Light entertainment for listening at night. Plot made no sense though. ( )

The Doctor and Sarah are headed to the peaceful beach planet of Florana. Of course, in the Whoniverse, the TARDIS laughs in the face of vacation plans and sends the Doctor where he’s most needed. In this case, it’s the planet Exxilon, which is in the throes of a mysterious power drain that saps all technology of its power—including, sadly, the TARDIS. Also on Exxilon is a human expedition digging for parrinium, a valuable mineral that will cure a space plague. *Their* trouble will be to get the parrinium home to save their friends and family. And then *everyone’s* trouble shows up: THE DALEKS!

I read this after watching the TV episodes last month, and it is a very smooth read. Dalek stories are always reliable entertainment, and this one is no exception. I enjoyed the side comments in the narration (e.g., “Daleks have so little imagination that it is nearly impossible to hypnotise them”), and the Daleks themselves were hilarious when they were being thwarted by the power drain themselves. It certainly helps that I’d just seen the TV show, but I don’t think it’s essential to watch the show before reading the book. Recommended if you’re looking for a good Dalek story. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1038662.html#cutid3

A fairly routine treatment of a fairly routine Dalek story. As often happened in this period, the wobbly special effects of the original are much better on the printed page.

It is interesting that this and the next story are both about external aliens (here, the Daleks) forcing the natives to mine the planet's indigenous mineral resources. Though in this case the humans are among the good guys. ( )