Abslom Daak

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Doctor Who universe character
Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer
Abslom Daak
Affiliated with	None
Race	Human
Home planet	Not named
Home era	26th century
First appearance	Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer
Last appearance	Emperor of the Daleks
Portrayed by	None

Abslom Daak (sometimes misspelled "Absalom Daak") is a fictional character who appeared in the Doctor Who Weekly comic strip based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a Dalek Killer, or DK, a convicted criminal given a reprieve from the death penalty in exchange for fighting the alien creatures known as the Daleks. He was created by Steve Moore and Steve Dillon. The canonicity of the comic strips, like other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear.

Daak was introduced in the comic strip Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer, published in Doctor Who Weekly #17-#20. Convicted of "23 charges of murder, pillage, piracy, massacre and other crimes too horrible to bring to the public attention" in the mid-26th Century, when the galaxy was embroiled in the Dalek Wars, he was given the choice between being vapourized or entering into exile and becoming a Dalek Killer. Transported to the planet Mazam which was under attack by the Daleks, he destroyed a Dalek task force single-handedly and rescued the Princess Taiyan, with whom he fell in love. Tragically, however, she was killed by a Dalek survivor that Daak had overlooked, leaving Daak grief-stricken and vowing to exterminate every Dalek in the galaxy.

Daak pursued this vendetta in subsequent installments of his comic strip, taking on a crew called the Star Tigers and slicing a destructive swathe through the Dalek armies, often armed only with an energy pistol and his personal chainsword. He remained a tough-talking ruffian, almost psychotically eager for battle. The Daleks considered him the greatest enemy they had, together with the Doctor.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

He met the Seventh Doctor in Nemesis of the Daleks, which ran in Doctor Who Magazine #152-#155. Landing on the planet Hell, the Doctor found Daak, whose ship had crashed there while investigating Dalek activity. They found the Daleks mining a deadly gas from the planet, taking it up to an orbital Dalek Death Wheel to build a genocide machine. Daak sacrificed himself by flying a captured Dalek hovercraft into the Wheel's reactor core, destroying the Wheel and the Dalek's plans.

Daak's next appearance was in the 1993 Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit by Peter Darvill-Evans. In that, a cryogenically frozen Daak was revived by Ace and the Seventh Doctor, presumably before his death in Nemesis of the Daleks. Eventually it was revealed that this Daak was a clone, and he was killed while saving Ace from the gestalt intelligence named Pool.

The original Daak reappeared in Emperor of the Daleks (DWM #197-202), where he was plucked out of time just before his moment of death by the Daleks and used to locate and lead the Seventh Doctor into a trap. Eventually he discovered that he had been tricked, and aided the Seventh Doctor in defeating the Daleks once more.

Daak's experiences after that have yet to be revealed. Despite his canonical status being unclear, as he has not appeared in the television series, he has proven an enduring supporting character in the extended Doctor Who universe and one of the few that has crossed over into other spin-off media. He has been mentioned and made several cameo appearances in various short stories and novels. The comic strips featuring Daak up to Nemesis of the Daleks were reprinted as a graphic novel, along with a short story by Steve Alan.

[edit] Other appearances

He has also been featured in a series of fan-produced audio plays. A former Dalek Killer, Máire, is a character in the novel Love and War, by Paul Cornell.

1990 saw the release of "The Theme from Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer", composed by Dominic Glynn (who had been responsible for the Doctor Who theme music arrangement for The Trial of a Time Lord) and Martin Smith, and performed by The Slaves of Kane. It was released as part of a promotional flexi disc in Doctor Who Magazine and subsequently released in various mixes on two singles.

Two lines from Daak's stories are echoed in the 2005 Doctor Who series. A variant of "Whatcha gonna do now, big shot? Suck me to death?" appears in Dalek, and "I'm gonna kill every last stinking Dalek in the galaxy!" is similar to the Doctor's promise at the closing of Bad Wolf. This may be a deliberate in-joke.