Friday, June 5, 2015

What if? - WOTD sequel!

Inspired by the interest of Matt "Boxor" Marshall, my interest has returned briefly to War of the Daleks. Suppose - just suppose! - that instead of being dropped like a leprosy-infested brick with "property of J. Saville" written on it in Princess Diana's blood, the authors of the 8th Doctor Adventures had gone with it? Perhaps even tied it into Alien Bodies and its portents of a future Time War?

After all, if War of the Daleks could retcon four different TV stories surely the BBC books could retcon War of the Daleks? After all, even the most sympathetic pro-Peel reader would notice some anomalies. Why was Davros in the 40th Century and not the 20th? Why were the imperial and the renegades mixed up? How come Mechanoids knew about Movellans if they were Dalek inventions? Why was Skaro no longer radioactive? And how come the planet Antalin is a Dalek-infested water planet yet simultaneously supposed to be the sterilized cinder left by the Hand of Omega?

There's a passage in War of the Daleks which gives the interesting idea that the conspiracy to save Skaro was in fact a conspiracy - Skaro wasn't saved, but the Dalek Prime was going through this elaborate ruse to make people BELIEVE an elboratue ruse had already happened...

The Dalek Prime was suddenly picked out by a spotlight, one that made him look even larger than he really was. Again, Davros sneered to himself – even his casing was a simple redesign of Davros’s own carriage. He’d also seen Special Weapons Daleks about, another of his own innovations. Clearly, the Dalek Prime was unoriginal, snatching what he could of Davros’s and laying claim to it. Little wonder, then, that he was insisting that they were on the original Skaro. He didn’t dare admit that Davros had done something he couldn’t undo.

And instead of some pissweak "Delgado versus Dalek Invasion of Earth versus Survivors" bollocks, the tenth book in the 8DA range looked forward rather than back...


NOTE: I came up with the following after five minutes' thought...

With Sam missing, the Doctor searches the nearby solar system and discovers to his shock this is the star system he blew up with the Hand of Omega. But, upon closer examination he discovers the ruined planet of "Antalin" is genuinely Skaro!

Suspicions aroused, the Doctor returns to Thal space to meet up with his pals Chayn and Dyoni and together they discover the real truth: long ago, the Daleks convinced their enemies the Thals that entirely the wrong planet was Skaro so they would fight and die for an entirely random planet but now that the genuine article has been destroyed, the Daleks have been forced to keep up the pretence living on False Skaro.

On False Skaro, the Dalek Prime's efforts to unify the Dalek race are coming apart as his deception is uncovered - not only did he not save Skaro, he didn't build the Movellans or even execute Davros. The Davros he tried and destroyed was an android duplicate to lure our the dissenters. But thanks to the actions of a Spider-Dalek, android Davros has survived.

False Skaro is plunged into civil war yet again and this time the Thals move in to wipe out the winner. The Doctor, however, realizes he may have unleashed an even greater conflict - a faction of Daleks, encouraged by the Doctor being fooled the first time, are now determined to take on the Time Lords.

The future war in Heaven has drawn closer and it's all the Doctor's fault...

Oh, what might have been!

1 comment:

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