The Dalek Generation (novel)
The Dalek Generation is one of three Eleventh Doctor novels published in April 2013.
Publisher's summary
"The Sunlight Worlds Offer You A Life of Comfort and Plenty. Apply now at the Dalek Foundation."
Sunlight 349 is one of countless Dalek Foundation worlds, planets created to house billions suffering from economic hardship. The Doctor arrives at Sunlight 349, suspicious of any world where the Daleks are apparently a force for good – and determined to find out the truth. The Doctor knows they have a far more sinister plan – but how can he convince those who have lived under the benevolence of the Daleks for a generation?
But convince them he must, and soon. For on another Foundation planet, archaeologists have unearthed the most dangerous technology in the universe...
Plot
Lillian Belle, a journalist living on the Dalek Foundation world of Sunlight 349, arrives at the sight of a train crash where two locomotives have collides head on. As Lillian intervies a security guard, Daniel Ash, a Dalek arrives on the scene to investigate. Some medics with Mr Sezman, one of the drivers, approach the Dalek on the other side of the train - out of everyone's sight - to explain to it what happened. The Dalek murders them and leaves before the bodies can be found.
While the TARDIS is in flight through the Time Vortex, the Doctor receives a Hypercube, a much smaller one that he is used to. He then thinks that maybe he made it himself to send himself a message from his future. He is brought to the desert planet Gethria, where he sees a gathering of humanoids around a stone monument. They all depart as the Doctor realises the gathering was a funeral. An old woman stares at the Doctor as if she recognises him before leaving herself. The Doctor examines the gravestone and sees a toy spaceship embedded into it. He notes it was "Made in Carthedia" and then leaves. His departure is watched by the Dalek Time Controller who declares: "It is beginning..."
Else where in space and time, a young girl has been taken prisoner by the Daleks. A Dalek enters the cell with a tray of food and forces her to eat it. The girl is disgusted but pretends it is her favourite sweet, jelly blobs, so she can eat it. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to deduce the purpose of the hypercube when he receives a distress call from a Terrin Blakely and his wife Alyst who claim their ship is under attack. The Doctor sets off to aid them but the Dalek Time Controller fires an energy pulse at the TARDIS, knocking the Doctor off course. He arrives on the ship but too late as he finds a recording showing Terrin and Alyst preparing to throw themselves out of the airlock to protect their knowledge of a certain formula from the Daleks. The Doctor investigates the ship further and finds three children hidden in the escape pod: Sabel, Jenibeth and Ollus - Terrin and Alyst's children. He tells them of their parents' death and returns the ship to their home planet Carthedia, along the way learning the children are smart for their age, that Hogoosta's gave Terrin and Alyst the formula and that the Daleks are considered a force for good.
Upon arriving on Carthedia, the Doctor is questioned about Terrin and Alyst's disappearance. He is found innocent of any crime and is allowed to depart with the children but he mysteriously loses the recording of the Daleks part in the couple's death and is unable to prove the Dalek are evil. He announces this to a crowd of journalists who don't believe him. He is then arrested for denouncing the Daleks, which is a hate crime. The children are taken to an orphanage while the Doctor is put on trial, with the Dalek Litigator acting as the prosecution. The Doctor pleads guilty to the hate crime in attempts to anger the Litigator and provoke the Dalek into showing its true colours but it stays calm. The Doctor is given a sentence but his defence, Hellic Dansard, appeals for him to see the children before the sentence is carried out as he displayed some "emotional attachment" to them. Against the Doctor's expectations, the Dalek Litigator holds no objections.
Characters
- Eleventh Doctor
- The Blakely Family
- Klektids
- The Daleks
- Lillian Belle
- Hellic Dansard
- Daniel Ash
- Mr Sezman
- Gill
References
- The Daleks establish the Dalek Foundation and the 400 Sunlight Worlds, and plan to use the Cradle of the Gods to transform the planets into Skaros.
- The Dalek Time Controller outranks the Dalek Supreme.
- Jelly blobs are Jenibeth Blakely's favourite sweets.
Notes
- This is the second appearance of the Daleks in a BBC New Series Adventure novel, the first being PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks (in which there is also mention of a Dalek Generation, although it is unrelated). A single Dalek also features in the Quick Reads novella, I Am a Dalek.
- As in COMIC: The Dalek Project, PROSE: Dark Horizons and PROSE: Plague of the Cybermen, the Doctor is travelling without a regular companion for this story. The Blakely children assist the Doctor as one-off companions.
- The standard bronze 2005 design of Dalek introduced in TV: Dalek is featured prominently throughout this story, similar to TV: Asylum of the Daleks and COMIC: The Dalek Project, instead of the New Dalek Paradigm design introduced in TV: Victory of the Daleks, although the Supreme Dalek does make an appearance.
Continuity
- The Doctor remembers the times he used a hypercube: a long time ago, (TV: The War Games) and just recently. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
- This is the Dalek Time Controller's first encounter with the Doctor, and it is told that they will meet many times in the future. The Dalek Time Controller previously encountered the Sixth Doctor, (AUDIO: Patient Zero) and the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: To the Death)
- Daleks previously pretended to help humans in order to further their own objectives in TV: The Power of the Daleks and TV: Victory of the Daleks. They also lured the Thals into a trap by offering them friendship and food in TV: The Daleks.
- The Doctor mentions Dalek slave labour camps. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Day of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)
- A few references to Robomen are made, including the Doctor's suggestion of raiding a Dalek ship with someone in disguise as a Roboman as in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Eleventh Doctor also encountered Robomen in COMIC: The Only Good Dalek. Duplicates are also mentioned. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
- At the end, the Doctor thinks about the lives his actions put in danger and decides "No more meddling". This is highly implied to be the event in which he made his decision to retire. (TV: The Great Detective) Numerous continuity points support this:
- The reference to Dalek nanogenes and the appearance of a Dalek puppet places this story after TV: Asylum of the Daleks.
- This means it also occurs after TV: The Angels Take Manhattan as Amy Pond and Rory Williams continued to travel with the Doctor from Asylum until Angels and they are absent here.
- The interior of the TARDIS gives an "orange" glow like its 2010 design, rather than a blue glow following its 2012 redesign in TV: The Snowmen.
Audio release
to be added
External links
to be added
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