Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks (novelisation)
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Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks was a novelisation based on the 1979 television serial Destiny of the Daleks.
Publisher's summary
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 ...
Chapter titles
- The Dead City
- Underground Evil
- The Daleks
- The Movellans
- Slaves of the Daleks
- Escape
- The Secret of the Daleks
- The Prisoner
- The Hostages
- The Bait
- Stalemate
- Suicide Squad
- Blow-up
- Departure
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.
- Tyssan tries to bully the Doctor and Romana into going with the prisoners to put Davros on trial.
- The book the Doctor reads is The Origin of the Tenth Galaxy rather than the universe and is said to have been written by a pompous Time Lord historian.
- The environment of Skaro is said to be the remains of the old Kaled city with a concrete floor, explaining why the dead prisoners are buried under rocks.
- Sharrel is not with Lan and Agella when they first encounter the Doctor.
- The dead Kantrian is named as Dal Garrant, with the Doctor mentioning Kantrians don't possess radiation treatment.
- The need for anti-radiation pills is followed further than on screen, with the Doctor offering Romana some when they are reunited.
- The genders of Veldan and Jall are reversed with Veldan being female and Jall male. There is no mention of them joining up with Tyssan later on, so their fate after Romana's escape is unclear.
- Sharrel orders Lan to guard the Nova Device and thus perish in its detonation rather than him volunteering.
- Sharrel specifies the Movellans' original intention was to find what the Daleks were after and gain it themselves.
- The Doctor does not learn he is on Skaro until later than on screen, when Tyssan mentions the fact on entering the Dalek base.
- The two prisoners exterminated by the Daleks to force the Doctor's hand are both male (on screen, one is female) and the next prisoner in line is said to be a young girl.
- The Movellan Guard deactivated by the Doctor and Tyssan is male rather than female.
- Romana does not kick off Sharrel's arm but kicks the power pack out of his belt.
- It is specified that there are only six Daleks left other than the leader to form the suicide squad.
- The Doctor detonates the bombs himself rather than causing Davros to do it.
- The Doctor is attacked by the Kaled mutant he finds while hiding from the Daleks.
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.
Additional cover images
Hardcover edition; Cover by Andrew Skilleter
1990 edition; Cover by Alister Pearson
German edition
British publication history
First publication:
- Hardback
- W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK
- Paperback
- Target
Editions published outside Britain
- Published in Germany in 1990 by Goldmann Verlag.
