TERRY NATION'S DALEK ANNUALS...

The DALEKS copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

DOCTOR WHO has been one very lucky guy.  If it hadn't been for The DALEKS, it's unlikely the programme would have survived on TV more than a few years after its debut back in the 1960s.  It was the pepper-pot tyrants who virtually created (or at least consolidated) the merchandising arm of the BBC, ensuring the show's survival as a potential cash-cow ripe for financial exploitation.

The Daleks have been immortalised in many different incarnations over the decades.  Transfers, bump'n'go toys, friction-drive, model kits, bubble bath, wallpaper, remote-control, clockwork, banks, games, playsuits, pencil tops, badges, jigsaws, bagatelles, greetings cards, comics, writing paper - you name it and they've probably been it.

This time, however, it's the Dalek Annuals I'm focussing on, and in particular the annuals of the '70s.  Presented here, for your consideration and appreciation, are the front and back covers to the four publications which appeared on newsagents' shelves from 1975 to 1978 - each for the subsequent year obviously.

Look at them, study them, but most of all enjoy them.  Nice, aren't they?  Not all that long ago, the '70s Annuals could still be bought for a reasonable price, but they're now commanding higher amounts.  I suspect that a few uninformed eBayers noticed what the '60s books were fetching and just assumed that the '70s ones must be worth something similar.  

And, for all you completists out there, here are the three books from the 1960s.  The first one introduced the Emperor Dalek, later seen extensively in the back-page TV CENTURY 21 strip, as well as those handy little hoverbouts the Daleks used.