SHORT STEPS AND SIDE STRIPS: Abslom Daak… Dalek-Killer
Issues: 17 – 20 of Doctor Who Weekly
Script: Steve Moore
Art: Steve Dillon
Page Count: 16 pages (four per part)
Main Characters: Abslom Daak, daleks, Taiyin
Synopsis:
Convicted mass murderer, Abslom Daak, is given two choices for his sentence. He can either die by vaporization or become and exiled Dalek Killer. As vaporization doesn’t hurt, Daak chooses to become a Dalek Killer. He’s transported to the planet Mazam, a world ruled by the ever-expanding Dalek Empire. He arrives just in time to rescue Princess Taiyin from extermination and soon he starts taking on the entire dalek taskforce. Taiyin knocks him out and drags him away on her sky-sled. They’re hit as they fly though and, for reasons Daak initially doesn’t confess to, he saves them with his piloting skills. Eventually he confesses that Taiyin reminds him of a woman he once loved and soon Daak and Taiyin are sharing a kiss. Taiyin takes him to the Dalek command-ship where he plans one last glorious self-destructive attack on the daleks. Inside the ship he forces one of the daleks to take him to the command-dalek where he successfully detonates his entire supply of bombs. He and Taiyin make their escape in an escape pod and celebrate their victory. He and Taiyin have fallen in love but their romance is cut drastically short when a rogue dalek exterminates her. She dies in his arms and he vows to kill every dalek in the galaxy…
Episode Endings:
One – Taiyin tells Daak that because of his actions, everyone in the building will be exterminated…
Two – Taiyin shows Daak the dalek command-ship where she says Daak can throw his life away…
Three – Entering the ship, Daak tells Taiyin there’s no way their getting out alive…
Four – Taiyin is dead and Abslom Daak vows to kill every dalek in the galaxy…
Continuity
The story takes place some time in the twenty sixth century when there are two great empires, the human empire and the dalek empire.
Dalek Killing is referred to as “Dee-Kay”. The robot guarding the entrance to the Dee-Kay room (from which the people are teleported) is called J-17. The average life expectancy of a Dalek Killer is 2 hours, 32 minutes and 23 seconds. Only one in four even survive the teleportation. The odds against surviving a Dee-Kay lifestyle are one in six million.
Abslom Daak is guilty of 23 charges of murder, pillage, piracy, massacre and other horrible crimes. He knows how to pilot a sky-sled. His former lover (with whom he had nothing but bad times) was called Selene. His bombs take 30 seconds to detonate.
Mazam is at least a thousand light years from the earth. Princess Taiyin has a space-yacht. Taiyin knows how to pilot the dalek escape pod.
The daleks command-ship is a traditional “flying saucer” type ship with at least nine entrances. Abslom’s chainsaw and other weaponry kill the daleks very easily. Omega units are dispatched to deal with Abslom and Taiyin, they specialize in saturation bombing and are packed with explosives. The escape pods are spherical.
Comments:
Abslom is a seriously nasty person if his charges are anything to go by. Yet he’s also perfect in the lead role of this story. The reader genuinely doesn’t know what he’s going to do (well, except kill daleks) and it’s clear that he’s got a major suicidal streak. His romance with Taiyin, if a little cliched, is very well handled and the emotion on the final pages is incredible. Oh yes, the artwork is gorgeous, the script near perfect and if ever a Dr Who related story was crying out to be made on the big screen, it’s this one.
Perfect. Just perfect.
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