This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Final Phase

We start off the season with a half-baked Genesis of the Daleks sequel that completely undermines everything that was good about the original.

I'll get the positives out of the way, Lalla Ward as Romana II is instantly brilliant and her chemistry with Tom Baker is great. I like that her introduction mirrors Romana I's introduction, with her just appearing. The Doctor is as witty as usual and his scenes with Davros are quite funny.

But that's the issue, it's not meant to be funny. Genesis was so good because Davros posed a real threat, he was competent and cunning with a solid helping of malice. This story strips all of that away and turns him into a comedy character that gets wheeled around and pushed aside. He lacks all the depth that he had in the last story, gone is the feeling that he might even match the Doctor's abilities, instead he's reduced to a caricature of himself.

The main plot is boring aswell and while I think the Movellan design is really good, they don't feel at all like a genuine enemy of the Daleks, this story also implies that the Daleks are robots which goes against their whole point.

"Shut up or I'll switch you off."

Next Story: City of Death