PLOTLINE
The TARDIS lands in a London of future times - a city of fear, devastation and holocaust...a city now ruled by Daleks. The Doctor and his companions meet a team of underground resistance workers, among the few survivors, but after an unsuccessful attack on the Dalek spaceship, they are all forced to flee the capital.
A perilous journey through England finally brings them to the secret centre of Dalek operations...and the mysterious reason for the Dalek invasion of Earth!
Read by William Russell, with Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks.
COMMENT
The TARGET novelisation of the drama series penned by stalwart DOCTOR WHO writer, Terrance Dicks were/are often derided by fans (a case of "those who can do, and those who can't criticise") for being often simplistic, dull and written for a younger audience than they were aimed at. But his writing of Terry Nation's DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH is outstanding.
The opening paragraph is more Mary Shelley than Terrance Dicks.
This may be, now released as part of BBC AUDIO's ever-presented, reliably professional range of unabridged releases, due in part to the combination of William Russell's reading and a deft array of sound treatments (punctuated incidental music, atmospheric sound effects and voice - supplied by NEW SERIES voice artist, Nicholas Briggs - treatments that raise the dalek invasion threat to a level of locust biblical proportion). Terry Nation would be proud.
In particular, the rebels attack on the dalek interplanetary ship (docked at Chelsea Heliport) - disc 2 track 09 - is superbly realised, drawing together the production team's expertise with an exquisite terror that all listeners (whether of the NEW SERIES or the CLASSIC SERIES) will appreciate.
William Russell's reading is reassuringly familiar like the Werther's confectionary TV advertisement; the secure presence of your granddad reading that DOCTOR WHO bedtime story that you know so well night after night after night. Unlike David Tennant's readings, Russell does not wholeheartedly attempt to deliver overtly delineated characterisations but, instead, subtly & creativity is employed. However, his presentation of the First Doctor is carefully observed and is as chameleon as Hartnell was on television; authoritarian, brusque with his associates yet gentle. The fact that over forty years on he is still casting his magic within the DOCTOR WHO universe is remarkable, and one that should be cherish - and re-celebrated in the NEW SERIES (Plot: The Eleventh Doctor having a scientific equation that would save an entire civilisation to solve drops in to see a schoolteacher he once knew).
DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH is thrilling and emotional in equal measure, and being read by an original cast member ensures that authenticity is retained.
This four-disc set is the perfect accompaniment for a rainy winter's day, or downloaded on to your iPod (other MP3 players & software available. Is that what they say to remain impartial?) taking it to a sun-soaked beach far away (feel beneath the sand before you recline as if a dalek can resurface from the Thames then one could be lurking there).
