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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, February 23, 1974

Production Code

XXX

Written by

Terry Nation

Directed by

Michael E. Briant

Runtime

100 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Traps

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Working for UNIT

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Sonic Screwdriver

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Exxilon

Synopsis

An energy drain traps the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith on the planet Exxilon with its hostile natives, causing the travellers to make an uneasy alliance with a Marine Space Corps expedition and a squadron of Daleks. The key to escape for all of them lies at the heart of a powerful and mysterious lost city, but only if they can navigate a series of deadly traps.

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4 Episodes

Part One

First aired

Saturday, February 23, 1974

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Terry Nation

Directed by

Michael E. Briant

UK Viewers

8.1 million

Appreciation Index

61

Synopsis

The barren planet Exxilon, some time in the future. The TARDIS is forced down by a total power failure and the Doctor and Sarah meet a stranded Earth crew who came here to mine for priceless medical supplies. But what is causing the power failures? And why have the Daleks come here too?


Part Two

First aired

Saturday, March 2, 1974

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Terry Nation

Directed by

Michael E. Briant

UK Viewers

9.5 million

Synopsis

The Doctor and the MSC crew join forces with the Daleks to mine the parrinium, only to come under attack from the Exxilons.


Part Three

First aired

Saturday, March 9, 1974

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Terry Nation

Directed by

Michael E. Briant

UK Viewers

10.5 million

Appreciation Index

61

Synopsis

The Doctor and Sarah meet up with Bellal, who helps them escape from the Daleks and explains the origin of the City.


Part Four

First aired

Saturday, March 16, 1974

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Terry Nation

Directed by

Michael E. Briant

UK Viewers

9.5 million

Appreciation Index

62

Synopsis

The Doctor and Bellal continue to penetrate the City's defences while Sarah and Jill try to stop the Daleks leaving with the parrinium.



Characters

How to watch Death to the Daleks:

Reviews

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11 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Terry Nation has brilliance in him - but this is not brilliant. Whilst not without merit, this is pretty boring/ average Doctor Who in the shape of a boy's adventure tale. I loved The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth but since then I've been disappointed with Nations' The Chase and The Daleks' Master Plan which seemed to wander aimlessly. Then The Planet of the Daleks and this, Death to the Daleks which have both have good moments but quite a plain generic flavour (to my tastes). I am still waiting for Nation's triumphant return.

I was particularly disappointed with Sarah Jane's depiction in this story. Her first two adventures introduce her as a professional journalist with a strong will, more of an equal to The Doctor than Jo Grant. Here she is a wet pushover, there to scream and ask questions - what a shame.

The unique aspect of the story which worked was the power drainage that was felt throughout the planet. The holidaymakers/ power cut scene in the TARDIS at the beginning of episode one was beautifully shot and refreshingly different - it was nice to see the lighting played around with so effectively. The Dalek guns as an alternative for their usual weapons was another brilliant consequence of this concept.

The Exxilons are dreadfully boring creatures without any defining features - they are bland and uninspiring. The "nice" one was embarrassingly overacted, mawkish and had bizarre movements making it impossible to get into the story. The "bad" ones left less of a negative impact - but they felt like they were just filling screen time chasing our heroes. Does anyone love these creatures? Also, side note, when the Exxilon is on fire and in that pond, why did it not extinguish the flames before dying? It decided to stay stood up and burn to death - completely bizarre.

I liked that the guest human characters had to make tough decisions and as a viewer we are left to decide how moral the individual's actions are. I wish this moral complexity was visible elsewhere in the script.

This was not the first story to include tasks which our heroes to navigate in order to get to the next stage. These tasks do not translate to TV well at all - they are disinteresting and as dull as dishwater.

I didn't hate this story, but I just cannot feel the passion in Nation's writing which was so clearly visible in his initial 1960s Dalek adventures.


15thDoctor

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This review contains spoilers!

This had a lot of potential.  At first I was really excited by the idea of the Daleks being off balance in this story.  Lacking their usual power, it really looked like they would need to make a sort of uneasy truce with the Doctor and humans to survive on a strange alien world.  That idea has a lot of potential for a story.  Unfortunately in execution, it feels like a bit of an unfocused mess.  The Doctor and Sarah Jane remain strong here, but the story and everything around them is pretty lacklustre.  I did like the design of the Type V Daleks used here.  They just stand out a little bit and help them being taken seriously in a story where they kind of aren't the biggest threat.  There are fun moments to that but it really doesn't come together.  The aliens look way too goofy for me to take them seriously and too many of these episodes end on awkward little cliffhangers that kept taking me out of the story.  I didn't have a good time with this one.


dema1020

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This review contains spoilers!

Death to the Daleks gets its 2.5 stars generously rounded up to 3, because the idea of a living city as seen in the final part was fun! I liked the eerie antibodies, I liked it screaming in pain, the puzzles were far too easy to warrant the drama given to them but I guess you can't have it all.

The rest of the serial was. not good. It wasn't even bad it was worse than that: it was boring. The human crew only really got interesting near the end, the way the indigenous species of the planet was treated was bad, and the Daleks could have been any other villain and it would have worked the same. I've previously said that everyone thinks they can write a Dalek story and few people actually can, and this was an example of that

The Daleks having a little TARDIS they use as target practise was an inspired choice though, fair play


greenLetterT

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This review contains spoilers!

This one really doesn't shine, does it? And I'm a Dalek enjoyer, so that's saying something. Sarah's first Dalek encounter too, and it was disappointing. It was a bit hard to get through since the plot was so slow. The build up with Galloway being sketchy doesn't really go anywhere, which was strange. Fantastic make up on the Exxilons, though, and some funny Dalek dying scenes. The "mental challenges" of the city were hilarious (ep. 3 ending on a dramatic zoom of the patterned floor killed me); gotta hand to Pertwee for acting it out with such seriousness. I would have loved seeing the Daleks solve that hopscotch challenge (that city was breaking many accessibility laws!), but yes, shooting it was more in character.


mndy

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it lives up to the title ig. the Daleks do get killed in hilarious ways but that's about it for the good parts. overall the story is just a slog to get through and comes across as half baked. the living city is a brilliant concept and I wish it was delivered better as it completely fell flat on delivery.


kawaii2234

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Statistics

AVG. Rating459 members
2.84 / 5

Member Statistics

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Favourited

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Reviewed

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Saved

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Skipped

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Quotes

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(The Doctor is twirling a large, colourful beach umbrella, and singing.)

DOCTOR: Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside, I do like to be beside the sea.

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Transcript Needs checking

Part One

(On a blue lit planet, a man dressed in what appears to be a spacesuit is staggering through a difficult terrain. He pauses for breath and is shot in the side by an arrow, then collapses and tumbles down a slope into a small pool.)

[TARDIS]

(The Doctor is twirling a large, colourful beach umbrella, and singing.)

DOCTOR: Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside, I do like to be beside the sea.


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