War of the Daleks [Paperback]

Throughout the novel, John Peel does a great job of showing us how good it could have been, as he breaks up the main plot with small vignettes from the greater galaxy as it grapples with the Dalek threat. These are gripping stuff indeed, epic adventure against an implacable and ruthless foe. The books opening scene, a vast battle between the Daleks and Thal special forces, is equally gripping and for some reason reminds me of many of the scenes in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers". If the book had continued along those lines, it would have been superb; miltary SF in the Doctor Who universe is something we haven't seen before, and Peel infuses the battle scenes with great tension and drama, whether they be between the Daleks and lone secuirty agents, custodial robots or Draconian starships. He proves that he certainly has the ability to write this kind of stuff well, which is why the direction he takes with the rest of the novel is so irritating.

In between the battle scenes, Peel manages to create some very interesting characters and then give them very little to do. The Doctor, supposedly the hero of the story, literally does nothing to affect the plot at all throughout the entire book. Yes,he gets to solve problems, but it is plain that those problems are largely of no consequence and that most of the events of the novel would have occurred exactly the same way where he present or not. Given that Peel's characterisation of the Doctor is extremely generic, I'm convinced the book would have been far better had it been written as a standalone book without the Doctor in it at all.

The biggest problem with the book occurs when the plot moves to Skaro, the Dalek homeworld. Since the Doctor blew it up in the last Dalek TV appearence, the fact that it still exists drives what is left of the plot. It's at this point that pretty much all the characters switch their brains off and Peel reveals the real reason the book was written in the first place; to undo the destruction of Skaro as seen in "Rememberance of the Daleks". Apparently the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, objected to the destruction of the Daleks homeworld, despite okaying it for broadcast (he had script approval and the ability to veto anything he didn't like), and Peel took it upon himself to "undo" that event. To do so, he concocts the most bizarre, convoluted, risky and ultimately pointless conspiracy I've ever come across, rewrites over a decade of Doctor Who history and makes both the Doctor and Davros (the mad scientist who engineered the Daleks) look like complete idiots. When the book was first published, the sound of Dalek fans all over the world going "huh?" was almost deafening. After waiting years for a new Dalek adventure, to be presented with something so mediocre that showed the skeleton of the classic it could have been was almost too much to take.

And yet I keep re-reading it, almost as if I keep hoping that since the last time it'll have metamorphosed into the book it should have been. It's the literary equivalent of a dumb popcorn movie, complete with spectacular set pieces, implausible plot and dodgy acting. If I can keep my brain stunned into silence for the duration, I enjoy it. It's only when I start asking questions that I realise how bad this thing is. Still, if you - like me - love the Daleks and have been starved of new adventures for years, you could do worse than pick this up. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

There are several ideas present in the book that could, if developed properly, have turned out very well. It would have been interesting to see the Doctor coming to terms with having accidentally wiped out an entire planet with more than just a shrug of his shoulders and a mumbling of, "Oh golly, I feel just awful about those guys." The scenario in which the Thals wished to turn themselves into Dalek-like creatures in order to survive and defeat the Daleks should have been a lot more interesting than it in fact turned out to be. The Doctor merely lectures the Thal leader for a few moments and then the whole matter is dropped from the book without any more expansion. There are some moments of actual interesting interaction that had the potential to develop into intriguing character development. Sam and a Thal war veteran discuss some of the aspects of a race totally dedicated to war with generations upon generations not knowing any other way of life. But instead of the conversations actually going somewhere philosophical or thought provoking, they are resolved with hackneyed dialog and banal observations. Every character is a two-dimensional cliché and each person can be entirely summed up in a word or a short phrase ("greedy", "dedicated, but questioning", "creepy", etc.). Even the Doctor is mostly faceless; the only way we know that it's the Eighth Doctor is that we don't go any more than three pages without being told how good-looking he is. It was certainly a relief when Davros was revived and was one of the only characters not to continually notice how attractive the new Doctor is.

The rest of the book is mostly a confused mess. For example, the water planet on the fringes of the Dalek Empire is given the same name as the world that the Doctor is supposed to have destroyed (the editor should have caught this one). The book is so heavy in continuity references to previous Dalek adventures, that one almost needs some reference material in one hand while reading the book in the other in order to make sense of it. While the continuity points may alienate casual and non-fans, the hardcore fans are most likely annoyed that so many of the points are incorrect. The remains of the Dalek battlecruiser that was destroyed by the Hand of Omega near Earth in REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS are found floating thousands of light-years away in a seldom visited area of space with no explanation. REMEMBRANCE took place in 1963 (at least Peel didn't try to retcon away the year of the adventure), yet "about thirty years" later, Earth is supposed to have a giant space empire spanning a large portion of the galaxy. And worst of all, the Daleks actually find the Doctor's TARDIS unlocked, with all of its time-travel capabilities and other secrets available and the most interesting thing they can do is to plant a bomb inside in hopes of killing the Doctor.

Now, onto the retcon. The only question that I have is: why? The story could have continued on perfectly well without it and would not have been bogged down for several pages while the Dalek Prime has to explain and re-explain the situation to a confused audience. It isn't needed for the story and only succeeds in making the Doctor and Davros look like complete morons for not noticing that a very important base of operations is suddenly a few thousand light-years away from where they thought it was. It really does not seem to have any reason to be in the book at all. It certainly reads as though the retcon was thought up first and then the rest of the book was structured to make it seem plausible. Even with all the thought that obviously went into devising this, it still does not adequately fit into the rest of the story. The jump from action to long, tortured explanation back to action feels very jarring.

The last few chapters of the book are passable if only because at this point one knows to keep one's brain firmly in the locked "off" position. This is not recommended for grown-ups.