The Power of the Daleks by: John Peel

 

The Power of the Daleks was written by John Peel, based on the story of the same name by David Whitaker.  It was the 161^st story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

John Peel is an author that I find myself at odds with.  He enjoys a very specific slice of Doctor Who and his original fiction at its best is still very problematic.  Yet, he got his start with several Dalek novelizations from The Chase, to Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time, and ending with the two expanded novelizations for The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks as a prelude to the Virgin Missing Adventures to see if novels featuring past Doctors would sell.  These two stories were also among the final seven television serials to be novelized, the final five publishing over two decades later by BBC Books.  As such they are fairly rare in the second hand market, often with inflating prices, but The Power of the Daleks was recently released in an unabridged audiobook read by Nicholas Briggs.  Emphasis on being a prelude, as this serves very much as a full novel length, double the length of the standard Target novelization yet Peel doesn’t actually add extra plot points to the script.  This helps take the already brilliant side characters from David Whitaker’s original script and expand them to fit in a novelization more than just the actor’s performances.

 

Lesterson’s neurosis and eventual downfall upon giving the Daleks power is especially sinister in Peel’s novelization as the nervousness and lack of confidence that underlined the performance on television is brought to the forefront.  Janley is more overtly manipulative and more attention is brought to the rebel cause in general, there’s a new medic character that essentially combines some of the nameless assistant characters into one.  Interestingly there is more of a reflection on The Tenth Planet in the novelization, primarily through extending Ben and Polly’s skepticism on whether the Doctor is the Doctor, something that comes up when both characters are briefly written out of the plot reflecting the weeks that Michael Craze and Anneke Wills had vacations.  Ben’s fear especially comes to the forefront more often and scenes are told from his perspective.  It also helps that the minor additions to the plot are recapping the ending of The Tenth Planet, showing the First Doctor’s regeneration and describing the fear of Ben and Polly as they see the man they thought they knew physically disappear.  There’s also some added files about UNIT cleaning up The Tenth Planet and implying that this eventually leads to the establishment of the Vulcan colony, IMC which is in control of the colony, and eventually stopping the Dalek invasion of Earth.  These are all additions that somehow Peel make more than just simple fanwank as knowledge of these stories really isn’t required.  IMC is explained in the plot so you don’t have to be familiar with Colony in Space and the UNIT characters mentioned (Benton and Sarah Jane Smith primarily) are explained enough to the reader.

 

Overall, while I wouldn’t say that The Power of the Daleks is a novelization that can replace either listening to the soundtrack of the story or watching the reconstructions (animated or telesnaps), it is a genuinely fascinating take on the story as a whole and explores a lot of David Whitaker’s ideas and characters incredibly well to deserve its longer word count.  10/10.