Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (novelisation)

Originally published in 1964 as Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks and later retitled Dr Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Daleks and Doctor Who - The Daleks, this novel by David Whitaker was the first Doctor Who novelisation and indeed, the first Doctor Who novel of any kind. When republished by Target Books in 1973, along with two other mid-60s novelisations, strong sales resulted in Target launching its extensive series of novelisations. It was based on the 1963 television serial The Daleks.

1965 Armada edition
The story from the beginning! Here is the exciting adventure of Dr. Who, Susan, Barbara, Ian, from the moment they meet one foggy autumn night on a lonely common beside a Police Box (Ah, but what a curious Police Box!) to the time they encounter the weird Daleks.

It is a thrilling story, and we know this book will be one of the most popular published in the Armada series. Can you wait any longer? Start reading!

1967 Avon edition
THE DALEKS HAVE ARRIVED

Free...free... He thought when he woke in the strange machine that had whisked him away from despair on Earth. But the flight through space had ended and he and the hollow-eyed girl he found by his side were strangling in the poisoned air they swallowed with every breath. And around them lay a world in ashes controlled by a hidden city of monstrous machines.

To sleep on earth... and awaken to interplanetary horror!

1973 Target edition
This is DOCTOR WHO's first exciting adventure – with the DALEKS! Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright travel with the mysterious DOCTOR WHO and his grand-daughter, Susan, to the planet of Skaro in the space-time machine, Tardis. There they strive to save the peace-loving Thals from the evil intentions of the hideous DALEKS. Can they succeed? And what is more important, will they ever again see their native Earth?

1983 - Editorial Presença Editon (Portugal)

The extraordinary adventures of Doctor Who, Time Lord, traveling in his space-time vehicle, the TARDIS, across the galaxy, from the immense variety of their worlds. Stories full of imagination, suspense and action. A great worldwide success.

Dr. Who travels in his space-time vehicle TARDIS to the planet Skaro, where a fight to save the peaceful Thals from the domination of the Daleks takes place. Will Dr. Will succeed in his attempts? Or, more importantly, will he return to his native planet, the Earth?

2011 BBC paperback edition
"The voice was all on one level, without any expression at all, a dull monotone that still managed to convey a terrible sense of evil..."

The mysterious Doctor and his granddaughter Susan are joined by unwilling adventurers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in an epic struggle for survival on an alien planet.

In a vast metal city they discover the survivors of a terrible nuclear war - The Daleks. Held Captive in the deepest levels of the city, can the Doctor and his companions stop the Daleks' plan to totally exterminate their mortal enemies, the peace-loving Thals? More importantly, even if they can escape from the Daleks, will Ian and Barbara ever see their home planet Earth again?

This Novel is based on the second Doctor Who story which was originally broadcast from 21 December 1963-1 February 1964. This was the first ever Doctor Who Novel, originally published in 1964.

Featuring the First Doctor as played by William Hartnell, and his companions Susan, Ian and Barbara.

2016 BBC hardcover edition
A thick fog and a girl in distress are just the things that Ian Chesterton needs to escape from a life of dull routine. He has no idea that this is merely a prelude to an advernture quite beyond any normal conception of the word. Or that Barnes Common on a foggy autumn night is the last view of Earth he may ever have.

Both he and the girl he tries to help, Barbara Wright, are transported to a distant planet named Skaro by a mysterious old man known to them as the Doctor. With his grand-daughter Susan, the Doctor sets them down in a world all but destroyed by atomic warfare, the only survivors being a peace-loving and cultured people called the Thals and their bitter enemies the Daleks, horribly mutated both in body and mind.

Thrust into constant danger, his courage and determination tested almost beyond endurance, Ian is forced to struggle against alien creatures and superior enemies with no other weapons than surprise and ingenuity.

The rewords of victory are life for Ian and his new friends...but life where? Can the Doctor return him and Barbara to Earth again?

Chapter titles

 * 1) A Meeting on the Common
 * 2) Prisoners in Space
 * 3) The Dead Planet
 * 4) The Power of the Daleks
 * 5) Escape into Danger
 * 6) The Will to Survive
 * 7) The Lake of Mutations
 * 8) The Last Despairing Try
 * 9) The End of the Power
 * 10) A New Life

Deviations from televised story

 * The book is told in first person by Ian.
 * The opening deviates greatly in that Ian and Barbara have never met each other. Ian has never met the Doctor or Susan prior to the events of the story, thereby ignoring the events of An Unearthly Child. The novelisation of An Unearthly Child would not be published until 1981.
 * The first two chapters are a brief account of An Unearthly Child.
 * The meeting in the junkyard changes to a car crash on Barnes Common.
 * Ian is on his way home to Paddington, having just come back from trying to get a job as an assistant research scientist at Donneby's in Reigate.
 * Susan was being personally tutored by Barbara.
 * Susan says the Doctor is very rich, as he paid twenty pounds a week for Susan's tutor lessons.
 * Susan wrote a thirty page essay on Robespierre.
 * The yearometer in the TARDIS was damaged on a previous trip, and the Doctor has been meaning to fix it.
 * A Dalek is described as having some emotion in its voice.
 * Susan Foreman is referred to by the name "Susan English".
 * The circles on the TARDIS walls can be used to store things.
 * Ian is not trapped inside the Dalek casing, and escapes with ease long before the Daleks can cut through the door to the lift.
 * A Dalek leader inside a transparent casing appears. An actual Glass Dalek appeared in the television story Revelation of the Daleks.
 * Gurna is Alydon's cousin. He accompanied the Doctor's group into the Dalek city. Salthyana is a female who says Kristas will propose to her the next day.
 * Ratanda is a drink made by the Thals.

Story notes

 * This novel established the practice, later followed for a time by Target Books, of assigning titles to novelisations that differed from the broadcast teleplays. (The title subsequently assigned to this story, The Daleks, is included as part of the book's original title; its use on editions from 1973 onwards led to it being subsequently used for the television story.)
 * Internal illustrations were by Arnold Schwartzman.

Writing and publishing notes

 * Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks came out before any Doctor Who-based book, fiction or nonfiction. It was first published in hardback by Frederick Muller Ltd on 12 November 1964 at a price of 12s 6d. It quickly sold out of the first 20,000 copies and was reprinted in December 1964. The name Doctor Who appeared very prominently on the first printing, with the rest of the title more of an afterthought.
 * Since there was no conception that there would be so many more Doctor Who stories adapted, this first book has no continuity with An Unearthly Child (which would be adapted into novel form years later as Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child); the 1973 Target Books edition directly refers to it as the Doctor's first adventure. Even after An Unearthly Child was adapted, future editions of Whitaker's book made no attempt to explain the discrepancy.
 * A paperback edition was issued on 4 October 1965 by May Fair Books Ltd, under the "Armada Paperbacks for Boys & Girls" imprint (priced 2s 6d). This version did not use Schwartzman's artwork, instead having a cover and six illustrations by Peter Archer. This was the first Doctor Who novel to be published in paperback. This edition uses the variant title Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks and is one of the only Doctor Who book releases to use the technically incorrect "Dr. Who" name abbreviation.
 * The 1967 edition by Avon Books was the first American edition of a Doctor Who book, predating a later series of American novelisation editions by nearly a decade.
 * It was reprinted as the first title in the new range of Doctor Who novelisations planned by Target Books. It was published 2 May 1973 as Doctor Who and the Daleks with the subtitle "Based on the popular BBC television serial". The hardback edition illustrations were retained.
 * For the first time in nearly twenty years, the book was re-released with the 1973 Target cover in paperback by BBC Books on 7 July 2011. An introduction by writer Neil Gaiman was included and the title of the book reverted to Doctor Who and the Daleks.
 * A hardcover facsimile of the 1964 Frederick Muller release was published by BBC Books on 3 November 2016.
 * Chris Achilleos reused Ron Turner's Dalek artwork on his cover. The Daleks were from COMIC: The Rogue Planet and the title graphic of The Dalek Chronicles from COMIC: Legacy of Yesteryear onward.
 * Several different colour variants were used for the cover of the original Muller edition.

Audio release
This story was initially released as an audiobook in a single mp3-CD format, read by William Russell (Ian). It was later released on 5 CDs in the limited edition Travels in Time and Space tin alongside the audio releases of Doctor Who and the Crusaders and Doctor Who and the Zarbi, which were also read by Russell. The audiobook was later broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, between 16th-17th November 2013.

British publication history
Second edition:
 * Hardback
 * W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target (2 May 1973). Doctor Who and the Daleks.

Re-issues:
 * Paperback
 * Virgin Publishing Ltd. UK (January 1992). Cover by Alistair Pearson (£2.50 UK). Doctor Who - The Daleks.
 * BBC Books (7 July 2011). Doctor Who and the Daleks.


 * Hardcover
 * BBC Books (3 November 2016). Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. Facsimile of the Frederick Muller original.

Editions published outside Britain

 * Published in USA by Soccer Books in 1966 as a hardback edition.
 * Published the USA by Avon Books in 1967 as a paperback edition; this was the first and only Doctor Who novelisation to be published in a US paperback edition until Ballantine began reprinting Target novelisations in the late 1970s.


 * Published in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko in 1980, it was one of five Japanese novelisations.
 * Published in France by Éditions Garancière in 1987, published as Docteur Who Les Daleks.
 * Published in Portugal by Editorial Presença in 1982, published as Doutor Who E Os Daleks.