The Dalek reveal halfway was a nice surprise, but this story will mostly be remembered by me as a big runaround. Nothing much happens beyond planetary invasions and action sequences including a massively overpowered K9.

The story is home to the first non-white companion of any format which is a big milestone for the show. Unfortunately she is horrendously underused / just there for the ride.

Sharon, our new companion, get her first outing here and gets to do..... absolutely nothing, it's like they just forgot she was there.

The wereloks are fairly bog standard monsters, but they're pretty fun for what they are and there's some good moments with them. Their initial attack infecting some people who they let get away to turn when they're on the inside, and I think the highlight of the story was Four's turning into a werelok for a minute. I like how he uses the TARDIS as a lab, it taking three months to make the cure, but him them coming back in 10 minutes real time. That whole sequence of the monster within destroying the equipment to stop him while he's fighting for control, K9 zapping him when he goes too far, is great.

And then there's the Daleks..... Their plan here just feels really off, they're using the wereloks to clear the planet, reasonable so far, but they want to turn it into a breeding ground? It's never really explained why they want to use New Earth for it and not anywhere else, if anything there's reasons given that it might not be a good idea with new Earth being smaller than Earth. Also like, is there anything wrong with Skaro at this point in continuity? And then on top of that, they want to take parts of other creatures and add them to daleks to make them even more sly or cunning or whatever they're taking, which like, goes against the entire point of the daleks?

The hypnotised werelok also just didn't work for me, he keeps too much of his personality and that to feel like he's just been hypnotised, it feels like they wanted to use one as a temporary companion, but didn't want to have to introduce a good one because that goes against them too much and so they just did this which ends up feeling a little lazy.

The Dogs of Doom - ★★☆☆☆

I don't like the aesthetic. The way the werelox look was obviously intentionally disturbing, but it being intentional doesn't make me hate it any less. And I consider it a personal attack because werewolves are one of my favourite horror creatures ever, and almost every time Doctor Who do a take on them I don't like it much. But this one is just... ugh. I also don't appreciate one of them becoming a central character and then being the comic relief because of the contrast of crazyness and violence going on, just not my thing.

I have to admit to that cliffhanger of the Fourth Doctor transforming in one of them is gold. That part of trying to find a cure is the best one too.

It also has this aesthetic my mind insists in calling 90s' (this is actually how I picture VNA's Ace vibe being without having read any of them yet) even though this was written in the 70s' and I logically know, however limited my fashion knowledge may be, it much more representative of the 70's than the 90's... not my cup of tea. I don't like tea at all, actually. It's also one of those that feels a bit 2000 AD, but this one fits Doctor Who a bit better tho.

What I like is Babe. She is a sweetheart, I cared when for a second I thought they were going to kill her. Perhaps they should've, since it ends up being so gutless for what turns out to be a DALEK story. And that's is another problem I have with The Dogs of Doom. Let's actually talk premise.

The worst werewolf-adjacent species in the history of fiction is causing chaos throughout space, going planet by planet infecting innocent humans that suffers through the worst fate anyone can go through: becoming a werelox too. I hate it, but it's a fun "invasion" story that was playing with "zombie tropes but make it the ugliest werewolves ever to exist". Then by the middle of the road all we meet the Daleks, who are of course behind it all.

The story ends up much less fun than it was to that point simply because we know who the Daleks are, and they are a much more serious threat than the werelox. Not only that, but as much as I dislike the creatures themselves the elements of horror and cruelty at the first half coming from them were actually efective, but introducing the Daleks just make them even less serious because now they are just scared (psycho) pawns. There is just a whiplash by the villain swap that I dislike.

Also, Sharon doesn't do anything.

This is the last of the Pat Mills/John Wagner run and given that I enjoyed their other three stories, I wish they ended with a stronger one.