For this month's special of the First Doctor I have
reviewed a particular favourite of mine.
017 - Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth
Written by Terence Dicks
ISBN 0426 11244X
The Tardis lands in a London of future times - a city
of fear, devastation and holocaust ... A city ruled by Daleks.
The Doctor and his companions meet a team of
underground resistance workers, among the few survivors, but after an
unsuccessful attack on the Dalek spaceship, they are all forced to flee the
capital.
A perilous journey through England finally brings them
to the secret centre of Dalek operations... And the mysterious reason for the
Dalek Invasion of Earth.
This book was one of the first I ever read featuring
the First Doctor, that mysterious figure which at the time in the 70s and 80s
was not readily available for the fans to watch. I remember being very transfixed to this book
when young, Daleks, The Doctor and the mysterious Barbara and Ian, who were they
and who was Susan the Doctor's Granddaughter.
After a while I saw the film with Peter Cushing, and
loved this but the differences were just too much to consider proper Who. Although at the time anything on TV featuring
the Doctor was a rare and welcomed sight.
A few years ago I finally caught the original TV story
and realised that Terrance Dicks, the master of Target, wrote better than the
original script writers. Added to this
last year the audio version of this story voiced by the Legendary Mackem Actor
William Russell (yes he is from just up the road from where I am from) added a
new dimension to this wonderful story which has in my eyes never been bettered.
Okay the book, the story starts very well with a great
description of a rundown London and an old battered police box landing sets the
scene perfectly. The pace moves on
faster than the visual representations and the characters start to come alive
in ways that will make you think, can we have more from this team.
The Daleks are perfect, totally uncaring and very
evil, just the way I like them. The
resistance is portrayed much better organised than the visual ones, and you can
almost believe given better weapons they would have a fighting chance. The science is also very believable when
written, less cobbled together to look syfy.
Doctor Who was never a great space opera, being more grounded in history
and at a touch scientific.
This is a great starting point for the First Doctor,
though with Susan's decision to leave, which to me was more hormones than
love. Okay female readers a challenge,
fall for me after a couple of days with Daleks then I believe. Ian as a character starts to look more
credible and Barbara has more get up and go than previous stories suggested,
except The Aztecs which we shall see later in this series.
So here is my tribute to the original dream team, The
Doctor (William Hartnell), Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and
Susan (Carole Ann Ford). May you all
carry on living in the memories of young people forever, as you lived in mine.
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