It's sat on my shelf for years, so I thought I’d have a listen to Jon Pertwee reading the abridged novelisation (although I ended up streaming it on Spotify).

I’m so glad I did. It is so wonderful listening to Pertwee telling the story. Some random thoughts whilst listening to this:

* His voices for Alpha Centauri and Arcturus are glorious.

* There is a music sting used in the first 15 minutes or so which is lifted from an 80s story and I can’t place it yet and it’s bugging me. I’ll have to see if it is used again or rewind and make sure I identify it.

* I was surprised when the story jumped from the throne room scene where all the characters first meet to the attack on Arcturus where his servo-unit is removed.

* Also, the scene where Jo first takes on the role of Princess Josephine of TARDIS doesn’t play as well on the page and is clearly lifted in the performance of Manning. We also lose the great gag about her inefficient pilot.

* Pertwee gives good Ice Lord too.

* Episode 2 is basically covered by Arcturus being attacked and the Doctor being lead into the tunnels by Grun to be tricked into desecrating the Temple of Aggedor.

* Just after Ssorg goes to see if Jo really has seen Aggedor in the corridor, the theme music crashed in. Odd place for a cliffhanger I thought to myself, why is it here?

* And then I remembered. This was originally on a single cassette - that would have been where you would take it out and turn the tape round to play the other side. I miss those days!

* It covers both episodes 3 and 4 in just 30 minutes!

* It does the job but it does take some liberties with the story. The main one which leapt out at me was the reason for Izlyr deciding to help the Doctor when he is under the threat of death. In the original he states it is because the Doctor saved his life from the falling statue. But that cliffhanger was cut from this version so Izlyr’s reason is because the Doctor saved Arcturus’s life. It doesn’t really work though because Izlyr earlier states he was never actually in danger because the servo-unit removal only induced a metabolic coma - uncomfortable but not life-threatening.

* It also skips the fake out of thinking Ssorg is shooting the Doctor at the climax of Episode 3, going straight to him obliterating Arcturus.

* Pertwee does a good Earth Delegate voice for Amazonia.

* I think I’ve placed the music stings they use for this one too - I think they’re from Vengeance on Varos. It’s definitely an 80s story.

A fun if unnecessary listen.

little cut down listen of the novel Jon was a wonderful narrator