Doctor Who – Emperor of the Daleks
Issues: 197 – 202
Story: Paul Cornell (parts one and four)
Plot: Paul Cornell and John Freeman (parts two to four)
Plot: John Freeman and Paul Cornell (parts five and six)
Script: Paul Cornell (parts two, three, five and six)
Art: Lee Sullivan
Letters: Annie
Editor: John Freeman
Colour: Marina Graham (part four)
The Daleks created by Terry Nation
Abslom Daak created by Steve Moore and Steve Dillon
Doctor: Seventh (guest appearance by Sixth in parts one and six)
Companions: Benny (guest appearance by Peri in part one)
Episodes: 6
Summary:
The sixth Doctor has taken Peri to Skaro on a mysterious mission. Davros is on trial before the dalek emperor and learns that there are still a few daleks on the planet that are loyal to him. A computer virus released by the Doctor provides the distraction he needs to escape and finds the Doctor waiting for him outside the TARDIS. Much to Peri’s puzzlement, the Doctor takes him on board the TARDIS and offers to hide him…
The daleks vow to destroy both Davros and the Doctor and rescue Abslom Daak from death. Through use of robots, Daak is conned into thinking that he’s been brought back to the Earth and agrees to help find the Doctor. The Doctor and Benny have arrived on Hell (last seen in “Nemesis of the Daleks”) and find that Daak’s friends aren’t quite as dead as the Doctor originally thought. Daak arrives and soon they are all transported back to “Earth”. The Doctor, however, realises that they’re not on Earth at all but on Skaro and are now prisoners of the daleks. Through use of the computer virus the sixth Doctor released, the seventh Doctor and friends are able to make their escape but are recaptured when Daak tries to rescue the body of Taiyin. The Doctor is interrogated by the daleks and his friends are temporarily robotised. To ensure their safety, the Doctor leads the daleks to Davros’ hiding place. When the sixth Doctor rescued Davros he did so on the condition that he reprogram the daleks with a conscience, an agreement that Davros has not held. Now, after time to recoup on Spiridon, Davros commands an army of four million daleks. The daleks start fighting Davros’ daleks and the Doctor is keen to see Davros win. Davros, desperate to see the other daleks wiped out completely, threatens to kill Benny unless the Doctor helps him. The Doctor, Davros and the others return to Skaro where Davros uses the Doctor’s virus to take his place as the Emperor of the daleks. The virus is a trap though and sends the power core to self-destruct. The Doctor and friends escape in the TARDIS and Davros is practically killed in the resulting explosion.
In a bar on Paradise, the Doctor explains to Benny that the whole affair was a trap by the Doctor to ensure that Davros became emperor of the daleks and thus ensuring the timeline for “Remembrance of the Daleks” was preserved. Leaving Daak to drool over Benny, the seventh Doctor goes over to share a cocktail with the sixth Doctor who, after all, started the plan that wasn’t finished in his own life time.
Back on Skaro, Davros’ daleks manage to resurrect their leader and have him set up as the Emperor. Davros vows to kill the Doctor and is left wondering what a chance comment by the sixth Doctor about “the Hand of Omega” means…
Episode Endings:
One – The Daleks vow to destroy Davros, the Doctor and their other arch enemy, Abslom Daak.
Two – The Doctor and friends realize that they’re not on earth but on Skaro and they are now prisoners of the daleks.
Three – The Doctors friends have been robotised and he has no choice but to lead the daleks to Davros…
Four – Davros orders his daleks to open fire on his enemies.
Five – Unless the Doctor helps him, Davros threatens to personally dissect Benny.
Six – Davros vows to make his next confrontation with the Doctor the last…
Continuity:
The sixth Doctor segment has to take place between “The World Shapers” and “Mysterious Planet” or “Mysterious Planet” and “Mindwarp” (I don’t think there’s anything in the story that states which gap it fits into, however, as reference is made to Frobisher it presumably takes place after the penguin has left for a holiday. Peri appears with her “Trial” haircut.).
The (sixth) Doctor won a length of dalekanium wire in a hand of poker with Frobisher. The wire has special properties and saves both Peri and himself from extermination. The first time his virus is run, it disables the dalek security systems, the second time it’s run it orders the power core to overload.
The seventh Doctor knows the humour of Newman and Badiel. He uses his ring to summon the TARDIS.
The TARDIS scanner is now hexagonal.
Benny can speak martian and knows one of their jokes. She seems to dream of someone called “Dick” (precognition for “Oh No It Isn’t!? ;0) ). She had a doll called Rebecca which was with her mother when she was exterminated by the daleks.
Peri mentions that, since her encounter with the daleks on Necros, she’s also encountered them on Mandusus.
In true “Terminator” style, when Abslom Daak is teleported from the death wheel, he’s teleported naked. Only a carefully positioned hand and some cunning lighting prevents us from seeing if his chainsaw is his most powerful weapon ;0) The robot earthmen claim he has a retinal implant that let them see what Daak saw.
The “Star Tigers” DIDN’T die in “Nemesis of the Dalkes”, the Helkans revived them with their medicines. Helkan ale is very strong.
Harma (the Ice Warrior) refers to the martian hatcheries and Skiffled Yeng Toads (skiffled being a way of cooking?).
Mercurius’ bionic hand, when detached, is a powerful electro-scrambler.
The Emperor dalek is more of the sixties dalek strip type than “Evil of the Daleks”.
The daleks have their hover bases fitted by the dozen for this story, they definitely make full advantage of them. They use technobots to shuttle data between systems when the land lines are dealing with emergencies. They can also activate a force shield to guard Davros. The daleks booby trap Taiyin’s body with some sort of gas (which presumably means that she could never be revived even if her body survived the story in one piece). The “black” dalek looks more purple and orange in the one colour installment of the story. We also see the more familiar gray and blue ones. Mind you, as Benny apparently has blue hair in several of the frames I don’t think that the colouring should be taken too literally. The daleks are very fond of burning down the forests on Spiridon, they do it from their saucers and also get the special weapons dalek to do it.
The psyche daleks have large brains instead of the usual domes. There are at least three of them, although only one is involved in this story. The psyche dalek controls the robotised prisoners.
Davros now supports a dalek claw where his hand was removed in “Revelation of the Daleks”. He has put a shield over his “pyramid” on Spiridon to reflect the dalek weaponry back up onto their saucers.
The Spiridons hate the daleks and destroy quite a few of them.
There’s an existentialist’s bar on Paradise which has a Sontaran barman and an alpha centuri as a waiter.
The Hand of Omega is infinitely powerful.
Comments:
Okay, where to begin. This story, as you may have noticed, has more than just a little bit of continuity involved. There are references to “Dalek Invasion of Earth”, “Evil of the Daleks”, “Planet of the Daleks”, “Revelation of the Daleks”, “Remembrance of the Daleks” and “Nemesis of the Dalek”, plus a quick mention of “Survival”. The plot is more than just a little complicated by the fact that the Doctor’s timeline is out of synch with Davros’ and there’s just a few reliances on coincidence (the Doctor returning to Hell with Benny). The inclusion of the Star Tigers (who had, after all, been pronounced dead in “Nemesis of the Daleks”) is a little clumsy and, worse still, not overly necessary. Daak also gets over his obsession with Taiyin and moves onto Benny which isn’t really “right”. It’s also worth keeping in mind that part two of the story was in the same issue of DWM that reviewed Deceit, also featuring Daak, two stories featuring him at one time may have been just a little too much.
And now onto the good bits. The artwork is superb, the script wonderful (the Doctor’s comments to the controlled Benny are wonderfully touching) and, given how many stories it refers to, it’s a tribute to the plot that I can actually follow it! However, there is ONE major reason that I love this story. I’ve never been a fan of the idea that the seventh Doctor ended the sixth doctor’s life prematurely so that he could take over and become time’s champion. In THIS story, the sixth Doctor is the seventh Doctor’s willing accomplice, sharing jokes about it and meeting up to discuss plans. There’s definitely no sense of bitterness between the two of them!
Emperor of the Daleks could be considered by some to be fanboy material, after all it is designed purely to fill in all kinds of continuity gaps. It’s very well written though and deserves one or two readings so that you can follow what’s going on. The colour episode is just an added bonus.
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