The Evil of the Daleks

“ - You will obey.

- But not without question” 

Fantastique épisode. 

Déjà c’est encore la révolution, avec un final où c’est le doute et l’imagination qui provoquent l’effondrement de tout un empire de terreur et de mort !! 

Mais c’est aussi carrément la plus grande fin possible pour les Daleks. 

Ils ne sont pas déjoués par du pioupiou, des bombes, ou des moulinettes de tournevis. Ils sont simplement déjoués par l’enfance. 

Mai 68 approche, mais en fait même les Daleks affrontent leur jeunesse rebelle ! 

Why is it that Dalek stories in the classic series are so often the best ones? This is the last one for a long time and a lot happens!

The Doctor reveals that he isn't human - a rare piece of character development. I loved the Victoriana feel of the story, with Daleks reaching across time to manipulate events and fully utilising time travel - another rare thing.

The friendly Daleks - Alpha, Beta and Omega were great fun (and not in a silly The Chase way) against the ruthless Daleks, supposedly searching for 'the human factor', this gave the enemies a great send off. There aren't more than a handful of moments in Doctor Who I would like to see returned more than those.

We then get another new companion. II prefer having two companions to three, feeling this dynamic is easier to write for. However, its a shame that they have gone from two gritty and interesting characters like Polly and Ben, who are rarely victims, to someone to another companion who's main purpose is to be vulnerable. We'll see though! Too early to judge.

Good end to the series!

Yet another amazing Dalek story for the Black and White era, and in my opinion the first truly great Second Doctor Dalek story.
I am honestly shocked at the amount of story that David Whitaker manages to squeeze into the seven parts, from the initial mystery to the mature, Victorian drama to the grandiose Sci-Fi finale, this truly feels like three stories in one, all of which are well written and interesting.

The one niggle I do have is the occasional badly delivered exposition, which is a recurring issue towards the middle parts, likely there to make sure no kid is left behind as to the goings on, but they are often quite clunky and just simply restating what has just happened.

But looking beyond that tiny chick, this is an interesting story well delivered with social commentary, an uplifting message, further exploration of The Daleks and their nature, the introduction of The Emperor Dalek (btw, what an amazing voice effect!) and the introduction of new companion Victoria while managing to set up and exploring the feelings and motivation of;
Maxtible - the mad scientist, bent on finding a way to transmute gold no matter the costs;
Waterfield - the man who doesn't want to be here, but his hand is forced as his daughter is kept prisoner;
Kemel - the gentle giant, who is looked down upon by his master, though despite his muteness is clearly quite intelligent and kind;
Jamie - who starts to question whether he is simply a pawn in The Doctor's games, while exploring his brave heart (ho ho) and sense of right and wrong;
Terral - a man somewhat controlled by the Daleks, likely due to his unspecified, deteriorated mental state/mental illness;
The Doctor - trying to fix everything while not annoying anyone too much, playing along as much as he schemes.
And others for flavour, I don't know, I guess I am just in awe at how much is achieved by this story, how well it all ties together and how compelling it all is.

Now, normally something like badly written expository dialogue would knock a point off of the score for a story for me, but I am going to make an exception here because I simply cannot justify giving this story less than a 10.
Truly brilliant.

10/10

Ah, Evil of the Daleks. Who doesn’t love Evil of the Daleks?

Well, me, as it turns out. A fact that gives me no pleasure.

I went into this story expecting something great. This is a story that has been mythologised a fair amount by the fandom at large, but moreso by myself. I expected a fantastic Dalek story in league with DMP and Power of the Daleks, exploring the horror in how great their evil can be in a larger capacity than before, exploring their home planet and ruling systems with the presence of the Dalek emperor. Instead I got a story where Jamie goes through an obstacle course for 3 parts and a forgettable hypnotism mystery plays out in the other 4.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad story. Most everything here is actually very good and well written. Part 1 is especially fun, following on directly from the previous story and not using the TARDIS as a framing device, something which is (thankfully) becoming more common as the show goes on. The central mystery of part 1 is very good, although slightly predictable. And of course the part 1 cliffhanger is brilliant, as always with Dalek stories.

Then, in part 2, we are introduced to the setting we will be trapped in for the next 5 parts. The Edwardian house itself is fine. The story here, again, is good. All the characters are well written and memorable, reminiscent in some ways of the strong supporting cast of Power of the Daleks. Waterfield is very well done, a man who has unwittingly released forces beyond his comprehension that are starting to tear his life apart. He’s very similar to Lesterson. And Maxtible, who acts as the major antagonist for a lot of the serial, is very well acted by Marius Goring.

Again, it’s not…bad. It’s just not as good as it could’ve been. The idea of humanised daleks, as well the daleks weaponizing the concept in reverse, is very interesting. As is the concept of the Dalek Emperor, the giant prop somehow meets any impossible expectations for a ruler of the daleks. The problem is these ideas are trapped in the last part, leaving only 25 minutes to explore them. The rest of the serial is spent in Maxtible’s house and is more interested in Jamie having some action-y scenes than anything else. The fact that the episode is missing doesn’t help this, but what remaining footage does survive of this sequence is not massively engaging.

Again, it’s not bad, just…not as good as it could’ve been. Trying to find positives in what we have, there’s a fairly interesting character dynamic in the doctor outright manipulating Jamie to support the daleks. The problem is it isn’t really explored at all. It just kinda happens, and when Jamie finds out he’s upset for about five minutes then it’s off to Skaro for the big finale. And since classic who doesn’t know what character work is by the start of the next story Jamie’s forgotten entirely.

Idk, I feel I’m too hard on this story. It’s not bad, and looking at other peoples thoughts on it I can’t help but feel I might be missing something. But every time I think about this story I just get little disappointed at the loss of what could’ve been.

I love this dalek story and the animation makes it just as perfect honestly my fav animation and possibly the best Dalek story of the 60s that we can watch currently

So a fun fact: this was originally intended to be the final Dalek story ever, since the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, wanted to make his own Dalek TV series, and the Doctor Who crew thought they were gonna lose the rights to use them. I think it's a really good finale, and honestly I wouldn't have minded if this was the last Dalek story ever made.

So the plot is, the Daleks have captured these two guys and are blackmailing one and bribing the other to go along with their plans to find the "Human Factor," the mysterious factor that makes humans triumph over Daleks every time. (spoiler: it's compassion, bravery, camaraderie, curiosity, etc, all that good stuff.) And the Doctor, meanwhile, seems all too keen to go along with their plans. Seeing how everyone reacts to the manipulation is really interesting, with one guy being nervous about the outcome, and the other guy being all too keen to go along with it.

It's set in Victorian England for most of its runtime and I really like that; the whole thing has a bit of a gothic feel to it, and especially with the animation's color being able to grant some additional atmosphere, the setting really comes alive.

I do think it kinda drags in the middle, but that's just most long Classic Who stories. This one honestly keeps up its intrigue most of the time, which I'm glad about considering that it's a seven-part story and it would be a really rough watch if the pacing didn't hold up. The climax is worth it, anyway.

What happens near the end is, three test Daleks gain the Human Factor and gain compassion, which the Doctor predicted to cause a Dalek uprising. But as it turns out, we meet the Supreme Dalek, who reveals that they were never looking for the Human Factor – they wanted the Dalek Factor, everything that humans aren't, and they want the Doctor to spread it across Earth.

This was a fantastic twist that really hooked me, and the climax involved the Doctor almost being infected with the Dalek Factor, then tricking all the Daleks into gaining the Human Factor and revolting against the Supreme Dalek. This moment really shined in the animation especially, and I love the whole idea of the Daleks gaining humanity and rising up as a final end for them. I almost wish it would've stuck, but the Daleks won't be back for a while at least anyway.