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The Evil of the Daleks (2023 novelisation)
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The Evil of the Daleks was a novelisation based on the 1967 television serial The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).. It was written by Frazer Hines, Mike Tucker and Steve Cole and released by BBC Books on 26 October 2023. It was the second such official novelisation following the original and justified itself as, in essence, a novelisation of the 1968 televised repeat of the original TV serial, making use of the framing device of Zoe Heriot being shown the events of the earlier adventure on a mind projector shortly after joining the Doctor's TARDIS.
Publisher's summary[]
Young astrophysicist Zoe wishes to join Jamie and the Doctor on their travels. To give her fair warning of the dangers she may face, the Doctor uses a mind projector to share one of their most harrowing adventures...
And so, Jamie is forced to relive his struggle against the evil Daleks at their most powerful and calculating. In a complex plot that drags him from modern-day London to Victorian times and finally to the Dalek world of Skaro, he endures ordeals that test his courage, strength - and his friendship with the Doctor - to the limit...
Chapter titles[]
- Chapter One: To Set a Trap
- First Interlude
- Chapter Two: The Net Tightens
- Second Interlude
- Chapter Three: A Trial of Strength
- Third Interlude
- Chapter Four: A Test of Skill
- Fourth Interlude
- Chapter Five: The Human Factor
- Fifth Interlude
- Chapter Six: Escape to Danger
- Sixth Interlude
- Chapter Seven: The End of the Daleks
- Coda
Plot[]
to be added
Characters[]
- Second Doctor
- Jamie McCrimmon
- Victoria Waterfield
- Edward Waterfield
- Theodore Maxtible
- Ruth Maxtible
- Arthur Terrall
- Kemel
- Toby
- Mollie Dawson
- Dalek Emperor
- Alpha
- Beta
- Omega
- Black Dalek
- Frank Kennedy
- Keith Perry
- Bob Hall
- Zoe Heriot
Worldbuilding[]
to be added
Differences from other versions[]
As with most novelisations, there are notable differences and contradictions in the details with the parent story, although this one provides some possible in-universe justifications given its narrative framing device. In one of the interludes, the Doctor explains that the TARDIS is able to take a psychic recording of nearby events after it lands, allowing him to project events at which he was not present. In the coda, the Doctor also claims to have been testing his memory after a recent bump to the head. The implication that an inaccuracy with either of these could cause some details to be related differently is subtly present.
Additionally, the interludes are narrated by Jamie in the first-person; he and Zoe later had their memories altered, nearly erased, by the Time Lords after The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969)..
Deviations from televised story[]
- Kennedy is given the first name Frank.
- Jamie was born in the village of Tulloch on the banks of Loch Ruthven.
- Victoria was delighted when she first visited Maxtible's house and fantasised about what it would be like to live in such a large home. She ensured that her schedule was as empty as possible so that she could accompany her father there and explore the grounds, learning the names of flowers and herbs.
- The final scene from episode two, in which two Daleks discuss the beginning of the experiment and demand there be no delay, is absent.
- Terrall has further flashbacks to his time in the Crimean War. His Dalek conditioning further confuses these thoughts, causing him to believe he is actually fighting a war of extermination against the Thals.
- Kemel receives an expanded backstory explaining how he ended up in the employ of Maxtible: he was a wrestler in London who was defended from a murder charge by Maxtible after killing a thief in self-defence.
- Besides Jamie, the Daleks also factor both Kemel and Victoria into the Human Factor experiment, in order to determine if the traits displayed by Jamie are common across race and gender.
- Terral, Ruth and Mollie all witness the destruction of Maxtible's house from afar in an additional scene to feature them after their departure.
- A Black Dalek is present on Skaro, serving as the Emperor's second-in-command, in a role virtually identical to the Black Dalek Leader. However, it is destroyed by the humanised Daleks at the start of the rebellion (other material suggests the Black Dalek Leader survived up until the events of Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).). No Black Daleks were present in the TV serial, despite the Emperor's black-domed guards being referred to as such.
- Further detail is given to the history and function of the Dalek City.
- The characters discuss how the Daleks go to the trouble of genuinely discovering how to transmute metal into gold despite using it as nothing more than a lure to infect Maxtible with the Dalek factor. The Doctor attributes this to spite.
- Omega is identified as one of the first humanised Daleks to be killed by the Emperor's guards just as the Doctor incites the rebellion.
- After the Dalek Civil War begins, the Doctor begins hunting for humanised Dalek reinforcements, finding a group of them who are in the process of giving themselves names and scratching them onto their casings.
- At Kemel's death scene, instead of Maxtible beckoning Kemel towards him as they escape the city and Kemel cautiously complying, Kemel immediately knows not to trust him steps forward to defend Jamie and Victoria from the Dalekised Maxtible, who then attacks him.
- After killing Kemel, Maxtible gets into a fight with Jamie and falls over the same precipice as Kemel. In the original serial, Maxtible responded to orders for all Daleks to return to the city and implicitly died in the fighting.
- The Emperor summons all Dalek leaders to put down the rebellion, whereas on TV he specifically summons all Black Dalek Leaders.
- Greater emphasis is placed on the toll the Doctor's conflicted thoughts and emotions begin to take on him as he drives the Daleks towards genocide, and the deaths that were caused along the way.
Comparisons with the 1993 novelisation[]
- While both versions give Kemel a backstory, the two are entirely different. In the original novelisation, he met Maxtible while working for a blacksmith in Turkey, not as a wrestler in London.
- The notable Red Dalek is never identified in this version. Technically, there is no explicit confirmation that a Red Dalek is not present. However, in one of the scenes it originally featured in, it is replaced by a Dalek which is said to look similar to all the rest and is also not the leader of the operation.
- Both versions feature Black Daleks, which were not in the televised version. Whereas the original novelisation replaced all the Emperor's black-domed guards with Black Daleks, the 2023 novelisation features a singular prominent Black Dalek as well as black-domed Daleks.
- Ironically, the Black Dalek Leader, although directly mentioned, is explicitly not present in the original novelisation, even though author John Peel effectively codified the character's literary portrayal in his other Target novelisations (by his authorial intent, the Black Dalek is said to have died in The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).). The individual Black Dalek in the 2023 version is so similar in its portrayal to the Black Dalek Leader that it could be interpreted as the same character, save for its alternate fate.
- Both novelisations give the Emperor's backstory as being one of the earliest Daleks. The 2023 novelisation does not give mentions of Davros, the Dalek Prime or any of the experiments it conducted on itself, nor many of the other heavier continuity points as the 1993 novelisation does, but both versions of the backstory are nevertheless compatible.
- The 1993 novelisation notably set the background of the story as taking place during the Great War, sparked by the events of The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966).. Although no such details are included in the 2023 novelisation which is more self-contained, reference is made to an ongoing Dalek "war effort". Daleks vs Daleks! [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW. also supports both in their being an ongoing conflict at the time of the story's events.
Notes[]
- Each chapter corresponds to one episode of the televised serial. The chapter titles for all bar "Chapter Six: Escape to Danger" are the original working titles for the televised episodes,[1] even though individual episode titles were by this time no longer being used; Season 3's four-part story The Gunfighters [+]Donald Cotton, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1966). being the last to feature them. No working title is given on existing BBC paperwork for The Evil of the Daleks episode six. The original novelisation also featured these titles (except "Escape to Danger") among its 33 chapters.
- Each chapter concludes with the Doctor taking a short break from retelling the story on the mind projector, allowing him, Jamie and Zoe to comment on the events. This framing device results in the novel becoming a fully-detailed account of what takes place chronologically between The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968). and Fear of the Daleks [+]Patrick Chapman, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007)..
- The interludes with Zoe and the mind projector are written in the first person from Jamie's perspective. The main bulk of the story, retelling The Evil of the Daleks, is written in the third person.
- A poster for this novelisation and Rose [+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Rose (Russell T Davies), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018). was included in SFX 373.
- Coincidentally, both narratives are chronologically followed by Big Finish Productions releases in The Companion Chronicles which feature the Daleks: The Death of the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW. immediately follows The Evil of the Daleks, and Fear of the Daleks [+]Patrick Chapman, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007). immediately follows The Wheel in Space.
Continuity[]
- The Doctor begins questioning the morality of his actions as he realises the implications of what he is doing to the Daleks. On their next landing after departing Skaro, he is struggling to come to terms with this. (AUDIO: The Death of the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.). The Fourth Doctor later experienced the same moral quandry when given the chance to wipe out the Daleks from birth. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
- The Daleks are engaged in an ongoing war effort. (PROSE: Daleks vs Daleks! [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
- Some humanised Daleks attempt to give each other names, with the Doctor considering that they could start their own civilisation if they survived. Led by Alpha, they survivors would go on to attempt this. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2001-2002).).
- After finishing the story, the Doctor explains to Jamie that he was giving himself a mental workout to make sure there was no lasting damage caused by the rocket and his recent bump to the head. (The Wheel in Space [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968).)
- Jamie believes the Doctor chose to show Zoe their first meeting with Victoria because the two miss her after her recent departure. (TV: Fury from the Deep [+]Victor Pemberton, Doctor Who season 5 (BBC1, 1968).)
- Due to the Time Lords erasing her memories, Zoe recalled her reaction to being shown the story differently once her memories began to resurface. She remembered being terrified of the Daleks, to the point where the Doctor apologised for showing her the projection, and she rationalised this as recurring nightmares. (AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks [+]Patrick Chapman, The Companion Chronicles (Big Finish Productions, 2007).)
Audiobook[]
- This novel was released as an audiobook on 26 October 2023 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Frazer Hines, with Dalek voices by Nicholas Briggs.
Audiobook cover
References[]
External links[]
- Official The Evil of the Daleks - novel page at Penguin Books
- Official The Evil of the Daleks - audio page at Penguin Books
