arrives at the Circus in his jeep later on: the valley he's talking about is on Neogorgon and was full of electronic dogs' heads submerged in mud. The robot head in the sand on Segonax can speak, pleading for release, and then issuing threats.
Like his counterpart Nord, we don't meet the Whizzkid till he arrives at the fruit stall, and this happens several intercuts earlier than it does on screen.
Nord is still some distance from the Circus when he asks the clown for directions: the latter is on a high wire in the middle of nowhere.
It takes a couple of extra scenes to get from the robot head to the bus; I think their purpose is to show us the Captain's selfishness in not giving the Doctor and Ace a lift there in his jeep. He refers to Ace pointedly as 'your young "friend"', I have no idea what's being aimed at here. The bus's hippy interior makes Ace think of her Aunt Rosemary's interminable, Captain Cook-style reminiscences of the Sixties.
The Doctor doesn't include a crocodile sandwich in his list of requests to the bus conductor robot.
Captain Cook got his double-headed coins in return for a supersonic pencil sharpener.
'Let me entertain you,' says the Chief Clown to Ace as the robots drag her away.
In the Doctor's remarks to Mags at the pit, there's a reference to his advising Rameses II on traps.
We do not see the Whizzkid being picked out of the audience by the Ringmaster - this is merely anticipated by Morgana. There is however an extra scene at the cage, where the Ringmaster, Morgana and the Chief Clown are discussing the importance of finding a new act. The Whizzkid interrupts the Chief Clown with an eager request for an autograph, causing him to stare incredulously.
When the Whizzkid has met his end, his smashed glasses are excellently described as 'the sole remaining souvenir' of the Circus' greatest fan.
Mags is upset by the Whizzkid's demise, partly because it's forcing her to give up her illusions about the Captain, who she'd previously admired. After the silver bullet line, by the way, he boasts that he's played whist with the Card Carrying Dervishes of Tyrade, and won.
The werewolf transformation gets an extra bit of declamation from the Ringmaster, declaring that it's quite a surprise.
Ace thinks of using Nord's bike to get her and Deadbeat to the bus, but it isn't working again.
Morgana and the Ringmaster's disappearing act is slightly different: each box turns out to contain a series of concentric smaller boxes inside it, the last box being empty (not even the top hat).
Just before going into the arena, the Doctor explains to Mags that the Chief Clown is after the medallion now as it's his only hope.
The hearse actually crashes into the end of the fruit stall, rather than just being delayed by it. I expect the hearse hire company wouldn't have stood for that on screen.
'You know what I really like about you, Kingpin? ... you've stopped singing,' Ace tells him on the way back from the bus.
After the Doctor challenges the Gods by reminding them that he's fought against them all through time, the narrator adds that 'other free-wheeling and questioning spirits' have joined the same fight.
Mags is horrified by the final demise of the Captain.
At the denouement, the circus tent sinks into the ground (rather than just collapsing). Leaflets are scattered for miles around.
There's a nice coda in which Kingpin's invitation to stay is followed by the Doctor's reflection that this moment has come countless times before: 'The moment of farewell when others wanted him to stay. The moment of going gracefully.'
This is one of my favourite stories, and, like Kinda and Castrovalva, one which the Target first showed me the real virtues of when the screen version had gone right over my head on original broadcast.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Target: Silver Nemesis
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Target: The Happiness Patrol
Graeme C adapting his own script here. He fills in plot holes and gets things that were realised differently back the way he wanted. When this means trying to make the story grittier, I don't think he's successful, because the story is basically an allegory, and like all allegories, analogies and metaphors, the more closely you look at it the more it comes apart.
Daphne S is looking sad because her son's just been disappeared. She thinks Silas P might be trustworthy because he's reading a copy of the secret underground killjoy paper, The Grief - this isn't seen on screen till the scene where he tries to entrap the Doctor.
After meeting Trevor Sigma, the Doctor and Ace visit the Kandy Kitchen, which has a handy, clearly marked, unlocked external door. Something, though we're not shown what, is clearly present under the manhole.
We don't see the Happiness Patrol painting the TARDIS pink until after they have encountered Earl, and given him his smiley sticker. Many scenes are shifted back and forth relative to the screen version like this, from here on I'm only reporting those changes that seem to have a significant effect on the story. On the other hand, there's a lot less intercutting, we rarely leave and return to the same scene once it's in progress.
The Pipe People are the original inhabitants of Terra Alpha. They used to live off the wild sugar-beet in which the planet abounds.
The Happiness Patrol jeeps play ice-cream van chimes (their vehicles just make beeping noises on screen). And the Patrol themselves wear paramilitary uniforms - I suppose their base clothing on screen could be described as such. They are not said to have pink hair: only Helen A is definitely said to have the distinctive screen coiffure.
Trevor Sigma visits the Kandy Kitchen and converses with Gilbert M, who he met on a previous visit to Terra Alpha. His purpose is to interview the Kandy Man, who is introduced at this point: he is not said to be anything other than human - a powerfully built man in a lab coat, with red glasses and a bow tie. However, his skin is coated with what we suspect to be sugar, and his feet make sucking sounds on the floor as he walks. (I wonder if this is the original concept, or a post-production redesign?) He dismisses Trevor Sigma immediately.
Fifi is the last Stigorax on Terra Alpha. Helen A hunted her down personally.
The man being gunged is Andrew X, a subversive killjoy writer and the brother who Harold V has just spoken of. Although he published anonymously, the Patrol tracked him down by putting together all the local references in his writings. A lesson for all bloggers and Target comparators there.
Distracted by the call to start the execution, the Kandy Man accidentally cuts off his thumb. This annoys him as he'll have to waste time reattaching it. These hints that, while he may look human, he actually isn't, are quite disturbing in their cumulative effect.
Ace takes the piss out of Susan Q after being arrested, asking if she's Valerie V - Zelda Z - Wendy W? The 'blues songs' reference is expanded into a back story about her collection of blues 78s and previous occupation as a singer and dancer.
Following her 'disappearing act', Ace is rearrested and taken before Helen A, to be menaced by Fifi. During this scene Susan Q is brought in and roughed up. The 'Up the killjoys!' demo scene is then inserted before Ace and Susan Q both end up in the Waiting Zone.
There's some extra chat between the snipers, David S and Alex S, which establishes that Alex is the evil one of the pair.
We're shown the outside of Helen A's residence, with its neglected rosebeds.
On his way back to the Kandy Kitchen, the Doctor has an extra establishing encounter with the stage doorman at the Forum, Ernest P. During their next scene together, Priscilla P is on the doors, checking the theatregoers for killjoy tendencies by testing out jokes on them.
Ace and Susan Q's journey to the Forum under Patrol guard is interrupted by an attack from a killjoy sniper.
Having seen Fifi apparently crushed under the crystallised sugar, the Doctor instructs Earl and Susan Q to deal with Priscilla P, which we duly see them do.
The only time that the sex of the newscaster is mentioned, he's a man (always female on screen).
The Kandy phone is made out of twisty blue and pink sweets.
Having told Ace that she mustn't join in the 'wanton destruction of public property', the Doctor winks and says 'But in this case, yes.' Tsk.
Asked by Joseph C about the origins of the Kandy Man, Gilbert has a long reverie about how he came to flee Vasilip with the mind of his friendly rival, Seivad, in a suitcase. Helen A made him create a monster out of Seivad (whose mind was twisted with anger and injustice, and probably from being put in a suitcase too I reckon). 'He couldn't face long explanations,' remarks the narrator, and has him give the same short reply as on screen.
In the shuttle, Joseph C realises he's still holding Fifi's lead when he tells Helen A that she must have slipped his mind.
The manhole covers leading from the pipes up into the palace sensibly all have combination locks, but this doesn't hold the Doctor up long. He enters Helen A's office by sliding down a pole from the Patrol guardroom above.
The fleeing Helen A still has some courage while the muzak is playing - and is correspondingly disheartened when it's replaced by the harmonica music. The Doctor's final words in this scene are 'It's done' not 'Tis done'.
Priscilla and Daisy's final exchange is only referred to in summary. Ace wants to go after Joseph and Gilbert, but Susan says to forget it, as it was the Kandy Man who was evil, not Gilbert.
Daphne S is looking sad because her son's just been disappeared. She thinks Silas P might be trustworthy because he's reading a copy of the secret underground killjoy paper, The Grief - this isn't seen on screen till the scene where he tries to entrap the Doctor.
After meeting Trevor Sigma, the Doctor and Ace visit the Kandy Kitchen, which has a handy, clearly marked, unlocked external door. Something, though we're not shown what, is clearly present under the manhole.
We don't see the Happiness Patrol painting the TARDIS pink until after they have encountered Earl, and given him his smiley sticker. Many scenes are shifted back and forth relative to the screen version like this, from here on I'm only reporting those changes that seem to have a significant effect on the story. On the other hand, there's a lot less intercutting, we rarely leave and return to the same scene once it's in progress.
The Pipe People are the original inhabitants of Terra Alpha. They used to live off the wild sugar-beet in which the planet abounds.
The Happiness Patrol jeeps play ice-cream van chimes (their vehicles just make beeping noises on screen). And the Patrol themselves wear paramilitary uniforms - I suppose their base clothing on screen could be described as such. They are not said to have pink hair: only Helen A is definitely said to have the distinctive screen coiffure.
Trevor Sigma visits the Kandy Kitchen and converses with Gilbert M, who he met on a previous visit to Terra Alpha. His purpose is to interview the Kandy Man, who is introduced at this point: he is not said to be anything other than human - a powerfully built man in a lab coat, with red glasses and a bow tie. However, his skin is coated with what we suspect to be sugar, and his feet make sucking sounds on the floor as he walks. (I wonder if this is the original concept, or a post-production redesign?) He dismisses Trevor Sigma immediately.
Fifi is the last Stigorax on Terra Alpha. Helen A hunted her down personally.
The man being gunged is Andrew X, a subversive killjoy writer and the brother who Harold V has just spoken of. Although he published anonymously, the Patrol tracked him down by putting together all the local references in his writings. A lesson for all bloggers and Target comparators there.
Distracted by the call to start the execution, the Kandy Man accidentally cuts off his thumb. This annoys him as he'll have to waste time reattaching it. These hints that, while he may look human, he actually isn't, are quite disturbing in their cumulative effect.
Ace takes the piss out of Susan Q after being arrested, asking if she's Valerie V - Zelda Z - Wendy W? The 'blues songs' reference is expanded into a back story about her collection of blues 78s and previous occupation as a singer and dancer.
Following her 'disappearing act', Ace is rearrested and taken before Helen A, to be menaced by Fifi. During this scene Susan Q is brought in and roughed up. The 'Up the killjoys!' demo scene is then inserted before Ace and Susan Q both end up in the Waiting Zone.
There's some extra chat between the snipers, David S and Alex S, which establishes that Alex is the evil one of the pair.
We're shown the outside of Helen A's residence, with its neglected rosebeds.
On his way back to the Kandy Kitchen, the Doctor has an extra establishing encounter with the stage doorman at the Forum, Ernest P. During their next scene together, Priscilla P is on the doors, checking the theatregoers for killjoy tendencies by testing out jokes on them.
Ace and Susan Q's journey to the Forum under Patrol guard is interrupted by an attack from a killjoy sniper.
Having seen Fifi apparently crushed under the crystallised sugar, the Doctor instructs Earl and Susan Q to deal with Priscilla P, which we duly see them do.
The only time that the sex of the newscaster is mentioned, he's a man (always female on screen).
The Kandy phone is made out of twisty blue and pink sweets.
Having told Ace that she mustn't join in the 'wanton destruction of public property', the Doctor winks and says 'But in this case, yes.' Tsk.
Asked by Joseph C about the origins of the Kandy Man, Gilbert has a long reverie about how he came to flee Vasilip with the mind of his friendly rival, Seivad, in a suitcase. Helen A made him create a monster out of Seivad (whose mind was twisted with anger and injustice, and probably from being put in a suitcase too I reckon). 'He couldn't face long explanations,' remarks the narrator, and has him give the same short reply as on screen.
In the shuttle, Joseph C realises he's still holding Fifi's lead when he tells Helen A that she must have slipped his mind.
The manhole covers leading from the pipes up into the palace sensibly all have combination locks, but this doesn't hold the Doctor up long. He enters Helen A's office by sliding down a pole from the Patrol guardroom above.
The fleeing Helen A still has some courage while the muzak is playing - and is correspondingly disheartened when it's replaced by the harmonica music. The Doctor's final words in this scene are 'It's done' not 'Tis done'.
Priscilla and Daisy's final exchange is only referred to in summary. Ace wants to go after Joseph and Gilbert, but Susan says to forget it, as it was the Kandy Man who was evil, not Gilbert.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Target: Remembrance of the Daleks
Shades of the NA treatment from Ben Aaronovitch here - but there's also a hard SF theme fighting for dominance. Together with the lighter tone of parts of the original story this is an uncomfortable mixture, but one which makes for an interesting read.
The events of the story are almost exactly the same. There's a prologue where the First Doctor returns to 76 Totters Lane only to hear the words 'It's Susan,' and realise that he's about to be considerably delayed. Coal Hill is in Shoreditch (rather than just being filmed there). The French Revolution book is not seen (they got the cover wrong on screen anyway). Ace watches Muffin The Mule on telly, not the Unearthly Child continuity announcement. The 'cane-cutter' scene takes place in a different cafe, down by the docks. The vapourisation of Skaro by the supernova is seen.
The real differences are in the expanded character back-stories, so I'll present them character by character:
The Doctor - is very much the omniscient Cartmel Masterplan Doctor. There are some flashbacks to conversations between Rassilon, Omega and an 'other', who we are at liberty to think is him. He also hypnotises Rachel into forgetting the deductions she makes about fibre optics and holograms from watching him at work.
Ace - three characterisations at war here. Ace of the NAs, all explosive recipes, weapons obsession and awareness of Mike looking at her breasts. 'White kids' Ace, struck by the monocultural Coal Hill School. And shouty Marmalade Atkins Ace with her baseball bat, explosive deodorant cans and attempts to cook plutonium in the TARDIS microwave. The three Aces do not sit easily together.
Rachel Jensen - constantly amazed by the Doctor's abilities and knowledge to the point that it becomes annoying. Romantically involved with Gilmore during the war when she was in the WAAF (and may get together with him again after the end of the book). Also worked with Turing. Is Jewish, and at one point has a dream of her childhood synagogue with the Doctor in the rabbi's place.
Allison - same as Rachel really. 'She's doing it again. I hate it when she does that,' she thinks when Ace makes another casual tech reference. Exactly what I began to feel about her and Rachel's POV bits.
Sgt Mike Smith - running wild as a kid in bombed-out post-war London, he met Ratcliffe and was given chocolate and a lot of warped ideas about Jews and communists. Also has memories of service in Malaya.
Not UNIT - in the Dragonfire comparison I complained about the absence of the tea-and-grumbling style of military characterisation. This makes a welcome return in this Target, so one up to BA there. But there's also some rhapsodic specification porn about the FN-FAL rifle. Get out of it, this is a DW adaptation not the Commando War Picture Library. One of the chapter epigraphs is from a History of UNIT, and states that Not UNIT were indeed the origin of that organisation.
Gp Capt Gilmore - is only referred to as Chunky once, by his men, out of his hearing. It's clearly not a nickname his friends use. Good thing too - if ever a sound DW character was weakened by a silly name, it was Gilmore on screen. He's the conscientious CO who recalls his men's biographical details when they're killed. And he's disturbed (in a serious, 'I know what war is really like' way) by Ace's enthusiasm for weaponry.
The Daleks - this is where the hard SF style I mentioned comes in. There's much Dalek POV with descriptions of their support systems and technology. They have lots of little servo robots on their ships - and the ships have names. That last point made me realise that the style in these passages is rather reminiscent of how Iain Banks would write about Daleks, if he chose to do so.
It's implied that they achieved the final extermination of the Thals (well, I reckon they escaped). They have a special name for the Doctor. None of them like the Special Weapons Dalek, or 'the Abomination' as they think of it.
Humans 'make dangerous slaves' - an astute observation, since every time we've seen the Daleks employing unhealthy coughing humanoids, it's ended in disaster.
The Time Controller is still a plasma globe.
Ratcliffe - has 'the bearing of a soldier', which is odd because he was interned throughout the war for being a fascist. He has glorious memories of Cable Street so was probably in the BUF itself. The Dalek controller just appeared one day in his office. And he impressed Mike the week before the story opened by having advance knowledge of the Kennedy assassination!
Davros - is obviously the Emperor much earlier on in the action, thanks to some fairly broad hints in the description of his thoughts.
John the cane-cutter's son - is comforted by the thought of his alternate African self.
The vicar - is named Parkinson (incorrectly referred to as Reverend Parkinson. Rev John Smith, Mr Smith but never Rev Smith). He was blinded at Verdun. Another explicit reference to the Seventh Doctor's Scottish accent in his scene.
The Hand of Omega - is semi-sentient and gets several POV scenes.
Considering this Target as an adaptation of the screen version, I don't like it at all, it's hardly DW and the Doctor, for all the hints about his cosmic importance, is seen almost entirely from other people's point of view. As an experiment in writing DW in a contemporary way, it isn't bad, it's certainly better than the actual NAs though it has enough of their faults to put me off it.
(Thanks to Zone posters for corrections/quibbling)
The events of the story are almost exactly the same. There's a prologue where the First Doctor returns to 76 Totters Lane only to hear the words 'It's Susan,' and realise that he's about to be considerably delayed. Coal Hill is in Shoreditch (rather than just being filmed there). The French Revolution book is not seen (they got the cover wrong on screen anyway). Ace watches Muffin The Mule on telly, not the Unearthly Child continuity announcement. The 'cane-cutter' scene takes place in a different cafe, down by the docks. The vapourisation of Skaro by the supernova is seen.
The real differences are in the expanded character back-stories, so I'll present them character by character:
The Doctor - is very much the omniscient Cartmel Masterplan Doctor. There are some flashbacks to conversations between Rassilon, Omega and an 'other', who we are at liberty to think is him. He also hypnotises Rachel into forgetting the deductions she makes about fibre optics and holograms from watching him at work.
Ace - three characterisations at war here. Ace of the NAs, all explosive recipes, weapons obsession and awareness of Mike looking at her breasts. 'White kids' Ace, struck by the monocultural Coal Hill School. And shouty Marmalade Atkins Ace with her baseball bat, explosive deodorant cans and attempts to cook plutonium in the TARDIS microwave. The three Aces do not sit easily together.
Rachel Jensen - constantly amazed by the Doctor's abilities and knowledge to the point that it becomes annoying. Romantically involved with Gilmore during the war when she was in the WAAF (and may get together with him again after the end of the book). Also worked with Turing. Is Jewish, and at one point has a dream of her childhood synagogue with the Doctor in the rabbi's place.
Allison - same as Rachel really. 'She's doing it again. I hate it when she does that,' she thinks when Ace makes another casual tech reference. Exactly what I began to feel about her and Rachel's POV bits.
Sgt Mike Smith - running wild as a kid in bombed-out post-war London, he met Ratcliffe and was given chocolate and a lot of warped ideas about Jews and communists. Also has memories of service in Malaya.
Not UNIT - in the Dragonfire comparison I complained about the absence of the tea-and-grumbling style of military characterisation. This makes a welcome return in this Target, so one up to BA there. But there's also some rhapsodic specification porn about the FN-FAL rifle. Get out of it, this is a DW adaptation not the Commando War Picture Library. One of the chapter epigraphs is from a History of UNIT, and states that Not UNIT were indeed the origin of that organisation.
Gp Capt Gilmore - is only referred to as Chunky once, by his men, out of his hearing. It's clearly not a nickname his friends use. Good thing too - if ever a sound DW character was weakened by a silly name, it was Gilmore on screen. He's the conscientious CO who recalls his men's biographical details when they're killed. And he's disturbed (in a serious, 'I know what war is really like' way) by Ace's enthusiasm for weaponry.
The Daleks - this is where the hard SF style I mentioned comes in. There's much Dalek POV with descriptions of their support systems and technology. They have lots of little servo robots on their ships - and the ships have names. That last point made me realise that the style in these passages is rather reminiscent of how Iain Banks would write about Daleks, if he chose to do so.
It's implied that they achieved the final extermination of the Thals (well, I reckon they escaped). They have a special name for the Doctor. None of them like the Special Weapons Dalek, or 'the Abomination' as they think of it.
Humans 'make dangerous slaves' - an astute observation, since every time we've seen the Daleks employing unhealthy coughing humanoids, it's ended in disaster.
The Time Controller is still a plasma globe.
Ratcliffe - has 'the bearing of a soldier', which is odd because he was interned throughout the war for being a fascist. He has glorious memories of Cable Street so was probably in the BUF itself. The Dalek controller just appeared one day in his office. And he impressed Mike the week before the story opened by having advance knowledge of the Kennedy assassination!
Davros - is obviously the Emperor much earlier on in the action, thanks to some fairly broad hints in the description of his thoughts.
John the cane-cutter's son - is comforted by the thought of his alternate African self.
The vicar - is named Parkinson (incorrectly referred to as Reverend Parkinson. Rev John Smith, Mr Smith but never Rev Smith). He was blinded at Verdun. Another explicit reference to the Seventh Doctor's Scottish accent in his scene.
The Hand of Omega - is semi-sentient and gets several POV scenes.
Considering this Target as an adaptation of the screen version, I don't like it at all, it's hardly DW and the Doctor, for all the hints about his cosmic importance, is seen almost entirely from other people's point of view. As an experiment in writing DW in a contemporary way, it isn't bad, it's certainly better than the actual NAs though it has enough of their faults to put me off it.
(Thanks to Zone posters for corrections/quibbling)
Friday, September 09, 2011
Target: Dragonfire
Really wasn't looking forward to this one, as I find the story extremely dull and I didn't fancy reading Ian Briggs' treatment of it. But will I have to eat my words and say that it helped make the story more interesting, again?
Mel is standing on her head when first seen. Her stroppy attitude when offered a jelly baby makes the Doctor reflect that he never had an older sister.
The little girl, Stellar, has a best friend back at home called Milli-mind. It's made clear that the people in the Freezer Centre have stopped there on space journeys to stock up with food. It doesn't make it that much more realistic, but it's better than the screen version where it just seems like there's a contemporary supermarket in space for no good reason.
The Iceworld cafe is run by a man named Eisenstein, not Anderson. Ian Briggs wants to give the place more the ambience of the Mos Eisley cantina than the Children's BBC atmosphere shown on screen. Amongst the extra lines given to Glitz is one where, having failed to get the Doctor to help him get the hundred crowns, he appeals to Mel: 'think of the adventures we had together...'
The Doctor is able to correct Mel's pronunciation of 'Loch Ness' because he has an 'authentic Scottish accent' in this incarnation. I know that might sound like stating the obvious but it was never explicitly referred to on screen.
The 'real McCoy' joke is not used.
Ace doesn't tip a second milkshake over Eisenstein. Amongst the mess observed by Mel in her bedroom are many discarded items of underwear. The story of the explosion in the school art room ends with the first years' pottery pigs all over the sports field.
At the Singing Trees, Glitz refers to crowns and not grotzits when he sees the valuable crystals. There's an extra scene where he gets pinned under a block of ice and the Doctor saves his life, causing him to comment that the Doctor is an 'odd fish'. IB describes the Doctor, by the way, as having a peculiar face.
Ace resists Kane's temptation because she suddenly sees him as telling her to do as she's told, just like her parents and teachers did.
Glitz finds the Ice Garden and realises it's functioning as a planetarium.
The Doctor's actions at the ice cliff are carefully explained: he wants to climb down because that's the only way forwards into the tunnels. He hangs off his umbrella because the cracks in the ice that he's using for holds are too far apart, and the umbrella extends his reach.
Ace and Mel's climb down the cliff is much expanded. They use climbing gear, and there's this bizarre conversation:
One of Ace's Nitro-9 canisters springs a leak on the way down, and Mel saves her. Much bonding results. This comes to mind later on, when Ace and Mel hide from the undead crewmembers in a crack in the ice (not under some stairs):
Bazin and McLuhan (the ANT-hunting soldiers) think and are described in traditional NA style - all lock-and-load and weapon specifications. I never find this impressive when it crops up in the newer Targets, I prefer the tea-and-grumbling style of soldiering of the UNIT era. (Which, significantly, was written by people who had fought real wars).
During the argument between Glitz and Ace about who's going to the Nosferatu to get the explosive, we're told that 'he always had trouble with feminists - usually because they were right and he was wrong.' It sounds like Glitz is thinking that but that doesn't make sense. Anyway, there's an extra bit where Ace and Mel disobediently follow him and find him waiting round a corner looking cross, so they go back and play I-spy.
All the docked spaceships have people crowding onto them to escape Kane's mercenaries, and he blows all of them up.
Stellar's mother orders Glitz to start looking for her child.
At the point where Ace takes the short-cut to her quarters, there's graffiti on the wall saying ACE 4 WAYNE (the book has a picture, very unusual for a late Target). Wayne, she explains, is her soft toy dog. She actually reaches her quarters here, only to be dragged away by Kane.
Stellar encounters Kane getting out of his fridge. She has Teddy tells him that he's sorry for disturbing him. Kane ignores Teddy and Stellar. When she takes Teddy out of the fridge later, she drops him and he shatters into bits, making her cry. Poignantly, the tears turn into ice crystals before they hit the floor.
Glitz takes the Nitro-9 from Ace's room and uses it to wire up the cryogenics chamber. The Doctor and Mel meet him here. She hitches up her skirt to climb over the detonator wires - on screen she's wearing trousers. The remaining mercenaries attack: although the Nitro won't explode, Glitz desperately throws Ace's toy dog Wayne (which he finds in her holdall) at them, and being full of nitroglycerin, it explodes.
There's no tannoy announcement from 'Captain Glitz'.
This Target does make the story clearer, but this time that still wasn't enough to make me enjoy it. Glitz is the best thing in it in either version.
Mel is standing on her head when first seen. Her stroppy attitude when offered a jelly baby makes the Doctor reflect that he never had an older sister.
The little girl, Stellar, has a best friend back at home called Milli-mind. It's made clear that the people in the Freezer Centre have stopped there on space journeys to stock up with food. It doesn't make it that much more realistic, but it's better than the screen version where it just seems like there's a contemporary supermarket in space for no good reason.
The Iceworld cafe is run by a man named Eisenstein, not Anderson. Ian Briggs wants to give the place more the ambience of the Mos Eisley cantina than the Children's BBC atmosphere shown on screen. Amongst the extra lines given to Glitz is one where, having failed to get the Doctor to help him get the hundred crowns, he appeals to Mel: 'think of the adventures we had together...'
The Doctor is able to correct Mel's pronunciation of 'Loch Ness' because he has an 'authentic Scottish accent' in this incarnation. I know that might sound like stating the obvious but it was never explicitly referred to on screen.
The 'real McCoy' joke is not used.
Ace doesn't tip a second milkshake over Eisenstein. Amongst the mess observed by Mel in her bedroom are many discarded items of underwear. The story of the explosion in the school art room ends with the first years' pottery pigs all over the sports field.
At the Singing Trees, Glitz refers to crowns and not grotzits when he sees the valuable crystals. There's an extra scene where he gets pinned under a block of ice and the Doctor saves his life, causing him to comment that the Doctor is an 'odd fish'. IB describes the Doctor, by the way, as having a peculiar face.
Ace resists Kane's temptation because she suddenly sees him as telling her to do as she's told, just like her parents and teachers did.
Glitz finds the Ice Garden and realises it's functioning as a planetarium.
The Doctor's actions at the ice cliff are carefully explained: he wants to climb down because that's the only way forwards into the tunnels. He hangs off his umbrella because the cracks in the ice that he's using for holds are too far apart, and the umbrella extends his reach.
Ace and Mel's climb down the cliff is much expanded. They use climbing gear, and there's this bizarre conversation:
'I think you've got that harness on upside-down. I think those tight straps are supposed to go between your legs.'
Ace looked down, and giggled. 'It's a good job I'm not a boy!' she laughed. Mel smiled - and then she began to laugh as well. This wasn't going to be a bit like they always showed it on telly!
One of Ace's Nitro-9 canisters springs a leak on the way down, and Mel saves her. Much bonding results. This comes to mind later on, when Ace and Mel hide from the undead crewmembers in a crack in the ice (not under some stairs):
She held Mel tight in the darkness. Her cheek was pressed against Mel's. She could feel her gentle breathing.
Bazin and McLuhan (the ANT-hunting soldiers) think and are described in traditional NA style - all lock-and-load and weapon specifications. I never find this impressive when it crops up in the newer Targets, I prefer the tea-and-grumbling style of soldiering of the UNIT era. (Which, significantly, was written by people who had fought real wars).
During the argument between Glitz and Ace about who's going to the Nosferatu to get the explosive, we're told that 'he always had trouble with feminists - usually because they were right and he was wrong.' It sounds like Glitz is thinking that but that doesn't make sense. Anyway, there's an extra bit where Ace and Mel disobediently follow him and find him waiting round a corner looking cross, so they go back and play I-spy.
All the docked spaceships have people crowding onto them to escape Kane's mercenaries, and he blows all of them up.
Stellar's mother orders Glitz to start looking for her child.
At the point where Ace takes the short-cut to her quarters, there's graffiti on the wall saying ACE 4 WAYNE (the book has a picture, very unusual for a late Target). Wayne, she explains, is her soft toy dog. She actually reaches her quarters here, only to be dragged away by Kane.
Stellar encounters Kane getting out of his fridge. She has Teddy tells him that he's sorry for disturbing him. Kane ignores Teddy and Stellar. When she takes Teddy out of the fridge later, she drops him and he shatters into bits, making her cry. Poignantly, the tears turn into ice crystals before they hit the floor.
Glitz takes the Nitro-9 from Ace's room and uses it to wire up the cryogenics chamber. The Doctor and Mel meet him here. She hitches up her skirt to climb over the detonator wires - on screen she's wearing trousers. The remaining mercenaries attack: although the Nitro won't explode, Glitz desperately throws Ace's toy dog Wayne (which he finds in her holdall) at them, and being full of nitroglycerin, it explodes.
There's no tannoy announcement from 'Captain Glitz'.
This Target does make the story clearer, but this time that still wasn't enough to make me enjoy it. Glitz is the best thing in it in either version.