Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation): Difference between revisions

Attack of the Cybermen (novelisation) (edit)

Revision as of 09:11, 22 July 2023

3,515 bytes added , 22 July 2023

no edit summary

Anonymous user

61.68.209.118

@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 == Deviations from televised story ==
-* The opening scene with the sewer workers Bill and David does not appear.
+* The novelisation deviates from the televised story structure considerably. Most notably, among several additions, includes:
-* The silvery metal used to make Cybermen bodies is called [[arnickleton]].
+** The first two chapters focus on Lytton's gang and their first meeting with the Cybermen.
-* Lytton's race is called the [[Charnel]]s.
+** The following chapters reintroduce the Doctor and Peri, following their investigation on Lytton's distress signal.
-* The novelisation restructures the story considerably: The first two chapters focus on Lytton's gang up to the point where they meet the Cybermen, after which the Doctor and Peri are introduced and followed to the same point, and there are no scenes set on Telos until [[the TARDIS]] is en route there.
+** The first scenes on Telos are moved to immediately prior the TARDIS's arrival in the tombs.
-* The novel adds first names not given on screen: [[Griffiths|Charles Windsor "Charlie" Griffiths]], [[Vincent Russell]], [[Joe Payne]], [[Eregous Bates]] and [[Lintus Stratton]]. [[Lytton]]'s full name is given as Gustave Lytton, something the Doctor was already aware of.
+** Several sequences are also streamlined or outright removed. The opening with sewer workers, Bill and David, is omitted. As is the cliffhanger to the end of "Part One" featuring Peri.
-* Back story is provided for the gang members: Griffiths is a petty criminal who lives with his mother, Payne is a shady garage owner. Russell was assigned to Lytton when the police became curious about his lack of background, with both Lytton and Griffiths secretly aware he is a police officer.
+* The novel adds considerable detail to Lytton's gang in London:
-* Payne is a chain smoker and claims someone is following them so he can sneak a cigarette.
+** [[Gustave Lytton|Commander Gustave Lytton]] is a time-stranded Charnel mercenary.
-* [[Threst]] is renamed Thrust.
+** [[Griffiths|Charles Windsor "Charlie" Griffiths]] is a petty criminal who lives with his mother.
-* The characters of Bates and Stratton are largely swapped round, with Bates becoming the more nervous.
+** [[Joe Payne|Joe "Coffin Nail Joe" Payne]] is a shady garage owner and notorious chain smoker.
-* Several sequences are removed, including the televised cliffhanger of the Cybermen about to kill Peri. It also removes some minor violence such as Bates squeezing Griffiths' hand.
+** [[Vincent Russell]], Lytton's supplier and an undercover officer for the Metropolitan Police.
-* The Cyber Controller does not appear until his encounter with Lytton.
+* Further changes to names include [[Eregous Bates]] and [[Lintus Stratton]], whose personalities are swapped for the novelisation. Additionally, Lytton's contact among the Cryons, [[Threst]], is renamed Thrust.
-* The Doctor suspects Lytton didn't tell him he was working for the [[Cryon]]s because he suspected the Doctor would not believe him.
+* Both Lytton and Griffiths are aware of Russell's role as an undercover policeman.
-* Griffiths kills a Cyberman in the sewers with a machine gun.
+* Griffiths kills a Cyberman in the sewers with a machine gun, rather than a pistol.
+* The Doctor's characterisation is softened further from his televised depiction. He reassures Peri at multiple points that he's aware of his instability, but won't let it cloud his judgement.
+* The novelisation provides several new details about the Cybermen and their methods. The process of conversion is described as "cybernisation" and uses a silver metal known as [[Arnickleton|arnickelton]] to replace limbs. Much like their ''[[Revenge of the Cybermen (TV story)|Revenge of the Cybermen]]'' counterparts, the only organic component that remains is a processed brain.
+* Payne is killed by his chain-smoking habit. When he bluffs that someone is following the gang in the tunnel, he secretly hides away to light up another cigarette. Alone, he is easily killed by a patrolling Cyberman.
+* It's noted that the loot assembled from Lytton's robberies constructed a distress beacon capable of transmitting through "the gaps in the space/time continuum". Among the beacon's assembly is a stolen laser machine.
+* Peri initially tries to bluff Russell with her stolen revolver. Seeing the knife at the Doctor's throat, she relents and drops the weapon.
+* The Doctor's destruction of the patrolling Cyberman is the result of a miscalculation. Rather than deliberately engineering its demise, the sonic lance is set too high and causes a massive fire in its chest unit. Destroying it.
+* Climbing the ladder from the sewer pit, the Doctor briefly remembers Adric.
+* Russell is killed in an ambush, rather than directly. A Cyberman hiding behind the TARDIS's internal door breaks his neck. With Peri in tears, the Doctor blames himself for Russell's death.
+* The first attack from the rogue Cyberman occurs far deeper in Telos's tombs -- and further away from the TARDIS -- than on television.
+* The malfunctioning Cyberman's attack on Peri is significantly expanded. Peri is dying from hypothermia when a pair of arms from a sealed tomb-door seize around her. Her exhausted screams cause more of the cyborgs to activate, until the whole rotting gallery is reactivated. The Cyberman who breaks through the door on television is the last of these specimens. At the end of the scene, Peri is overcome by hypothermia rather than dragged away by the Cryons.
+* Flast sings herself a Cryon death lament as she waits to die in the refrigeration unit
+* The Cyber Controller does not appear in person until his encounter with Lytton.
+* It's clarified that Lytton's torture forces him to tell the Cyber-Controller everything he knows of the planned heist for the time vessel. This includes how the vessel was to be stolen, where it would be diverted to, and how the Cryons encouraged the rebellion of Stratton and Bates to begin with.
+* As he wanders a gallery of Cyber-corpses, the Doctor observes that the hibernation units have been poisoned by the Cryons en masse. With losses that large, the Cybermen are likely on the brink of extinction. Hence, the Cyber-Controller's urgency to change history and avert the destruction of Mondas.
+* After Flast's death, the Cyber-Leader kills the Cyberman responsible for not searching the Doctor more thoroughly on his initial capture in the TARDIS.
+* Rather than being caught in an unusual booby-trap, Bates is killed in the fiery explosion of the launch pad door. The Cyberman who kills Griffiths, Stratton and Bates is said to turn over Griffiths's body. Griffiths has a wry smile on his face from the near-successful capture of the time vessel.
+* Unlike on television, Peri points out to the Doctor that Lytton had ample opportunity to tell the Doctor about his work for the [[Cryon|Cryons]]. The Doctor suspects Lytton didn't tell him as thought he wouldn't believe him.
+* The Cryons are explicitly depicted as having survived the explosion of Cyber Control. Eager to rebuild their world.
 == Writing and publishing notes ==