Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth (novelisation)
Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth was a novelisation based on the 1964 television serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
Publisher's summary
1977 Target Books edition
The TARDIS lands in a London of future times — a city of fear, devastation and holocaust... a city now ruled by DALEKS.
The Doctor and his companions meet a team of underground resistance workers, among the few survivors, but after an unsuccessful attack on the Dalek spaceship, they are all forced to flee the capital.
A perilous journey through England finally brings them to the secret centre of Dalek operations...and the mysterious reason for the Dalek invasion of Earth!
1990 Target Books edition
The TARDIS materializes in London - but Ian and Barbara have not returned home. The streets are deserted; the buildings are crumbling.
But the city is not as empty as it seems. Robotized humans stalk the decaying streets, searching for the beleaguered freedom fighters; and from their flying saucer in Trafalgar Square the Daleks plan the subjugation of the peoples of the world and the transformation of the planet into a giant spaceship.
This story, first broadcast on television in 1964, marked the second appearance of the Daleks and ended with the break-up of the original TARDIS crew.
Terrance Dicks, who was the Doctor Who script editor for five years, has written more than sixty novels based on Doctor Who television stories. This is a new edition of one of his earliest novelizations.
Chapter titles
- Return to Terror
- The Roboman
- The Freedom Fighters
- Inside the Saucer
- Attack the Daleks!
- The Fugitives
- Reunion with the Doctor
- The Mine of the Daleks
- Dangerous Journey
- Trapped in the Depths
- Action Underground
- Rebellion!
- Explosion!
- The Farewell
Deviations from televised story
- As is common in many of the Target Novelisations, the wording of the dialogue is quite different, including the First Doctor's famous farewell speech to Susan, which restores some of the scripted wording that Hartnell himself intentionally altered during filming. Some lines of dialogue are also given to different characters.
- The scope of the first episode is expanded, with more images of London in ruins (harkening more to the film adaptation) and the TARDIS landing at a long abandoned building site rather than under a bridge. The famous "Forbidden To Dump Bodies In The River" poster is missing.
- The Robomen are described as being gaunt and disease-ridden, and in some cases have ragged clothing rather than the clean uniforms of the televised story.
- When Ian asks how the Daleks survived, the Doctor, rather than claim the events of The Daleks took place "a million years in the future", merely suggests the Daleks had other colonies on Skaro that were not involved in the Thal attack and so the destruction was not as complete as everyone believed. This possibility is also considered by characters in the later release Return to Skaro.
- Battersea Power Station has lost one chimney instead of two.
- Government posters are attributed to "the European Emergency Commission", a play on the European Economic Commission that the UK had recently joined when the novelisation came out.
- Carl Tyler is renamed Jim Tyler. Similarly, Jack Craddock is renamed Bill Craddock.
- The Black Dalek is larger than the other Daleks.
- The Dalek Saucer Commander is not identified, although a second-in-command is present.
- The Doctor does not pass out like he does in the fourth episode of the televised version, "The End of Tomorrow", and helps David disarm the Dalek firebomb (called a "blockbuster bomb").
- Some Robomen are present when Barbara and Jenny are captured by the Daleks at the womens' shack.
- Instead of the two brothers killing each other in a struggle, Larry kills the robotised Phil by ripping his helmet off, then a Dalek arrives on the scene and kills Larry in his grief.
- Additionally, Phil's brief reassertion of his humanity and recognition of Larry as he dies is removed.
- The Doctor orders both the slaves and the Robomen to clear the mine area before the explosion. What happened to the Robomen after the Dalek invasion force is destroyed is left unexplained.
- A few scenes are changed to closer resemble the movie remake of the story starring Peter Cushing:
- Dortmun's death sees him buried under falling rubble, taking a Dalek with him, rather than just being shot down by them.
- Ian uses some wooden planks to send the Dalek bomb on the wrong course as Tom Campbell did, rather than jamming it in place.
Writing and publishing notes
- The original Target edition featured the artwork of Chris Achilleos. In the absence of an accurate photo reference, the Roboman and Dalek Saucer shown on the cover resemble those from the film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. See below for information on editions with different covers. The Dalek has its gun stalk swapped with its plunger.
- The 1990 edition uses the same cover art as the VHS release of the story.
Additional cover images
1977 Hardback edition
1990 edition.
Cover by Alister Pearson
Alternate cover
British publication history
First publication:
- Hardback
- W.H.Allen & Co. Ltd. UK
- Paperback
- Target
Re-issues:
- Paperback
- Virgin Publishing Ltd. UK September 1990 Cover by Alistair Pearson (£2.50 UK)
- Virgin Publishing Ltd. UK May 1991 Cover by Alistair Pearson (£2.50 UK)
Editions published outside Britain
- Published in Germany by Schneider-Buch in 1981 as a paperback edition, translated by Ulla Neckenauer and published as Dr. Who - Kampf um die Erde, it was one of two German novelisations published in the early 1980’s.
- Published in France by Editions Garanciere in 1987 as a paperback edition, translated by Roland C. Wagner and published as Docteur Who – Les Daleks Envahissent la Terre, it was one of eight French novelisations; each book is given the strapline ‘Igor et Grichka Bogdanoff presentent’ they presented a French science programme called Temps X, the broadcaster had bought and dubbed a selection of Fourth Doctor stories in 1986 but didn’t show them until 1989. The novelisation features an image of the First Doctor with the Fourth Doctor’s scarf.[1]
- Published again in Germany by Goldmann Verlag in 1989 as a paperback edition, translator unknown and published as Dr. Who und das Komplott der Daleks, it was one of six German novelisations published in the late 1980’s.
1981 German edition.
Cover by David Hardy
French edition.
Cover by Jean-François Pénichoux
1989 German edition
Audiobook
This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 5 November 2009 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by William Russell with Dalek voices by Nicholas Briggs.
The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.
This was the first audiobook to employ Briggs to voice Dalek dialogue alongside the main narrator. In the same year, however, he had already done this for the Cybermen with Doctor Who and the Cybermen and for the Daleks in Prisoner of the Daleks, which he read himself.
The audiobook version was re-released in June 2020 as part of The Dalek Collection box set.
Audiobook cover
External links
to be added
