The Daleks - David Whitaker

How to start this review? That, out of the many hundreds and hundreds of Who books, this is the greatest? As it has been voted by the hordes of fandom? I almost don't need to go over the details, so well known they may be to the people likely to be reading this. That as the first published Who Story, Whitaker painted over the events of An Unearthly Child with a new beginning, a car crash in fog on a common. Writing from Ian Chesterton's 1st person perspective. The Glass Dalek.

But is it these elements themselves which make this book not just "another" Target book, but the pinnacle of Who fiction, if it is indeed such, achieved in the very first writings and aspired to unsuccessfully ever since? Or is it just hype, riding on the success of its monsters, nostalgia and the lack of any credible alternative?

It is very, very good. And it comes down to why Doctor Who is Doctor Who. That is, the people behind the show. The start of this extraordinary show was down to a very concrete understanding of the concept of the show. Something that was grasped totally by Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, Bill Hartnell and many others, but especially David Whitaker. Almost certainly they were unaware at the time of what they were unleashing on the world, perhaps they only realised the sheer power of this character in their subconscious, but every single one of them at some level, believes in these people; Ian, Barbara, Susan and The Doctor. You can see it in every frame that Hartnell appears in. You can see it when Newman commissioned the pilot to be reshot in an era when this was unthinkable due to the high cost of production. You can see it in every page of Doctor Who and the Daleks. While other writers treat the characters as characters, Whitaker treats them as people. He helped to create them, he knows each and every one as intimately as the actor playing them. Perhaps more so.

Whitaker was of course a born story teller and he has no problem in expanding upon and, in my opinion, improving upon the television story. Taking the narrative from Chesterton's perspective is a brave choice, for although it allows Whitaker to give us plenty of insight into the characters that are only hinted at, if mentioned at all, in the show (Such as Ian and Barbara falling in love), it also means that the other three characters move offstage for fair amounts of time. This is dealt with confidently as Ian is allowed to fill the space.

Other characters are also fleshed out. The Thals conflicted nature between peaceful annihilation or war for survival is pushed further and the resolution is more satisfying than even the powerful tv scenes. Whitaker well recognised the crux of this story and gave it its due worth and as a result the Lake of Mutants and Cave Scenes are also far more harrowing than the budget and time constrained serial.

As such, in the hands of the writer who clearly understands every single nuance of his characters, The Daleks becomes not just a pinnacle of Who fiction, but a literary achievement capable of standing alongside other more noted novels. The story, indeed, is pulp, Terry Nation was a pulp writer, there are no twists and turns or surprises in this novel. It is a straight adventure with a few muddied moralities, as throwaway as Indiana Jones though no less enjoyable, but Whitaker, through Ian and Barbara, turns it into a story of Human Strength and Love and Triumph on a truly alien world. This book truly deserves its reputation.

10/10