The Dalek Project was the second hardback graphic novel released during the 11th Doctor’s reign. It sees a solo 11th Doctor arrive in France, 2017, at an archaeological dig of a bronze age burial chamber, which is also the site of some WW1 trenches. Along with the archaeologists he discovers the remains of a Dalek saucer. Inside are dormant Daleks. He also finds that one of the archaeologists has been reconstructing a Dalek from recovered parts which then, inevitably, goes on the rampage.

The Doctor and Angela, one of the archaeologists, then head off to 1917 to find out how a Dalek saucer ended up buried in the trenches 100 years previously.

What follows is more or less a retread of Victory of the Daleks. Supposedly, this story was due for release much earlier but was kiboshed by Victory of the Daleks transmission and was held back (and was originally a 10th Doctor tale, complete with cover depicting him which can be found online). To be honest, I’m surprised they didn’t can it entirely seeing as it, for a lot of the story, is a carbon copy -albeit set in WW1 instead of WW2. The Doctor arrives and discovers that the British have a brand new weapon that’s going to help them win the war – it’s a Dalek. The twist here, though, is that the Germans also have a secret weapon – also a Dalek!

The story plays out in a similar way to Victory in that, initially, no one believes the Doctor – that is until the killing starts. Eventually , though, the story does divert from Victory mainly with a massive firefight between the Daleks and British and German soldiers across No Man’s Land (whereas, Victory dispensed with it’s period setting half way through to focus on the Dalek Paradigm and some modified Spitfires).

As a story is relatively functional and due to the similarities with Victory of the Daleks, doesn’t feel particularly original. It’s by Justin Richards, who I often find to be a bit of a workmanlike author. There’s a lot of elements here which hark back to other Dalek stories and as a consequence it doesn’t feel particularly fresh.

There are a lot of characters too. Oddly, the archaeologist, Angela, that the Doctor takes back to 1917, disappears for a sizeable chunk of the story, to be replaced by Anderson, a soldier, and Mary, a servant at Hellcombe Hall (where the Dalek ‘project’ is based).

The WW1 setting is well-depicted through Mike Collins’s artwork and there are some impressive images such as the Daleks, British and German soldiers fighting in No Man’s Land. The best images though are of the British and German Daleks, designed with era-appropriate tanks in mind. There are some clever touches and it’s clear some real thought has gone into the design – even moreso than the work done for the WW2 Ironside Daleks.

Unfortunately, The Dalek Project suffers from being the latest in a line of (many, many) Dalek stories and, for me, being the latest in a string of WW1-set stories. It doesn’t seem to have many original ideas, either Dalek (secret agents, modified designs, treacherous plotting) or WW1 based (trench warfare, the horrors of WW1, and even the Daleks in the trenches – which already happened in The Great War episode of Dark Eyes). With the obvious comparisons to Victory of the Daleks I still find it a little surprising that BBC Books kept this on their release slate but all Doctor Who is good Doctor Who as long as it entertains for a while and The Dalek Project at least manages that.