The DVD of The Keys of Marinus contains a PDF file of the cigarette sweet cards released in the 60s detailing “Dr Who” and his exciting adventures with the Voord and Daleks. If you thought the Dalek comic strips from TV Comic were strange, you haven’t seen anything till you’ve read these. The story opens with “Dr Who” discovering that the Voord and Daleks are working together to invade Earth. In the course of the story, the Daleks betray the Voord who are all destroyed with the exception of their leader. This lone Voord teams up with “Dr Who” and helps destroy the Daleks by feeding them a poisonous fungus from the jungles of South America. He dies whilst doing this and then “Dr Who” finds himself accompanying a lone Dalek back to Skaro. On the planet, he helps the Daleks to destroy a huge machine which has gone out of control and threatens to destroy Skaro and possibly Earth. The Golden Emperor throws a banquet in “Dr Who’s” honour and they raise a glass to their success.

I’m not lying!

Everything about this story is wrong, from the benevolent, and practically helpless, presentation of both Voord and Daleks, to the bizarre costume change “Dr Who” has halfway through the story (he’s all spacey-like until he meets with the Earth council when he is suddenly in Edwardian style clothes). There are weird references to both the TV Comic strip (the Golden Emperor) and the Dalek Book (actually referenced in the text). There is a whole section where the Daleks are going to increase their brain power with a fungus from the South American jungle but are tricked by the Voord leader into absorbing the juices from a deadly fungus instead. Card after card depicts Voord, Dalek and Earth ships exploding whilst “Dr Who” watches from the sidelines. And throughout the story, the main character is referred to as “Dr Who”, complete with inverted commas.

Oddly, the characterisation of the Daleks does match with that presented in the TV Comic strips. The Daleks are, frankly, useless and suffering as a result of their own ill—though actions. They have created a machine which has killed the scientists who created it and now no one knows how to turn it off! Their sense of wonder is referenced when “Dr Who” saves them and they clearly have the facility to throw a lavish banquet for their saviour.

The same cannot be said for the characterisation of the Doctor or the Voord. The Voord are simply men in rubber suits with no motivation and no real characters (they are all but wiped out a quarter of the way through the story anyway).

The Doctor, or rather “Dr Who” is apparently an Earthman. He is obviously known to the Daleks, the Voord and Earth alike and clearly respected by all three (although he does smuggle a lone Dalek away from Earth to take it back to Skaro). It is his earthly heritage which allows him to shut down the maniacal machine as its death rays are only effective against Daleks (which seems an odd facility for Daleks to build into their own weapons systems! Maybe this was a result of Zeg’s attempt to take control of the Dalek command in Duel of the Daleks).

These glimpses into how Doctor Who as a series was viewed in the sixties are always fascinating and I look forward to finding out more about the Daleks’ attempts to conquer Earth when I return to the Dalek comic strips in a few centuries time…