Doctor Who: Legacy of the Daleks (Doctor Who)

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John Peel

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Pages: 245 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0563405740

Pub: BBC Books

Pub date: 1998-04-06

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 216743

Editorial Review:

Legacy of the Daleks is an excellent adventure story in which the Daleks lurk in the background as an ever-present menace while the Master lurks in the foreground as a more tangible danger. The novel is set several years after the events of the 1964 TV story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" with the Doctor's granddaughter Susan and her partner David Campbell undergoing a crisis of their own as David has aged but Susan has not. This is a logical development of all that we have been told about the Time Lords and is handled well here. Both the Doctor and Susan are outcasts, not through choice, but through biology, and both must find their niche in the universe.
Meanwhile the Doctor has "lost" his companion Sam (to find out how and why you have to read the previous novel The Longest Day, but this is not a pre-requisite) and the Tardis tracks her to Earth (quite why is unclear) so the Doctor decides to pay a visit to Susan whom he knows to be there too. This way of getting the Doctor to the action is perhaps the clunkiest aspect of the book. It is very unlikely that Sam would be there, and the coincidence of Susan being there, the timing and the Master's and the Daleks' plans all coming together is a little too much. The action on Earth comes thick and fast as Susan investigates a Dalek artefact and discovers its secrets while the Master's plotting as usual lands him in more trouble than he can handle. This is the "Roger Delgado" version of the Master following the events of "Frontier in Space" on TV, and he's very nicely handled. Some of the dialogue rings so true that you can hear Delgado saying it. I even liked the nod to his use of pointless pseudonyms, with the Master here taking the name Estro, apparently Esperanto for "master".

Legacy of the Daleks is an action adventure novel pure and simple. It's also a cracking story, well written and containing some strong characters. The themes and ideas are bold and brash, and Peel handles them well, turning in an adventure that is recognisable as being Doctor Who while also exploring other aspects of the Doctor's character and resolving some hanging series plot threads into the bargain. This is a fun novel true to the spirit of the show and good read in its own right. No-one should ask for more. --David J Howe

Reader Reviews:

Good - but a disappointment (0/0 people found this helpful)

ok. This isnt a bad book, but it is disappointing compared to John Peel's vastly superior War of the Daleks. The Daleks simply arent in it enough and by the end you cant help but feel that this could have been so much better.But on the plus side The Master is well written and we finally learn what happened to him on Tersurus.

AN ENJOYABLE READ (3/3 people found this helpful)

When I first purchased this book I didn't know what to expect, but I read the first chapter and I couldn't put it down. The whole story was well put together, Susan and David experiencing marital problems because of Susan not ageing, the Doctor having a tempory companion to replace Sam, in the guise of Donna and of course the realisation that that Estro is in fact the Master. You could really feel the presence of the Master as portrayed by Roger Delgado. The story answers some questions that were asked about the Master in the fourth Doctor story "The Deadly Assassin" how did he end up on Tersurus? Why was his body so mutilated? You'll have to read it to find out!

A good adventure, and the return of some missed characters! (4/4 people found this helpful)

As always, John Peel manages to write a cracking Dalek book - admittedly, it's very thin in plot depth, but then most Dalek stories are - they're all about some megalmaniac cyborgs who want to take over the universe and exterminate everything they come across - and the twist of having my favourite character of all time (who I won't name but if you've read the Amazon review, you'll know) just gives it a little something more of interest. The return of Susan clinched it for me; all this time I've been waiting for him to revisit her, and although as you'll see it's not that simple, I really enjoyed the return of the character and the changes she has undergone. Lastly, much as I love Sam to bits, it was nice to get rid of her and give the Doctor time to breathe for an installment after all that fiasco last time! Read it!

A Nice come Back. (1/7 people found this helpful)

The Story is Relative good story though needed more detail.

Peel Sessions (4/6 people found this helpful)

Legacy of the Daleks is not really a bad book as such it's just... dull. Predictable from the start, the book just re-treads past glories with obvious sequences lifted from TV stories such as The Dalek Invasion of Earth (to which this book is a sequel), Power of the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks. The Daleks are not the only returning foe on show, and while revealing the other would techically count as a spoiler as he isn't properly revealed until over half way through the book, his identity is obvious within the first chapter to anyone with any knowledge of foreign languages. Susan reappears, still married to David Campbell as she was at the end of Dalek Invasion of Earth, but she is badly mis-used, and her final scenes are frankly unbelievable in the fact that she simply makes assumptions about who has or hasn't died without bothering to go back and check. John Peel's books have never been among my favourites, being in my considered opinion mostly un-original and written in a style so basic it would make even Terrance Dicks blush. Which makes me wonder why he gets the license to write all the Dalek books (the last seven have all been written by him), in spite of the fact that he violates almost every single writer's-guideline of the range. The characterisation of the Eighth Doctor is, in a word, awful. Suddenly our protagonist has taken to being overly nosy with other people's affairs, manipulative even more so than te Seventh Doctor and an all round annoying person, who hands guns to people and then complains when they use them. I haven't read the other new Dalek book, War of the Daleks, and on this evidence I'm not likely to. Or, for that matter, any more John Peel.

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