Friday 21 June 2013

1979: TERRY NATION'S DALEK SPECIAL (Target Books)

Terry Nation's DALEK SPECIAL, also by Terrence Dicks, was the even-more-exciteing companion to the K9 book I posted earlier in the week.  It followed the same oversized paperback format and - once again - featured black & white illustrated (stills and art) interiors on good paper stock.

The star attraction were a short story by Terry nation which - I believe - had previously appeared in a newspaper or some such.  It's thirty-odd years since I last read it but I recall that his Doc-less tale of Daleks under London was pretty gripping at the time.

Another well-studied section was the innards-revealing Dalek cutaway (the K9 book had a similar feature) which finally revealed all the things the BBC SFX department couldn't.  I recall a similar feature in the DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS OMNIBUS, an oversized mid-seventies hardback from Marks and Spencer, but I don't think this was the same piece of art.

Sir Terrence filled-out the rest of the book with a summary of the Daleks screen adventures to date (which seemed like ancient sacred texts to a young fan like me) and a background piece on Dalekmania.  All simple stuff by today's standards but a real revelation at the time.

When this book was released, my only knowledge of the Daleks was the TV adventure Destiny of the Daleks and - possibly - reruns of the two big-screen sixties flicks (there is - by the way - an excellent new Telos Books tome on all the made - and unmade WHO movies to date out this week) but I still knew they were very cool.  Perhaps it's programmed into our DNA somehow....



3 comments:

  1. I'm going to look for one of these on EBay!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you don't have any joy elsewhere, try the DOCTOR WHO shop of the Isle of Wight (I still can't believe there is one, the shop not the island, ... I found it whilst on holiday). That's where I found (cheap) copies of both the Dalek and K9 books. My original copies (bought from Chelmsford WH Smith around 1979/80) had long since fallen apart and been dumped.

      Happy hunting!

      Delete
  2. Hi, Slow Robot. My name is Rich Handley, and I'm writing an article for starwars.com that involves the Marvel Bumper Comic issues reprinting Marvel's Droids line. I was hoping to ask you a couple questions, but I don't see any place on the blog to contact you via e-mail. If you wouldn't mind contacting me at info@hassleinbooks.com, I'd be extremely grateful. Thanks very much!

    Sincerely,
    Rich Handley
    Haselein Books
    http://www.hassleinbooks.com

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...