Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth by: Terrance Dicks: Return of the Daleks

Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth is written by Terrance Dicks based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth by: Terry Nation.  It was the 30^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Other than its rather striking cover art showing a Roboman which seems to be inspired by Nazi imagery and the screw up on the Dalek’s plunger and gun stick, Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth is a boring affair.  The only important factor of note is that it was one of very few Hartnell stories to be novelized before the 1980s when episodes were being sent back to the BBC.  The only other two outside of the original three 1960s novels were The Tenth Planet and The Keys of Marinus so the smattering of William Hartnell stories were very slim.  Terrance Dicks was in a pickle as he only had Terry Nation’s notes and memories of the episode to go on when writing this book but that really didn’t matter as just about everything from the story makes it in.  The plot stays the same, but here the supporting characters are able to be told apart from one another because their names are given with so and so said followed by a line of dialogue.  One criticism however is that the speech the Doctor gives to Susan is changed and while Dicks does his best to have a good speech written in, it isn’t nearly as good as the speech Hartnell gave on television.

 

To summarize, Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth is the equivalent of its television counterpart down to the tee.  There isn’t enough changed to really account for any more detail on what the story has to do.  85/100