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Somewhere, probably in some Doctor Who book imported from Britain in the 1980s, I read a story about the daleks trying to conquer London. I remember being excited about a new official dalek adventure, but as I read I experienced two let-downs. First, I quickly realized that the Doctor wasn't present in the story, just some Londoners who had discovered the daleks invasion force while they were poking around in the famous London sewers. Second, I realized that that group of protagonists were kids, probably preteens, which totally killed my suspension of disbelief.

The dalek invasion plan involved planting magnetic bombs on various sites around the city. One of the kids has the bright idea (missed by all the adults) of attaching an explosive to the daleks' ship before it takes off. Boom, no more daleks.

I would like to find this again, not really for me, but my kids might enjoy it, since they do like the daleks.

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  • Are you sure the London sewers were involved? Wikia's got nothing.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 2:14
  • @Randal'Thor I thought it was the sewers, but I suppose it could have been the Tube tunnels.
    – Buzz
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 2:16
  • Argh, that'll be difficult to Google for.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 2:18
  • 1
    Starting in the London sewers? So that's why daleks have a toilet plunger...
    – tj1000
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 16:19
  • Think it was the London underground tunnels
    – user66716
    Commented Feb 26, 2018 at 19:33

1 Answer 1

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It's Daleks: The Secret Invasion - a novella by the Dalek creator Terry Nation.

Nation kept rights on the Daleks after they originally appeared in Dr Who, and sought several avenues of capitalising on his creation (including a potential US TV series where human agents kept fending Dalek invasions).

The novella was originally published as part of a Terry Nation's Dalek Special which included a look back at the Dalek's appearance in Doctor Who, but may have been published separately.

There's more history in Doctor Who Magazine but that's behind a paywall. There seem to be second hand copies of the Dalek Special via Amazon, though.

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  • I have always been mystified that Nation thought he could make a dalek television series in America ca. 1969. While the Daleks were huge in Britain at the time, they were utterly unknown in the U.S.
    – Buzz
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 2:45
  • @Buzz even after the two movies?
    – HorusKol
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 3:05
  • The movies got very little attention in the U.S.
    – Buzz
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 3:12

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