“It’s just a recap,” I said. “How can they even screw this up?” I said.

Yeah, I didn’t enjoy this novelization. In go the filler lines; out goes the character consistency. Thank you, Target, for replacing the atmospheric “English fog” with the generic “dark”. Thank you, Target, for plotsplaining that the Orb is the Sun. Furthermore, a deep, sardonic bow to you, Target, for dumbing Susan down to a level where she is bewildered by the fire-making process. [Although it could be argued that she was just THAT desperate to experiment with two ACTIVE elements at last.]

There are two things this publication did not fumble:
Number one: the characterization of Za is presented with greater nuance and insight.
Number two: there was a single new dialogue line that I actually liked—in Chapter 10, as they fling rocks at Kal. It goes as follows:

“Well done, Doctor,” whispered Barbara.
The Doctor gave her a self-satisfied smirk. “Child’s play, my dear. These people are just as susceptible to mass hysteria as the people of your own time.”

That’s all there is to say on the matter.

Through a fickle finger of fate—a miracle...

Much of my—and your—appreciation for The Unearthly Child serial won’t be immediately evident. After the admittedly lame resolution of the 4th episode, you might find yourself tapping impatiently to the theme tune as the credits roll, hoping that the following serial will be—by any degree—“better.”

But indulge me—give this story a second consideration.

What do we have on the surface? On one hand, a primitive political conflict for a concept and a setting that might excite a naught but a handful of paleontologists. On the other, an austere and aloof—or downright psychopathic, in some versions—alien being, condescending to humankind. And yet, it is through the juxtaposition of the scenario and the character that believable development is set into motion. Our expectations of this grand and vain entity are subverted in the most brilliant of ways when he is bested by… a rock-bearing savage of the civilization he was slandering not ten minutes earlier. It takes him THREE WHOLE EPISODES to retaliate and retreat, leaving him a mangled mess by the time he gets back to the TARDIS.

If this isn’t poetic justice, I don’t know what is. We witness a Child learning humility and developing compassion for someone other than his blood. Not full-on “love for humankind”—not yet. But it’s an amazing start, and I’d argue it couldn’t have been executed any “better” if we were dealt any other scenario.