Next we have The Elite from The Lost Stories range, the first in the series to adapt one of the Fifth Doctor’s lost scripts and we truly lost a marvel with this story. Honestly one of the most unique stories that show would’ve done had it made it to screens.

Fresh off Tegan returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor sets a course for the planet Florana when of course something knocks the TARDIS off track and they crash land somewhere unknown. As they explore they find a dystopian society where the young are ruthlessly trained from childhood in war-like computer programmes to launch attacks on insurgents across the planet and those of the middle age or above are discarded. All this is done under the wisdom and guidance or their high priest who fell from the sky ten years earlier claiming to have been sent by the gods.

I debated whether or not to go into spoilers as the midway reveal is so well executed but if I don’t then my talking points pretty much stop here outside of giving this a high recommendation. The Elite is such an intense and mean-spirited story that just never lets up with the dangers our main characters are in, such as this wonderfully demented scene where the Doctor is almost killed on the spot for offering the schoolchildren chocolate. Anyways, spoilers ahead!

The reveal halfway through is that the High Priest is actually a lone damaged Dalek who spends most of the story separated from its casing and has influenced the society into adopting Dalek ideology. There’s a lot of elements you’ll recognise from stories like Dalek, Jubilee or Resolution in presenting just how much damage a single Dalek can cause but The Elite takes the approach of showing the ideological chaos a single Dalek can create when its conventional weapons are of no use and its only option is to manipulate the inhabitants through religion into giving it a position of power over them. It’s amazing that this story was almost produced for the show as it’s very unlike any Dalek story that had been done at this point, the Dalek itself isn’t even focused that heavily on, it’s not even involved in the climax! The story instead focuses more on the fanatical followers who’ve perpetuated this society and have faith in the eventual arrival of the cleansing fires the Dalek has prophesised. Between this and the criminally underrated Enightenment, had it been made, Barbara Clegg would’ve been looked at as one of the top writers for the show.

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

Previous Story: Gobbledegook

This story starts off immensely strong, The Fifth Doctor's character is much stronger than we've ever seen before, he's flippant and confident. He doesn't put up with the locals here and I don't blame him given their questionable ideals. I love how he takes charge of the situation in a way I haven't really witnessed since Tom Baker.

The major twist, though I saw it coming from a mile away was absolutely fantastic. The Daleks are not heavily advertised in this story which I appreciate, the only hint you'd get is the Dalek creature on the cover but even that could be mistaken for one of the numerous aliens of the Whoniverse.

I think this is quite possibly the best version of the Nazi/Dalek allegory, I've always thought that would be the most logical step for the Daleks, as they've been spiraling into generic screaming robots ever since 1963. What better would way to make them feel fresh but to truly dial up the fascism.

The ending was a bit fast and I feel like more could have been done, but that final reveal at the end that they were on Florana the whole time was another great twist this story had to offer. It's also a fun conclusion to the constant teases of Florana since the Third Doctor's era, as he's finally visited with his companions (though I know he's done it in other mediums before this).

I can't say this is my favourite Dalek story, it might be, but there's just so many I'd have a hard time remembering what's good or not. Still, I have to commend this story for truly making them feel unique again, quite possibly the biggest challenge anyone writing Doctor Who has.

Next Story: Hexagora