Doctor Who review: Death to the Daleks (audiobook)

The classic Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks may not stand out as a TV story. But is it any more successful as a novelization?

There are some stories in Doctor Who that you don’t always appreciate in their initial form. Sometimes, it can be a problem with the writing. Sometimes, it’s the production. Other times, there’s a good story hiding in an episode that just needs to be brought out more. But with such stories, you may find yourself being surprised by how much more you enjoy them in a different format. Particularly with the novelizations.

As I recently learned, Death to the Daleks is definitely one of those stories. The original TV story is OK, but it just didn’t grab me as much as the surrounding Dalek stories did. I’m not sure the production did an effective job of bringing this story to life, and it also suffers from a truly terrible cliffhanger for part three.

So I was frankly rather surprised by how much I enjoyed the novelization. This wasn’t a case of the story being heavily re-written. On the contrary, one of Terrance Dicks’s strengths, when it came to adapting TV serials into Target books, was knowing how to be generally faithful to what had been put on screen. This was especially important due to the fact that, back in the days before home video, this was the only way that fans could experience the story at all.

Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor shared many adventures with the Daleks during his era. Is Death to the Daleks a hidden gem among those stories?

(Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)

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Fresh appreciation

Listening to the audiobook, it didn’t take me long to realize that Death to the Daleks is an extremely good story. Without the disappointing production, and without the need to clumsily fit the four-part format, the story is allowed to breathe more, and it’s all the better for it. I suddenly learned to appreciate just how cunning the Daleks are in this story, while also appreciating the complexities of the human characters, too. Even better, it doesn’t have part three’s awful (and clearly rushed for timing) cliffhanger ending.

What’s also enjoyable about the audiobook, in particular, is Jon Culshaw’s reading of the story. He does an excellent job at voicing Jon Pertwee’s iconic Doctor, capturing many of his vocal mannerisms and bringing him to life rather brilliantly. He also does a strong job at making each and every character distinctive in their own way. Considering Culshaw’s not just a voice actor but also an impressionist, this definitely wasn’t surprising.

It’s funny to say this, but the novel that I was least looking forward to listening to from Doctor Who: The Dalek Collection actually felt like the most rewarding, mainly because it made me appreciate the original story a great deal more. Another solid listen in BBC Audio’s readings of the many Target novelizations.

What are your thoughts on Death to the Daleks? Are you a fan of the original story? Are there any TV stories that you enjoyed more in novelized form? Let us know in the comments below.