Remembrance of the Daleks

[flemmings]

My books show up in my dreams, not in any tangible way, just in the atmosphere that surrounds my fragmentary impressions. So, after finishing Remembrance of the Daleks, I know I had a 60s England dream that may have had the Doctor in it, even though the number of Who eps I've seen can be counted on the fingers of a maimed right hand, and all of them were Pertwee. Such, I suppose, is the power of Aaronovitch's writing: though I'm oddly put out that his relationship to Sierra Leone predated Rivers by 20 years. Is there something autobiographical there? Online is amazingly reserved about his private life.

Am also bemused that this new edition of the novelization contains so many grammar errors. Aaronovitch himself has huge trouble with things like its and it's, but these are almost all missing commas:

'So all this is...'
'A massive deception,' said the Doctor. 'Yes.'
'That's well devious.'

"Mike, ordered a soldier back to fetch the group captain."

"They were pernicious these bipeds, these humans with their talent for violence and dangerous improvisations."

I know we don't believe in editors now, but I thought things were different twenty-odd years ago.

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is part of what you meant, but "well devious" means "very devious" in some modern UK (London?) dialects.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I wondered if that was the case, since even with commas it didn't parse very well. Thanks.

[incandescens]

Yes, the phrasing of "well devious" is accurate for slang. Ace was one of the slangier companions (or at least, attempting to sound slangy by the standards of that point).

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Hence her soubriquet, as I understand it?

[incandescens]

Yes. Self-chosen, and also one of her favourite terms of approval. Her real name was Dorothy.