One of my biggest gripes at the time (1984) was that my favourite Dr Who story of maybe all time never became novelised. Eric Saward just seemed to be shilly-shallying around whilst every other story under the sun was being Targeted. Most annoying. However, due to the fantastic invention called the internet, coupled with a wonderful DW website that shall remain nameless although is not a million miles away from here, I learned that a Fan Group in New Zealand had published a copy of Resurrection of the Daleks. Despite the fact that many years had passed, I knew I still had to read it.
What follows is a review of my all time fave story, which basically Mr Scoones does a bang up job of writing. Why do I like it so much? It had so many new ideas: the Daleks having to rely on human troopers (for a while) to assist them, Davros wanting to kill his creation (and vice versa), we get to see a particularly savage Dalek mutant, the deadly use of the chemical gas on the space station (which we now learn was Lytton's invention) - there are so many good bits in this story and Mr Scoones includes every scene from the tv version into the book, including some new scenes.
The tv programme has many scenes all over the place, veering sharply from the warehouse, the space station and the Dalek ship - in the book there is the more sensible idea of, say, a chapter being about what happens in the warehouse, then a chapter based on the space station, etc. This makes the book more easier to enjoy, a more restful ride. However, there is very little background information, especially about the main characters - i was expecting an Eric Sawardian one page history about Stien, Lytton etc which is sadly lacking. Now we will never know what happened to the real Stien, or discover how Lytton came to be working for the Daleks in the first place, or indeed just what was the story with the two silent policemen - were they just Dalek troopers or something more? But what we are left with is a very taut, exciting story with some refreshingly nasty baddies in it - 'Archer' shooting Laird, or the policeman shooting Archer are two lasting impressions. Not everyone is exterminated by the Daleks, although quite a few people are.
Altogether, a LONG-awaited for book that is just a tad beyond brilliant!
