h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

THE comic from my youth was TV Century 21...

For the first 50 issues (I think) on the back page (and so in colour) ran a series of stories featuring "Terry Nation's The Daleks". There were some wonderful stories. Does anybody out there remember them?

When I was in primary school I remember a mate's dad having a Dalek Annual (no idea what year) which was largely made up of TV Century 21 strips.

I could be wrong but I get the impression that the 'TV 21' Dalek stories introduced an idea the idea of the Emperor Dalek, which was one that was subsequently taken up by in the Dr Who series.

I seem to remember there being a Dalek annual, but I never owned one personally.

When it came to annuals I was concentrating on the TV21 annual itself and my first personal favourite series - Fireball XL5.

The Dalek stories in TV 21 seemed to be of an excellent quality. I think they were an early example of a series of cheering for the bad guys

One story that I half remember involved the gold Emperor Dalek - who had an individual globe head-like design - fighting for his leadership and his very survival against a rebel red (or was it black?) Dalek that had become 'indestructible' through an accident.

There was another rebellion story line when one Dalek decided to wear flowers and went all peaceable. I seem to remember that the flower power path was shown to be damaging to the average Dalek's health and the story ended with the series affirming message that it was better for the Dalek's simply to get on with generally exterminating all that was around them.

The Dalek's had their very own natural 'enemy' in the comic's series - The Mechanoids, who were hexagonal in appearance. Maybe the BBC should check them out for a Dr Who episode?

The comic series came to an ominous end in TV 21 with the Dalek's discovering the existence of Earth and with the Emperor vowing to invade. I am not sure why but it was probably because they were upset about being dropped from the comic.

>I could be wrong but I get the impression that the 'TV 21' Dalek stories introduced an idea the idea of the Emperor Dalek, which was one that was subsequently taken up by in the Dr Who series.

Aye, I think this was the design used for the Emperor Dalek from 1989's "Remembrance of the Daleks".

>The Dalek's had their very own natural 'enemy' in the comic's series - The Mechanoids, who were hexagonal in appearance. Maybe the BBC should check them out for a Dr Who episode?

I'm pretty sure the Mechanoids *were* used in the TV series and possibly before they appeared in the comic. From the Hartnell era, I seem to recall.

The Mechanoids were introduced in the First Doctor adventure "The Chase". They were the robots keeping Stephen Taylor (played by Peter Purves) captive on the planet Mechanus. I think that Terry Nation invented the Mechanoids so that the beeb would use them again in future episodes rather than always asking for Dalek stories from him (or possibly he saw further merchandising opportunities by creating a new baddie, or he was just fed up with the Daleks? Or maybe he wanted an enemy for the Daleks; cf Daleks V Cybermen in "Parting of the Ways")

I can provide more information if you wish

Van (more of a than he probably realises!)

What's in a name eh? A whole lot I guess when it comes down to it... The Mechanoids might have made it as a band - but then it would only have been as 'one hit wonder stuff' - but as classic indecent, come back again and again, villains that would keep us behind our couches. I don't think so.

I can't bring any details of the TV storyline to mind. Did they make a 2nd appearance?

I don't believe they did (and I should have said that I don't know if they were in comics, annuals &c before they appeared in Doctor Who.) They were probably very difficult to represent on screen with the limited special-effects budgets of the era. Shouldn't be a problem now so if RTD wants to bring back a one hit wonder...

The Macra made a comeback so anything is possible.

Did you see the "Stripped For Action" section on the Daleks on the "Dalek War" box set?

<BB<

Although the strips carried Terry Nation's name, most of them were written by Doctor Who's script editor David Whitaker. The strip eventually came to an end, dovetailing nicely into the TV adventure 'Evil of the Daleks', in which we saw the Emperor for the first time.

The Emperor in 'Remembrance', in 1988, looked a little like the comic version, in that it had the more bulbous head, but it was very different.