Day 85 — March 26th 2021
The Evil of the Daleks Episodes Five and Six
The Evil of the Daleks — Episode Five
I quite like it when Doctor Who’s companions fall out with him. We’ve not really seen an awful lot of it so far. Barbara went in on him a few times and called him out for whatever bullshit he happened to be pulling that week, and Steven gives him a good dressing down at the end of the Massacre, but apart from that his companions either tend to love him or just write off any ill behaviour as one of his eccentricities. So it’s nice to see Jamie have a go in this one;
Doctor Who: ‘Well, Jamie, the experiment’s nearly over. I’ve had no sleep. I’ve been up all night, but it’s been worth it.’
Jamie: ‘Och, don’t touch me!’
Doctor Who: ‘Oh, now what’s the matter?’
Jamie: ‘Anyone would think this was a little game.’
Doctor Who: ‘No it is not a game.’
Jamie: ‘Of course it isn’t, Doctor. People have died. The Daleks are all over the place, fit to murder the lot of us, and all you can say is you’ve had a good night’s work.’
Doctor Who: ‘Jamie.’
Jamie: ‘No, Doctor. Look, I’m telling you this. You and me, we’re finished. You’re just too callous for me. Anything goes by the board. Anything at all.’
Doctor Who: ‘That’s just not true, Jamie. I’ve never held that the end justifies the means.’
Jamie: ‘Words! What do I care about words? You don’t give that much for a living soul except yourself.’
Doctor Who: ‘I care about life. I care about human beings. Do you think I let you go through that Dalek test lightly?’
Jamie: ‘I don’t know. Did you? Look, Doctor, just whose side are you on?’
Rather brilliantly, following Jamie’s final line there three Daleks glide into the room and Doctor Who introduces them as his friends. It’s probably the single most powerful moment of the whole story — it certainly is so far — and it’s the kind of gorgeous dialogue I’m more used to from David Whittaker.
I can’t help feeling that it all comes a little out of nowhere, though. Jamie takes against the Daleks and turns on his friend very quickly and without much context for him. It feels strange, given how loyal he’s been to Doctor Who up to now (especially in The Faceless Ones), but that doesn’t take away from how powerful the scene is.
As for the rest of the episode… oh, look, I’m trying. I really am. But there’s just now very much here to grab me, and I can’t honestly say I’m enjoying it all that much. I’ve not got a lot written down in my notes today besides saying how great the argument is. I’m gonna leave this one with a 4/10 and move on…
The Evil of the Daleks — Episode Six
The design of the Skaro city in this story looks to be beautiful. We’ve lots of images of the Dalek Emperor’s ‘Throne Room’ (for want of a better phrase), and it’s really effective. I’m the kind of person who’d usually be sat here saying ‘it’s such a shame it doesn’t look like the city we saw in The Daleks’, but I don’t really care. It’s iconic in its own way here.
It’s also quite impressive to realise that this is the first planet — aside from Earth — which Doctor Who has returned to in the series. We’ve seen him arrive on planets he’s visited before (like Dido), but this is the first time we’ve seen him visit a planet that we’d also visited in an earlier adventure. The implication is certainly that this is the same city we saw before, too, as Doctor Who knows of the secret tunnel into the city (‘how long have you known that’s there?’ asks Jamie. About 130 episodes, I reckon). There’s something quite special about imagining that this is the same tunnel Ian and Barbara used to sneak in all that time ago.
I also like to imagine that the Dalek Emperor was there in that earlier story, too, although presumably it’s set later in the Daleks’ time line than this. In my head, a handful of Daleks survive the battle in the next episode, the city goes into lockdown with the Emperor destroyed, and then millions of years later the TARDIS arrives and The Daleks happens. I can’t tell you why it amuses me to think of the burnt out casing of the Emperor sitting there while William Hartnell is wandering around amuses me… but it does!
And yes, the Emperor is a great design as well, but I always think it’d end up a little disappointing if we were to ever actually find these episodes. It looks really impressive and huge when photographed, but in shots where a Dalek prop strays a little close it gives away that it’s not quite as large as I always picture.
I wonder if any thought was given to using the Golden Emperor seen in the TV Century 21 comics? The comics had finished publication about six months before this story was being made, and were of course written by David Whittaker, so he’d certainly have the image in the back of his mind somewhere. The camera script describes the Emperor as ‘A vast Dalek, standing at one end of the room’, which certainly describes what we got, but could also apply to the one with the big dome.
It amused me no end a couple of years ago when a new picture came to light showing that the top of the Emperor Dalek is made from the same moulds as the Chumblies were for Galaxy 4, and I’m genuinely amazed that there’s not yet been a story that links the two. Surely it’s only a matter of time?
Another 4/10 for this one, I’m afraid. There’s some great moments — I like Doctor Who gloating that he’s won, only to have the Emperor reveal that he’d got it wrong all along, and actually he’s helped the Daleks to win — but it’s still just boring me a little. I think I’m mostly disappointed that after The Power of the Daleks showed that Whittaker was the person to do the Dalek stories, I’m finding this one so naff.
We get a couple of clear shots of the TARDIS in this episode, showing the ‘Pull to Open’ panel on the wrong side of the prop. I always used to think that the tele-snaps had just been flipped, so it was exciting to discover that, no, it was an actual thing! I once had to do a comic cover for a story featuring the Second Doctor Who from this period and I purposely flipped the panel on the TARDIS for it. A note came back from the BBC that I’d put the panel on the wrong side and I didn’t feel even slightly bad doing an ‘ah, actually…’ in reply!
