SHORT STEPS AND SIDE STRIPS: The Return of the Daleks
Presented In: Doctor Who Weekly Issues 1 – 4
Script: Steve Moore
Art: Neary/Lloyd (parts one and three)
Art: Paul Neary & David Lloyd (part two)
Layouts: Neary (part four)
Art: Lloyd (part four)
Page Count: 4 installments of 4 pages
Main Characters: The Daleks
Synopsis:
On the planet Anhaut, Glax (the owner of the Galactic Glax Picture Corporation) is worried about the takings for his last few films. Unsure as to how to increase his audience, he over hears a mother threaten her young child with the Daleks. He decides to make a picture about the Dalek invasion of Anhaut and takes his partner Rakh to an archive to research the picture and discovers that 800 years previously the daleks came close to successfully invading Anhaut. The great General, Nor-Din, drew the daleks out into the wastelands and amidst a howling sandstorm, defeated the invaders. No one knows how he did it but that doesn’t bother Glax, he’ll just make up an ending. Soon the publicity campaign has begun and they’ve even managed to get the actor Hok Nepo to play Nor-Din. As filming commences a strange woman lands her ship on the planet and unloads its cargo of “machine-tools”. Hok grows angry on the set and storms off only to encounter a party of daleks in the alleyways. Not realizing that these are real daleks he gets angry with them and only twigs what’s happening when the daleks try and exterminate him. He’s only saved when the daleks momentarily confuse him with the real Nor-Din on whom they wish to take revenge. He uses the confusion to make his escape and soon the studio is in flames as the daleks exterminate all in sight. Only the mysterious Kuay seems to be safe, she just wants peace from her masters. The emergency forces are bought in but the daleks open fire. Glax and Hok head out into the wastelands to try and find some evidence of how Nor-Din defeated the daleks eight hundred years previously unaware that Kuay has followed them. They’re bought down to earth when a sandstorm hits but it’s no natural storm. They encounter a mysterious pyramid with a glowing crystal at its peak and head inside to investigate not realizing that Kuay has led the daleks straight to them. They discover a message from Nor-Din, who looks ancient in the recording but Kuay destroys it just before the message gets to the important part on how to destroy the daleks. The daleks punish Kuay for not completely destroying the recording and she collapses unconscious as they knock her out through a telepathic implant. Glax and Hok throw Kuay onto a couch where she seems to have some sort of fit. She recovers and seems to be free of the dalek influence but it’s too late, the daleks open fire on the pyramid. Trapped inside, Hok, Glax and Kuay desperately search for a way to fight back and Kuay discovers a crystal helmet on the couch where she had her fit. She realises that that’s how Nor-Din defeated the daleks, when her telepathic implant touched the crystal she felt the will of a thousand people in her. As the daleks blast their way in, Kuay takes her revenge for a lifetime of imprisonment. She places the helmet on her head and allows the telepathic force to wipe out the daleks. The experience drains all the life from her body and she dies leaving Glax to consider re-writing his script to show how the daleks were defeated a second time.
Episode Endings:
One – Hok Nepo encounters a party of daleks and realises with horror that they’re real…
Two – Hok and Glax encounter a sandstorm on their way to find out how Nor-Din defeated the daleks.
Three – The daleks move in for the kill at the pyramid.
Four – Glax realises that he could even star in his new picture about the second defeat of the daleks…
Continuity
The first dalek invasion was long enough ago for people to know about it but to have forgotten what daleks really look like. There were 23 daleks in the original dalek invasion and the invasion lasted a month. Nor-Din was still a young man when he defeated the daleks. The remains of the original invasion fleet litter the waste lands. The daleks can control their servants through the use of a telepathic implant.
Anhaut is a thriving peaceful world until the daleks invade. The people of Anhaut have two antennae on their foreheads. The main form of transport is flying on the back of large pterodactyl like creatures. They still have a customs section for people visiting Anhaut. Books are almost unheard of on Anhaut. The defense forces are lead by Commander Kaba.
The movie industry produces films in hologram form, which can be watched on spherical screens. The majority of cheap films use robotic actors. Glax’s studio has at least seven sound stages. The reaction of the police when Glax tells them about the daleks implies that in the past he’s pulled similar tricks as publicity stunts.
The final page of the final installment was printed back to front, confusing the plot somewhat as the daleks are destroyed before Kuay dons the helmet…
Comments:
Although it might be a little inconsequential and lightweight, The Return of the Daleks is quite an enjoyable read. All right, so the daleks aren’t much more than mobile killing machines in the story but the idea of them invading just as shooting begins on a film about their first invasion is a fun one. Sounds better than the two dalek films that really were made anyway…
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