Power Play (comic story)

Summary
Power Play is an installment of the Dalek Chronicles set after Genesis of Evil. It is composed of several one page comic strips which lack individual names.

Plot
The Dalek Emperor oversees the completion of new Dalek City. Then Dalek instruments detect a strange object arriving on Skaro, which unbeknownst to the Daleks in a spaceship. They cover the city in sand to hide it from the invaders. The ship is owned by the Krattorian Kest. He sees the fortune of sand waiting on the planet and sets his slaves to work gathering it. Realising they are at risk of being discovered, the Emperor orders them destroyed. However, the magnetism from the Dalek City begins disrupting Kest's ship's instruments and it tells the slaves they can rest. The Emperor has them examined and learns that two slaves, Sala and Astolith, are planning a rebellion against Kest. The Emperor believes this is the chance for the Daleks to seize the ship for themselves.

Meanwhile, Sala's uncle Andor betrays his niece and warns Kest. Kest instructs Andor to find the rebels and bring them before him but Sala is captured by the Daleks while exploring outside and is nowhere to be found. The Emperor offers to help her and the others fix the problem with the ship's instruments. As Kest interrogates Astolith as to Sala's whereabouts, Astolith punches Andor in the face in anger before Sala reappears and tells them of the Daleks. She leads Astolith, Kest and some of his guards to the city but once they are gone, the Daleks slaughter the guards around the ship and move it into the city for study. When Kest notices his ship had gone he threatens to kill Sala but she and Astolith manage to shove him and his guards off the egde of the mountain range. Kest survived the fall.

The Daleks finish their records of how the ship is constructed but they sill do not know how to operate it. Sala and Astolith try to sneak past them so they can escape the planet with the other slaves. Kest finds his way into the city and the Daleks capture him. He offers to show them how to fly his ship if they find and kill the rebels, with no intention of keeping his word. Sala and Astolith evade the Daleks and reach the ship, just as Andor is found cowering within. He shows the Daleks the papers detailing how to operate the ship. At that moment, Sala, Astolith and the slaves take off and smash a hole in the roof of the Dalek City. Kest, Andor and several Daleks are killed in the blast-off but the Emperor sees it as of no consequence. They now have all the information they need to begin the construction of their own spacecrafts, allowing them to begin their conquest of the universe.

Characters

 * Andor
 * Astolith
 * Kest
 * Sala
 * Dalek Emperor
 * Daleks
 * Kest's Krattorian guards
 * Kest's slaves

Reprints

 * Doctor Who Weekly 33-34 in black and white
 * Doctor Who Magazine 183-188 in colour
 * DWMS The Dalek Chronicles in colour

Continuity

 * The comic shows the origins of the Dalek space travel program, first seen on televion in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Daleks are in the process of researching space travel in the next story, COMIC: Duel of the Daleks, and COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge later shows the Daleks developing and testing their first spaceships.
 * The comic also shows the construction of the Dalek City as seen in TV: The Daleks