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....