The Dalek Handbook is a very comprehensive guide
to everyone’s favourite Skarosians. The Daleks have been ever-present
during the near 50-year run of Doctor Who, firstly appearing in the Timelord’s second adventure, The Daleks. Of course, the famous story (retold in this book) is that Doctor Who‘s producers didn’t want BEMs (“Bug Eyed Monsters”) in the programme, but had to run with The Daleks as it was the only script ready for production, and thus the whole impetus of Doctor Who changed forever with their arrival.
Since the Daleks have been in the programme for 50 years, it can be quite difficult to present a coherent history for them. This is mostly due to the fact that the show’s original producers didn’t let continuity get in the way of a good story, and also because they had no idea that they had created such a long lasting institution. Steve Tribe and James Goss do a very good job of recounting this history, although I did take exception to their surmise that the race of Dals mentioned in the original story must have been usurped by the Kaleds (the race that created the Daleks in the later adventure Genesis of the Daleks), as I would have thought that this inconsistency could have been explained away by them just having two names, just as our enemies in the Second World War could either be called Nazis or Germans.
Steve Tribe and James Goss make it abundantly clear just how influenced Terry Nation was by Nazi Germany in his creation of the Daleks, as they were doing Nazi salutes with their plungers way back in their original adventure, long before Nyder sported an Iron Cross in Genesis of the Daleks (a medal which has Germanic, rather than Nazi origins, although overwhelmingly associated with the Nazis since Hitler reintroduced it as a decoration in the Second World War). Interestingly enough, the authors relate that Terry Nation’s original script featured a third alien race which had assaulted both the Dals and the Thals… However, this is very much a factual book, so criticism is very much on the back burner. Thus the similarities between The Daleks and George Pal’s 1960 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine are not brought to light (e.g. the word ‘Morlock’ is not a million miles away from ‘Dalek’, and the stolen fluid link is a rather obvious replacement for the purloined time machine of the film).
There are several splendid anecdotes, such as the time when Doctor Who‘s original producer, Verity Lambert, ran into the man who had the license to make Dalek merchandise, who was hence considerably far richer than her… There’s also the revelation (to me anyway) that Terry Nation’s plans for a US Dalek series were quite advanced, to the point that he’d written an actual script called The Destroyers (which was recently adapted into an audio adventure by Big Finish). It’s also great to see the sketches created in the wake of the 1996 Paul McGann Doctor Who TV movie, which envisaged a redesign of the Daleks far more radical than that of the current production team with their ‘new Dalek paradigm’ (one which I heartily criticise in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who 2010). In addition to this, it’s very interesting to learn that Russell T Davies was planning to use the human spheres from The Sound of Drums (the Toclafane) instead of our favourite Skarosians in Robert Shearman’s 2005 script in case permission to utilise the Daleks didn’t come through in time for the revived series.
I found quite a few of the images of the classic series’ adventures to be very grainy, letting down what is otherwise a very lavishly illustrated book. I guess the editors of the book were attempting to get away from the more polished (but overly-familiar) publicity photos from these adventures by adding in many actual screenshots, but these screenshots could have done with a great deal of enhancement in order not to detract from the quality of the book. Steve Tribe has a great track record as an author of factual Doctor Who books, and James Goss (editor of the BBC’s Doctor Who website) similarly knows his stuff, but their prose is quite dry. Indeed, I feel that James Goss’ prose really comes to life when he’s writing fiction, especially his recent excellent Doctor Who novel, Dead of Winter. Yet you can’t beat a lovely dose of nostalgia, which this book provides in ample amounts, even to the point of recounting the Daleks’ many comic book adventures. Ah, for the days when Abslom Daak was wont to cut through the Daleks with a chainsaw!
Since the Daleks have been in the programme for 50 years, it can be quite difficult to present a coherent history for them. This is mostly due to the fact that the show’s original producers didn’t let continuity get in the way of a good story, and also because they had no idea that they had created such a long lasting institution. Steve Tribe and James Goss do a very good job of recounting this history, although I did take exception to their surmise that the race of Dals mentioned in the original story must have been usurped by the Kaleds (the race that created the Daleks in the later adventure Genesis of the Daleks), as I would have thought that this inconsistency could have been explained away by them just having two names, just as our enemies in the Second World War could either be called Nazis or Germans.
Steve Tribe and James Goss make it abundantly clear just how influenced Terry Nation was by Nazi Germany in his creation of the Daleks, as they were doing Nazi salutes with their plungers way back in their original adventure, long before Nyder sported an Iron Cross in Genesis of the Daleks (a medal which has Germanic, rather than Nazi origins, although overwhelmingly associated with the Nazis since Hitler reintroduced it as a decoration in the Second World War). Interestingly enough, the authors relate that Terry Nation’s original script featured a third alien race which had assaulted both the Dals and the Thals… However, this is very much a factual book, so criticism is very much on the back burner. Thus the similarities between The Daleks and George Pal’s 1960 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine are not brought to light (e.g. the word ‘Morlock’ is not a million miles away from ‘Dalek’, and the stolen fluid link is a rather obvious replacement for the purloined time machine of the film).
There are several splendid anecdotes, such as the time when Doctor Who‘s original producer, Verity Lambert, ran into the man who had the license to make Dalek merchandise, who was hence considerably far richer than her… There’s also the revelation (to me anyway) that Terry Nation’s plans for a US Dalek series were quite advanced, to the point that he’d written an actual script called The Destroyers (which was recently adapted into an audio adventure by Big Finish). It’s also great to see the sketches created in the wake of the 1996 Paul McGann Doctor Who TV movie, which envisaged a redesign of the Daleks far more radical than that of the current production team with their ‘new Dalek paradigm’ (one which I heartily criticise in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who 2010). In addition to this, it’s very interesting to learn that Russell T Davies was planning to use the human spheres from The Sound of Drums (the Toclafane) instead of our favourite Skarosians in Robert Shearman’s 2005 script in case permission to utilise the Daleks didn’t come through in time for the revived series.
I found quite a few of the images of the classic series’ adventures to be very grainy, letting down what is otherwise a very lavishly illustrated book. I guess the editors of the book were attempting to get away from the more polished (but overly-familiar) publicity photos from these adventures by adding in many actual screenshots, but these screenshots could have done with a great deal of enhancement in order not to detract from the quality of the book. Steve Tribe has a great track record as an author of factual Doctor Who books, and James Goss (editor of the BBC’s Doctor Who website) similarly knows his stuff, but their prose is quite dry. Indeed, I feel that James Goss’ prose really comes to life when he’s writing fiction, especially his recent excellent Doctor Who novel, Dead of Winter. Yet you can’t beat a lovely dose of nostalgia, which this book provides in ample amounts, even to the point of recounting the Daleks’ many comic book adventures. Ah, for the days when Abslom Daak was wont to cut through the Daleks with a chainsaw!