| WAR OF THE DALEKS by John Peel |
| Story 5 Synopsis: The Doctor is doing repairs to the TARDIS, when the ship is collected by a salvage ship, the Quetzel, whose crew are looking for valuable scrap. They recently found a Dalek pod, which draws the attentions of Thals. When it opens, Davros is inside. The Thals wants Davros to give them a genetic edge over the Daleks, but the Doctor is appalled at the idea. The Daleks arrive, and take everyone hostage. They take the ship back to Skaro, so that Davros can stand trial, accused of being a danger to the Daleks. The Doctor is horrified to learn that the Dalek Prime tricked him into destroying a world called Antalin, rather than Skaro, as he had thought. The Prime wants to sort out those believe Davros should lead, from those who don't, and so the trial triggers a short civil war. The Doctor manages to get the Thals back to their ship, and off the planet. On Skaro, Davros' forces are destroyed, and he himself apparently vaporised. The Doctor suspects their escape was too easy, and finds a Dalek factory aboard the ship, which he sends out into the vortex, having avoided a booby trap. As the Thals leave, he and Sam find more traps in the TARDIS, including a fusion bomb and a disguised Dalek. Once these are dealt with, the danger is over. Until the next time... |
| Review:- The most fearsome force for evil in the universe returns... no, not John Peel, but the Daleks, here following on from Remembrance of the Daleks. The Doctor and Davros are both surprised to learn that Skaro wasn't in fact destroyed after all. But their surprise is as naught to the reaction Peel's plot caused among many readers back in 1997. The plot, basically, of this book is pretty simple. Davros is discovered, the Thals arrive, the Daleks arrive, Davros goes through a show trial, the Daleks go to war, the Doctor escapes every last trap the Daleks set. What could possibly upset people there? Resuscitating Skaro is the key. Some writers have a fondness for the "reset" button, where the removal of an unsightly and bloated problem will supposedly leave the way clear for a new golden age of ideas. The removal of Gallifrey is another popular one. But here, apparently because Terry Nation hated the destruction of Skaro, Peel jumps through hoops to bring it back. In turn, all the Dalek tales going back to Destiny of the Daleks are now retconned into this mix, and it seems a rather untidy thing to do. The revelation about the Movellans comes out of nowhere and seems to serve little good. Apart from that, there's little else intrinsically wrong in the book. The Thals are well-rounded people, the salvage crew are fairly cipherish, and the interludes to show the way that war against the Daleks affects other races are intriguing diversions. Sam moves from an anti-war stance to one more realistic to the necessity of fighting. Her jealousy over Chayn is later settled when the latter falls for Cathbad and finds a new direction. As for the Doctor, he is as resourceful as ever, but the threat of his greatest enemies put him to the test. When he expects death and is denied, he knows that he is being prepared for 'a fate worse than death'. He often needs Sam just to provide a touch of sanity to temper his cleverness, which is an interesting development. Once again, we have nods to the recent new series - the strange artefact kept in its own hangar, and the way that the Doctor and Sam both get to see it is seen again in Dalek (though perhaps this is just a cliche that happens to work). Similarly, the Dalek factory seen at the end echoes the 'Genesis Ark' from Doomsday. But both of these are probably coincidental. Once the trial is over and the fight for freedom begins, the story diverts into two strands, with the civil war on Skaro counterpointed with the Thal escape, and the fear that it isn't over 'til it's over. Davros being out-thought by the Dalek Prime is rather bemusing, and his final 'is he dead or isn't he?' works well (and he hasn't returned yet). However, the shenanigans in the TARDIS, where problem after problem seems to bedevil the Doctor, seems a bit poor, so the reader is kept wondering when the end is coming. The various interludes with Thals and Draconians make a diverting change, albeit not all that relevant to the story. That Antalin is accidentally used as a name twice in the book is a bad oversight. But it does show the scope of the effects of the Daleks. So by and large, apart from a couple of bad decisions, it's really a fair book. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of the book. |