The Rogue Planet

Another strip, another absence of Mechanoids. This next strip sees the Daleks detecting a rogue planet (no tricky conundrums in this strip’s assigned title). As it heads towards them, the Daleks track it and after a collision with another planet, realise it is heading straight towards them. With a bit of Dalek tech, they manage to deflect the planet and not only have they saved themselves, but they have also managed to send the planet careering off towards the planet of the Mechanoids. Cue evil laugh!

I hadn’t realised that the previous strip, The Archives of Phryne, was actually drawn by yet another different artist – Eric Eden; it’s probably why I felt a little underwhelmed by the strip as the return of Ron Turner’s dynamic, bold, graphic style is very welcome, particularly in a story which doesn’t really have a huge amount of plot.

Fortunately the Golden Emperor is back in his rightful place, but really not a lot actually seems to happen in this comparatively short strip (at only 4 pages long).

What’s interesting is that this is the first time the Daleks have actually been outright victorious for what seems like ages. They are able to save themselves with no loss of Dalek life and set up the potential destruction of their deadliest enemies. It is interesting that their ‘enemy’ for this story is a non-sentient planet simply becoming a threat through natural events. We have yet to see the Daleks properly defeating a sentient enemy, at least not without sacrificing swathes of their own or failing to actually achieve their aims.

Rogue Planet is a better story than the recent strips have been and I’m hoping the following strip, Impasse, continue the upward trend, particularly as it introduces Robot 2K and sees the actual return of the Mechanoids