Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth

"We are the masters of Earth."

Writer: Terrance Dicks

Format: Novel

Released: March 1977

Series: Target 17

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara

Synopsis 

The TARDIS lands in a London of future times - a city of fear, devastation and holocaust... a city now 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!

Verdict 

Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth was a tremendous novelisation of one of my all time favourite stories. It really was a pleasure to read though I was quite surprised by how much the novelisation deviated from the television story. I've never really noticed massive differences between the TV and novelisations of stories before, and I've now read my fair share of Target novels, but I did immediately with this book. It wasn't a problem at all and it gave an interesting perspective with a few changes to such a landmark story. I'm not sure if I noticed it hugely this time because I know and love the televised The Dalek Invasion of Earth so much, but there was a lot of change. The explanation of the Daleks having survived the events of The Daleks was very different but probably much more logical than just saying those events took place in the far, far future. The farewell to Susan wasn't as heartfelt from the Doctor which probably ties in well with William Hartnell's first incarnation, but it didn't seem as special as it appeared on screen but that would have been extremely difficult to capture regardless. Terrance Dicks did a brilliant job of presenting us this story and with it being novelised I found something intriguing about the story. The Doctor here isn't trying to prevent the evil from coming to Earth. It's way too late for that, as we saw in The Mutant Phase set prior to this story but during the Dalek invasion. The Daleks were already here and they'd conquered. Earth was theirs. So now it was up to the Doctor to stop their plans from coming into fruition and with quite a helping hand from Ian that was achieved. Another deviation from the TV story that seemed a lot more emotional was the deaths of Larry and Phil. They died quickly after each other and their corpses lay together. I loved how Dicks made a lot of the image of the Daleks being in the same picture as the Houses of Parliament on Westminster Bridge. He really wanted to sell how good that moment was on television and he did a stellar job. The relationship between Susan and David was wonderful and with reading the novelisation obviously taking a lot longer than watching the dvd, seeing that pan out was great. They really did grow to love each other. David was desperate for Susan to stay with him and finally belong to a time and place of her own. I liked how she mentioned leaving her home planet when she was very young, which we would finally see in The Name of the Doctor, and I also liked how An Unearthly Child was referenced as well. The moments with the Slyther were good and I liked how the desperation of Ian and Larry was portrayed when they sent the beast to its death. The Daleks were fantastic enemies and it's quite incredible that this is only their second appearance chronologically. How audacious of them to literally try and steal our planet! They were mining in Bedfordshire to replace the core of the planet so they could pilot it. If The Runaway Bride is anything to go by, they'd have a shock when they encountered the Racnoss! The Dalek Supreme as I prefer to call him (do I call a Dalek him?) was magnificent and clearly led the race. I loved how it was mentioned that the Daleks were sent. From the aforementioned audio story, we know it was the Emperor who ordered the mission. But because that character didn't appear until The Evil of the Daleks, it makes the continuation an extra bit special. The way the TARDIS foursome were split up in London and reunited in Bedfordshire was wonderful and they quite simply defeated the Daleks by giving the Robomen and slaves orders to attack the Daleks all over the world. They were fighting back. Ian had dealt with the bomb and it would actually destroy the Dalek ship. A quite sublime resolution to a simply superb story novelisation. 

Rating: 10/10