The Dalek Conquests

There was a time, not that long ago, when I couldn't imagine listening to an audiobook in any other format than on cassette tape.

Then last October, disaster struck and I swore off cassette tapes forever! I'd had enough with them breaking, snagging in the workings of the tape player, the variable audio quality and so on.

But what to replace them with? I had - and still have - a big complaint about "books on CD". You can't bookmark them in any way. A tape will obviously start again where you last stopped it, but a CD always goes back to the beginning when you turn it off. So with audio books you have to aim to finish at the end of a particular track/chapter and then remember which one the next time you start the CD.

However, technology has moved on and - slowly - so have I. I have finally entered the 21st Century and downloaded a couple of audiobooks from iTunes, direct into my iPod! A big step for me.

At the weekend, while staying over at Rachel's parents', I listened to my first book all the way through: The Dalek Conquests, by Nicholas Briggs.

This is a history of The Doctor's archenemies, peppered with clips from the TV series, written and read by Briggs (the voice of the modern Daleks and, I believe, one of the founders of Big Finish).

The Dalek Conquests walks the listener through all the Dalek stories from their first appearance through to the end of Christopher Eccleston's short run as the ninth Doctor.

Unfortunately for anyone trying to weave a consistent mental picture of these creatures' evolution "in universe", this documentary follows their history as it unfolded on the television. Therefore as soon as the Daleks developed time travel skills all bets are off for following the paradox-inducing logic. A more straight-forward summary of Dalek history can be found on the BBC website here.

But that doesn't matter - Brigg's official audio documentary is great fodder for fan speculation and makes an enthralling summary of one of the the most iconic science-fiction alien races.