If you get the chance, you could do worse than give the two-disc Dalek Audio Annual a listen. Read by Nick Briggs, Louise Jameson and Matthew Waterhouse it’s a collection of stories and piece from the 1970s series of Terry Nation’s Dalek Annuals. It’s a bit dated in places but still a decent piece of entertainment in its own right.

The Dalek Audio Annual

The summary from the Penguin product page linked above is:

The Daleks rampage in this collection of vintage stories from Terry Nation’s Dalek Annuals of the 1970s.

Urgent message to all Anti-Dalek Force agents: the Daleks are coming! Defend yourself with The Dalek Audio Annual, packed with exciting tales of galactic terror, global invasion and the adventures of plucky human resistance fighters.

Special ADF agents Nicholas Briggs, Louise Jameson and Matthew Waterhouse will read five stories of battlefield reportage — Terror Task Force, Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!, Timechase, The Doomsday Machine and Report from an Unknown Planet — alongside factual updates on the Dalek War: Dalek Genius, Mark 7 Humanoid Robot, Special Report: Secret Meeting on Skaro and more. All material is authenticated from Terry Nation’s Dalek Annuals of the 1970s.

Order your copy now. It is your duty to remain informed of progress in the ongoing battle between humans and Daleks!

While the science seems very dated (everyone travels by rocket ship across the galaxies) there’s some good stuff here, well read and, ignoring the setup, there’s some good ideas particularly on the second disc. The overall concept is an elite task force, the ADF (Anti-Dalek Force) takes on the Daleks in more subtle ways than just launching vast fleets of ships packed with soldiers. I don’t like the feeling the planets are all very close together but I do find interesting the way it resembles the game Diplomacy. These Daleks are warlike but also politically astute, happy to win by deception and alliance, a subtlety modern Daleks don’t have, preferring to exterminate first and not bother with asking questions at all. It gives a different feel.

It’s a shame there’s no free samples as i suspect people might enjoy these once they get the hang of how they were imagined, and not as part of more modern Doctor Who. There’s no Doctor or any familiar figures in the stories, and the choice of narrators (apart from Nick) somewhat arbitrary.

I enjoyed it; it’s not essential, but it is fun.