More tales of the ADF from the Dalek Annuals of the 1970s

This new collection of Dalek stories was released for Christmas 2019, and continues the obviously popular trend of reading the tales – and a few of the “non-fiction” features – from the Doctor Who and Dalek annuals from the 20th century. As noted before, I wasn’t aware there was a 1979 annual so the stories taken from that have been completely new; for some of the others there’s that weird feeling of déjà vu for something that I probably last read over 40 years ago.

The stories are part of the Dalek universe that Terry Nation created, with Joel Shaw from the ADF (Anti Dalek Force) at the heart of a number of them. They’re not all space adventures – the first story is set on contemporary Earth with young boys encountering a Venusian who’s running from Daleks (not that the boys ever query what a Dalek is!). The second is more of a detective piece – although it’s not one that paints the ADF in a very good light, given how long it takes them to put two and two together. The title story, Blockade, is probably the best of the lot, and there’s an air of inexorability about the Daleks’ plans that pervades the whole set. We also get two pieces of in universe factual material – Anatomy of a Dalek (with Briggs at times sounding as if he’s having trouble keeping a straight face!) and Davros’ life story read by Louise Jameson, a very different take from the one provided in other sources.

Nicholas Briggs provides Dalek voices throughout, and narrates a story, with enjoyable contributions from Louise Jameson, Matthew Waterhouse and Jon Culshaw. There’s plenty of sonic background – although oddly the first story misses some of the Dalek blasts mentioned! – courtesy of David Darlington.

Verdict: Enjoyable curios from Doctor Who history brought to life well. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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