Birth of a Legend

"I put the future of the Daleks in your control."

Writer: Justin Richards

Format: Short Story

Released: August 2007

Series: Doctor Who Files 11

Featuring: Cult of Skaro

Synopsis

Under the orders of the Dalek Emperor after impressing with their initiative, four Daleks are put together to protect the future of the Dalek race with a war coming that will change the very fabric of the universe. 

Verdict

Birth of a Legend was an excellent short story to continue my way through the Doctor Who Files! This was probably the pick of the bunch of the eleven so far and I think it might just have been the subject matter I was most excited to see an original story for. The Doctor and his companions? We've been there and done that. The Cybermen? Yeah they can be generic and we've seen and read plenty. Hell, we've even had the Daleks themselves as their own file in this series, but dedicating an entire book and story to specifically the Cult of Skaro was awfully exciting in my eyes! It's a part of Dalek history that I am absolutely fascinated with and here we get to read the origins! I think that's a tremendous idea. It could have been easy to go between Doomsday and Daleks in Manhattan and give essentially an account of their emergency temporal shift and chuck in a destination between or even serve as a prequel to the latter mentioned episode, but instead what we had was basically a Classic era adventure! I thought that was magnificent and I loved the setting having proximity to the origins of the Time War. The Dalek Emperor foreshadowed something so powerful was coming that would take the utmost effort of even the Daleks to survive. I loved that we had Mechanoids featuring and I wonder at the time of release in 2007 how many readers had actually watched The Chase prior to experiencing this adventure! It's a fun prospect to ponder on. I thought the four Daleks that would become the Cult of Skaro were presented really strongly right from the off and I also appreciated the continuity had with The Evil of the Daleks in that the guards of the Emperor were black domed. Hearing that in the modern era was just wonderful and I also liked that we got another outing with the Dalek Emperor, specifically the version that perished in The Parting of the Days. I've always adored the design that debuted in that episode because it is just incredible in stature and presence, so having the image within this story was a nice touch. I was intrigued by the reactions to the Cult in finding out that they would have names because that is very different to a typical Dalek, and I was also super interested in the fact that Dalek Sec was initially in bronze casing! He got quite the lick up when it came to his black paint upgrade. Getting some specifics on the strength of his casing being beyond pure Dalekanium was terrific as well, especially when he initially questioned it! The background of each Dalek was quite quick but it was very effective in showcasing why they were chosen for the mission of becoming the Cult of Skaro. The Emperor wanted them to become the stuff of myth and legend right from the off which I wasn't expecting, but if anyone could bring that into action then it was him! This story was really simple and honestly it felt like a bit of a historical extract which is a huge compliment. It was delightful and really good to explore how the Cult of Skaro came to be. A perfect use of the short story format and something I would consider to be a hidden gem contained within a book like this! Overall, a fantastic adventure. 

Rating: 9/10