The Castaway (short story)

The Castaway
Main character(s):	Ral Shannon
Main enemy:	Daleks
Main setting:	Knosson
Key crew
Read by:	Nicholas Briggs
Release details
Part of:	Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1978
Release date:	September 1977
Dalek annuals
← Previous	The Fugitive
Next →	The Seeds of Destruction

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The Castaway was the first of three original stories in the 1978 Dalek Annual.

Summary

On the planet Knosson, ADF pilot Ral Shannon reflects on the three years he's been marooned. He remembers the Dalek attack that forced him to crash-land his ship onto the uninhabited world and the struggles he's undergone to eke out an existence there.

In the midst of his reminiscence, Shannon notices a Dalek ship land nearby. He counts his enemies and notes there are three of the metal monsters standing between him and freedom. If he can kill or incapacitate the Daleks, he'll be able to steal their ship and return to ADF space.

Using his intimate knowledge of the planet, Shannon manages to separate the Daleks from each other and take them out, one by one.

As Shannon stands on the threshold of the Dalek ship after his victory, he considers that he is about to become a hero back at headquarters, and imagines how his life is about to change as a result. Then Shannon finds some grenades aboard, which he uses to destroy the ship, and returns to his life as a castaway — and a contented man.

Characters

• Ral Shannon
• Daleks

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

• The ADF is specifically mentioned in this story, though none of the ADF regulars appear. Shannon's status as an ADF pilot can be inferred from the fact that he believed an ADF search party would have looked for him for six months before he would have been declared "missing in action", and from the fact that he remembers a "training officer's voice drilling facts" into his head about the Daleks.
• This story claims that there is one tiny spot on a Dalek where a precise blow or projectile will render the creature incapacitated — rather like a Sontaran probic vent. This feature of Dalek anatomy certainly wasn't mentioned in any television story, and it isn't known to have recurred in stories in other media.
• This story was later released as part of Daleks Destroy: The Secret Invasion & Other Stories, read by Nicholas Briggs.

Continuity

• The ADF is at war with the Daleks. (PROSE: Terror Task Force et al.)