Doctor Who The Daleks

This is Doctor Who s first exciting adventure with the Daleks! Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright travel with the mysterious Doctor Who and his granddaughter, Susan, to the planet of Skaro in the space-time machine, the TARDIS. There they strive to save the peace-loving Thals from the evil intentions of the hideous Daleks. Can they succeed? And, what is more important, will they ever see their native Earth again? William Russell, who created the role of Ian in the original television series of Doctor Who, reads David Whitaker s complete and unabridged novelisation, first published in hardback in 1964. The book went on to spearhead the Target Books range of Doctor Who titles, and it is one of the best-loved novelisations to be based on the programme.

David Whitaker was the first Story Editor for Doctor Who, and was responsible for finding and commissioning writers, and it was Whitaker as much as anyone who defined the narrative shape of Doctor Who. He wrote for the Doctor Who annuals, novelised the first Dalek story and worked with Terry Nation on various Dalek-related material including the hugely successful comic strip The Daleks. David Whitaker died in 1980.

Terry Nation started as a comedy writer and performer, and was approached with an offer to work on Doctor Who, providing the seven episodes of the first ever Dalek story. After inventing the Daleks, Nation moved on to work on The Saint, The Champions and The Avengers. In the 1970s he scripted four more Dalek series - including Genesis of the Daleks which has been voted the best ever story in the series. Nation later devised the hugely popular BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. Terry Nation died in Los Angeles in 1996.