The Dalek Generation (novel)

The Dalek Generation is one of three Eleventh Doctor novels published in April 2013.

Publisher's summary
"The Sunlight Worlds Offer You A Life of Comfort and Plenty. Apply now at the Dalek Foundation."

Sunlight 349 is one of countless Dalek Foundation worlds, planets created to house billions suffering from economic hardship. The Doctor arrives at Sunlight 349, suspicious of any world where the Daleks are apparently a force for good – and determined to find out the truth. The Doctor knows they have a far more sinister plan – but how can he convince those who have lived under the benevolence of the Daleks for a generation?

But convince them he must, and soon. For on another Foundation planet, archaeologists have unearthed the most dangerous technology in the universe...

Plot
Lillian Belle, a journalist living on the Dalek Foundation world of Sunlight 349, arrives at the sight of a train crash where two locomotives have collides head on. As Lillian intervies a security guard, Daniel Ash, a Dalek arrives on the scene to investigate. Some medics with Mr Sezman, one of the drivers, approach the Dalek on the other side of the train - out of everyone's sight - to explain to it what happened. The Dalek murders them and leaves before the bodies can be found.

While the TARDIS is in flight through the Time Vortex, the Doctor receives a Hypercube, a much smaller one that he is used to. He then thinks that maybe he made it himself to send himself a message from his future. He is brought to the desert planet Gethria, where he sees a gathering of humanoids around a stone monument. They all depart as the Doctor realises the gathering was a funeral. An old woman stares at the Doctor as if she recognises him before leaving herself. The Doctor examines the gravestone and sees a toy spaceship embedded into it. He notes it was "Made in Carthedia" and then leaves. His departure is watched by the Dalek Time Controller who declares: "It is beginning..."

Else where in space and time, a young girl has been taken prisoner by the Daleks. A Dalek enters the cell with a tray of food and forces her to eat it. The girl is disgusted but pretends it is her favourite sweet, jelly blobs, so she can eat it. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to deduce the purpose of the hypercube when he receives a distress call from a Terrin Blakely and his wife Alyst who claim their ship is under attack. The Doctor sets off to aid them but the Dalek Time Controller fires an energy pulse at the TARDIS, knocking the Doctor off course. He arrives on the ship but too late as he finds a recording showing Terrin and Alyst preparing to throw themselves out of the airlock to protect their knowledge of a certain formula from the Daleks. The Doctor investigates the ship further and finds three children hidden in the escape pod: Sabel, Jenibeth and Ollus - Terrin and Alyst's children. He tells them of their parents' death and returns the ship to their home planet Carthedia, along the way learning a few things: the children are smart for their age, Ollus has a toy spaceship, that a family friend named Hogoosta gave Terrin and Alyst the formula and that the Daleks are considered a force for good.

Upon arriving on Carthedia, the Doctor is questioned about Terrin and Alyst's disappearance. He is found innocent of any crime and is allowed to depart with the children but he mysteriously loses the recording of the Daleks part in the couple's death and is unable to prove the Dalek are evil. He tries to explain this to a crowd of journalists who don't believe him. He is then arrested for denouncing the Daleks, which is considered a hate crime. The children are taken to an orphanage while the Doctor is put on trial, with the Dalek Litigator acting as the prosecution. The Doctor pleads guilty to the hate crime in attempts to anger the Litigator and provoke the Dalek into showing its true colours but it stays calm. The Doctor is given a sentence but his defence, Hellic Dansard, appeals for him to see the children before the sentence is carried out as he displayed some "emotional attachment" to them. Against the Doctor's expectations, the Dalek Litigator holds no objections.

Hellic and some police forces take the Doctor in a skimmer (a Certhedian police car) to the police station where the Doctor finds the children struggling to sleep in a poorly-treated orphanage. Fortunately, security neglects to relieve the Doctor of his sonic screwdriver and he uses it to produce an extremely loud sound, stunning Hellic and the police and shattering the wall of the orphanage allowing the Doctor and the children to escape. They take off in a skimmer (which Ollus is able to drive despite his age), Hellic and the police giving chase. The Doctor spots the TARDIS on a landing pad with a Dalek guarding it. The Doctor uses Ollus's toy spaceship to produce holograms which the Dalek mistakes for an attack. It panics, firing almost hysterically at the sky, shooting down and scattering the police skimmers. Hellic's skimmer is shot down, crashing into the Dalek and killing them both. Ollus lands the skimmer but more Daleks exit a Dalek saucer to apprehend them. The Doctor uses the toy again to project more holograms from the TARDIS light, distracting the Daleks long enough for them to escape. The children, upon learning the TARDIS is a time machine, ask the Doctor if they can travel back and save their parents. The Doctor initially refuses, abiding by the laws set by the Time Lords, but eventually wonders if he could rescue the parents and adjust the controls accordingly. But another energy pulse hits the TARDIS, sending it off course once more.

On Gethria, Hogoosta is working at an excavation site, worrying about Terrin and Alyst, when Klektid enforcers arrive and evict everyone off the site. The TARDIS arrives and the children greet Hogoosta, who tells the Doctor about the Cradle of the Gods, a great monument they have discovered with inscriptions meaning it either has the purpose of creation or destruction. The Kelktid enforcers chase them back to the TARDIS for venturing too close to the monument. The Doctor materialises the TARDIS closer to the Cradle and they begin to investigate. It seems active for some unknown reason. The Daleks then arrive. The group realises the enforcers must have been working for the Daleks. The Doctor, Sabel and Ollus manage to escape back to the TARDIS but Hogoosta is exterminated and Jenibeth is captured. Ollus promises to rescue her, then the TARDIS dematerialises, the Cradle suddenly becoming inactive at the same time.

Some months after investigating the train crash on Sunlight 349, Lillian Belle is approached by the member of an underground resistance said to be plotting the downfall of the Dalek Foundation. They give Lillian a report exposing the murders at the crash site and give her information in the form of memory cells about the Doctor. She is told to find him. The Doctor ends up finding her first and asking if she knows a way to defeat the Daleks.

Meanwhile, the Dalek Supreme is becoming impatient and demands that the Dalek Time Controller activate the Cradle of the Gods immediately. The Time Controller refuses, claiming "The Doctor's course is set. Set my me." Intervention would disrupt the flow of time and harm the Daleks. The Time Contoller forces the Supreme Dalek to obey, and the Supreme Dalek reluctantly complies.

The Doctor, Sabel and Ollus use Lillian to sniff out a resistance member and they are met with success. The Doctor, Sabel and Ollus are taken to a resistance meeting where five dark and mysterious figures are in discussion. The Doctor asks about their course of action but Sabel and Ollus discover Daleks invading the hideout. The Doctor and the children escape but they see the resistance members killed by the Daleks.

Characters

 * Eleventh Doctor
 * The Blakely Family
 * Sabel Blakely
 * Jenibeth Blakely
 * Ollus Blakely
 * Terrin Blakely
 * Alyst Blakely
 * Klektids
 * Hogoosta
 * The Daleks
 * Dalek Time Controller/Dalek Litigator
 * Dalek Supreme
 * Lillian Belle
 * Hellic Dansard
 * Daniel Ash
 * Mr Sezman
 * Gill

Continuity

 * The Doctor remembers the times he used a hypercube: a long time ago, (TV: The War Games) and just recently. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
 * This is the Dalek Time Controller's first encounter with the Doctor, and it is told that they will meet many times in the future. The Dalek Time Controller previously encountered the Sixth Doctor, (AUDIO: Patient Zero) and the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: To the Death)
 * Daleks previously pretended to help humans in order to further their own objectives in TV: The Power of the Daleks and TV:  Victory of the Daleks. They also lured the Thals into a trap by offering them friendship and food in TV: The Daleks.
 * The Doctor mentions Dalek slave labour camps. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Day of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)
 * A few references to Robomen are made, including the Doctor's suggestion of raiding a Dalek ship with someone in disguise as a Roboman as in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Eleventh Doctor also encountered Robomen in COMIC: The Only Good Dalek. Duplicates are also mentioned. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
 * At the end, the Doctor thinks about the lives his actions put in danger and decides "No more meddling". This is highly implied to be the event in which he made his decision to retire. (TV: The Great Detective) Numerous continuity points support this:
 * The reference to Dalek nanogenes and the appearance of a Dalek puppet places this story after TV: Asylum of the Daleks.
 * This means it also occurs after TV:  The Angels Take Manhattan as Amy Pond and Rory Williams continued to travel with the Doctor from Asylum until Angels and they are absent here.
 * The interior of the TARDIS gives an "orange" glow like its 2010 design, rather than a blue glow following its 2012 redesign in TV: The Snowmen.

Audio release
to be added