Day 257 — September 14th 2021
Destiny of the Daleks Parts One and Two
Destiny of the Daleks — Part One
I don’t think I’ve ever realised just how little the programme relies on the return of old enemies in the 1970s. We’ve had surprisingly few across the last few seasons, and several of the ones we do get are less a case of bringing back ‘old’ enemies, and more about keeping around new ones created for that current era. By my reckoning there’s no returning monsters in Seasons Seven, Thirteen or Sixteen. As for the other eight seasons, most only feature a single returning foe.
The Autons are introduced in Season Seven and return the following year alongside the first appearance of the Master. He goes on to reappear in the next two years and again in Season Fourteen. The Cybermen make a long awaited return in Season Twelve, and the Sontarans return in that same run having first been introduced the year before. The big returnees are, of course, the Daleks. They show up in Season Nine for the first time in five years, and then appear in each of the three seasons which follow, before taking another break only to reappear here.
I was pretty bored of the Daleks by the time The Evil of the Daleks rolled around, so I was surprised by how exciting it was to see them back on screen when I reached Day of the Daleks. To that end I was expecting a similar reaction to them here, but… no. Sadly not. This being a Terry Nation story we’re forced to wait until the very end of the opening episode to see any Daleks in action, but when they show up it’s not especially dramatic or exciting.
I think that might be as much a ‘me’ problem as anything else, because they’ve certainly gone to great lengths to try and make the reveal exciting. Doctor Who only finds out that he’s on Skaro a few seconds before Romana comes face-to-face with the Daleks, and when they arrive on the scene it’s not just a cut to them — they come literally smashing through a wall to corner our companion. It should be a really dramatic moment, but the direction feels so flat that the whole thing doesn’t quite work.
It’s also disappointing that Skaro itself looks a bit… rubbish. Perhaps that’s not fair — it’s a decent enough alien planet, and it’s been so long since we’ve been in a quarry that the whole thing looks quite fresh and alien again. The issue is that I think back to the weird petrified forest of The Daleks, or even the misty battle-scarred landscape of Genesis, and this just looks like any old world by comparison.
It’s not helped by being shot entirely on video, which means it loses some of the grandeur that film always brings to a location shoot, and that’s a shame because the vast majority of this episode is shot out on location. It’s a trade-off; it’s all on video which makes it look a bit cheap, but it also means that we get the use of a Stedicam for the first time, which means that every so often you get shots which are that bit more dynamic than usual. I think on balance I’d trade the increased movement for the gloss of shooting on film. That said, I think the TARDIS looks fantastic parked up among the rocks — it’s shot from a few nice angles, and looks suitably impressive.
I can’t talk about this episode without mentioning the most famous part of it — Romana’s regeneration from Mary Tamm into Lalla Ward. I blow a bit hot and cold on the whole sequence, truth be told. I’ve never been especially bothered by the idea that Romana seemingly goes through several bodies in rapid succession (and I reckon The Christmas Invasion gives the perfect get-out clause by suggesting that appearance is still malleable early in the process), but I think I find the whole thing a bit bizarre. They open the entire season with a lengthy scene to explain the recasting of both companions, and that doesn’t make for the most dramatic beginning (K9’s laryngitis will be used to explain David Brierly taking over in a few stories’ time). I wonder if they’d have been better off ditching the TARDIS scene entirely and instead having Doctor Who be baffled when ‘Princess Astra’ emerges from the TARDIS once they’ve arrived on Skaro.
Better still, I’d have tacked the regeneration onto the end of The Armageddon Factor and do a proper switchover between the two actresses. I know that wasn’t possible due to the circumstances at the time, but it would have saved a lot of messing about!
Overall this ones just a bit flat, and not the exciting return of the Daleks I was hoping for. A 4/10, I think.
Destiny of the Daleks — Part Two
This is the story I’m thinking of when I say that the Daleks looked rubbish in the 1970s. They just look so tatty. I think you can really tell that they’ve spent five years being dragged in and out of storage for a range of different programmes and events, and the budget clearly wasn’t there (even at the very beginning of the new season) to fix them up properly.
It’s most noticable when there’s actual damage to the props, and there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to disguise any of this. One of the Daleks has a very prominent gap between two panels of the ‘skirt’, while another has a dome which sits a couple of inches too high, creating a very obvious gap between the neck and the dome, which I find oddly distracting every time it appears on screen. Bizarrely, they choose to make this the Dalek foregrounded in a number of shots, almost as though they’re inviting you to spot the problems!
I don’t think it helps that three of the four Daleks here have been painted a light grey colour, which just doesn’t look as menacing as the darker versions we had in Genesis, or indeed the single one here which retains the 1975 paint scheme. I’d completely forgotten this particular light grey/black variant, where I think I can pretty much list the colours in every other Dalek outing, and that possibly says something about these ones, too.
The Daleks also feel a bit naff here because… well, they are, aren’t they? In the cliffhanger to Part One, the Daleks barking for Romana ‘Do not move! Do not move!’ doesn’t come across as commanding or powerful, but rather as a bit desperate and scared of her presence. Back in The Dalek Invasion of Earth I loved it when a slightly spooked Dalek had to keep reassuring itself that they were in control despite Doctor Who rocking up, but here it’s just a bit pathetic.
Throughout that exchange — and into the opening scene of this episode — one of the Daleks still has bits of the wall they’ve crashed through hanging from its side. Again, it looks shoddy, like they’ve gotten caught on the scenery. I think that’s another reason that the initial arrival doesn’t quite hold up; you want it to be a clean break through, where this feels as though it needs another take. Moments later, as they lead Romana off through the corridors towards their control room, one of the Daleks bumps into a bit of the set and they don’t bother to cut away, they just leave it in the programme as is. This lot can’t even drive straight, let alone take over the universe…!
The poor overall effect of the Daleks in this one is frustrating, because there’s moments in here when you can really tell that they’re trying to do something interesting with them. The lighting in their control room is fantastic, and really sets it apart from the bright location footage or the stark Movellan spaceship. And there’s a shot late in this episode where they shoot the Dalek from a super low angle and move the camera along in front of the pepperpot and it feels like the most exciting new way of filming them ever. Sadly the effect is slightly spoiled by the framing not quite working, and the top of the Daleks’ dome poking off the top of the screen. I think overall it just feels like they didn’t have enough time for the ambition.
I’m going with another 4/10.
