Doctor Who and the Daleks (also titled Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks) is a Doctor Who novella written by English screenwriter David Whitaker. Published in 1964, it is a novelisation of the 1963 television serial The Daleks by Terry Nation. Notably, it is the first Doctor Who novelization and the first piece of Doctor Who prose material. The book is told in first-person perspective from Ian Chesterton and details him and his companions fighting the Daleks on the planet Skaro.
Characters[]
- Ian Chesterton
- Barbara Wright
- Susan Smith
- The First Doctor (Doctor Who)
- Alydon
- Ganatus
- Kristas
- Antodus
Publisher’s summary[]
This is DOCTOR WHO’s first exciting adventure – with the DALEKS! Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright travel with the mysterious DOCTOR WHO and his grand-daughter, Susan, to the planet of Skaro in the space-time machine, Tardis. There they strive to save the peace-loving Thals from the evil intentions of the hideous DALEKS. Can they succeed? And what is more important, will they ever again see their native Earth?
Full summary[]
Chapter One: A Meeting on the Common[]
Ian Chesterton is on Barnes Common on a foggy evening when a young woman runs towards him. She has a wound on her shoulder and states that she had been in a car crash. Returning to the scene in search of a girl called Susan, they find that, although her being unconscious, she had disappeared. The unnamed girl explains that her grandfather – a doctor – may have picked her up since. A strange man appears and tells them not to worry about Susan. He states that he is looking for an item, which happens to be something of Susan’s and leaves. Chesterton and the girl find a locked police box. The man reappears with a change in manner and opens the box, which Susan is in. Entering it, Chesterton finds it to be a big control room. The man – the Doctor – states that he’ll have to take Chesterton and the girl, who is called Barbara, with him.
Chapter Two: Prisoners in Space[]
Susan explains to Chesterton that they are in the TARDIS. The Doctor goes on to detail the situation: He had a sort of hiding place in the police box, and now that an innocent member of the public had found it, he had no other choice but to take him with. The police box is a ship capable of crossing time and space, and he and his granddaughter Susan were cut off from their own planet. The Doctor makes it clear that Chesterton always has to follow his instructions, and the man learns that Barbara was Susan’s English History tutor. The Doctor says that they are no longer on Earth, and probably in a different year entirely. Chesterton doesn’t believe him and demands to be let free, to which he is proven that the Doctor is correct. He recommends Chesterton and Barbara take this opportunity as something positive, and they take the advice to heart.
Chapter Three: The Dead Planet[]
The Doctor, Chesterton, Susan and Barbara explore the alien world which is filled with dead trees. The group investigate the unidentified object, and discern it to be a metal monster of sorts that had since solidified. Chesterton states that the cause of the condition of the planet – ashy soil, crystalised flowers and more – would be heat from some sort of explosion. Susan sees a city in the distance. The town is described as appearing like a ‘’cluster of electrical gadgets’’ and ‘’metal domes.’’ The Doctor states that he wants to travel to the city and study it, but Chesterton protests, fearing the potential danger it holds. The group returns to the TARDIS to discuss the matter. Susan reports that a hand touched her shoulder and is convinced that they aren’t the only ones in the forest. Inside the ship, a tapping sound is heard. The Doctor discovers that a part of the ship is broken, and he doesn’t have the mercury necessary to fix it. The group agrees to search for some in the city the next day.
Chapter Four: The Power of the Daleks[]
The next day, the group finds a small metal box containing glass phials outside of the TARDIS. They keep them in the ship and set out for the city. The Doctor states that the box suggests an advanced civilization on the planet, that the place has a ‘’pattern’’ and he is clearly excited to explore it, not only focusing on the mercury. The group enter one of the buildings, and end up following the Doctor to a room he had discovered that is filled with recording instruments. Suddenly, he urges them to leave – he read some of the messages on the machines and realised that they tell of air pollution. Chesterton carries the Doctor, as he is close to fainting. The man eventually falls over and he and Chesterton are surrounded by hostile metal machines. Chesterton attempts to make a run for it, but is shot at. He awakens in a room with his companions, and Susan tells him that the machines are called Daleks, who built the city. They think the group to be the Thals, which they consider enemies. A Dalek enters and states that Susan should deliver the box with the phials to the city, as it helps their actual bodies inside the machines against air pollution, and she leaves.
Chapter Five: Escape into Danger[]
Five hours after Susan’s departure, she returns, finding Chesterton unconscious due to the poor air. She gives him the drugs from the box, and tells him how she got them. Apparently, the Daleks brought her to the edge of the city and let her proceed alone. A thunderstorm broke out and Susan lost her way. She realised she was being followed and discovered the TARDIS. In it, she collected the box with the phials. Susan left the ship and encountered one of the Thal, stating that it intended no harm and asking if she had taken the box it had left. He went by the name of Alydon. Susan agreed to arrange a truce between the Daleks and Thals. Upon hearing this, the Doctor states that the Thals may have been placed into jeopardy, as the Daleks have not yet proven trustworthy. The group decides to break out of their cell, and plans to attack their captors – an instrumental part of this is the realisation that they operate on static electricity. They place the cloak Alydon gave Sarah under a Dalek as it enters the room, and immobilise it. The Doctor and Chesterton take it apart, and remove the creature inside the metal machine so that Chesterton can fit in.
Chapter Six: The Will to Survive[]
Chesterton, in the Dalek casing, has to feign taking the group to a different place in the city through a lift in order to avoid suspicion. He exits the Dalek machine and everyone notices a door being burned through by their foes and quickly travel further upwards in the lift. Susan states that the Thals will be arriving at the city soon due to the truce, and the Doctor finds this to be practical to their current situation – while the Daleks are occupied with their enemies, the group can flee the city unnoticed. However, Barbara criticises him for this, as she believes it to be unethical to not even warn the Thals of the incoming danger. In the end, Chesterton decides to stay behind for a bit to inform their allies while the others flee. He finds the Thals and Daleks are and yells that it’s a trap, to which the latter of the species attack him and their opponents leader. Chesterton and the Thals are chased away, and the man meets Alydon and another Thal, Ganatus. Alydon is convinced not to start a war on the Daleks, as he is a pacifist.
Chapter Seven: The Lake of Mutations[]
Chesterton is brought to the encampment of the Thals, where his companions are at. Alydon explains to his folk that they should rather be exterminated than start or engage in a war. The Doctor details to Chesterton, who doesn’t comprehend the extreme pacifist nature of the Thals, that they unconditionally despise war due to their mutations from an atomic explosion in a war. Suddenly, the Doctor realises that he left the mercury and a piece of the TARDIS necessary for fixing the ship in the city with the Daleks. Chesterton attempts to illustrate the concept of fighting to the Thals through a boxing match, but fails. Finally, he manages to achieve success by bluffing that he would take one of the Thals to the Daleks for them to experiment on. He also states that he will return to the city to retrieve the missing items for the ship. As Alydon tells his people to take to arms, an army is led to the town to attack the Daleks. A smaller party with Chesterton, Barbara, Alydon and other Thals goes to a lake with pipes from the city, believing them to be responsible for the static electricity of the Daleks. They find one of their men to be killed by something from the lake.
Chapter Eight: The Last Despairing Try[]
After the shocking death, the group falls into an uneasy sleep and hikes around the lake the next morning, heading towards the pipes. Chesterton spots caves at the base of a mountain by the body of water, and a large, scaly sea monster rears out of the water. With the help of burning brushwood, Chesterton and a Thal injure it and scare it off. Other creatures from the lake fight for the body, giving the group an opportunity to leave and continue their journey to the pipes. Having arrived, one of them collects a creeper to use as a rope to climb up to them – a job that a Thal called Kristas takes, planning to haul his companions up when he’s at the top. Once they all completed the journey to the pipe, they discover that the pipe itself ends very soon, but the cave continues on. However, it is natural and there is no confirmation that it will lead to the city. One of the group – Ganatus – falls into a crevice, which forms into a chamber. Everyone clambers down and explores the caves some more. After some spelunking, a man by the name of Antodus also falls down a crevice into a body of water. Judging by the sounds that are heard, he meets his fate with some kind of creature down there. Already mortified, the party continues, but is dismayed to find that the cave ends at a wall of rock.
Chapter Nine: The End of the Power[]
When the party’s light goes out, they notice a glow coming from the ceiling. Chesterton climbs up to the spot, and finds that there is a hole into another chamber, which holds the pipes. Once everyone has entered the new cave, they start discussing if they should start sabotaging the pipes and cut off the Daleks’ electricity yet, but are interrupted by the sound of alarm bells. The group hurries into a lift and travels from one floor to another. They hear an announcement over the speakers, ordering the Thals to be exterminated. It is decided that they should search for the ‘’Master Room’’ mentioned in the announcements and attack it. The party encounters Alydon, who joins them and informs them that Susan and the Doctor had gotten captured. He also tells them that the Daleks plan to set off a bomb which further decreases the air quality. They find the Master Room, in which the Doctor and Susan are being held. Barbara enters the room sneakily to free the captives while Kristas and Chesterton cause a distraction by killing the leader – the Glass Dalek. Chesterton manages to deactivate the bomb and the energy of the Daleks, killing them all.
At the end of the evening, the Thals, Doctor Who, Chesterton, Barbara and Susan gather at the former’s camp and they thank the travellers heartily. However, the Doctor states that he and his companions will leave, and Chesterton feels ‘’content with the memories’’ he takes with himself.
Chapter Ten: A New Life[]
The Doctor states that he can’t promise Chesterton and Barbara that they will ever return to Earth, but compliments them on handling the situation well. He asks if they want to continue travelling on the TARDIS or stay with the Thals, and they choose to join the Doctor.
Worldbuilding[]
- The planet Skaro is a dead world scarred by nuclear radiation and filled with petrified forests. Surviving on Skaro's surface requires radiation pills.
rest to be added
Notes[]
- Doctor Who and the Daleks is notable for not meshing with any other novelizations around it and being one of the few Doctor Who stories told in the first person. Others include:
- Several of Virgin's Bernice Summerfield novels (most notably Simon Bucher-Jones' Ghost Devices and Lawrence Miles' Down) feature first-person diary segments written by Benny
- Dave Stone's Bernice Summerfield novels The Mary-Sue Extrusion and Return to the Fractured Planet, narrated in part by the Stratum Seven Agent
- Jim Mortimore's novel Eye of Heaven, narrated by Leela
- Mark Chadbourne's novella Wonderland, narrated by Jessica Willamy (a character original to Wonderland)
- Keith Topping's novella Ghost Ship, narrated by the Fourth Doctor
- Lance Parkin's Faction Paradox novella Warlords of Utopia, narrated by Marcus Americanius Scriptor (a character original to Warlords of Eternity)
- Big Finish's Companion Chronicles series (at least in part)
- Eoin Colfer's short story A Big Hand for the Doctor, narrated by the First Doctor
- James Goss' novel The Blood Cell, narrated by the Governor (a character original to The Blood Cell)
- Tom Baker and James Goss' novel Scratchman, narrated in part by the Fourth Doctor
- Frazier Hines' novelization of The Evil of the Daleks, partially narrated by Jamie McCrimmon
Continuity[]
- Glass Daleks appear again (and have a much more insidious origin) in the serial Revelation of the Daleks and George Mann's novel Engines of War.
- The everlasting matches appear in several other stories (with Daniel O'Mahony's novella The Cabinet of Light linking their origin to the Eternity Perpetual Company from the serial Carnival of Monsters).
- The history of the Daleks is given more depth in the TV Century Dalek comics (with their origins being given in the comic Genesis of Evil).
- Another origin story for the Daleks is given in the later serial Genesis of the Daleks.
- Ian Chesterton (along with the Doctor) return to Skaro in Andrew Smith's audio play Return to Skaro. The Doctor returns to Skaro several times, most notably in the serials Genesis and Destiny of the Daleks.