Doctor Who and the Visitation

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #69

by Eric Saward

Tegan, the young air hostess who quite unintentionally became a member of the TARDIS's crew, wants to return to her own time, but when the Doctor tries to take her back to Heathrow Airport in the twentieth century the TARDIS lands instead on the outskirts of seventeenth-century London.

The Doctor and his companions receive a decidedly unfriendly welcome — but it soon becomes clear that the sinister activities of other visitors from time and space have made the villagers extremely suspicious of outsiders.

And as a result of the aliens' evil schemes, the Doctor finds himself on the point of playing a key role in a gruesome historical event...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Historical Fiction, Media Tie In, Adventure

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 1982

About the author

Eric Saward worked as a writer and later script editor for Doctor Who during the 1980s.

Saward had a particular fondness for the Cybermen. He wrote stories with good action throughout them and stories that connected the Doctor to important events in Earth's history.

He also wrote the short story Birth of a Renegade and the radio play Slipback.

He served as script editor from Time-Flight, the last episode of season 19, to the penultimate episode of season 23 (The Ultimate Foe episode 1). He resigned his position due to a disagreement with producer John Nathan-Turner over the storyline (and particularly the ending) of episode 2 of The Ultimate Foe. Afterwards, he gave a notably scathing interview to Starburst magazine over his falling out with Nathan-Turner, and he became vocal in his criticism of Colin Baker's appointment as the Sixth Doctor.

Target Books failed to secure an agreement that would have seen Saward's two Daleks serials novelised either by Saward himself or by others, with Saward only novelising both of his Dalek stories in 2019. The 1989 publication of Saward's adaptation of Attack of the Cybermen actually post-dated his falling out with the Doctor Who production team by several years. His favourite snack is a chocolate hobnob

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve got a massive soft spot for this story. I’m always a fan of historical stories and even though this doesn’t feature an iconic character from Earth’s past, the highway man Richard Mace is a fun addition to the story.

The Terileptil’s might not be as iconic alongside other Doctor Who monsters, but I quite like them.
The story’s conclusion has a nice twist.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the fourth serial adventure from the nineteenth season of Doctor Who, which was broadcast in February of 1982. It features the fifth iteration of The Doctor, and his three occasionally dysfunctional companions, Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric. The book appeared in August of 1982 and was written by screenwriter Eric Saward, who must have written both almost simultaneously. The story is set on Earth in 1666, and is one of the better historical mystery episodes of the time. The Doctor attempts to return Tegan to her home, but misses the mark by over three centuries. The TARDIS team finds some nefarious aliens attempting to wipe out humanity with a plague, which they might well have accomplished had not Nyssa saved the day... unfortunately, the Great Fire of London couldn't be avoided.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prologue to this one is really quite good. It starts with a gentle description of a summer evening in 17th century England, with a fox witnessing the arrival of alien visitors. Yes it's all a bit clichéd but the tranquil poetry of the moments counterpoint the tragic brutality of what is to follow very well. Eric Saward also does a remarkably good job of creating fully realised characters in a handful of pages, making their deaths really quite sad. Unfortunately this is as good as it gets. The rest of the book is the more mechanical script based affair that many of the later Target novelisations became. It is one of the Fifth Doctor's better scripts though. It's nice to see the Doctor doing some detective work as he slowly discovers what the aliens are up to. Saward recycles a character that he used in some Victorian radio plays, cowardly Thespian turned vagrant highwayman Richard Mace. He's a lot of fun though Saward's precasting version describes him as being portly. I think he would have made a good regular companion. Adric is as universally annoying as ever. Nyssa gets plenty to do for a change, Tegan almost becomes a ninja air-hostess at one stage as she sets about trying to get some kicks in on the Doctor while mind controlled, instead of just being hugged into submission like in the broadcast version and the Doctor is really quite amusing trying and failing to hold his temper as the kids continue to stress him out. So the novelisation might disappoint folk who want a few interesting narrative extras, though barring a short scene where Tegan comments on her encounter with the Mara in Kinda, at least there aren't any obvious cuts. Mainly though I expect most will just enjoy revisiting a fun story.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine, if unremarkable, novelisation of a story I last saw on broadcast 41 years ago.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eric Saward's adaptation of his own fifth Doctor script is very much in the mid-level Terrance Dicks mode of transcribing the television story with little or no embellishment.

In the day and age in which the Doctor Who novels were originally published, I suppose this is good enough. But thirty years out when we can easily stream the episodes of this popular story or pick it up brilliantly remastered on DVD, it only makes "The Visitation" as a novel that much more disappointing.

That means heading into the audio release of the story, it had a strike against it. Strike two comes from Matthew Waterhouse's rather uninspired reading of the story. Waterhouse's choice for the voices of Richard Mace and the Terraleptils is uninspired at best and distracting at its worst. I'm not saying that an audio reader has to exactly capture the performance given by another actor on screen, but doing a complete 180 of the performance in the case of Mace and the alien invaders really takes you out of the story. Add to it that Waterhouse puts little or no effort into distinguishing the voices of the rest of the main cast and you've got a disappointing release in what is generally a great line of audio books.

[Aylin Houle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Doctor Who books have become a favorite quite quickly! From one adventure to the next it never fails. I really enjoyed this one where Doctor Who and his TARDIS crew are to arrive at Heathrow airport, but they end up in seventeenth century London instead. With quite the surprise! As they encounter aliens. Now, to figure out what they're up to and help the villagers. The true adventure begins...

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An alien incursion in London, 1666, forces the Doctor to take drastic action.

'The Visitation' is an easy read and hits the major beats of the television story.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot is one of the standard, oft-seen ones where aliens are about to invade earth, usually picking a starting point in and around London. More than anything else, it's the characters that give this one some of its high points, from the actor-turned-drifter character who becomes the Doctor's reluctant ally to the family who are tragically wiped out early on.

At this stage, the Doctor was a young-ish man surrounded by fairly capable companions (Tegan is tough, Nyssa is super brainy and Adric is a bit of both) who often look upon him with fond exasperation rather than the kind of dewy-eyed worship too many companions, old and new, have reserved for the man in the blue police box. This makes for some surprisingly acerbic interactions at times.

A rather well-evoked 17th century setting, too. Only, the plot is just too standard for this series.

[Becci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this version of the Great Fire of London...

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Visitation features my absolute favorite opening scene from any Classic Who novelization. It opens not on people, but on animals:

It was a warm summer evening. The rays of the setting sun bathed the old manor house in subtle shades of red and gold. Evening stars appeared as the light continued to fade. From a high branch, a sleepy owl watched a fox break cover and silently pad toward the west wing of the manor house. Night was awakening.

Before we actually reach the people who live inside said manor, we've witnessed the owl successfully hunt a field mouse, tearing into it with beak and claw, and Saward tells us, "It was the first kill of the evening." A beautifully innocuous foreshadowing as we're introduced to the small family inhabiting the manor house, mainly seen through the eyes of a brilliant young woman named Elizabeth as she observes a stellar phenomenon while she's recording her thoughts of the day in her diary. Just a few pages later, however, and Elizabeth, her brother Charles, her father John, and the family servant Ralph, are loading powder into their guns and defending their home from an other-worldly siege. The four of them meet a bitter end at the hands of a remorseless adversary, though not without bumping off one of their enemies first. It's the last we'll see of the family, though not their home, within the pages of this story, and it's a testimony to Saward's skill as a storyteller that the deaths so such minor characters feel so needlessly cruel. Re-reading it today, almost thirty years after I first paged through it as a child, I still feel a sense of remorse. Elizabeth would have made for a phenomenal Companion, but she never got the opportunity, and more's the pity. But now it's over to the Doctor and the real companions so the rest of the story can continue.

Following the events in the previous book/episode Kinda, Tegan has decided she's done enough time traveling and would like to go back to normality. The decision has lowered the spirits of fellow companions Nyssa and Adric, and even the Doctor isn't immune to his own emotional swings. Despite this, he's promised to deliver her back to Heathrow Airport, right around the time he originally picked her up in Logopolis, so she can resume her life as an airline stewardess.

Of course, if there are four words which could sum up much of the Fifth Doctor's adventures, they would be, "Right place, wrong time," and The Visitation is no different. While the Doctor has managed to guide the TARDIS to the right place just outside of London, they have arrived there about three hundred years too early. Tegan, already on edge, blows her top and storms out of the TARDIS. The Doctor follows her to apologize, but it's a bad time to be a stranger in this part of the world as the group are set upon by the local citizenry who are convinced outsiders are behind the miasma which has fallen over the countryside.

Fortunately, before any harm can come to them, another player intervenes. Richard Mace, a rather charming if portly thespian who has been watching the goings-on from up in a nearby tree, fires off his flintlocks, scaring the attackers away in a display of theatrical bravado. Descending to meet his new acquaintances, he explains that this area of the country has, of late, been afflicted with a devastating plague, one possibly brought on by a recently-passing comet, and suggests the Doctor and his friends make all due haste in leaving.

The Doctor, unaware of any plague which should be despoiling England or any passing comets due at this time, decides instead to investigate. What he uncovers is a small group of aliens, the Terileptils, who escaped from their life-long prison sentence and wound up on Earth. Rather than attempt to live in peace, they've decided genocide is the better option, and have bio-engineered the plague currently affecting the village. Once they've bred enough rats, they'll send them out across the countryside, and eventually all of humanity will come down with the disease, leaving the planet free for the rogue aliens to colonize and terraform to their Soliton-breathing needs.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the Terileptils are top-notch android builders. The one in their employ is currently tasked with scaring the local population by donning a death's head costume and slapping control bracelets on the local leadership. It's impervious to any arms which 17th century peasants could possibly deploy, and carries energy weaponry against which no armor is potent enough to stand. And while the Doctor and his companions may manage to win the day, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat might mean unleashing a frightening calamity of a different kind on the London citizenry...

* * * * *

There are well over one hundred and fifty different Classic Who novelizations to pick from in the Target lineup, but if you're currently quarantined, practicing self-isolation and social distancing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, then Doctor Who and the Visitation, number 69 in the Target library, is a most a propos selection. A "visitation", as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a special dispensation of divine favor or wrath" or "a severe trial", and Earth at the hands of the Terileptils is certainly facing both of those. Who doesn't want to escape a real-life plague by using a fictionalized one? :)

All kidding aside, The Visitation ranks as one of my favorite Fifth Doctor novelizations mainly because Eric Saward (who was script editor for the series at the time) wrote the original screenplay from which his own novel is derived, and knew exactly what he wanted to do. The story marks a major change for the series as a whole, as Saward (acting on instructions from producer John Nathan-Turner) had the Doctor's ever-present sonic screwdriver destroyed by the Terileptils. The scene, and the Doctor's reaction to it ("I feel as though you've just killed an old friend," he says, mostly to himself), are both wonderfully understated. In addition, the book features Richard Mace, who is one of my all-time favorite non-Companion characters from classic Who. I read The Visitation long before I saw the actual episode, but Saward captures the essence of Michael Robbins' portrayal of the would-be highwayman perfectly. Interestingly also, Mace is one of the few people whom the Doctor invites on his travels to turn down the invitation--something you didn't often see in the Classic Who era. In one sense, this is a shame as he's a complete delight of a character. On the other hand, the TARDIS was feeling tightly packed (Saward has a devil of a time coming up with things for Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric to do while the Doctor's doing his own thing, and of course 'getting captured' is the go-to choice for the early part of the story), so having him as a one-shot is a much better choice.

The reveal at the end was completely lost on me as a child, since I wasn't all that familiar with 17th century British history, but now, being older and a little more wordly, I can enjoy it for what it is. On the other hand, while I'd very much love to award this story five stars (it really is one of my favorite novels of the Davison era), I'm still deducting one since Saward, as the original script author, got to novelize his own story but didn't take the opportunity to add much to the narrative. As it turns out, this is because he was supremely stressed and over-worked already from his job with the show, and heaping on the added toil of writing what was his first novel did not help. As quoted in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine from May of 1989, Saward said:

To be frank, I found it a tremendous inconvenience. I also felt I wasn't doing it very well because I just couldn't give it the time, which annoyed me. Christine Donougher was editor at Target then and she was very tolerant and patient, but at one stage I didn't want to continue. She urged me to go on and I finally finished it but it really happened at the wrong time. That's why I didn't do Earthshock - it would have been too much."

That Saward managed to turn in such a fine story despite the difficulties he faced is a testament to his skill as a writer, and The Visitation is all the richer for it. It's easily in the top 3 of my most-re-read Target novels, and completing it again was well worth the trip. I look forward to doing so many more times in the future.

Four sonic screwdrivers (R.I.P.) out of five!

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a time when the only way to experience a Doctor Who serial again was through the odd repeat or in prose, the Target novelizations were a godsend for fans. Decades later, in the home video and streaming age, they can often come across as quaint artifacts of another era. Or, alternatively, a “writer’s cut” free from the constraints of the budgets and multi-camera studios of BBC Television Centre. Where does The Visitation, novelized by its original writer Eric Saward, come on that scale?

The possibility was there for it to enter the latter category. Speaking on the original 2004 DVD release, Saward noted some dissatisfaction for the way his scripts made it to the screen. Receiving particular attention from the author were the stiff armed Terileptils and some of the pacing from director Peter Moffatt. Neither criticism, of course, being either unwarranted (though Saward also noted some of Moffatt’s directorial touches) or something that The Visitation alone suffered from among 1980s Doctor Who. Yet it was also something that made coming to this novelization an interesting experience, to see what Saward had done on the page.

Things start off well. The opening chapter feels like something of a departure from the usual Target norms as we’re introduced not to the Squire and his family but a fox. The pages that follow, set on the summer’s night when the Terileptil escape pod fell out of the sky, are not only literary by the Target standards but also Saward taking full advantage of the medium in question. The page, after all, allowing him not only to present the crash landing as more than fireworks in the sky but from a unique non-human point of view. It’s an auspicious start to the novelization, raising expectations.

Sadly, it’s a standard that it never lives up to again. True, there’s some nice moments and flourishes throughout. The Terileptils physicality in particular come across better on the page, described as seven foot tall and without a stiff arm in-sight. The android, too, is nicely presented in places. The characterization of Richard Mace shines on the page, showing the rich material that actor Michael Robbins built his performance upon. Those are the highlights of what lies beyond that opening chapter.

Because, beyond that, Saward turned in something that’s about on par with Terrance Dicks work of the same period. The prose ranges from functional to jumbled and confusing. The latter impacting upon the various chase and fight sequences where, even having watched the screen version shortly before reading the book, Saward’s rushed prose made it unclear what was happening. The story’s finale is a case in point, the Doctor leaving Mace outside and rushing in the TARDIS only to present the scene inside the TARDIS before moving back to Mace outside. It’s an example which seems a classic case in point of an ending not receiving anywhere near the attention as the beginning.

Consulting the sadly defunct On Target website via The Wayback Machine, there’s a quote from an interview Saward gave to Gary Russell for Doctor Who Magazine in 1989. One in which Saward laments that this novelization didn’t come out as he’d hoped, in part due to his not having time to dedicate to it due to his work on the television series, going so far as to describe it as, “an ugly mess.” That’s a rather unfair assessment by the author but, all the same, it’s safe to say that if Saward had intended this to be a “writer’s cut” of his first Doctor Who serial, he didn’t succeed. What remains is a readable, if undemanding, little volume.

Frankly, there are certainly worse things it could have been.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Visitation as a television story is one of those pseudo historicals that are quite good but if we are being completely honest was a good candidate to be among the first batch of Peter Davison stories to be novelized. Eric Saward took the task of adapting the script himself and the book hit shelves six months after the original serial finished broadcast on BBC One. This is the fourth novel from Eric Saward I’ve read, though actually the first he had written. Eric Saward as a novelist seems paradoxical, Doctor Who and the Visitation is perhaps the best of the four books of his that I have read. Perhaps this is because there wasn’t much time in between the serial airing and the necessary publication date so Saward really only had time to convert the stage action into prose without any of his additions. This doesn’t have the trouble of attempting to be a Douglas Adams style farce where there was none, nor does it feel like this is a novelization done out of necessity and not interest. It’s just a fairly straightforward adaptation of the original serial with few additions to really convert it. This has happened before for a novelization, Doctor Who and the Giant Robot had Terrance Dicks adapt Robot in less than two months from when that serial finished airing and still made it a pretty fun adaptation. Terrance Dicks as an author is a workman who is incredibly easy to read while Eric Saward is not.

Eric Saward as a writer doesn’t seem to understand entirely how to write an actual novel, his prose being incredibly bare bones. I listened to the audiobook release of this by Matthew Waterhouse and Waterhouse is genuinely a great narrator despite having little material to work with. There is also the general sense of Saward’s violent tendencies in terms of storytelling, the family at the beginning is killed in a particularly brutal way and there is this sense of the Terileptil threat being all the more violent in the novelization. There also is little care for the female characters, Adric of all people being the one who gets some development with Saward foreshadowing the events of Earthshock with a desire to go home. It’s not much characterization, but at least it’s something when the rest of the cast get nothing. Okay that’s not technically true, Richard Mace gets some expansion, though without the television performance backing him up you can really see more of Saward’s tendencies as a writer.

Overall, Doctor Who and the Visitation is just one of those novelizations that are particularly fine. It came out about a year before VHS releases for Doctor Who began and it’s saddled with a writer who is just so clearly uninterested in doing anything with the material it’s almost entirely unremarkable for what it does. 5/10.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. For some reason I also tend to get this one mixed up with the Awakening, so always get slightly surprised by how the story goes :)
I think a reasonable romp for the Doctor and his companions, and the one off character of Richard Mace added another dimension to the story, helping lead to lots of interesting and at times amusing scenes between characters.
The antagonists themselves felt a bit run of the mill here really, the main obstacles as such was dealing with their technology, but not a lot of feeling that outside of that they were too dangerous, and otherwise somewhat one dimensional.
However, they didn't feature that heavily either, so didn't detract too much from the story. The companions got various different things they were able to do, getting themselves in and out of danger, though Adric was still somewhat whiney in this one, few companions before Adric seemed so set on relying on the Doctor to get them out of all trouble as Adric does here.
Overall though, a fun read.

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I assure you sir, there is nothing primitive about me."

The Doctor has finally arrived in Heathrow but just 300 years early in the 17th century.
The Terileptils have crashed to Earth and are trying to escape from their own past. They come a custom to Earth but there isn't any room for the two of them and need to deal with the human race.
I found the book to be an ok read, it wasn't expanded on much from the actually episode, it felt more like a transcript while reading. I was hoping for the book to be flushed out more.

I would love to see the return of The Terileptils in new who. They were mentioned in 'The Pandorica Opens' but I would love to see an appearance.

"I feel as though you've just killed an old friend."

[Julian White]

Virgin reprint (1992), different cover

A promising start - but the end of the story dosn't really hold up. One of the more impressive visuals (that gloriously bejewelled android) doesn't get a decent description; the Terileptils don't really appear until well over halfway through. One or two oddities - if the Soliton gas is so inflammable setting the London HQ in a bakery seems daft (and how did the Terileptil culture develop a manufacturing base anyway?). I wonder how many casual readers will grasp the 'Pudding Lane' reference... There is only one mention of the year and that was way back in Chapter One.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who and The Visitation (1982) by Eric Saward is the novelisation of the fourth serial of the nineteenth season of Doctor Who.

The Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric travel to Heathrow to return Tegan back to her life. Unfortunately they arrive a few hundred years early. Just before they arrived a meteor shower arrived and delivered a Terileptil crew to earth with their Android. The Doctor and his crew soon encounter evidence of the sophisticated aliens having arrived.

It’s not a bad serial. The three companions are used fairly well which is hard.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad adaptation by Saward of his own script. We get a lot more story involving the family in the first part of the story but that’s really about it in terms of broadening the story. That said there are a few lines that explain the emotional state or motivation of the cast which flesh them out and make this feel a little more full-blooded as a story, which is one I’ve never really warmed to, alas.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty decent, pretty short novel. The story is good, it has reptilian aliens, an android, and is set in medieval London.
The highwayman/actor character Mace adds a great amount of humor and adventure to the story. The character would have been a good companion for the doctor (similar to Jack in the new series).

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved this episode of Doctor Who as it is a good historical sci-fi story. Plus features one of my all time favorite Doctor Who dynamics of the 5th Doctor with Tegan, Adric, and Nessia. The book does holds up to the episode although I wish the author had expanded it a bit because I would’ve loved to spend more time in this story.

[Ivana Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite stories from season 19, and the book doesn't disappoint either. A faithful retelling with some nice embellishments by Saward as he goes - particularly enjoyed the addition of the fox in the opening scene. A quick read, like many of the Target novelisations, but well worth reading, even if you know the tv story backwards.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid novelisation of the Fifth Doctor story. I really enjoyed this as the description and writing were excellent and the characterisation terrific. The added details really helped to immerse me in the story.

[Paul Charles Radio Show · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this. Although the storyline revisits established tropes familiar to most readers (and viewers) there is a nice plot arc and a great ending.
The pompous Mace would have made a great companion and has some great humourous lines here, as does the Doctor.
6.5/10

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story runs smoothly and works well.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com...

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read. Good story

[Kaoru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on a totally alright Davison TV story. The novelization is totally alright too. Both TV story and novelization are totally alright.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid! A good read.

[Damon Habbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book and the first that I have read written by Eric, and I have to say that he doesn't like the Dr very much, he made him quite rude and snappy.

That said its still a 3 star read.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Doctor Who ever since I Stumbled across the fourth Doctor Tom Baker in re-runs on Ch. 9 Saturday mornings in 1980-81. It was a marvelous bit of luck to find that BBC Books put these episode Novelizations back in print this year.

The Visitation features Baker's successor, Peter Davison as the Doctor and was written by the episode's original writer and later show script editor Eric Saward.
This book is a ridiculously quick read ( less than 200 pages) and good fun if you are aware of the show and familiar with the companions of that particular Doctor.

If you haven't seen the show or are at least familiar with the characters, these books maybe a bit confusing as the descriptions of the characters are thin at best, and truly these are not great literature by any means, but more like a slightly expanded screenplay.

First time Doctor Who readers or those without any familiarity or those looking for a bit more meat on the bones are directed to read the New Doctor Who Books featuring the 2nd and third doctors, written by current SF masters Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds.

2nd Doctor: The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter Ace Books 2013
3rd Doctor: Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds Ace Books 2013

A fun light diversion that ends all too soon.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty straight-forward adaptation from script to novelization to audiobook. There is nothing here surprising and no big changes if one has seen the original episodes for this story-arc. If that was all that there was going for this particular audiobook I might not have even picked it up, but I was interested in seeing how Matthew Waterhouse did the reading. I enjoyed his memoir, Blue Box Boy, very much and have since watched all the episodes with Adric and enjoyed them as well. So having him read to me the novelization should have been a read treat. And it was exactly that. He made some wonderful choices with character voices and the production team's addition of sound effects and such really helped bring the story to life. This was wonderful addition for a 3-hour car ride and both my companion and I really got into the story, even though I knew how it was going to end.