Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks

Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When the Time Lords highjack the Doctor's transmat beam and send him back in time to stop Davros from creating the Daleks, he has no choice but to comply. Unfortunately, Skaro is a wasteland, torn apart by the war between the Thals and the Kaleds, and The Doctor and Harry are soon separated from Sarah Jane and fine themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Can the Doctor prevent the creation of the Daleks and save his friends?

So what am I doing reading the novelization of a classic Doctor Who episode featuring the Fourth Doctor? Well, Joyland is taking the slow boat from Toledo so I needed something short to fill the void. Luckily, Kemper sent me this for Christmas.

The writing is what you'd expect in a media tie-in book, pretty spare and workmanlike. It's pretty light on description. I'd say Terrance Dicks captured the characters pretty well but since he had the TV script to work from, that probably didn't take much effort.

Since I've never seen this Tom Baker episode, I was pleasantly surprised by the twists. Once the Dalek action kicked off, I was entertained enough to keep reading. Since 30% of the Doctor Who stories after this one feature the Daleks, there was little doubt things wouldn't be all fish fingers and custard at the end of the story.

Genesis of the Daleks was a fun diversion for a couple hours but I'm more than ready for Joyland to arrive.

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