Terrance Dicks' adaptation of Terry Nation's first Doctor Who script in many years, this story is the second half of a series commenced with 'Frontier in Space' (novelised as 'Doctor Who and the Space War').Following on from the Doctor and Jo's confrontation with the Master and the Daleks on the planet of the Ogrons, Jo helps the wounded Doctor into the TARDIS where he uses the TARDIS's telepathic circuits to contact the Time Lords before collapsing into a coma. The TARDIS arrives on an alien world, and Jo heads out into the jungle to seek help. But little does she realise that the fluid sprayed on her by the plants around the TARDIS has infected her...
When the Doctor awakes, he goes out looking for Jo. He encounters a party of Thals, one of the two intelligent races from the planet Skaro. They are on this planet, Spiridon, seeking to uncover the plans of their enemies, the other race from Skaro, the Daleks. The Daleks are amassing an army to plunder the Earth and Draconian empires after the war that the Master is trying to provoke begins.
If you are familiar with the first Dalek story, you will find much that is familiar in this one. However, compared to most Dalek stories ('The Dalek Master Plan' aside), this one is written on a much bigger scale. It is one of those times when the Daleks truly seem a threat to space faring races, even though they are rather bogged down in this story.
Terrance Dicks' adaptation could do with more spark, but given that the characters as portrayed in the original are fairly flat this is possibly no surprise. A readable version of typical Doctor Who.
