The novella “I am a Dalek” by Gareth Roberts was published for the first time in 2006.
The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler are preparing for a trip to the Moon but the Tardis decides instead to materialize in England in the present. As if that weren’t enough, as soon as Rose gets out for what should be a walk on the Moon dressed in a space suit, the Tardis leaves again with the Doctor.
While Rose is still trying to figure out where she arrived, she witnesses a girl being run over by a car. When she rescues her, she sees that the girl seems do be dying but suddenly she heals for unknown reasons. The Doctor is brought close to a dig in which among various Roman relics he recognizes a Dalek.
“I am a Dalek” is the first “Doctor Who” novella in the “Quick Reads” series, consisting of very cheap books around 100 pages each. Buying those books connected to “Doctor Who” makes sense for fans who want to have anything related to the saga, for those who want to try to go beyond the television episodes and for those who want to just try to read a book that’s not too challenging.
For the first book in this series, BBC Books has gone on the safe side with a story about the Daleks, the most iconic “Doctor Who” monsters, written by Gareth Roberts, an expert author who started writing novels related to the classic series in the ’90. Later, he wrote some Big Finish audio adventures, some episodes of the new TV series and also of “The Sarah Jane Adventures”.
“I am a Dalek” is set at an indeterminate moment of the second season of the new “Doctor Who” series with the Doctor and Rose who enjoy traveling to different places and times. In this case, they’d like to go to the Moon but the Tardis has other plans. Gareth Roberts uses various elements introduced in the TV show into an adventure that due to its reduced length has a very high pace reminiscent of the new series.
Despite the limitations due to its length, “I am a Dalek” gives some depth to at least some characters. It’s assumed that the reader is familiar with the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler so Gareth Roberts focuses on the development of Kate Yates, a girl with a complicated past and a genetic inheritance that’s inconvenient to say the least, and Frank Openshaw, one of the archaeologists who are working on a dig in which a Dalek is found.
In some ways, “I am a Dalek” recalls the episode “Dalek” of the first season of the new series in the sense that the threat is caused by a Dalek apparently dead coming back to life. In this novella, however, the story is made more complicated by the discovery of what it tried to do in Roman times, when it arrived on Earth.
In “I am a Dalek”, the awakened Dalek is lethal even if it’s theoretically disarmed and it shows that very soon. The Doctor must face the threat of its ancient enemy but at the same time try to save Kate from its influence. The clash between the Doctor and the Daleks isn’t exactly original but it’s always effective.
Personally, I find that “I am a Dalek” is a good short story because within the limitations of the “Quick Reads” format it successfully tell a fairly sophisticated story with a couple of good characters that has the feeling of the TV show. If you are part the target of these books, I recommend reading it.
