by James Goss

Target/BBC Books, out now

 

The Doctor, Romana and K-9 trace the second segment of the Key to Time to the planet Calufrax, but when they arrive they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet.

James Goss takes a second bite at Doctor Who’s 1978 16th season serial by Douglas Adams, this time in a pocket-sized Target edition. In 2017, Goss gave us a much heftier version of the story, based on Adams’ first draft scripts.

Clocking in at 183 pages, you don’t need to have earned a Star of Mathematical Excellence to appreciate that this Target version of the story is exactly half the length of the previous version’s 376 pages plus notes. But before you conjure up the image of Goss deleting every other word of his longer manuscript, be aware that this is a very different beast. This version is based on the TV version of the serial and as such requires a total rewrite.

Adams’ trademark wit comes through in his dialogue here, as originally script edited by Anthony Read, with Goss continuing the humour and detail in his descriptions. The Captain has ‘diesel breath’, the Polyphase Avatron has ‘gimlet eyes’ and Romana is ‘…as much fun as a well-dressed telephone phone directory.’

As he demonstrated with his Targeted (Targetised?) version of The City of Death in the last batch of Doctor Who paperbacks, James Goss’ punchy new version of a Douglas Adams story deserves to exist just as much as the longer form.

Verdict: Power up the Interferometer, cut the bafflegab and slot this segment of the Key to Time in between The Ribos Operation and The Stones of Blood on your bowing bookshelf, but keep its big brother in easy reach. 8/10

Nick Joy