As the 60th anniversary of the very first ‘Doctor Who’ episode rapidly approaches, the celebratory year provides another gift for fans. Frazer Hines, beloved as the Doctor’s young Highlander companion Jamie McCrimmon, has put pen to paper to adapt an undisputed fan favourite. The actor, known for ‘Emmerdale’ and much else besides, accompanied Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor throughout almost the entirety of his run in the mid- to late-60s. Having previously written his memoirs, ‘Hines Sight’, Frazer has reawakened his latent wordsmith for this new novelisation of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’. The result is a fresh take on a classic that is enormous fun from start to finish.
The story, which first aired in 1967, features the much-esteemed pairing of Troughton and Hines as the Doctor and Jamie. Sadly, six of the seven episodes remain missing, leaving fans with only a tantalising glimpse of this revered instalment from the early years of ‘Doctor Who’. Experiencing a retelling of the story created by one of the icons of the Swinging Sixties era is the perfect way to celebrate the talents of those who brought the show to life all those years ago.
As a curious fact, Hines isn’t the first companion actor to have penned a ‘Doctor Who’ novel. He joins Mark Strickson and Ian Marter, as well as, from the wider ‘Doctor Who’ family, David Banks, in expanding the ‘Doctor Who’ world from screen to print.
The Doctor and Jamie become separated from the TARDIS in contemporary England. After tracing it to an antiques shop that curiously sells genuine Victorian relics in pristine condition, they are whisked back in time to 1866. The travellers arrive at a country house in the Nineteenth Century from where the antiques are sent. There, the Doctor comes face-to-face with his deadliest foes, the Daleks. They order the Doctor to participate in their experiment to give the Dalek psyche the missing ingredient to help them dominate the universe: the human factor. The Doctor forms an alliance with the antiques dealer Edward Waterfield, whose young daughter Victoria is held hostage by the Daleks. The owner of the house, Theodore Maxtible, a crooked scientist, needs no such threat to work for the Daleks. Whilst the Doctor must think of a way to outwit his mortal enemies and stay alive, Jamie goes on his own adventure. When he finds and rescues Victoria Waterfield, he forms an immediate friendship with the young woman who, like him, hails from a period where adventures in space and time ought to be inconceivable.
Frazer Hines’ adaptation of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ follows more closely to the original scripts than an earlier 1990s version of the same story. The clever twist that he effectively introduces is to bring the companion Zoe into the plot. Although ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ comes before Zoe joined the TARDIS crew, the Doctor shows her a clip of the Daleks from this adventure. His ploy is to show her the kind of deadly monsters she would encounter if she chose to travel with him. In Hines’ adaptation, Zoe is shown every moment of the Doctor and Jamie’s encounter with the Daleks. These sections are told from Jamie’s point of view, whereas the flashbacks to ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ are narrated in the third person. Thus the book is structured with interludes that spring forward in time to the moment Zoe has a big decision to make about her future destiny…
The best aspect of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ is the relationships that Frazer Hines so successfully and authentically captures on the page. From interviews and convention appearances over the years, it’s clear that the cast worked brilliantly together and had a genuine affection for one another. Hines perfectly recreates the easy rapport he enjoyed with Troughton, so much so that when the Doctor deliberately riles Jamie later in the story as part of his plan to defeat the Daleks, the Whoniverse feels worryingly out of kilter. It’s a relief when they later come together and restore harmony. Better still, by including elements of Zoe’s first story within Victoria’s debut, he pays homage to the two longest-running female companions of the Troughton era. Hines brings to life the wide-eyed innocence that Deborah Watling brought to the role of Victoria, as well as the feisty intelligence of Wendy Padbury as Zoe.
Frazer Hines’ ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, that has a bit of ‘The Wheel in Space’ thrown in for good measure, is a reminder of what a great story it is. There are reasons why it is held in such high regard by fans of all ages. This adaptation of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ is a fast-paced and compelling read. Fans old enough to have been brought up on the Target novelisations will feel all manner of nostalgia going on an adventure with this TARDIS crew. Hines’ approach is stylistically similar, but he adds more layers to the prose and nuance to the characterisations. At a longer word-count, there is more meat on the bone. With a novel this engaging under his belt, here’s hoping that Frazer Hines is tempted to turn his literary talents to further ‘Doctor Who’ titles from a golden age in the show’s illustrious history.
The photo composite cover, that foregrounds Jamie, with the Doctor and Victoria either side of him, brings in elements of the Dalek city as well as the superb Emperor Dalek design. The homage to the 70s logo is mirrored by a distinctively 1960s-style slanted font for the title. It all combines to make for an attractively designed book, which has been produced in hardback with dust-jacket. Frazer Hines’ reimagining of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ is a must-have for fans of the show, and is the ideal Christmas gift for the ‘Doctor Who’ fanatic in your life.
Publisher: Penguin Random House Ebury Publishing Publication date: 26th October 2023 Buy ‘The Evil of the Daleks’
