The Day of the Daleks

"The function of the human is to obey!"

Writer: Terrance Dicks
Format: Novel
Released: March 1974
Series: Target 18

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis

"We usually think of ghosts as coming from the past. But what about ghosts from the future?"

Earth in the twenty-second century: a place controlled by the Daleks and their mindless, ape-like slaves, the Ogrons. Only small pockets of human resistance remain...

The Doctor and UNIT are caught up in the desperate attempt of a small group of rebels to return to the twentieth century and assassinate the one man on whom the outbreak of the Third World War depends...

Verdict

The Day of the Daleks was an outstanding novelisation! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from start to finish and I think it was even better than I hoped and expected it to be. It really was excellent and whilst I am very much a fan of the televised version, the quality was just enhanced with prose. I can't put my figure on exactly why, but a combination of expanding on what occurred on screen and the writing style of Terrance Dicks are my best guesses. I'm a huge fan of his Target structure and it just worked to a treat here. It's intriguing to actually see just how little the Daleks actually fear and their role is almost already sorted with them once again ruling Earth. The 22nd century setting is very interesting given the ramifications that has with The Dalek Invasion of Earth and I just love how they simply state that they invaded back in time to make sure that they were still the planet's rulers. The links that had with Austerly House and the events with Sir Reginald were terrific and it's great how that all came together. I liked the idea of UNIT providing the security for a world peace conference and throwing in the broker of those talks sighting ghosts and then denying the fact was excellent. I just loved everything about the plot to be honest! The emergence of the Ogrons as a sort of precursor to the Daleks was fantastic and I think this was a good debut for the Dalek slaves. They were loyal, stupid but brutes and that was quite the combination for Dalek servants. One thing that did surprise me was that the Black Dalek featured heavily at the start in place of the Gold Dalek we saw predominantly on screen. It was interesting to further develop Dalek hierarchy as that always fascinates me. I thought Jo had a brilliant novel as the companion and her relationship with the Doctor throughout was magnificent. It worked ever so well to have her end up flung forward in time and having that take place pretty much bang on halfway through proceedings was perfect. The Doctor's reaction to that was good and he was desperate to get forward and save her. The guerrilla fighters from the future that were intent on killing Sir Reginald to prevent the catastrophe that led to the Daleks taking over the planet were superb! I liked them a lot and the description of their future along with their reactions to 20th century Earth showed just how devastating things had become under Dalek rule. That was really powerful and impressive. The Doctor's reaction to seeing the Daleks is interesting as he does later recall the events of The Evil of the Daleks when he thought he'd put an end to them for good. Of course, the Daleks never leave him. The Controller was a sneaky character in wanting to gain knowledge from Jo to get in the Daleks' good books, but once he meets the Doctor and learns of the threat he provided the Daleks, he realised just what a dire situation the planet and humanity were in. I thought Benton was great in this story as he got in a lot of typically humorous moments and I felt really sorry for him when Yates came and stole his wine and cheese! The characterisation of the Third Doctor was sublime as well and I enjoyed his liking of wine. The moment in the future where the Doctor learns of the alternate history and the significance of the meeting organised by Reginald and how he supposedly was after power for himself was outstanding. The Eureka moment for the Doctor after he refuses to accept the story of Reginald was just wonderful as we learned that it was all a paradox that resulted in Shura, and the guerrillas themselves, creating the history they were trying to prevent. I loved that. The reactions were priceless and the rush back to the twentieth century and warning UNIT and evacuating the meeting was just brilliant. It was fast paced and exciting with genuine tension against the clock. Shura using the Dalekanium bomb to actually wipe out the Daleks and the Ogrons in Austerly House worked wonderfully and tied everything up very nicely. I was a big fan of how things ended to what was as a whole, a quite brilliant novel!

Rating: 10/10