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-25th 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 left-over Dalek, 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 second greatest enemy they had, after the Doctor.

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.

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.

External links

• Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer website