Edition read: Target fourth reprint, 1984

Coolest Cover: It may seem an odd choice, but I’m going to go with the photographic cover here. There’s something about it which captures the spirit of the new era in 1982.

Crimes Against Literature: The dedication "To Paula, with fondest love" is rather ironic in retrospect.

The TARDIS materialises and dematerialises: Soundlessly.

Childhood Recollections: My first copy of this came from W H Smith at Llandudno, presumably shortly after publication, on the same family holiday which produced copies of Doctor Who and the Daemons and Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks.

Ramblings: Another new author, another approach. Target’s next "event" adaptation brought one of the stronger stories from Peter Davison’s first season to the shelves within five of six months of transmission- no mean feat when Saward was in the process of being hired as script editor and preparing the next season of the television series. And it doesn’t feel like a rush job either- in particular, there are several moments where Saward’s style shows that rather more thought has gone into the book. There are a number of moments where the action briefly switches to the natural world- to owls, foxes and badgers living their everyday lives while the events of the story go on around them- in what in some ways is a substitute for the verdant location filming of the original serial. The other most noticeable element of Saward’s style is that in every case, he writes across the cliffhangers, concluding his chapter with the resolution rather than the actual moment of suspense. I remember being quite put out about this when I first read the book at age 10, however re-reading the book at 33, it comes across as a recognition that a book and a television script are different beasts with different demands. That said, the conclusion seems rather rushed and everything seems to be over in a matter of a few pages. The characters don’t come out brilliantly- one would expect Saward to dwell a bit longer over Richard Mace however he lacks something of the roguish charm he had on television, and although there is a little more detail given about the Terileptils, it does read suspiciously like the descriptions from a script. Still, good stories don’t automatically get good adaptations, so a careful adaptation of a solid story is something to enjoy.