The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Evil Of The Daleks
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part One (20/05/07)
A very interesting episode this week. It's a Dalek story (obviously) and they're on contemporary Earth. A man called Edward Waterfield (who may be a Victorian) is, for some reason, helping the Daleks lay a trap for the Doctor and Jamie by stealing the TARDIS and luring them to Waterfield's antique shop. There seems to be a transmat of some sort that Waterfield and the Daleks use in a back room there which may be linked to the 1870s (implied by Waterfield's pristine antiques) - I can only assume that, having chased the Doctor across the universe and throughout time, the Daleks have decided that the best way to bump him off is to set up shop (antique shop!) in the 1960s and just wait for him to turn up. They probably twigged that that's where Ian, Barbara, Polly and Ben came from - plus Susan's fashion sense was always a bit 60s).
Speaking of Polly and Ben, I had no time to miss them this week - their absence in the last story has probably cushioned the blow of their indecently hasty departure. The plot didn't exactly race along but was chock full of clues, red-herrings and mystery. The title kind of gave away the Daleks' involvement, but that didn't matter. This was probably one of the best episodes of this series with more recognisable locations than The Faceless Ones' airport setting - here we had black cabs, coffee houses, contemporary music, and a small collection of (albeit cliché) London types.
The Doctor realised it was a trap but followed the clues anyway. It's a great storyline - someone stealing the TARDIS - and an intelligent (if quick) return for the Doctor's mortal enemies. David Whitacker definitely knows how to write for the Daleks better than their creator did!
On a final note, July 1966 was definitely a bad time for Earth invasions, especially in London, what with WOTAN trying to take over the first ever Internet, the Chameleons kidnapping plane-loads of 18-30s, and now the Daleks on the scene! It's lucky there are still enough Humans about for the 60s to remain swinging! Ah well, no doubt Polly and Ben are busy doing that back at the Inferno...!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Two (27/05/07)
Why is it that the Daleks are incapable of coming up with a straightforward plan? It seems that, due to Edward Waterfield and his super-loopy mate Theodore Maxtible experimenting with mirrors and static electricity in order to create a time machine (yeah, I know...) the Daleks arrived in Canterbury 1866, took Waterfield's daughter Victoria hostage, forced him to travel to London in 1966 to set up an antiques shop whilst stealing the TARDIS and luring the Doctor and Jamie back to 1866 just so that they could use Jamie (who the Daleks have never met but have taken a photo of on the set for The Faceless Ones) in an experiment to extract exactly what it is that Humans have that makes them so bloody difficult for the Daleks to defeat! Couldn't they have just used Edward Waterfield? Or maybe Victoria who, whilst a bit waily, seems perfectly capable of mouthing off at a Dalek. Or even Maxtible's daughter Ruth, or Molly the maid. It seems very contrived. Maybe, when they found themselves on Earth in 1866 in Maxtible's laboratory in Canterbury, they thought "Ooh! This is Earth! Let's see if the Doctor's about! Oh, he's not. Well, let's go forward 100 years - he's bound to turn up then!".
Aside from that, the story's fine, the acting is good (although Maxtible has a way of speaking which suggests he's only just learnt English) and the Direction has built plenty of tension. Shame we're no longer in 1966, but the BBC is always good at costume drama.
I've got used to the Doctor and Jamie now. Jamie isn't as irritating as he was at first and they've developed his character well - on waking up with a banging head in 1866, one of the first things he did was look for something which would establish where and when he was. Of course, now his use as the Daleks' guinea pig is compromised cuz he's been knocked out and carted off by Windsor Davies. So, an interesting story so far, if you ignore the improbable set up.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Three (03/06/07)
The plot may have ground to a halt (not a good sign) but at least there's still plenty to recommend about this story. The Daleks want to monitor Jamie's resourcefulness in an attempt to rescue Victoria from her confinement in the South wing of Maxtible's house. Maxtible has brought along a Turkish heavy called Kemel to stop Jamie if the lethal traps don't kill him first. Meanwhile, Ruth's fiancee may or may not have paid Toby (Windsor Davies) to kidnap Jamie, but whatever, both he and Toby seem totally superfluous to the plot (ie - they're padding).
I have to say both the Doctor and Jamie are very well written in this episode - Jamie blew up at the Doctor for expecting him to do as he was told, unaware that he was being manipulated in this, too. The scene recalled Joanna and Richard I back in Season 2. And now the Doctor's successfully manipulated Jamie into going off to rescue Victoria. This shows a very devious side to the Doctor, not at all like the silly clown we saw when Troughton took over at the start of the series.
Also, Molly is proving to be an interesting character, being friendly and resourceful, helping Jamie break into the South wing. Maybe she'll become the next companion! They haven't had a Victorian Cockney maid, and I reckon she'd work well alongside Jamie. Anyhow, Jamie just encountered Kemel. Like I said, not much progress with the plot, but enough going on to maintain interest.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Four (10/06/07)
The Doctor was hardly in this episode, the action mainly revolving around Jamie's attempt to 'rescue' Victoria Waterfield. After a brief confrontation with Kemel, Jamie and the Turk joined forces to find Victoria. Victoria was moved from her cell to a gallery in a banqueting hall and all of this was watched (infrequently) by the Doctor, who would explain why what Jamie was doing was Human and made him better than the Daleks.
Meanwhile, Ruth found out why her loopy father is helping the Daleks - they've promised him the secret of turning base metal into gold - Edward on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown Waterfield moaned about the Daleks killing Kennedy (no, not that one) and Toby in Episodes Two and Three, Ruth's fiancee shouted at Molly, and Victoria Waterfield repeated her name a lot.
Not much as far as narrative, plot or interesting television goes - more an experiment in how to drag out a story whilst Patrick Troughton has the week off!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Five (17/06/07)
A lot more happened this week. Jamie and Kemel rescued Victoria - sort of. The Doctor injected three dormant Daleks with 'The Human Factor' as was the Daleks' plan, and a lot more of the plot was explained.
Ruth's fiancee's weird behaviour (and point, and presence) was explained - he was under the control of the Daleks. However, the Doctor broke that control and persuaded him to leg it to London with Ruth and Molly. Unfortunately, it appears that Kemel and Victoria have been taken to Skaro by the Daleks. This probably means we're going there next week (for the first time since the first series!).
As for the experimental Daleks with The Human Factor, the episode concluded with them waking up, advancing on the Doctor and starting to play a game...
It's an interesting idea that, once imbued with whatever it is that makes Humans human, an entirely emotionless species would firstly begin to play.. It makes up for the tedium of the last episode (which wasn't so much tedious as seemingly superfluous). Yet again some more good interaction between the Doctor and Jamie, this week over the way the Doctor manipulated the Scot. Stuff like that just adds to the storyline, instead of ignoring the fact that, regardless of the stakes, what the Doctor did really showed him up to be a bit of a bastard. Likewise, a conversation between the Doctor and Waterfield put Waterfield and Maxtible in a similar light. A rather good episode, then, and back to looking forward to next week.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Six (24/06/07)
So, everyone's gone to Skaro this week and whilst the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield attempted to infiltrate the Dalek city, the Daleks set about using Maxtible and Victoria to lure them into a trap. Again. However, the three Dalek experiments (Alpha, Beta and Omega), having finished playing and making friends with the Doctor (who named them) are also on Skaro. The Doctor's convinced that they'll eventually incite a rebellion by asking questions, but the Emperor Dalek has other ideas.
The Emperor tricked the Doctor into distilling The Human Factor so it could work out what The Dalek Factor was. Now it has that, it plans to use the Doctor and his TARDIS to spread The Dalek Factor throughout Human history.
Firstly, so late in the story, they've introduced new ideas and plot which twists what we've seen so far and, secondly, the Emperor Dalek is fantastic! 1) It's huge and looks well impressive! 2) Its booming voice is brilliant!
This episode was really well realised. The Humanised Daleks are great, expressive voices that are wonderfully child-like and so different to what you're used to. Also, having Alpha, Beta and Omega draws into stark contrast how nasty the other Daleks are. A very good episode, once again; possibly the best this season. The only down side is Victoria - I have a feeling that she's Polly's replacement and, to be frank, she's a bit wet and waily. Oh, well. You can't have everything!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Seven (01/07/07)
Wow! They've seemingly killed off the Daleks for good with a massive civil war! The Daleks used Maxtible's greed against him and Dalekised him by making him walk through a doorway which imbued him with The Dalek Factor. Later, they tried to do the same to the Doctor, but... he isn't Human! Well, he's not from Earth, but it amounts to the same.
As the Doctor predicted, Alpha, Beta and Omega exerted their individuality and refused to obey without question. As other Daleks were Humanised thanks to the Doctor's meddling, the Emperor set the Black Daleks on the Humanised Daleks and war broke out. Inevitably, Kemel and Edward Waterfield were casualties, but Maxtible seems to have survived - at least, we didn't see him killed. The Emperor seems to have been destroyed and the Dalek city went up in flames as the Humanised Daleks fought for their right to be individual and ask questions. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria headed back to the TARDIS on the outskirts of the city, and the last of the Daleks blew the living shit out of each other.
I have to say, this season has been the most epic and varied yet, what with a change of lead actor, the weirdness of stories such as The Underwater Menace and The Macra Terror, a re-evaluation of the Daleks in both their stories which has culminated in one of the most grandiose season finales I've seen, and a reiteration of contemporary characters in Polly and Ben with their very 60s outlook and ultimate return home in The Faceless Ones. It was a mixed bag which improved as the season wore on. I'm not too sure about Victoria as yet - considering this was her first story she didn't really come across that well, but time will tell. Hopefully, the quality and variety of the last three stories will continue in the next season. Only two months to wait...
A very interesting episode this week. It's a Dalek story (obviously) and they're on contemporary Earth. A man called Edward Waterfield (who may be a Victorian) is, for some reason, helping the Daleks lay a trap for the Doctor and Jamie by stealing the TARDIS and luring them to Waterfield's antique shop. There seems to be a transmat of some sort that Waterfield and the Daleks use in a back room there which may be linked to the 1870s (implied by Waterfield's pristine antiques) - I can only assume that, having chased the Doctor across the universe and throughout time, the Daleks have decided that the best way to bump him off is to set up shop (antique shop!) in the 1960s and just wait for him to turn up. They probably twigged that that's where Ian, Barbara, Polly and Ben came from - plus Susan's fashion sense was always a bit 60s).
Speaking of Polly and Ben, I had no time to miss them this week - their absence in the last story has probably cushioned the blow of their indecently hasty departure. The plot didn't exactly race along but was chock full of clues, red-herrings and mystery. The title kind of gave away the Daleks' involvement, but that didn't matter. This was probably one of the best episodes of this series with more recognisable locations than The Faceless Ones' airport setting - here we had black cabs, coffee houses, contemporary music, and a small collection of (albeit cliché) London types.
The Doctor realised it was a trap but followed the clues anyway. It's a great storyline - someone stealing the TARDIS - and an intelligent (if quick) return for the Doctor's mortal enemies. David Whitacker definitely knows how to write for the Daleks better than their creator did!
On a final note, July 1966 was definitely a bad time for Earth invasions, especially in London, what with WOTAN trying to take over the first ever Internet, the Chameleons kidnapping plane-loads of 18-30s, and now the Daleks on the scene! It's lucky there are still enough Humans about for the 60s to remain swinging! Ah well, no doubt Polly and Ben are busy doing that back at the Inferno...!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Two (27/05/07)
Why is it that the Daleks are incapable of coming up with a straightforward plan? It seems that, due to Edward Waterfield and his super-loopy mate Theodore Maxtible experimenting with mirrors and static electricity in order to create a time machine (yeah, I know...) the Daleks arrived in Canterbury 1866, took Waterfield's daughter Victoria hostage, forced him to travel to London in 1966 to set up an antiques shop whilst stealing the TARDIS and luring the Doctor and Jamie back to 1866 just so that they could use Jamie (who the Daleks have never met but have taken a photo of on the set for The Faceless Ones) in an experiment to extract exactly what it is that Humans have that makes them so bloody difficult for the Daleks to defeat! Couldn't they have just used Edward Waterfield? Or maybe Victoria who, whilst a bit waily, seems perfectly capable of mouthing off at a Dalek. Or even Maxtible's daughter Ruth, or Molly the maid. It seems very contrived. Maybe, when they found themselves on Earth in 1866 in Maxtible's laboratory in Canterbury, they thought "Ooh! This is Earth! Let's see if the Doctor's about! Oh, he's not. Well, let's go forward 100 years - he's bound to turn up then!".
Aside from that, the story's fine, the acting is good (although Maxtible has a way of speaking which suggests he's only just learnt English) and the Direction has built plenty of tension. Shame we're no longer in 1966, but the BBC is always good at costume drama.
I've got used to the Doctor and Jamie now. Jamie isn't as irritating as he was at first and they've developed his character well - on waking up with a banging head in 1866, one of the first things he did was look for something which would establish where and when he was. Of course, now his use as the Daleks' guinea pig is compromised cuz he's been knocked out and carted off by Windsor Davies. So, an interesting story so far, if you ignore the improbable set up.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Three (03/06/07)
The plot may have ground to a halt (not a good sign) but at least there's still plenty to recommend about this story. The Daleks want to monitor Jamie's resourcefulness in an attempt to rescue Victoria from her confinement in the South wing of Maxtible's house. Maxtible has brought along a Turkish heavy called Kemel to stop Jamie if the lethal traps don't kill him first. Meanwhile, Ruth's fiancee may or may not have paid Toby (Windsor Davies) to kidnap Jamie, but whatever, both he and Toby seem totally superfluous to the plot (ie - they're padding).
I have to say both the Doctor and Jamie are very well written in this episode - Jamie blew up at the Doctor for expecting him to do as he was told, unaware that he was being manipulated in this, too. The scene recalled Joanna and Richard I back in Season 2. And now the Doctor's successfully manipulated Jamie into going off to rescue Victoria. This shows a very devious side to the Doctor, not at all like the silly clown we saw when Troughton took over at the start of the series.
Also, Molly is proving to be an interesting character, being friendly and resourceful, helping Jamie break into the South wing. Maybe she'll become the next companion! They haven't had a Victorian Cockney maid, and I reckon she'd work well alongside Jamie. Anyhow, Jamie just encountered Kemel. Like I said, not much progress with the plot, but enough going on to maintain interest.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Four (10/06/07)
The Doctor was hardly in this episode, the action mainly revolving around Jamie's attempt to 'rescue' Victoria Waterfield. After a brief confrontation with Kemel, Jamie and the Turk joined forces to find Victoria. Victoria was moved from her cell to a gallery in a banqueting hall and all of this was watched (infrequently) by the Doctor, who would explain why what Jamie was doing was Human and made him better than the Daleks.
Meanwhile, Ruth found out why her loopy father is helping the Daleks - they've promised him the secret of turning base metal into gold - Edward on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown Waterfield moaned about the Daleks killing Kennedy (no, not that one) and Toby in Episodes Two and Three, Ruth's fiancee shouted at Molly, and Victoria Waterfield repeated her name a lot.
Not much as far as narrative, plot or interesting television goes - more an experiment in how to drag out a story whilst Patrick Troughton has the week off!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Five (17/06/07)
A lot more happened this week. Jamie and Kemel rescued Victoria - sort of. The Doctor injected three dormant Daleks with 'The Human Factor' as was the Daleks' plan, and a lot more of the plot was explained.
Ruth's fiancee's weird behaviour (and point, and presence) was explained - he was under the control of the Daleks. However, the Doctor broke that control and persuaded him to leg it to London with Ruth and Molly. Unfortunately, it appears that Kemel and Victoria have been taken to Skaro by the Daleks. This probably means we're going there next week (for the first time since the first series!).
As for the experimental Daleks with The Human Factor, the episode concluded with them waking up, advancing on the Doctor and starting to play a game...
It's an interesting idea that, once imbued with whatever it is that makes Humans human, an entirely emotionless species would firstly begin to play.. It makes up for the tedium of the last episode (which wasn't so much tedious as seemingly superfluous). Yet again some more good interaction between the Doctor and Jamie, this week over the way the Doctor manipulated the Scot. Stuff like that just adds to the storyline, instead of ignoring the fact that, regardless of the stakes, what the Doctor did really showed him up to be a bit of a bastard. Likewise, a conversation between the Doctor and Waterfield put Waterfield and Maxtible in a similar light. A rather good episode, then, and back to looking forward to next week.
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Six (24/06/07)
So, everyone's gone to Skaro this week and whilst the Doctor, Jamie and Waterfield attempted to infiltrate the Dalek city, the Daleks set about using Maxtible and Victoria to lure them into a trap. Again. However, the three Dalek experiments (Alpha, Beta and Omega), having finished playing and making friends with the Doctor (who named them) are also on Skaro. The Doctor's convinced that they'll eventually incite a rebellion by asking questions, but the Emperor Dalek has other ideas.
The Emperor tricked the Doctor into distilling The Human Factor so it could work out what The Dalek Factor was. Now it has that, it plans to use the Doctor and his TARDIS to spread The Dalek Factor throughout Human history.
Firstly, so late in the story, they've introduced new ideas and plot which twists what we've seen so far and, secondly, the Emperor Dalek is fantastic! 1) It's huge and looks well impressive! 2) Its booming voice is brilliant!
This episode was really well realised. The Humanised Daleks are great, expressive voices that are wonderfully child-like and so different to what you're used to. Also, having Alpha, Beta and Omega draws into stark contrast how nasty the other Daleks are. A very good episode, once again; possibly the best this season. The only down side is Victoria - I have a feeling that she's Polly's replacement and, to be frank, she's a bit wet and waily. Oh, well. You can't have everything!
The Evil Of The Daleks - Part Seven (01/07/07)
Wow! They've seemingly killed off the Daleks for good with a massive civil war! The Daleks used Maxtible's greed against him and Dalekised him by making him walk through a doorway which imbued him with The Dalek Factor. Later, they tried to do the same to the Doctor, but... he isn't Human! Well, he's not from Earth, but it amounts to the same.
As the Doctor predicted, Alpha, Beta and Omega exerted their individuality and refused to obey without question. As other Daleks were Humanised thanks to the Doctor's meddling, the Emperor set the Black Daleks on the Humanised Daleks and war broke out. Inevitably, Kemel and Edward Waterfield were casualties, but Maxtible seems to have survived - at least, we didn't see him killed. The Emperor seems to have been destroyed and the Dalek city went up in flames as the Humanised Daleks fought for their right to be individual and ask questions. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria headed back to the TARDIS on the outskirts of the city, and the last of the Daleks blew the living shit out of each other.
I have to say, this season has been the most epic and varied yet, what with a change of lead actor, the weirdness of stories such as The Underwater Menace and The Macra Terror, a re-evaluation of the Daleks in both their stories which has culminated in one of the most grandiose season finales I've seen, and a reiteration of contemporary characters in Polly and Ben with their very 60s outlook and ultimate return home in The Faceless Ones. It was a mixed bag which improved as the season wore on. I'm not too sure about Victoria as yet - considering this was her first story she didn't really come across that well, but time will tell. Hopefully, the quality and variety of the last three stories will continue in the next season. Only two months to wait...
As good a writer as David Whitaker is, he 'does a Moffat' here by taking successful elements of his last story and only slightly redressing them for the new one, with inevitably diminished results. It's not a bad story by any means, but as you point out it does drag and sag in the middle, and would have made an incredibly taut four-parter. Even as a six-parter it would have benefitted from having the fat trimmed.
ReplyDeleteWaterfield is to this story as Lesterson was to The Power of the Daleks, only with even more hand-wringing. His daughter shows flashes of feistiness but is mostly as limp as lettuce, although to be fair she probably would be under the circumstances.
I think Victoria is an interesting addition to the growing back catalogue of companions in that she's not a willing traveller in the TARDIS. Unlike everyone before her (except possibly Katarina) she has the position forced upon her through circumstance and spends the next year scared out of her wits but still showing the glimpses of feistiness we see in this story. Sam and Mollie would have been far better companions, in my opinion, but Pauline Collins didn't want to and Jo Rowbottom seemingly wasn't asked. Evil is far from as great as Power, but keeps you interested by having plenty of atmosphere and using the BBC's ability to do great costume drama to make the padded episodes at least look good. It also helps having three very different locations throughout the story. Perhaps an extra episode in modern London or on Skaro would have been preferable to over three episodes of Victoriana, but then again the final two parts set on Skaro really do feel epic and tense. Not quite as stunning as its reputation, but still bloody good!
DeleteI know Pauline Collins declined the offer of staying on permanently, but I also wonder whether the idea of a gobby Liverpudlian as a full-time companion [would have] sat well with the powers-that-be on the upper floors.
DeleteWell, they did get Jackie Lane to tone down the Northern because they were concerned nobody would understand her. Yet they let Fraser Hines do 'Scottish', so who knows!
DeleteYeah, but look how much they toned that down between his first and second stories!
Delete