I have to admit, I don't understand the hype for this one. Maybe my expectations were set too high by it recently winning the Best Episode game on the forum, but I did do my best to go in with lowered expectations, knowing I usually don't enjoy Dalek stories all that much. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to enjoy in this serial, but it's far from the best Doctor Who, or even Classic Who, has to offer.

Let's start with the stuff I like:

Ace and the Doctor have established their dynamic and are fantastically consistent. Ace is a lot of fun, going around smashing and blowing up Daleks. I also really like the quiet moment when she finds the "No coloureds" sign and decides last minute not to actually mention it.

Speaking of era-appropriate racism, I liked the scene with the Doctor at the café at night, with the Black man behind the bar sharing his family history. I thought that was handled quite well, and I enjoyed the Doctor's moment of existentialism.

The nostalgia was done really well. A lot of little references that had no effect in the story but also didn't overwhelm or overshadow it. I quite enjoyed them, and challenged myself to find as many as possible.

Now for the things I didn't like:

When you get right down to it, this is a generic Dalek story. We've had Dalek factions fighting each other in the last five Dalek stories, at least. If I wanted that sort of story, I'd have watched Revelation of the Daleks instead. I liked that one better. At least it had interesting side characters.

Speaking of side characters, the ones in this serial were severely underutilised. I didn't feel like I really got to know any of them.

The worst offender was by far Mike. Unlike my beloved Mike Yates, this one is a traitor due to his bigotry, which I find less compelling and also felt wasn't properly addressed. When Ace called him out, she didn't react to his comment about "outsiders" at all, and instead admonished him only for leading her and the Doctor on. When he eventually got his comeuppance, it wasn't because of his beliefs. That comment felt unnecessary in retrospect.

And last but certainly not least, the Dalek designs are a bit of a mixed bag. I like the white ones a lot, but we saw them in the previous story, so I can't really count them as a point towards this one. On the other hand, the Dalek Emperor looks so stupid I fully laughed out loud when it first came on screen, and the Special Weapons Dalek has absolutely no reason for existing.

And the stuff that's neither here nor there:

Ace spent multiple days in 1963 with a red and yellow hammer and sickle patch on her jacket sleeve and no one mentioned it. In the height of the cold war, this teenager is proudly displaying her aligence to the USSR. Personally, I think that's based of her (communist queen), but it is a bit of an anachronism.

In total, this makes for an above average Dalek story. Unfortunately, above average for Daleks is still just a 7/10.