Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks (novelisation)

Novelisation

 * This novelisation is based on the original television serial (TV): Destiny of the Daleks written by Terry Nation and shown from 1 September 1979.
 * The cover and information on the right are for the original Target edition. It features the artwork of Andrew Skilleter. (See below for information on editions with different covers).

1979 edition
Landing on an apparently devastated planet, the Fourth Doctor and Romana make a horrifying discovery.

The planet is Skaro, home-world of the Daleks.

The Daleks are excavating in order to find and revive Davros, the mad, crippled, scientific genius who first created them. They hope that he will give them the scientific superiority to break the deadlock with their Movellan enemies.

Faced once more with the deadly and seemingly indestructible Daleks, the Doctor’s wits and strength are stretched to their very limits …

Deviations from televised story

 * The novel maintains the original script idea to have all the action on Skaro take place at night, shrouded by darkness.
 * During the Doctor's escape from the Dalek command centre, the Daleks use hoverbouts to chase him.

Writing and publishing notes

 * This novelisation was intended for release simultaneously with the TV transmission (hence the novel being written from the script version of the story). It appeared two months after.
 * This was the first novelisation to feature the character of Romana.The novels adapting the Key to Time arc, in which she debuted, were not published until after.
 * The back cover blurb was rewritten because it originally identified the Movellans as robots.
 * This was the first novel with a cover illustration by Andrew Skilleter. There was no visual reference available to the illustrator, who had to conduct his own research using the BBC Picture Publicity Library, before appealing to fans and Doctor Who Magazine.

British publication history
To be added

First Publication:
 * Hardback
 * W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target

Re-issues:

Editions published outside Britain
To be added