Day 186 — July 5th 2021
Death to the Daleks Parts One and Two
Death to the Daleks — Part One
I’ve been looking forward to this one. Last season Planet of the Daleks was a surprise hit for me, and while my memories of this one weren’t great they boiled down to ‘great opening episode, weaker later on’. My hopes were that having suddenly discovered a newfound appreciation for the Daleks and, apparently, the writing of Terry Nation this might continue the run of very strong stories in Season Eleven so far.
Oh lord, it wasn’t to be.
The signs that things weren’t going to be to my taste are there right from the start — Season Ten’s gorgeous redesign of the TARDIS has been swept away and replaced with… well, it’s mostly the same parts of the set, but they’ve not looked this drab since Season Eight was giving us an assorted jumble of stock pieces. Because the TARDIS is losing power, they’ve not backlit the roundels this time around, which makes the walls look flat and dull. The large panes of glass behind the scanner are gone, and an assortment of things have been chucked in — a hole for the crank handle and a flashing light by the door — which sort of look like afterthoughts.
Perhaps the thing which wound me up the most about this set — which is ridiculous, really, as no one should really care that much — is when we get a close up of an Exxilon’s hand on the floor. They’ve not made any attempt to paint the floor of the TARDIS, or even to give it a sweep before zooming in for the shot. It looks like a grubby studio floor, which rather spoils the illusion.
It’s a shame because we spend quite a while inside the ship in this episode, and I think the previous design of the Control Room would have been perfect for this sequence. There’s some lengthy shots of Pertwee and Sladen illuminated just from a single light from above which look quite good (because you can’t see the rest of the set…!), but wouldn’t it have looked so much better if the only light source were the ones cast behind the scanner in Season Ten? Add a faint glow behind the roundels so you still have some sense of the space and I think you’d be onto a winner.
Instead, this feels like they couldn’t be bothered, and decided that since the ship needed to have the power drained anyway it didn’t really matter what it looked like. It’s doubly sad that this is the first time we’ve seen Sarah Jane inside the TARDIS — was it this underwhelming when she snuck aboard in The Time Warrior?
In fairness, I should say that the idea of an Exxilon creeping up on Sarah in the deserted and darkened TARDIS is genuinely scary. We’ve still not had many instances of enemies breaking into the ship, so when they do it’s a big deal. When it’s shot a bit like a horror film, doubly so!
Interestingly a lot of the things I’m going to complain about in this story are things which I praised in Planet last week. Specifically it’s the way that this story feels like a throwback to the 1960s. I don’t know if it’s just that I got my nostalgia fix from that story, so this now feels redundant, or if it’s just me remembering that not everything in 1960s Doctor Who was brilliant.
It’s Terry Nation doing all his usual beats again, so we’ve a character with the name ‘Tennant’, there’ talk of a space disease, and the Daleks show up at the end of Part One as a cliffhanger reveal which has long been spoiled by their name in the titles. I can’t even say I’m pleased to see the Daleks returned to their traditional silver colouring, because pairing it with black does very little for them.
I don’t just want to complain, though, so I will say that the ‘night’ sequences outside the TARDIS are rather good. The studio set matches up well enough with the location, and both create a pleasingly alien planet that feels genuinely dangerous. The Exxilon’s camouflage works well in the darkness, and there’s some nicely framed shots where you see them scurrying about in the background which makes them feel like an ever-present threat.
We don’t get an awful lot of dialogue during the early sequences of our heroes exploring the planet with lots of ambient sound instead. If I were being uncharitable I might suggest it’s indicative of the oft-talked about scenario of Nation turning in fairly slim scripts, but it actually works in the story’s favour. Certainly, those long sequences are the most interesting part of the episode.
When we finally do get introduced to some other speaking characters — and that doesn’t happen until over half way through the episode — they’re paper thin and only really serve to spout exposition. They’re lacking the character and depth on display in Planet of the Daleks, and I can’t say I really care about any of them. Fingers crossed that’ll change as the story goes on.
I’m going with a 4/10 for this one, and hoping that I’d misremembered the story. Maybe it was a poor first episode, and then it picks up?
Death to the Daleks — Part Two
The biggest problem I’m having with Death to the Daleks so far is that it’s really dull. Plenty of things are happening but there’s not a much energy behind any of them, so it all feels like it’s taking an eternity to get anywhere. There was a point today where I had to pause the episode and thought I only had a couple of minutes left to go. No, it turned out I was nine and a half minutes in. It felt like I’d been watching it for an eternity.
If I had to pick out the best example, it would be the attack made by the Exxilons against our heroes (and the Daleks). It should be hugely exciting, with arrows being fired and the very first shot managing to kill one of the guest cast, who you sort of assume is there for the whole story. The creatures then manage to overpower a Dalek and set it on fire! Written down that sounds brilliant, and I bet it was great on paper, but in the finished product it’s just so incredibly flat.
I think the blame for that has to be levied against the director. I’ve a bit of a complicated relationship with Michael Briant. His direction for The Sea Devils was great, and I praised some of the Dutch Angles there as among the best shots the series had given us so far. The Green Death was far less notable but aside from a few dodgy CSO effects it wasn’t bad. This story feels like he’s just not interested, so we end up with the sense that he’s not particularly bothered. And if that’s the case, then why should I be?
The story isn’t helped by the music, composed this time around by Carey Blyton, who’s giving regular composer Dudley Simpson a couple of weeks off. There were moments in the first episode where the music was quite effective — I’ve not got enough musical knowledge to correctly identify the names of the instruments used, but the soundtrack during the night scenes was filled with eerie scrapes. Here, though, he seems to be composing music for a comedy rather than a drama. When our heroes make their way across the planet surface the music which accompanies them would be better suited to a circus tent than a Dalek story.
The Daleks themselves actually get some decent moments in this one, and I think I was a bit quick to critisise the return ot the silver paint jobs during Part One. I certainly don’t think the black highlights do anything to make them look interesting, but it is nice to see them reflecting the light again. Once again they feel like they might genuinely be made of metal.
And the idea that their guns have stopped functioning because of the same power drain that halted the TARDIS is great — it’s a fun way to get out of the cliffhanger, and I think it’s a clever idea for trying to do something different and new with the pepper pots after all this time. Sarah wonders how they manage to keep going if the power’s been drained and Doctor Who explains;
Sarah: ‘If they’re robots, how is it their power’s not affected? They can’t
half move.’
Doctor Who: ‘Because they’re only half robot, Sarah. Inside each of those
shells is a living, bubbling lump of hate.’
Sarah: ‘You mean they’ve got legs?’
Doctor Who: ‘No, they move by psychokinetic power.’
Sarah: ‘I see.’
Doctor Who: ‘Do you?’
Sarah: ‘No.’
It’s a neat enough bit of fluff to explain away a potential issue with the story, but it ended up with me questioning far more than I should do. For example; do they use this psycohinetic power to operate the little lights that flash on the top of their domes, too? I can’t help feeling they may have been better off not giving us an explanation and just leaving it as the guns not working. I’m not sure I’d have wondered about anything else!
The Daleks are also responsible for the most ridiculous — and my favourite — thing in this entire story, when they’re revealed to use little miniature police boxes as target practice on their spaceships! Hah! Oh god, it’s so stupid. It’s probably in the running for the most stupid thing the series has ever shown us. And yet somehow it’s also brilliant and I love it!
I’m afraid it’s a 3/10 for this one.
