Day of the Daleks

Oh start of the crunchy dalek stories of the 70s

I think that Day of the Daleks is a solid, entraining and well-paced serial with a nuanced and interesting plot. The use of time travel is interesting and I think that the Daleks play a more interesting role than many other Dalek stories. I watched the DVD special edition with remastered special effects and new Dalek voices (performed by Nicholas Briggs), both of which I felt were solid and fit in well.

More than any of the fifty-nine stories before Day of the Daleks this is quite obviously meant to be a treat for long time viewers of the show. The Daleks had not been on our screens for five years (unimaginable nowadays). The audience will have been wondering how they would fare against the new Doctor. I must admit it was a bit of a thrill to hear the Doctor's oldest foe exclaim that "The Doctor is an enemy of the Daleks."

To further celebrate the history of the show as we revel in this long awaited return, we see images of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's Doctors projected over Pertwee as he lies strapped down against his will. This is possibly the most self-referential moment of the show so far and it feels well deserved.

The basic plot for this story is a good one; some time travelling renegades travel back in order to kill Sir Reginald Styles, a man who's ancestor wreaks havoc in their own timeline. Unknown to them, by travelling back in time they help create the series of events which they wish to prevent (World War III). The Doctor works this out and uses it to make sure the future is returned to a desirable state.

Anat is another fantastic female leading character for the show, as with Miss Hawthorne from the previous story it really helps lift the show which otherwise suffers from too many male guest actors. I like that she and her co-conspirators are initially portrayed as menacing, but are then shown to have noble reasons behind their actions. I also loved the very funny cheese and wine "rank has its privileges" scene between Jo Grant, Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton. It is character moments and journeys like these that are missing from stories such as The Dominators.

I really enjoyed the moment that The Doctor cleverly began to explain to Jo the reason he often cannot go back in time and meddle with established events, a question which has often boggled the mind of a first time viewer. Jo is told that this is due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, of course The Doctor is cut off before being able to explain this any further, which is an inspiring moment. I do hope they come back to that!

Despite all of the positives to be taken from this story, I am not sure that it really requires the Daleks. Whilst watching I felt like they were a little tacked on. It annoyed me when I later I found out that the original script did not feature the creatures. I feel that they should have been more central to their comeback story. Whilst it was lovely to have some respite from The Master, the Daleks needlessly take on his role as puppet master, a role which was already covered by The Controller. Considering that Day of the Daleks features the brilliant henchmen Ogrons, it is not clear that another alien life form is totally needed. Perhaps their superfluous inclusion would have felt more satisfying if the voices sounded more authentically like their 1960s counterparts. Instead they sound a little weak and silly - an embarrassing approximation which reveals a lack of notes from former production teams indicating the right settings to use on the ring modulator..

Unfortunately, the location filming for this story is particularly bland, contributing to a lack of excitement in the story. The big fight scenes in both the 20th and 22nd Centuries often looked a little boring and cheap as a result. They go in and out of a dull little alley near a river too many times for my liking. If the Daleks have discovered time travel and have all of time and space to go - why would they choose here?

Also, this story marked the first time that Pertwee's Doctor seriously grated on me in certain moments. How many times do we have to hear him pompously bore on about this or that wine's vintage?

Whilst this review is a little negativity heavy. I must say what a pleasure it is that one of the Third Doctor's worst stories still managed to entertain me throughout.

I was pretty excited for Day of the Daleks, with these enemies returning after a long time gone. Has any other show period shown such restraint with the Daleks (even if it was at least partially out of their control)? I'm not sure, but it had served Doctor Who well, enabling them to create a number of new mainstays for the series and build out the world and franchise a little bit. Plus, this serial seemed relatively well reviewed.

All that culminated in a pretty disappointing experience for me overall. It wasn't a terrible story, but I did find it very boring and not really worth following. The Daleks made a good transition to colour and while the production did a decent job of things, I feel like everything else about Day of the Daleks is just mediocre. Nothing exciting regarding time travel, the Daleks don't have a particularly unique scheme here in my opinion, and none of the characters really get to shine the way I would have hoped. It was a pretty lacklustre experience for me, and without the benefits of nostalgia, it doesn't seem like this serial has much working for it.