The Daleks' Master Plan Part I: Mission to the Unknown by: John Peel

 

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part I: Mission to the Unknown was written by John Peel, based on Mission to the Unknown by Terry Nation and The Daleks’ Master Plan “The Nightmare Begins” to “Coronas of the Sun by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner.  It was the 147^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

This was always going to be a difficult story for anyone to novelize.  The Daleks’ Master Plan is twelve episodes long, plus a single episode prologue in Mission to the Unknown, and only two of those episodes existed in the BBC archives when Target books published their two part novelization.  The second episode, “Day of Armageddon”, would only be discovered in 2004, a decade after the novelization was published.  There is the added snag that the rights to Terry Nation’s Dalek stories were in limbo for novelization purposes, only cleared up when John Peel befriended Nation and secured the rights to adapt the three remaining Nation penned Dalek stories (though Eric Saward’s 1980s Dalek stories would take much longer to be novelized, long after the Target books line ended).  Peel was given 180 pages for each part of the novelization, choosing to adapt Mission to the Unknown along with the first six episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan under the title The Daleks’ Master Plan Part I: Mission to the Unknown.

 

Peel’s writing style here is fascinating as of the several original Doctor Who novels he has written, this adaptation has his best prose.  The novel is incredibly evocative at creating the sense of danger from the first page, choosing to adapt the closing moments of The Myth Makers to put the Doctor and Steven in danger with new companion Katarina.  There is then a two chapter diversion to adapt Mission to the Unknown so the reader can truly understand the dangers of the Daleks, playing up the body horror of the Varga plants and moving right into the story itself.  The characterization of the Doctor also feels far more active in the novelization, though the actions are not necessarily different from on television.  Peel clearly had access to the original camera scripts (and perhaps some of Nation’s original scripts before being edited by Donald Tosh), and has attempted to capture Douglas Camfield’s action oriented directorial style.  Katarina also is given some sequences from her perspective which allows more characterization than perhaps the scripts, especially since Peel wouldn’t have seen the currently only existing episode to feature the character.  Her death at the two-thirds mark of the novel feels far more dangerous and real, though this is perhaps because Peel is heightening the violence in his usual way which is a double-edged sword.  It works here, and Peel makes it explicit that Katarina’s death was a noble sacrifice and not someone from the past misunderstanding how a spaceship would work.

 

The Doctor and Steven’s reaction to Katarina’s sacrifice make the back third of the novel feel like they are both in fugue states, only shocked out of it when they are betrayed and Sara Kingdom is brought into the story.  The death of Brett Vyon perhaps stays too close to the way it appeared on television.  This is probably due to the fact that “Counter Plot” was one of the two episodes available in the archive that Peel could have drawn from.  Brett has his own characterization deepened while Sara Kingdom is sadly given a small journey to trust the Doctor, though she only appears in this back third of the novel.  Mavic Chen is also simplified as a villain in places along with the rest of the delegates as the Daleks are given the lion’s share of the villainy, Peel excelling at writing them.

 

Overall, The Daleks’ Master Plan Part I: Mission to the Unknown is all setup, but it is incredibly well done setup for a Doctor Who story that was far too massive to be compromised into a single novel.  Peel’s style really works when it comes to adapting the work of someone else as he is less likely to fall into his own issues, even when having a young female character to characterize as he pleases.  9/10.