‘Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks’ – Terrance Dicks (BBC Books)


Page Count: 161 Pages.

It’s Monday and that can only mean that it’s time for some ‘Classic Doctor Who’ in book form ;o) The old Target novelizations are what really got me into ‘Doctor Who’ when I was a kid (and into sci-fi and fantasy books in general, horror came a lot later) and recently finding a whole pile of these books, on Greenwich Market, has sent me down the most nostalgic of rabbit holes :o) I’ve supplemented that pile with a few Amazon purchases and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ was on offer so… Here we are ;o) If you want my thoughts on the TV serial then click Here. We’re talking about the book here though so lets get to it.

The Time Lords have a mission for the Doctor. Together with Sarah and Harry, he finds himself stranded on the war-torn planet Skaro where the conflict between the Thals and the Kaleds has been raging for a thousand years. Chemical and biological weapons have started a cycle of mutation among the planet’s inhabitants that cannot be stopped. But Kaled scientist Davros has perfected a life support system and travel machine for the creature he knows his race will ultimately evolve into – the Dalek.

The Doctor must stop the creation of the Daleks, or perhaps affect their development so they evolve into less aggressive creatures. But with Davros’ plans to destroy the Thals and to wipe out any dissenters among his own ranks in progress, is the Doctor already too late?

Regular visitors to the blog will know, only too well, that as much as I owe a huge debt to Terrance Dicks’ work, it does grate a little when Dicks just recounts events and passes over opportunities to expand on characters etc. Well… Sometimes a story is just so awesome that all you have to do is just say what happened on the screen and it all just works out perfectly.

Dicks keeps things really simple, with ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, and the end result is a tale that really brings out all the things that made the TV serial so watchable. You’ve got the Thals and Kaleds bogged down in a war of attrition, absolutely unaware that Davros is playing both sides for fools and the Doctor frantically trying to get someone (anyone) to take him seriously. These Machiavellian games tie in brilliantly with the high stakes nature of the plot and the book just has a real sense of paranoia and inevitability about it, which was brilliant and made the book a real page turner (even though I knew how it was going to end).

And if that wasn’t enough, you have the Doctor’s internal struggle which makes for a really powerful moment, just at the right time as well. As with the TV serial, it’s engrossing to watch the Doctor come to the realisation that you can’t win every battle; sometimes you just have to settle for the outcome that hurts the least.

‘The Genesis of the Daleks’ was a great way to spend a couple of hours of my Sunday afternoon. Definitely worth grabbing a copy if you don’t have one already.

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