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A review by jaspie
Doctor Who and the Daleks by David Whitaker
5.0
Unlike many of the Doctor Who novelisations published by Target Books, this is no mere camera-script to page adaptation. David Whitaker has really created a stand-alone science-fiction novel from the bones of Terry Nation's original story. By creating an entirely new opening to the tale he gives a depth of character to the protagonists in a way the television series did not have time to do, yet he never loses the essence of Ian and Barbara's utter astonishment at what they discover beyond the police box doors and the universe that the angry old man, the Doctor, and his guileless granddaughter, Susan, exist in.
Whitaker does not stray from the plot once the travellers have arrived on Skaro; the Doctor is still conniving and deceitful, willing to risk lives even of the ones he cares for, to satisfy his own curiostity; the Thals' society remains as in the television series; the Daleks are at their ruthless best and the adventure bounds along apace, embellished by the freedoms outside the 1960s television studios and Whittakers' tweaks.
I am a fan of first person narratives in novels and here it brings us, the reader, into Ian's head and so gives the story an immediacy. We learn first-hand how he learns to accept what he's experiencing as real, for instance. We stand in his shoes as he faces up against two antagonists, namely the Doctor and the Daleks.
This novel would exist perfectly as an excellent example of its genre outside the Doctor Who universe because the story is so good, so self-contained. I would argue that it remains, even after all this time, one of the best Who books and can hold its own against more recent, original stories.
Whitaker does not stray from the plot once the travellers have arrived on Skaro; the Doctor is still conniving and deceitful, willing to risk lives even of the ones he cares for, to satisfy his own curiostity; the Thals' society remains as in the television series; the Daleks are at their ruthless best and the adventure bounds along apace, embellished by the freedoms outside the 1960s television studios and Whittakers' tweaks.
I am a fan of first person narratives in novels and here it brings us, the reader, into Ian's head and so gives the story an immediacy. We learn first-hand how he learns to accept what he's experiencing as real, for instance. We stand in his shoes as he faces up against two antagonists, namely the Doctor and the Daleks.
This novel would exist perfectly as an excellent example of its genre outside the Doctor Who universe because the story is so good, so self-contained. I would argue that it remains, even after all this time, one of the best Who books and can hold its own against more recent, original stories.