Eve of the War (comic story)

Eve of War is the first story to feature the Mechanoids in comic form and as an explicit enemy of the Daleks. This story is also notable for its change of artists mid-way through the story, resulting in differences in style of Daleks, ships and all style and painted elements of the story. The Daleks' design shifts from a design centered on their appearance in the first Dalek story The Daleks to a design similar to the Dalek film (Dr. Who and the Daleks) that had been released the year this story was first published.

Summary
The Daleks are building a space station as a refuelling station as part of their plans of conquest when one of the Daleks comes under attack. The Mechanoids using their 'suspicion' ray attack on of the Daleks working on constructing the space station, making it think that the other Daleks are its enemy. After being restrained the Red Dalek reveals that their radardroves have detected an enemy in their space. This enemy is the Mechanoids, the Daleks, having uncovered their ship destroy it. However following the Mechanoids' ship destruction they return with two more ships, melting the Dalek's flying saucer with the Red Dalek within. Later the Emperor Dalek is able to extract information about the Mechanoids from the Dalek that the 'suspicion ray' was used on.

Characters

 * Menoid
 * Dalek Emperor
 * Red Dalek

Daleks

 * The Red Dalek is killed when its saucer is melted by the Mechanoids.

Dalek technology

 * Dalek sound scans can listen for things approaching up to 100,000 AUDs away from the North and South.
 * Videoscopes also watch for things around Skaro.
 * The Daleks use radardroves to detect things in space.

Elements

 * The Daleks use H20 ballast in their saucers to blow the cloud hiding the Mechanoids' ship away.

Planets

 * The Daleks wish to mine the planet Oric for its valuable metals.

Spacecraft

 * Mechanoid Interceptors can travel at lightspeed.
 * The Mechanoids use force field protection on their ships, rendering the Daleks' weapons useless.
 * The Mechanoid interceptors can melt the Dalek Flying Saucers with their weapons.
 * The Daleks are building a space station in orbit of the Skaro as a refuelling station.

Species

 * Mechanoids are totally machine and have powerful positronic brains.
 * The Mechanoids can pierce the Daleks' brains and melt their casings.

Technology

 * The Mechanoids use a 'suspicion' ray.

Continuity

 * This is the first of the Mechanoid story arc. Dalek-Mechanoid combat was previously shown in DW: The Chase and DAN: The World That Waits.