The Novel of the Film (novelisation): Difference between revisions

According to the introduction of the book, Russell wrote the adaptation based upon a version of the script that wasn't the final one and certainly without having seen the finished movie. As a result, the novel differs from the movie. It is hard to know, however, exactly which differences come from genuine ignorance of the final casting or costuming, which come from on-set revisions of the script and which may have been Russell's embellishments that would have survived in the text even if Russell had seen the film first. In any event, this novelisation does differ from the final film more than the average [[Target novelisation]] did from its source material. Some examples:

* In the scene where the Doctor is shot, one of Lee's fellow gang members is explicitly a woman in the book, but not in the movie.

* The first chapter and a half goes into more detail about aspects of the TARDIS and how and why the Doctor got the Master's remains. In particular, the early part of the book suggests the [[Seventh Doctor]] has only ''just'' changed the TARDIS interior. Though possible, there's no on-screen evidence the interior has been recently changed. The Seventh Doctor seems quite settled in his surroundings. Stories in other media have rejected Russell's notion. In particular, many [[Big Finish Productions]] audios posit the [[Seventh Doctor]] well-ensconced in the tele-movie's console room.

* Nurses [[Wheeler]] and [[Curtis]] are described somewhat in opposition to how they were actually cast. In the movie, Curtis is obviously older and she has more lines in the final cut. In the book, Russell describes Wheeler as the "senior" nurse.

* The final cut of the movie never quite explains how Chang Lee knows the ambulance driver's name is [[Bruce]], nor why he would have been allowed to travel in the ambulance with the Doctor. There's not even a hint that Lee looked at Bruce's name tag. The novel suggests a scene may have ended up on the cutting room floor. In it, the police who arrive at the scene of the shooting interrogate Lee and determine he he might be of help to the paramedics. A policeman introduces Lee to the paramedic, who introduces himself as "Bruce Gerhardt". Bruce's last name is never revealed on screen.

* When the Doctor says to Grace, "it was a child's dream that made you want to be a doctor", the movie leaves the audience to wonder what that dream might have been. The book shows us a flashback to Grace's youth in Sacramento. There, we witness her mother dying young and Grace dreaming of finding a way to prevent other kids having to endure the pain of their parent's premature death.

* Russell suggests the Eighth Doctor's costume had more variability in different scenes. In the part where Grace and the Doctor walk around the park, she's given him not just [[Brian (Doctor Who)|Brian]]'s shoes, but his scarf and woolly hat, as well. Likewise, Grace's outfit in the scene is completely different from the final film.

** The [[Eighth Doctor]] finds it in the lockers where he gets his "[[Wild Bill Hikock|Wild Bill Hickock]]" garb. When he touches it, it sparks a memory that begins to help him remember who he was. He decides therefore to keep it. (Exactly how it ended up there is unclear.)

** Later, when Grace and he are trying to get past the motorcycle cop, he takes the hat from his coat. Inside the hat is a white bag of [[jelly baby|jelly babies]], which he offers to the cop.

** When the Doctor bemoans the lack of his [[sonic screwdriver]] as he tries to get at the heart of the [[beryllium clock]], he has a "moment" where he ponders what might have happened to his screwdriver and his belongings. He pulls his predecessor's hat out of his pocket and wonders how this part of his former life survived, while other things went missing.

** When the Doctor and Grace return to the TARDIS, the Doctor takes his old self's straw hat, believing that somehow the TARDIS key might be inside it.