Plague of Death

Plague of Death returns to Skaro to find the Black Dalek acting as Deputy Emperor battling against the Daleks greatest fear…rust! (And there is a frame with text written exactly like that last bit, ellipses and all!) Experimentation with the Dalatomic beam (yes, Dalatomic, what?) leads to a cloud of radioactive rust floating around Skaro and getting up to mischief, disintegrating Daleks and their bases willy nilly. The Emperor returns to find the planet in disarray and it is discovered that the rust has become a plague and Patient Zero is THE BLACK DALEK!

This story nearly returns to the glorious heights of Duel of the Daleks but falls slightly short because, actually very little happens within the actual plot. The Daleks accidentally create the rust, the rust destroys some Daleks, they think they’ve defeated it, it turns into a plague (!), the Emperor returns, the Black Dalek is cured.

What we do have, though is a return to the characterisation which made Duel so much fun. The Black Dalek seems to have tempered his trash-talking ways and risen to fill the role of Deputy Emperor quite successfully. Of course, when it is discovered he is carrying the rust germ (!) he is quickly persona non grata. Thankfully he manages (somehow) to infect himself and after getting a new casing can continue as normal.

This strip also sees the welcome return of the Brain Computer which seems to have been programmed with Key Stage 2 science facts (that’s primary age for the non-teachery/parenty people amongst you). It delivers the shocking revelation that the Daleks can deal with the rust cloud using magnets because – and I quote – unlike poles attract, like poles repel. Who knew? (Seriously, though, this is the first example of the strip venturing into the television series’ mission statement to educate as well as entertain which it has to be given credit for).

The artwork for this strip is less impressive as a lot of frames are a little indistinct due to the majority being pictures of the Daleks disintegrating, or the rust cloud destroying things. There are also quite a few frames where it is quite difficult to tell which is the Black Dalek as his colourings look very similar to the ordinary Daleks (although this may be an issue with the modern reprinting rather than the original comic strip).

The strips concludes with another cliffhanger with an alien spaceship (which is a little Movellan-like in styling) arrives on Skaro unnoticed by the Daleks (who are still preoccupied with the aftermath of the rust plague). The Monstrons have arrived.