Fury from the Deep by: Victor Pemberton

 

Fury from the Deep was written by Victor Pemberton, based on his story of the same name.  It was the 111^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Writing reviews for any of the Target novelizations are always just that little bit difficult because they aren’t original stories.  Fury from the Deep is a bit of an odd one because it breaks largely with the Target format by being about 60 pages longer than what was the standard length.  This would be done in the future as a trial run for the New Adventures, but Victor Pemberton simply found himself unable to adapt his story in the standard length.  Pemberton avoids making any major cuts to the story but also having six episodes to work with of mounting dread and horror means that you really do want that extra space just to translate it well.  The horror does work in prose, Pemberton translating a lot of the underlying pulse as more of the foam and weed breaking through the pipes more often.  The scenes which do exist in clips are ramped up in terms of violence, rarely is it just the gas attacking.

 

The working title of the story was The Colony of Devils and Pemberton restores some of those implications in the novelization.  The weed is more explicit in its sentience and quest for world domination here from the start.  There are subtle additions to make it feel there from the very beginning and its invasion is contrasted with a harshness of the refinery.  The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria are shot early in the story with tranquilizers but in the novelization there is a direct mention of the people with the guns, something that on television feels somehow less harsh than it does here.  There is also a sense of a human touch Pemberton adds to the supporting characters.  Several are given first names but also expanded backstories from implying the Harris family are having a strained marriage from the refinery and Robson having a deceased wife which motivates his overwork.  Robson and Megan Jones are also treated harsher here, more often being referred to not by name but by title which adds to the atmosphere.

 

Overall, Fury from the Deep is one of the very best of the Target novelizations.  The pace reads more like an actual novel than a novelization which is always a plus and Pemberton’s additions are to make the book have better characters and a sense of mounting dread.  10/10.