The Dalek Book

Doctor Who spinoff Annuals

by Terry Nation, David Whitaker, Richard Jennings (Illustrator)

Published in 1964, The Dalek Book was one of the first spin-off books based upon Doctor Who. Co-written by Daleks creator Terry Nation and series writer David Whitaker, the book contained information on the Daleks, as well as original stories and comic strips, a Dalek dictionary, and a photo story about Susan Foreman meeting the Daleks, featuring images from the 1963-64 serial The Daleks.

Story art was done by A. B. Cornwell, Richard Jennings, and John Woods but none of the stories are individually credited. Except where artwork is signed, who did what is a matter of speculation. It is believed that the book was largely written by David Whitaker.

Stories

* Invasion of the Daleks - comic story
* Red for Danger - text story with illustrations
* The Oil Well - comic story
* The Message of Mystery - photo story
* The Secret of the Mountain - text story with illustrations
* City of the Daleks - comic story
* The Humanoids - comic story
* The Small Defender - text story with illustrations
* Monsters of Gurnian - comic story
* Break-through! - text story with illustrations
* Battle for the Moon - comic story

Features

* The Dalek Planetarium
* The Dalekode
* Anatomy of a Dalek
* Dodge the Dalek
* Dalek War Machines
* Dalography of Skaro
* The Dalek Dictionary

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

Hardcover

First published June 1, 1964

About the author

Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist. After briefly joining his father's furniture-making business and attempting stand-up comedy, Nation turned his hand to writing and worked on radio scripts for The Goon Show and a range of TV dramas such as The Saint, The Avengers, Z Cars, The Baron, The Champions, Department S and The Persuaders. He went on to write about 100 episodes of Doctor Who and wrote scripts for the American TV series MacGyver (1985) and A Fine Romance (1989).

He is probably best known for creating iconic villains the Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who. Nation also created two science-fiction shows - Survivors and Blake's 7.

Terry Nation moved to Los Angeles, California, United States in 1980. He died from emphysema on 9 March 1997, aged 66.

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1780662...

This book, published in June 1964, actually predates the first Doctor Who annuals and books, so I guess may be the very first Who spinoff literature evar. It is really not bad at all; alternating formats between comic strip and illustrated prose, and even a photonovel featuring the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan, it tells the story of the Daleks' attempt to invade and occupy Earth's Solar System (a diagram showing Skaro swooshing past the orbits of the Sun's other planets), opposed by the heroic efforts of Jeff, Andy and Mary Stone, good swash-buckling square-jawed heroes all three. Mary at one point is captured by the Daleks and persuades them to start taking better care of their prisoners, a story-line later used by Big finish for their character Susan Mendes in the Dalek Empire audios. On the one hand it's very much related to the adventure comics of the day; on the other I liked the coherent narrative thread, which takes the format in a slightly different direction, and appreciated the expansion of Daleks-as-Nazis to Daleks-as-totalitarians, rewriting history at their convenience. This one is worth hunting down.

[Percy · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS PART OF THE REVIEW IS ONLY FOR THE STORY "THE MESSAGE OF MYSTERY" i will update this when i get to the rest in my chronological read through :)


oof, that was.. weird? to say the least.

these daleks are not at all like the daleks we now and i dont like it, it felt almost wrong to see them like that.

the fact the message they get all worked up about was nothing to worry about was sort of funny at least?

also its pretty cool they managed to create a new story from pictures from "the daleks" even if that story didnt turn out very well in this day and age of doctor who, but i guess times were different then, and they were still figuring things out.

oh yeah! apparently daleks have pens and paper? i'd love to see them use one XD



"The daleks were fascinated by her, and talked constantly about her. Susan, ready to make sense of the strange code, asked for a table and pen and paper"

-Narrator

[Joseph Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting mix of comics and prose. Some stories are fairly interesting, some are silly, and some are filler. A lot of Dalek mythology is established and possibly never referred to again, including a ridiculous Dalek vocabulary. The Daleks seem relentless and evil but also there's a story where a mole accidentally wipes out a handful of Daleks. So it's definitely uneven.

[Arrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for any Classic Doctor Who fan. One of the best books the show has every produced for the Daleks at least. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful (a style of which I think is long gone these days) and the stories are worthy of the TV show itself if it had had a bigger budget. There are also a few extra things in it which are interesting to a Dalek fan, like the map of Skaro and the anatomy of the Dalek. It must have been one of the most wanted gifts for Christmas that year along with the first ever battery operated Dalek toy back in 1964.