prisoner of the daleks by trevor baxendale

Good grief, how much?  I got that for $25 AUD when it first came out. In hindsight, that seems a really sound investment...

I've very fond memories of this book. Trevor Baxendale stories have always skewed towards the grimmer edge of the spectrum, but it really sets the tone of the novel when the expected companion character is shot and killed before Chapter Three. There's a touch of Serenity and Bebop to the Wayfarer and her crew, Jon Bowman and his lot are very relatable "professional volunteers". They exist in that lovely little space where the characters feel as though they had lives before the Doctor turned up. Speaking of which... Ten's characterisation manages to be pitch-perfect with all his quirks and idiosyncrasies. He even gets to face off against the Inquisitor General, a Dalek with a unique rank and so far, only one appearance.

What makes it stand out from its peers though, is that it's technically not a NuWho story. It's set in the 26th century: the time of the Earth and Draconian Empires, the Cybermen sabotaging galactic peace conferences, the Dalek Wars that took Benny Summerfield's parents away from her... The time of Absalom Daak, Dalek Killer. It's a classic Who story with a NuWho Doctor and everything that entails. The Doctor has to argue against torturing a Dalek prisoner, sees a whole planet wiped out so the Daleks won't get it, gets tortured himself in a labour camp and the story ends with a Sawardian body count.

I don't think it's too dark for children though. Rags is dark, too dark for anyone, I think, but I read Prisoner back when it first came out. I remember schoolteacher Jenny Forrest covered in blood after being gutshot in Peacemaker (another well-written book), way, way more than I do the violence here. It's punchy, but it doesn't linger. It's not so far from, say, Dalek Empire or even what the television series itself was doing at the time. Killing is what the Daleks do.