Power Play

The Daleks move one step closer to universal domination in this second TV21 comic strip. A slave ship arrives on Skaro and, through various double dealings and Dalek machinations, some slaves are freed and the Daleks learn the secrets of space travel.This strip feels even more ‘sixties’ than the previous one. The slaves are humanoid and their captors are purple with weird glasses. The two ‘lead’ slaves are Sala (blond and pretty) and Astolith (a chisel-jawed matinee idol). There is also a bald, grovelling slave, Sala’s uncle, who betrays the slaves to their captors and ends up dead for his troubles.

Nothing about this strip feels new. It reminded me in some way of the stageplay (adapted for audio by Big Finish) The Curse of the Daleks. It’s very much of its time. Lead characters were white and blond and handsome, traitorous characters were short and fat and bald, aliens were odd colours. The best thing about this script are the Daleks. They are at their scheming best here – manipulating both Sala and her captors for their own ends.

The artwork begins to improve throughout this strip as well, which makes it a lot easier on the eye. Other than that, though, it’s a fairly light script. Bearing in mind it is over twice as long as Genesis of Evil, not a lot actually happens. The slave ship arrives. The Daleks trick Sala. The slave ship is captured. Sala and Astolith get back on board. I think some of the story loses focus with effectively having two groups of villains, the Daleks and the slave masters. The slave masters can never hope to be as interesting as the Daleks and it probably would have been a more effective story if this had just been a story about the Daleks vs either the slave masters (without any slaves) or the slaves (without any captors).A decidedly underwhelming instalment but there’s everything to look forward to in the next episode, Duel of the Daleks, as it introduces Zeg the Dalek – yes, the first Dalek with a proper name! And a proper, spacey-sounding one at that.