David Whitaker (1)Reseñas
Autor de Doctor Who and the Daleks
Para otros autores llamados David Whitaker, ver la página de desambiguación.
Reseñas
This is a collection of the Dalek comic strips from the magazine TV Century 21, published between 1965 and 1967, a page a week about everyone’s favourite evil metallic pepperpots and the obstacles that get thrown up in their plans to dominate the universe. I found it an unexpected pleasure. There are about a dozen storylines across the run, each reasonably self-contained in the structure of needing each page to have a beginning, middle and end. There are not a lot of women – a slave princess in an early story, a little girl who gets into trouble in a later one – but there aren’t in fact a lot of humans, as the main dynamic in the stories is between the Daleks themselves.
There’s also a dozen pages of introduction setting the scene for the series and printing a 1986 interview with one of the main artists. The only two women mentioned are both fictional – Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds and Maria from Metropolis, but no doubt this reflects the reality.
I must say that this greatly exceeded my expectations, and it seems a lot more mature than the contemporary First and Second Doctor strips that I have seen. Hugely recommended. Sadly it’s out of print, but I’d keep an eye out for it if I were you.
The Daleks was a sequence of one-page strips that ran in the anthology comic TV Century 21 from 1965 to 1967. It was reprinted in restored form as a "bookazine" by Doctor Who Magazine in late 2020; I added it to my DWM marathon, placing it between Evening's Empire and Emperor of the Daleks by virtue of the fact that some of the strips were reprinted in DWM at around that time, in issues #180-93. A flimsy excuse, but hey, it's my marathon.
These stories do not feature the Doctor; they are usually told from the perspective of the Daleks themselves, though occasionally other characters become the protagonists. It begins with the beginning of the Daleks—at least as it was envisioned in 1965, with the Daleks being mutations due to the war between the Daleks and the Thals. There are no Kaleds or Davros here. The stories then move forward through time, following things like the Daleks exploiting a crashed spaceship to develop space travel, their first invasion of an alien world, their battles against the mutations of their own world, an attempted uprising by a Dalek named "Zeg," their war with the Mechanoids, their discovery of a planet called "Earth," a new Dalek fad of protecting beauty, and so on.
The plots kind of don't matter; the science is often (always) nonsensical. But there is a pure delight to be find in a story that causes you to root for the Dalek Emperor or hope that the Daleks do invade a planet. The Daleks might be metaphors for fascism in other stories; in these, they're just pure force, and the joy of the stories is in seeing them sweep up their enemies in all forms. Nothing stops a Dalek! The art is amazing. We have two distinct styles. Richard Jennings's is more painterly and more detailed, more traditionally "British comics" in its appearance. A Dalek being destroyed from the inside by a malevolent flower is an amazing sight! He's later succeeded by Ron Turner, whose more abstract style communicates the pure power of the Daleks, layouts bursting with energy. I was particularly taken by the set of strips focusing on Agent 2K, an android dispatched by aliens to prevent a Dalek-Mechanoid war from breaking out.
It's definitely aimed at seven-year-olds, but I found it the exact kind of read I needed when stuck at home sick, and I appreciated getting to read these for historical reasons: the Dalek Emperor originally appeared here, and this is also the source of the Dalek lettering later used across numerous Doctor Who tie-ins (though it's only actually used in about a dozen strips, curiously).
Doctor Who Magazine and Marvel UK: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »
It was interesting to read a book through Ian's POV. Ian is well developed character and the Doctor seems much better character in the book.
I feel like the book was much stronger than TV story.
Thus, if you're particularly fond of the aforementioned serial, or if you've never seen it and want to see how the Dalek story began, then you'll probably enjoy this book. I agree with something Neil Gaiman alludes to in his introduction: that the novel is more interesting from a cultural history perspective than as a story in its own right. Back in 1964 if you missed a show then you had missed the show. There were no second chances. The novelizations, when they began to appear, were the first chance many people had to catch up on missed episodes. In this age of DVD boxsets and iPlayer and Sky and VCRs and the like it's a nice reminder of the impermanence of things. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the kitchen before my flatmate decides to remind me of the impermanence of cake.
Thus, if you're particularly fond of the aforementioned serial, or if you've never seen it and want to see how the Dalek story began, then you'll probably enjoy this book. I agree with something Neil Gaiman alludes to in his introduction: that the novel is more interesting from a cultural history perspective than as a story in its own right. Back in 1964 if you missed a show then you had missed the show. There were no second chances. The novelizations, when they began to appear, were the first chance many people had to catch up on missed episodes. In this age of DVD boxsets and iPlayer and Sky and VCRs and the like it's a nice reminder of the impermanence of things. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the kitchen before my flatmate decides to remind me of the impermanence of cake.
As the first Doctor Who novel, Whitaker reimagines how Ian and Barbara meet the Doctor in the beginning of the story: Ian encounters Barbara at a car crash in the fog and tries to help her locate her missing student. The Doctor appears and makes Ian suspicious, so he follows him back to a police box, which the Doctor tries to enter without being noticed. Ian forces his way in, discovering the box’s larger interior dimensions before he passes out. In capturing the early era of Doctor Who, the TARDIS’s name alternates between Tardis, like a traditional ship’s name, or characters referring to it as the Ship (pgs. 22, 34). Further, in order to get around the Doctor’s reluctance to discuss personal matters, Ian christens him “Doctor Who” (pg. 52). In another odd change, Whitaker gives Susan’s last name as “English” rather than “Foreman,” thereby departing from the show (pg. 30). While future stories added details and depth and Davros to the Daleks’ origins, the early version of divergent mutation following an atomic blast, causing the Thals to become physically perfect and peaceful as the Daleks grew hideous and hateful, resembles the Morlocks and Eloi in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (pg. 99). Taking advantage of the options available to a novel and not a television series, Whitaker includes a climax involving sea monsters, cave-climbing, and a more dramatic battle that also features a glass Dalek like the one later seen in the 1985 serial, Revelation of the Daleks.
At times, the story betrays its era of origin. Since Whitaker writes in the first person from Ian’s perspective, he occasionally demonstrates the gendered view of the world typical of the early 1960s. The style and content of the book also recalls science-fiction of that era more than later Doctor Who tie-in novels. In this, it serves as an interesting time capsule for Whovians who are interested in mid-century science-fiction. The story also inspired the 1965 film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, in which director Gordon Flemyng adapted Nation’s script for a standalone film not connected to the television series. The film did well enough to earn a sequel in 1966, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., which adapted another of Nation’s scripts, this time for the second serial of the second season, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. In this edition, BBC books presents the novel in a facsimile of the 1964 edition complete with Arnold Schwartzman’s illustrations.
Tight, clever writing.
Having Troughton play two characters should have been great, but in six episodes, they only bothered to have any fun with it in two or three scenes.
Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: D
Music: D
Enjoyment: C
GPA: 1.6/4
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john257hopper | 8 reseñas más. | Nov 27, 2013 |
john257hopper | 8 reseñas más. | Nov 27, 2013 | I fairly recently watched the serial The Crusade, so I was able to compare it somewhat with this novelization, which was written by David Whitaker who also wrote the novelization Doctor Who and the Daleks and they share many similarities. Both were intended to be standalone novels before it was decided to do a whole series of novelizations. Both novelizations also had a romantic interest between Ian and Barbara. While Doctor Who and the Daleks is completely standalone and even offers another origin story for how Ian and Barbara started travelling with the Doctor, Doctor Who and the Crusaders at least acknowledges the rest of the series and mentions several other televised adventures both in the prologue and also when Barbara is talking to Saladin (as she does in the serial). Interestingly enough, this serial takes place immediately after The Web Planet, and the novelizations were released in the same order as the serials, which is rare for the Doctor Who novelizations.
Compared to the serial on which it was based, the story is essentially the same, but many of the events are rearranged: for instance, Ian doesn't get staked out in the sand until much later in the story. There are also a number of events which occur differently in the book and in the serial: for instance, Ian never meets Saladin in the serial. The book is also much more philosophical: there is a whole discussion in the prologue about how the Doctor can change history on some planets, but not on Earth (they're really referring to our version of recorded history). Ian also has a discussion with Saladin about Christianity versus Islam versus Buddhism, etc. Some of the events in the book are probably more graphic than what would have been allowed on TV: Barbara actually gets whipped (to the point of needing salve on her wounds) in the book while she's in El Akir's harem.
This book is one of several that have been reprinted recently by BBC Books. In these, they add a celebrity introduction and a section called "Between the Lines" which compares and contrasts the serial with the book. These make interesting reading as well, although the celebrity introduction in this one was not as good as the one in Doctor Who and the Daleks: the author admits he's never read any of the novelizations.
In all, an enjoyable book. These three pre-Target novelizations were reprinted as the first of Target's line of novelizations in 1973, after which they started producing new novelizations in 1974 which continued until 1994 and they novelized almost all of the original stories. A dozen of these have been reprinted by BBC Books recently (6 last year and 6 this year), and I believe they have plans to reprint more. I certainly hope so as I'm enjoying them and buying them all as ebooks.
This is the first ever novelization of a Doctor Who story published. It is a novelization of the second ever serial: The Daleks. At that time, the individual episodes had names, but the serials didn't have official names. While this story is commonly known as The Daleks (or The Mutants - incidentally the title of a Third Doctor story), the novelization was originally published under the title of Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks in 1964 and was later reprinted by Target Books as Doctor Who and the Daleks in 1973. Last year, BBC Books started reprinting some of these older novelizations, both in paperback and e-book formats. They published 6 last year and 6 this year, so there are currently 12 out there for a new generation of readers.
In the BBC Books edition, there is an afterward that talks about how this novelization differs from the televised story and why. Since this novel was intended as a standalone book, the introduction of the main characters and how they come to be in the TARDIS varies significantly from the serial. The afterward also notes a few things that this book does first: such as a glass Dalek that wouldn't be seen on-screen until Revelation of the Daleks, a Sixth Doctor story. This book also was the first to use the word "Exterminate" which wouldn't be seen on screen until The Power of the Daleks (incidentally a chapter title in this book) shortly after this book was released. "Exterminate" actually didn't become a full blown mantra for the Daleks until later.
This particular story has been adapted to the screen twice: once for the original serial and once for a feature film Dr. Who and the Daleks starring Peter Cushing as "Dr. Who". These two screen versions and this novelization differ widely. It's been a while since I watched the original serial in its entirety, but I read the novelisation a couple of months before watching the feature film. I also went back to the original serial to compare a couple of scenes to see which did a better job: the serial, the film, or the book.
The scene where they cross the swamp near the lake and find a back way into the Dalek city was, to me, one of the big differences. In the book, it seemed much more perilous than in either the serial or the movie. I got the impression from the book that this was a large lake and the creatures in it were huge. The movie gave a slight sense of that when it shows them climbing the mountain with a matte painting of a lake vista behind them, in contrast, the serial didn't show them climbing at all. The lake creatures really weren't shown in the movie although the serials did some miniature work, which while done on a television budget, gives a better sense of danger than the movie. In the book, there is a scene where they injure one of the lake creatures and its fellows come and fight over the body of the fallen creature. This was missing from both screen versions.
I also got the impression from the book that the pipes they followed into the mountain were huge pipelines. In the movie, they were small when they sighted them underwater, and a little larger on the mountain. In the serial, they only showed a model shot of largish pipes running into the mountain (in a composited shot) and completely skipped the party climbing the mountain, jumping straight to them being in the caves. I also thought the scene in the serial where they jumped the chasm was more intense than the movie version.
I enjoyed reading this and I hope BBC Books will continue to reprint these Target novelizations. I'm buying them as ebooks and will buy every one they publish. :)
This book, published in June 1964, actually predates the first Doctor Who annuals and books, so I guess may be the very first Who spinoff literature evar. It is really not bad at all; alternating formats between comic strip and illustrated prose, and even a photonovel featuring the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan, it tells the story of the Daleks' attempt to invade and occupy Earth's Solar System (a diagram showing Skaro swooshing past the orbits of the Sun's other planets), opposed by the heroic efforts of Jeff, Andy and Mary Stone, good swash-buckling square-jawed heroes all three. Mary at one point is captured by the Daleks and persuades them to start taking better care of their prisoners, a story-line later used by Big finish for their character Susan Mendes in the Dalek Empire audios. On the one hand it's very much related to the adventure comics of the day; on the other I liked the coherent narrative thread, which takes the format in a slightly different direction, and appreciated the expansion of Daleks-as-Nazis to Daleks-as-totalitarians, rewriting history at their convenience. This one is worth hunting down.
In more recent years, William Russell (the actor who played Ian Chesterton) has recorded this as an unabridged audiobook. 40 years on, Russell - who always had a strong, steady voice - has certainly aged; he's a little wavery and at times slightly frail, but he can still pull off the Ian characterization marvelously. Better still, he's the perfect age to enact the Doctor, too. Highly recommended as a great way to either re-experience the novel or enjoy it for the first time.
Still a cracking good story. I also recommend the audio book read by William Russell himself :)
Doctor Who and the Crusaders is the only one of the 1960s Who novels to have been drawn from a four-part rather than seven-part story, and Whitaker makes full use of the extra space this gives him to expand on his own original material. His opening paragraph is pretty memorable:
As swiftly and as silently as a shadow, Doctor Who’s Space and Time ship, Tardis, appeared on a succession of planets each as different as the pebbles on a beach, stayed awhile and then vanished, as mysteriously as it had come. And whatever alien world it was that received him and his fellow travellers, and however well or badly they were treated, the Doctor always set things to rights, put down injustice, encouraged dignity, fair treatment and respect.
Despite the solecisms of 'Doctor Who' and 'the Tardis' (which are fortunately not repeated later in the text), it's a good start, and the whole story fees more embedded in an ongoing narrative than does Doctor Who and the Zarbi. This is partly because Whitaker makes the Ian/Barbara relationship even more explicitly romantic than in his previous book. But it's also because there is a good sense of geography, of this Palestine, despite its rather implausible woodlands, being a place with real towns filled with merchants, robbers and warlords.
The biggest loss from the TV version is the rhythmic, indeed iambic, structure of some of the set pieces; but I guess that would not read as well as it sounded. However, Ian's humanistic discussion with Saladin, and the decency and chivalry of the Saracen leaders, remain high points of the story. Well worth hunting down if you can find it.
There was a time when this was literally the only Doctor Who book in existence (under its excellent original 1964 title of Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks); indeed it was the only commercially available representation of any Doctor Who story, in those days long before video-recorders (let alone DVDs). So we have Whitaker taking much greater liberty with Terry Nation's TV script than almost any other novelisation (John Lucarotti's treatment of The Massacre differs even more from the story as broadcast, but he was reverting back to his own original script).
And the result is quite possibly the best of the novelisations, judged as a novel. The opening of the story is comprehensively rewritten, Ian being an unemployed research scientist who accidentally encounters Barbara, who has been tutoring the mysterious Susan, and gets involved with the Doctor and his Tardis. So much time is invested - wisely - in setting the scene that we are a third of the way through the book before we reach the equivalent point to the end of the TV story's first episode (out of seven).
The biggest novelty, for those of us who have read almost any of the subsequent hundreds of Who books, is that the whole story is told in the first person, from Ian's point of view. (It's not unknown in later Who literature, but it is very unusual.) This does require a certain amount of narrative juggling, but Whitaker gets away with it better than I remembered from when I first read this, three decades ago.
Today's generation of fans will squee at the pronounced sexual tension in the Ian/Barbara relationship here - the TV story has Barbara close to flirting with Ganatus, one of the Thals, but he barely gets to look at her on the printed page. Poor Susan rather fades into the background as well after she has done her mercy run to the forest. The characterisation of the Doctor is much more harsh and edgy than Hartnell's depiction; since Whitaker was the story editor, perhaps this was what he had originally in mind? (A possibility supported by the surviving first cut of the first ever episode.)
And the Daleks themselves are pretty memorable here, though Whitaker seems a bit confused about their size - three feet high at one point, four foot six at another, though the illustrations are of our 'normal' sized pepperpots. However, this confusion is compensated for by the glorious description of the mutants within the metal casings, and their glass-enclosed leader. The TV show has never managed such memorable presentations of the creatures inside, though it has occasionally tried. (The versions encountered by the Ninth Doctor come closest.)
Anyway, this is an excellent read, well worth hunting down.
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