By Jonathan Morris

Obverse Books, out now

 

Jonathan Morris tackles the sophomore 1964 Dalek story in its various forms in Obverse Books’ ongoing collection of books focusing on a single Doctor Who story or serial.

Right from the very beginning, Morris nails his colours to the mast – The Dalek Invasion of Earth was the first Doctor Who book that he owned and is probably his favourite book. Like so many fans who weren’t alive when Hartnell and Troughton stories were first transmitted he had to rely on the novelisation, which he later discovered deviated from what was shown on TV. Indeed, the author discovers that there are many different iterations of this favoured story.

One of the joys of the Black Archive range is that authors get to request a particular story, and it’s because they have a passion for their chosen take that they bring such enthusiasm and knowledge to it. There’s also the ‘lucky dip’ aspect to the range insofar as one month you get a scholarly dissertation that’s tearing into subtext and allegory, while next you get an in-depth behind the scenes deep dive into the archives. Morris’ book falls into the latter, and being the author of many ‘Fact of Fiction’ articles in Doctor Who Magazine he knows how to present his stuff.

The author argues that this is the point where the Doctor becomes a ‘social justice warrior’ for the first time and how the way the different way that the show was being made changes its future direction. We get to spend time picking over the original scripts, finding out how they were changed by script editor David Whittaker and then filmed by Richard Martin. We look at the promotion of the serial in trailers and the Radio Times, and the Daleks reappearance a few hours after transmission on The Black and White Minstrels Show!

Inevitably we look at the Peter Cushing movie adaptation, the BFI working draft of the film – Daleks Invade Earth – being particularly fascinating; it was initially set only travel 50 years in the future and featured alligators in the sewers. Reference is then made to the final ‘Release’ script and a sizeable section on Terrance Dicks’ Target book, a combination of the TV scripts, visual material and memories of the movie, which has recently been shown on TV.

Verdict: Clearly a labour of love, Jonathan Morris loves this story and shares anecdotes and insight from a lifetime of adoring this tale. He presents us with a lot of archival evidence to pore over, and while it’s a shame that he hasn’t featured analysis of the upcoming charity novelisation of the movie, there’s a lot here you probably don’t know. One of this series’ best. 9/10

Nick Joy