The Daleks Invade London (short story)

The Daleks Invade London
Main character(s):	David, Emilie, Danny, Paul
Featuring:	Harold Wilson
Main enemy:	Daleks
Main setting:	London, early 1970s
Key crew
Writer:	Terry Nation
Read by:	Steven Pacey
Release details
Printed in:	London Evening News
Release date:	16 March - 20 April 1974
Reprinted in:	Terry Nation's Dalek Special
Terry Nation's Dalek Special fiction
Next →	Inside a Dalek
Daleks Destroy: The Secret Invasion & Other Stories
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Next →	The Seeds of Destruction

The Daleks Invade London, later retitled Daleks: The Secret Invasion, was a six-part short story by Terry Nation originally published over six consecutive Saturday editions of the London Evening News in 1974.

Under the title Daleks: The Secret Invasion, it was reprinted as the main feature of the 1979 release Terry Nation's Dalek Special where it was inaccurately billed as an original story. It was presented in six chapters, maintaining its original structure, but the six illustrations from the Evening News were replaced with six new ones.

Summary

A group of children uncover and help to foil a planned invasion of Earth by the Daleks.

Plot

The Daleks Invade London (Chapter 1)

Brothers Danny and Paul and their cousins David and Emilie celebrate Danny's birthday together. They have lunch at a Wimpys bar before going to the cinema where they watch Robin Hood following an unsuccessful attempt to see The Exorcist instead.

Afterwards, they are at Green Park Underground Station when an announcement comes over the loudspeakers instructing everyone to leave the platforms and proceed to the exits as there is an emergency. Suddenly, the children are rocked by an explosion which cuts out the lights and leaves the platform ahead of them blocked by fallen debris. Unwrapping his birthday present of a flashlight, Danny discovers an opening in a section of wall which was previously hidden. The children go down the tunnel and are eventually confronted by four Daleks.

Terror in the Tube (Chapter 2)

The cousins stand frozen in fear and a Dalek pushes Danny up against the wall. He jabs his flashlight hard against the Daleks' eye and the children try to run away. However, the Dalek is only momentarily blinded and it easily uses its gun to fire a neutronic charge which incapacitates them before they escape.

Paul wakes up under guard with Danny who quickly explains the Daleks took David and Emilie somewhere while they are still unconscious. The Dalek leader then announces the start of phase two of the operation and tells Danny and Paul they will be exterminated if they disobey.

David and Emilie awake outside at Green Park. They quickly realise the Daleks must still be holding Paul and Danny prisoners and rush back to the station entrance. Emilie tells a policeman their friends are trapped. She and David are questioned briefly, leaving out details about the Daleks, but soon they lead army officer Colonel Trent and a small squad of men down the tunnel to the room they found. However, when they get there the Daleks are gone, as are Danny and Paul.

Chapter 3

Trent initially believes David and Emilie to be playing a hoax but they are able to convince him when David finds Danny's flashlight which has his name scratched onto it. They then tell Trent the whole story, including the part with the Daleks. While Trent examines possible Dalek tracks, David finds a thin metal plate in his coat pocket which Trent identifies as a Dalek message plate. He says the plate contains an ultimatum from the Daleks which must be dealt with at "top brass level" and requests that the children come with him.

Elsewhere, the Daleks take Danny and Paul through a new series of tunnels and they emerge near the edge of the lake in St. James's Park. The boys watch as Dalek glides into the water and returns with two oxygen masks. The Dalek orders Paul and Danny to put them on and when they have done so they are ordered forward into the water, Daleks behind each of them ensuring with their sucker cups that they can not escape.

Chapter 4

Trent, David and Emilie travel at high speed by police car to the Ministry of Defence building. Trent immediately takes them to the conference room where they are joined by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins and Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Trent explains to the children that on Friday night military radar picked up a UFO which they now know to be a Dalek spacecraft. Via the message plate the Daleks state that their ship has run into mechanical trouble and threaten to exterminate large sections of London's population if the parts are not supplied. They also insist that David and Emilie will act as the intermediaries, an assignment which they accept.

Paul and Danny are brought aboard the Dalek ship. (Terry Nation's Dalek Special)

Meanwhile, Danny and Paul are taken into the Dalek spacecraft under the lake. A Dalek adjusts an instrument to start a counter counting down from one hundred and the boys are told half of London will be exterminated if the Earth creatures have not agreed to their terms by the time it reaches zero.

Chapter 5

Danny and Paul nervously watches as the counter ticks below fifty. On the corner of the park at the Westminster end of Birdcage Walk, Trent says goodbye to David and Emilie as they begin walking to the lake. Watching from afar and checking his watch, Trent doesn't believe they will make it in time. Indeed, the time runs out and the Dalek leader gives the order to fire but Paul screams and directs their attention to the scanner, which is now showing David and Emilie approach the bridge. Daleks come out to meet them and relay their demands to officials via microphones attached to the children's coats, who decide after a brief discussion there is no alternative but to accept the Dalek terms.

Within an hour, two heavy tractors arrive at the lake to pull out the Dalek ship. Trent, who alone has been allowed to stay, tells the Dalek leader the electronic equipment is being brought by helicopter from Oxford but that it will not be delivered until he is assured Danny and Paul are safe. Emilie is allowed to enter the ship for one minute and tells her cousins everything will be all right once the Daleks take off but Danny interrupts her by giving her a message plate listing the location of the bombs. Paul adds that they overheard the bombs are radio-controlled and that the Daleks intend to detonate them as soon as they are safely in space.

Chapter 6

Trent, David and Emilie watch as the helicopter touches down and delivers the equipment. The Dalek leader tells Trent the repairs will take exactly one hour at which point the hostages will be released immediately prior to take off. The trio are then ordered to leave and once out of earshot of the Daleks Emilie gives Danny and Paul's news to Trent. This sparks a desperate search operation. After two bombs are found, a senior airforce officer enters the room and informs Trent that the Cabinet have decided to send in a squadron of jets to destroy the Dalek ship if all the bombs are not found in time. Later, Major Tarrant enters with the bombs and tells those present they are made from a metal he is unfamiliar with and that they have a strong magnetic field, estimating they have an explosive equivalent of half a million tons of TNT. Trent orders Tarrant to dispense with the lecture and just get them defused but Tarrant explains it is impossible as there's no way to get inside and any attempt to pierce the casing would set them off.

With five minutes to go, Trent orders the jets to attack. However, before it can be obeyed David dashes towards the table, scoops up the six bombs into his hands, and runs for the door, calling for Emilie to follow him. The children dodge the sentry and rush towards the Dalek ship. Trent reluctantly orders the attack anyway but it proves unsuccessful as they find the Daleks are blocking their communications systems.

David and Emilie arrive at the ship and Emilie reminds the Dalek on guard of their promise to release Danny and Paul. The Dalek goes into the ship and pushes out the two boys, after which the ship powers up and takes off.

Two hundred miles up in space, the Dalek leader gives the order to detonate. However, it not London but instead the Dalek ship that is destroyed in a massive explosion which lasts thirty seconds and can be seen from almost all over Europe. Back at the Ministry of Defence, David explains to Trent that he thought of sticking the bombs on the side of the Dalek ship after the explosives expert said they were magnetic. Trent grins as he leads the four children away. He says their first stop is Downing Street and after that Buckingham Palace, elaborating that there are quite a lot of important people who wish to thank them.

Characters

• David
• Emilie
• Danny
• Paul
• Colonel Trent
• Harold Wilson
• Roy Jenkins
• Major Tarrant
• Sergeant
• Police driver
• Senior airforce officer
• Captain
• Sentry
• Radio operator
• Dalek leader

Worldbuilding

• David and Emilie have come up from Kent to visit.
• Paul bets he can eat enough Wimpys to get into the Guinness Book of Records.
• The children are turned away at the box office for The Exorcist for being too young.
• The children do see Robin Hood, which they find "terrific".
• Paul has heard that doors open with a low creaking noise in horror films and "there's always something nasty" behind them.
• While misbelieving their story about Danny and Paul, Colonel Trent warns David and Emilie they could be charged by the police for causing a public mischief and at the very least deserve "a darned good hiding" from their parents.
• The Mall is behind Paul and Danny when they emerge from the tunnel.
• The route to the Ministry of Defence takes David, Emilie and Trent into Marlborough Road, on to the Mall, and past Horse Guards Parade.
• Harold Wilson's appearance reminded David of Mike Yarwood.
• David believes Mr Heath to be the Prime Minister.
• Trent explains that rubbing his finger across the Dalek message plate works like a stylus on a gramophone record.
• The planned target of the first neutron explosion is Oxford Circus.
• Frogmen are used to attach cables to the Dalek spacecraft.
• The evacuation causes protests in central London.

Notes

• The story appears to take place around late 1973 or early 1974. The children go to the cinema to see the horror film The Exorcist, a film released in December 1973. They do see Robin Hood, which was released in November 1973. However, the story also lampoons the two close 1974 general elections: Emilie explains Edward Heath isn't the Prime Minister at the Ministry of Defence briefing because "it's Mr Wilson's turn this month". In the real world, Wilson and Roy Jenkins became PM and Home Secretary respectively in March 1974.
• The children recognise the Daleks, but it is never explained how. Colonel Trent also knows of them and recognises the Dalek message plate as he has seen one before.
• This story was later released as part of Daleks Destroy: The Secret Invasion & Other Stories, read by Steven Pacey.

Continuity

• The Daleks are seen emerging from a body of water in a manner reminiscent of the cliffhanger of "World's End", the first episode of TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"].
• Harold Wilson evacuates Westminster, Victoria and St. James's. TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs ^[+]Loading...["Invasion of the Dinosaurs (TV story)"], broadcast earlier the same year, was another story to depict the evacuation of London.