by Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker

BBC Books, out now

An all-new comprehensive user’s guide to the Daleks, with technical information, drawings, case histories and more.

Over the years there have been a number of Dalek guides – most notably the 2017 Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemy of the Universe, 2011;s The Dalek Handbook, 2002’s The Dalek Survival Guide and the 1988 The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book. This new hardback arrives less than two months after the latest iteration of the Daleks were unleashed on TV, and takes the opportunity to bring the evolving story of the Skaro meanies bang up to date, while also presenting the legacy information in a different manner to its forebears.

Admittedly, there’s only so many things you say about the Daleks, but writers Richard Atkinson and former VFX wizard Mike Tucker and digital designer Gavin Rymill have created all-new material. Written ‘in universe’ (e.g. there’s no TV show called Doctor Who, and Daleks are real), a chronology of Dalek activity through the ages is a preface to the main material, which begins with one of the many Field Reports throughout the book, as chronicled by Time Lords. Essentially story summaries, these reports reference which Doctor and companion was involved, with occasionally redacted text.

Chapters follow on Davros, the home world of Skaro – Rymill has created a beautiful cross-section of the main city building – their advanced electrical engineering and the Thals. Each section is generously illustrated with new diagrams and colour stills (many of which have been impressively colourised). The chapters continue with a look at the various iterations of the Mark III Travel Machine, the Dalek hierarchy, Dalek Factions, Dalek duplicates, time travel, weapons and ships, invasion of the Earth, the Time War, and a fun final section on anomalies that allows the non TV Daleks from audio plays, comics and animations to be included.

Verdict: There’s an awful lot of love and content that has gone into these 160 pages. Make some room on your Dalek bookshelf for one more volume. As a primer it’s essential, and it’s different enough to other variations on the same topic to justify the purchase (and sits rather nicely alongside the TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual.) 9/10

Nick Joy

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