Doctor Who – Nemesis of the Daleks
Issues: 152 – 155
Plot: Richard Alan
Script: Steve Alan
Art: Lee Sullivan
Lettering: Zed
Editor: Richard Starkings
Doctor: Seventh
Companions: None, Abslom Daak assumes the role
Episodes: 4
Summary:
The Doctor lands on the planet Hell where he runs into Abslom Daak. His ship had been shot down and the rest of his crew (the Star Tigers) died on impact. They were heading for Hell because they had discovered it was crawling with daleks and realised that they were up to something. The Doctor sides with him and discovers that the Daleks are mining the planet for the gas Helkogen, a deadly poison. They rescue a group of Helkans from the daleks and take a cargo ship up to the Dalek Death Wheel in orbit around the planet. However, when they try and board, they transmit the incorrect security codes and the daleks capture all of them bar Daak. Daak finds out that the Daleks are building a genocide device, their ultimate weapon, with which they plan to conquer planet after planet. He rescues the captured Doctor and then together they rescue the captive Helkans. Whilst exploring the Death Wheel they discover its reactor core and, after knocking the Doctor out and telling the Helkans to get him off the Wheel, Daak sacrifices himself by flying his dalek hover craft into the core. The Death Wheel explodes and the Doctor departs Hell in the TARDIS, the Helkans now worshiping Daak as a hero.
Episode Endings:
One – A mighty figure hovers above the Doctor with a powerful chainsaw in hand. The stranger announces himself to be Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer.
Two – The Doctor, having realised the Daleks are after the Helkogen gas, decides it’s time they went straight to the source of the problem…
Three – Captured and bound, the Doctor watches helplessly as the order is given for his extermination.
Four – Daak has sacrificed himself so that the Death Wheel can be destroyed and the Doctor leaves Hell, wondering how long before the whole Universe is rid of the daleks for good.
Continuity:
The Doctor refers to Taiyin’s cryogenic chamber as a Cryogenic Cocoon. He knows of the planet Hell and of the properties of Helkogen gas (cheap, abundant and deadly). When he’s being interrogated, images of the previous six Doctors are shown on screens around the ceiling of the interrogation room.
The planet Hell is bakingly hot during the day. Before the arrival of the Daleks, the Helkans were a peaceful people.
Harma’s name is now apparently spelt Haama. Salander’s ship is identified as a Draconian Imperial Star Slammer.
Daleks can operate effectively in the vacuum of space. They still use Ogrons as servants and their units of time are still referred to as Rels with the additional unit of Orbits mentioned as well (presumably this is based on the local orbit of Hell and is not a standardized unit like the Rel). They refer to sleep as “periods of unconsciousness”. The Death Wheel will be completed in seventy Rels time. Daleks only keep prisoners alive if they can be useful, otherwise they’re simply exterminated. The detention level is beneath the level on which the Doctor is exterminated.
Comments:
“Nemesis of the Daleks” is something of a ripping yarn. Abslom chainsaws his way through dozens of daleks, there’s a noble self-sacrifice at the end and it’s very easy to see this story being done on the big screen. The plot is incredibly basic with little room for character advancement and there are more than the average number of full page illustrations (or pages with only two frames on) which actually makes this feel more like a two or three parter that’s been slightly expanded. There are a few small details that you also have to ignore for the plot’s sake. How, for example, did Daak evade capture when everyone else on the cargo ship was caught and, when Daak rescues the Doctor from the interrogation room, how does he get him out of those rather heavy looking wrist restraints without breaking the Doctor’s bones? However, having said that, the artwork really is good and you’re drawn completely into the spirit of the story when you read it.
Don’t expect a complex plot when you read “Nemesis of the Daleks”. Expect chainsaws and daleks left in lots of little pieces, perfect for that fiftieth anniversary story.
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