Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks

Rating:
Summary: The first story of the second Doctor well adapted
Review: For a long time, a number of Doctor Who stories had not been adapted to book form. Possibly the most important of these was the first story of the second Doctor (as portrayed by Patrick Troughton). Whereas 'The Tenth Planet' introduced the concept of regeneration, 'The Power of the Daleks' had to make it work.

In this adaptation, John Peel is fortunate to have a decent page count in which to portray the story. Unlike the vast majority of Doctor Who novelisations, this one has the time to examine the motives of the characters rather than just describing their actions.

The Doctor and his companions, Ben and Polly, arrive on the Earth colony of Vulcan. While Polly accepts that the man claiming to be the Doctor is indeed him, but Ben is more sceptical. Following some arguments, the Doctor exits the TARDIS and straight into the assassination of an Earth official, for whom the Doctor will be taken to be.

Explorations by the colony have uncovered a buried spaceship, and with the Doctor's assistance it is opened and inside is a Dalek...

This story is also important in the history of depiction of the Daleks. In all previous stories, they have been in control. In this story, they are vastly outnumbered by the humans and lack resources to aid them. But these are Daleks, so they find a way to bring themselves to a position to fight the humans.

The Doctor's endeavours are greatly impeded by internal politics of the colony.

If only all the Target novelisations had been given this amount of space and thought in their adaptation!

Rating:
Summary: The first story of the second Doctor well adapted
Review: For a long time, a number of Doctor Who stories had not been adapted to book form. Possibly the most important of these was the first story of the second Doctor (as portrayed by Patrick Troughton). Whereas 'The Tenth Planet' introduced the concept of regeneration, 'The Power of the Daleks' had to make it work.

In this adaptation, John Peel is fortunate to have a decent page count in which to portray the story. Unlike the vast majority of Doctor Who novelisations, this one has the time to examine the motives of the characters rather than just describing their actions.

The Doctor and his companions, Ben and Polly, arrive on the Earth colony of Vulcan. While Polly accepts that the man claiming to be the Doctor is indeed him, but Ben is more sceptical. Following some arguments, the Doctor exits the TARDIS and straight into the assassination of an Earth official, for whom the Doctor will be taken to be.

Explorations by the colony have uncovered a buried spaceship, and with the Doctor's assistance it is opened and inside is a Dalek...

This story is also important in the history of depiction of the Daleks. In all previous stories, they have been in control. In this story, they are vastly outnumbered by the humans and lack resources to aid them. But these are Daleks, so they find a way to bring themselves to a position to fight the humans.

The Doctor's endeavours are greatly impeded by internal politics of the colony.

If only all the Target novelisations had been given this amount of space and thought in their adaptation!

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best Doctor Who novelization I've ever read.
Review: John Peel has taken a televised story and fashioned a great Doctor Who novel. The pacing and characterizations are excellent. His Troughton Doctor IS Troughton's Doctor. His Daleks are more than just screeching robots. He captures the fear and dread that the Daleks envoke perfectly. It's the best they have been handled in years. Peel opens up the story as well including references to UNIT and Sarah Jane Smith that are much appreciated. If only THE TENTH PLANET that this book is a sequel to could have been half as well done. Fine writing. Fine book.

Rating:
Summary: Novelization of Pat Troughton's 1st Who story
Review: One of two Dr. Who stories that initially never got novelized due to rights involving Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, Power Of The Daleks was finally novelized by John Peel in 1993. The difference between this and the slim by the numbers novelizations of other stories is that this is a full twenty-six chapters, putting more depth into the characters of the Doctor, Ben, and Polly. As Power Of The Daleks is one of the Who stories no longer extant in the BBC archives, a novelization is actually invaluable.

The story begins with a reprise of the last moments of The Tenth Planet, where the First Doctor defeated the Cybermen in Antarctica. He collapses in his time machine, the TARDIS, and once there, regenerates, physically changing himself into a short man with twinkling eyes and a shock of black hair who later gets into the habit of tootling on a recorder.

Of his two travelling companions, Ben, the Cockney seaman, is skeptical he is the Doctor, but blonde Polly is convinced. Ben's suspicions continue when they land on the planet Vulcan (no relation to Spock's planet) with its bubbling mercury pools. The Doctor witnesses the murder of an Earth investigator and poses as that person, though he never sees the assassin, who knocks him out but leaves behind a clue. His arrival causes tension. The governor, Hensell, assumes the Doctor's there to report on his lack of progress against rebellious workers. The scientist Lesterson, believes the Doctor is there because of a capsule that landed 200 years before. Lesterson has been working on trying to get it open. The Doctor succeeds and finds to his horror, two dormant Daleks, the xenophobic, salt-shaker shaped aliens he's fought many times before.

The Doctor tries to convince Lesterson and Hensell to have the Daleks destroyed, but is unable to prevent the Daleks from being reawakened, where they instantly offer themselves as servants of the Earth colonists. Lesterson believes he can control them by shutting off their power, and more, by disengaging the arm that fires their laser weapons. Plus, the Daleks win the governor over by offering to help build an anti-meteorite shield for colony. But as the Doctor says, "it will end the colony's problems because it will end the colony!" After all, "one Dalek poses more threat... than a string of armed atomic missiles."

His only ally seems to be Quinn, the deputy-governor whom Polly takes a shine to, much to Ben's jealousy, but he seems anxious to speak to the Doctor. Of the other people he meets, there's Janley, a pretty but hard-working no-nonsense woman who's Lesterson's assistant and who uses her wiles to persuade people. Bragen, the Head of Security, seems to be sticking to his duties, but there are internal politics brewing between him, Hensell, and Quinn.

The novel places the Cybermen defeat as the 1990's, yet it is already firmly established in the TV series that it took place in 1986, so a strange continuity error there. Another thing that's been added in the novel is that the colony's one sponsored by International Mining Corporation, the exploitative company first faced by the Third Doctor in Colony In Space. And unless the video version of this story is found, the novel's all we got to go on, which in itself is a good thing. John Peel has written other Who novelizations involving the Daleks (The Chase, Mission To The unknown, The Dalek Master Plan) so he was well-placed to write this novelization and the other missing Dalek novelization Evil Of The Daleks.

Rating:
Summary: Novelization of Pat Troughton's 1st Who story
Review: One of two Dr. Who stories that initially never got novelized due to rights involving Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, Power Of The Daleks was finally novelized by John Peel in 1993. The difference between this and the slim by the numbers novelizations of other stories is that this is a full twenty-six chapters, putting more depth into the characters of the Doctor, Ben, and Polly. As Power Of The Daleks is one of the Who stories no longer extant in the BBC archives, a novelization is actually invaluable.

The story begins with a reprise of the last moments of The Tenth Planet, where the First Doctor defeated the Cybermen in Antarctica. He collapses in his time machine, the TARDIS, and once there, regenerates, physically changing himself into a short man with twinkling eyes and a shock of black hair who later gets into the habit of tootling on a recorder.

Of his two travelling companions, Ben, the Cockney seaman, is skeptical he is the Doctor, but blonde Polly is convinced. Ben's suspicions continue when they land on the planet Vulcan (no relation to Spock's planet) with its bubbling mercury pools. The Doctor witnesses the murder of an Earth investigator and poses as that person, though he never sees the assassin, who knocks him out but leaves behind a clue. His arrival causes tension. The governor, Hensell, assumes the Doctor's there to report on his lack of progress against rebellious workers. The scientist Lesterson, believes the Doctor is there because of a capsule that landed 200 years before. Lesterson has been working on trying to get it open. The Doctor succeeds and finds to his horror, two dormant Daleks, the xenophobic, salt-shaker shaped aliens he's fought many times before.

The Doctor tries to convince Lesterson and Hensell to have the Daleks destroyed, but is unable to prevent the Daleks from being reawakened, where they instantly offer themselves as servants of the Earth colonists. Lesterson believes he can control them by shutting off their power, and more, by disengaging the arm that fires their laser weapons. Plus, the Daleks win the governor over by offering to help build an anti-meteorite shield for colony. But as the Doctor says, "it will end the colony's problems because it will end the colony!" After all, "one Dalek poses more threat... than a string of armed atomic missiles."

His only ally seems to be Quinn, the deputy-governor whom Polly takes a shine to, much to Ben's jealousy, but he seems anxious to speak to the Doctor. Of the other people he meets, there's Janley, a pretty but hard-working no-nonsense woman who's Lesterson's assistant and who uses her wiles to persuade people. Bragen, the Head of Security, seems to be sticking to his duties, but there are internal politics brewing between him, Hensell, and Quinn.

The novel places the Cybermen defeat as the 1990's, yet it is already firmly established in the TV series that it took place in 1986, so a strange continuity error there. Another thing that's been added in the novel is that the colony's one sponsored by International Mining Corporation, the exploitative company first faced by the Third Doctor in Colony In Space. And unless the video version of this story is found, the novel's all we got to go on, which in itself is a good thing. John Peel has written other Who novelizations involving the Daleks (The Chase, Mission To The unknown, The Dalek Master Plan) so he was well-placed to write this novelization and the other missing Dalek novelization Evil Of The Daleks.

Rating:
Summary: "I am The Doctor," He announced.
Review: POTD is missing but we have the novel. John Peel has done well for the fans for previding us with this wonderful novel about the classic Dalek story and Patrick Troughtons' first story. The daleks are aways the bad guys and lose in the end. The Doctor is clown in this story and ben and polly are the best in this story then in others. John Peel has put in scenes that were in the script but not in the televised story. Well done , Mr. Peel.

Rating:
Summary: The First of Patric Troughton
Review: The TARDIS lands on the Earth colony of Vulcan in 2020 and descovers that a derelict spaceship has been discovered containing two immobil Daleks. The chief scienist reactivates one in the hope of using it as a servant, but the plan goes wrong and all too soon the planet is being overrun by Daleks...