Overview

On 23rd January 1965, the Daleks made their first appearance in their own full colour comic strip on the back page of the lavish new children's weekly comic TV Century 21. Written largely by David Whitaker, who was the series' original script editor, and illustrated by such legendary comic strip artists as Richard Jennings, Ron Turner and Eric Eden, this popular one-page strip ran for 104 instalments, and finally concluded on the brink of the Daleks' planned attack on the inhabitants of Earth. These strips have been reprinted many times in Dalek Annuals and other Doctor Who-related books, plus Doctor Who Weekly, Doctor Who Monthly and Doctor Who Classic Comics, as well as being issued complete and in colour as a special edition magazine. Because of the difference between a comic strip and a video feature, a certain amount of adaptation was inevitable. If the stories had been transferred exactly as written, then each one would have lasted only about five minutes and been so breathlessly fast-paced as to be virtually incomprehensible. However, so, the adaptations where made as sympathetic to the source material as possible, expanding the original story only in the name of atmosphere, deeper characterisation and the occasional crowd-pleasing reference or in-joke. If the strip contradicts information contained in the TV series (and it does), then that contradiction remained and no attempt was made to reconcile the two... Equally, no matter how bad, embarrassing or unDalek-like a line of dialogue may be, it remained as it featured in the original strip. Added to this, wherever possible the animations and stills where based on the key frames from the strip and all design was based on the images seen in those panels. The aim was to bring the strips to life, not change them into something else. The adaptations were released on VCD between 2004 and 2011