Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day 311: The Day of the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

One of the things that I keep banging on about in relation to this marathon is the idea that it makes me experience Doctor Who in a set order. When I look at the DVDs on my shelf, I can see that there's Dalek stories pretty regularly for the first four years, then a gap followed by another four years of solid Dalek tales, and then they come intermittently for the rest of the 20th century series. They're all just 'facts'. Watching everything in order from the start means that I get to really experience those gaps… and that makes them seem all the more bizarre.

The gap between The Evil of the Daleks and this story is around four and a half years. That's just about equal to the distance between the first broadcast of Planet of the Dead and the publication of today's entry. That feels like a huge amount of time! From my point of view in the marathon, I last saw a full Dalek story in late June, and so much has happened since then.

I think I've always just found it strange that after so long away from the series, the Daleks suddenly come trundling back in once again, and finally establish themselves as a key part of the Doctor Who formula. Over the last four seasons, they've proven that the Daleks aren't entirely necessary for Doctor Who to survive any more, but now that they've turned up once again they're forever ingrained as a key factor. Maybe the same would happen if they'd brought back the Voord in the early 1970s? Maybe not.

Over the course of the 1960s stories, I found myself falling for the Daleks. I'd never really been a fan before, but suddenly I could completely understand their appeal. Making their return here and now sadly reminds me why I was never fond of them in the first place - the Daleks in the colour stories always tend to look a bit tatty. In some ways, I shouldn't be all that surprised. Parts of the Dalek props used here have been turning up ever since the first Dalek story in 1963, so they've been through a lot since then, but all the same it's a bit of a let down. Such a song and dance was made about their return to the series that I'd rather hoped they would look fantastic, at least in their first colour appearance.

Still, it's probably not fair for me to really judge them yet. In traditional Dalek style, they don't properly arrive until the cliffhanger for Episode One (though we do get a brief glimpse of the gold version about half-way through the episode). Everything else on display, I'm rather enjoying. The Doctor still comes across as a bit pompous (the cheese scene is often cited as an example of this characteristic), but he's back to being somewhat nicer to Jo. She gets to have some fun scenes with Benton and Yates, and Nick Courtney has plenty of chances to do his 'exasperated' acting.

In some ways, it feels like we're back to the kind of story that I enjoyed so much in Season Seven. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but it probably doesn't hurt that the Doctor's got the console out of the TARDIS again and there's a scene of time displacement not all that dissimilar to the one from the opening episode of The Ambassadors of Death. It does lead me to wonder, though… When do UNIT settle down into a HQ?

I've always thought of UNIT as having their HQ in an old country house. It's where they're based in The Three Doctors, for example, and the same lab set turns up in Planet of the Spiders and Robot. I'm sure I've read somewhere that the house in Pyramids of Mars is the same one (or becomes the foundations to the UNIT version at least). When they appear under St Pancras for Spearhead, I assumed that it was because they were still new and waiting for a permanent location. The rest of that season sees the Doctor setting up shop on a temporary basis wherever they happened to be that week. Season Eight then gives us several very different looking settings for them to work from. And now today we seem to be set inside a castle of some sort, judging from the architecture! It looks quite nice and all (though the Doctor's still painting his doors with that horrible green paint), but it just seems odd.

I'm glad to have the pepper pots back, no matter how beaten up they might seem. I'm hoping that the next few episodes will help me rekindle my love for them - and for the series as a whole…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 260 Extra: The Second Doctor Overview

Dear diary,

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am. Way back at the end of last year, when I was first starting to get ready for The 50 Year Diary, I was most looking forward to the Patrick Troughton years.

He'd always been my favourite Doctor, based on the surviving stories of his that I'd seen, and I was really looking forward to actually making my way through all he had to offer. I'd dabbled with the missing episodes from time to time, watching the odd recon if it could hold my attention, or listening to a soundtrack here or there, but now I'd have a reason to actually stick with it, and really enjoy it.

But then I started to worry. The further I got into the William Hartnell years, the more I found myself enjoying him as the Doctor. Watching the programme at the rate of one episode a day way working perfectly for one of my main aims - I was forming an actual bond with the older characters. It's tricky to do when you can dip in and out of the stories on DVD whenever you like and in any old order. I wanted to really grow attached to them in the same way you do when a new series airs.

So as we came to the tail-end of Season Three and things started to fall into place for Troughton's arrival, I started to panic. What if, having grown so used to Hartnell, I'd find I didn't really care all that much for a silly new Doctor? Could my love for his Second incarnation be completely destroyed by seeing them all in this way? Even more crucially, would my favourite story of all time - The Tomb of the Cybermen - suddenly seem rubbish compared to all the other stories I'd found myself really enjoying?

Well no. Of course not. It seems obvious from here, having just finished Episode Ten of The War Games, that I love Patrick Troughton because he's a genuinely brilliant Doctor. There's a reason that every Doctor since has fallen in love with him and borrowed a little bit of his performance. And it didn't matter if I'd found myself really enjoying the likes of The War Machines, or The Dalek Invasion of Earth, because The Tomb of the Cybermen is still fantastic anyway.

What really surprised me is just how much I enjoyed Troughton's first season. Because so much of it is missing from the archives, stories from Season Four are often forgotten. Everyone thinks of the three key stories (The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks, and The Evil of the Daleks) and then forgets all the adventures with the Macra, the Cybermen on the Moon, or the Fish People. I'm just as guilty of it - I'd never really payed the season that much attention.

It's a crying shame that we can't see more of it, because there's a lot to love in there, and I think these stories would be held in higher regard if we were able to stick the DVDs in as simply as we can many other stories (though this is becoming closer to a reality even as I type, with three of the stories lined up for release in the near future).

Season Five, on the other hand, which I was expecting to really love, fell a little bit flat for me. Individually, several episodes rated very well, but by the end of the run I was really starting to flag. Poor Fury From the Deep is probably deserving of a much better score than I've given it, but I was simply washed out by that whole format by the time it rolled around. It's definitely high on my list for a rematch once the marathon is over. Surprisingly, and likely due to the fact that I loved both Tomb and The Web of Fear so much, this season currently holds the highest average rating - 7.2.

And then we come to Season Six. Being mostly complete in the archive, it's the one that everyone hails as the best of Troughton's three years, and it's the stories from this period that helped me to first fall in love with the Second Doctor. While I've liked many bits of it, the overall score has been brought down a little by my utter contempt for The Dominators (and I promise that I'll stop banging on about it now that I'm done with the 1960s) and my disappointment during The Space Pirates.

As a whole, the era comes in with a very respectable rating of 6.8, putting it a little ahead of the First Doctor. Troughton's stories have currently taken the top four spots on my ratings table of all the stories so far, but he's also gathered a few at the other end of the scoreboard, filling the bottom three spaces, too.

And now it's onto the 1970s. I've made no secret as I've gone along that the next decade (and the Third Doctor's era in particular) has never been a favourite of mine, but I'm actually really excited to be moving on. I'm ready for the programme to do something different, and the success of stories like The Web of Fear and The Invasion have actually geared me up ready for the next massive change.

Whereas with The Tenth Planet, it felt right to move straight onto the next episode the following day, here it feels like there should be a bit more of a gap. Maybe it's because it's such a clean break, with the departure of the Doctor, both his companions, and the programme moving into the new decade with the introduction of colour to the adventures? That's not how the marathon works, though, so it's right on to Spearhead From Space in the morning, and (perhaps surprisingly) I can't wait!

Character Options have sent DWO details of the upcoming Doctor Who 50th Anniversary 12" British Icon Dalek.

Doctor Who 12-inch British Icon Dalek

This ultimate Doctor Who collectable 12-inch Dalek has been produced exclusively in Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year. Beautifully displayed in the Union Flag, it celebrates the Daleks as a British icon and is ideal gift for all Doctor Who fans.

This limited 50th anniversary edition free-wheeling Dalek features poseable arm, head and eye. Also includes 8 Dalek phrases with lights and sound FX.

The Daleks were created by the Kaled scientist, Davros as travel machines. He had deduced that the years of radiation and chemical poisoning from an ongoing war would lead his race to mutate into immobile organisms. The Dalek travel machines would house these creatures and allow the Kaleds to survive. However, in the course of his experiments, Davros deliberately removed what he considered to be debilitating emotions from the mutants and a force of evil was spawned! Requires 4 AA Batteries. For ages 5 years and over. 

8 Dalek Phrases include;

•  Seek, Locate, Annihilate
•  Seek, Locate, Destroy
•  You will obey the Daleks, obey, obey!!
•  Halt or you will be Exterminated!
•  You are an enemy of the Daleks!
•  We are the Supreme Beings
•  Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! + Gun SFX
•  Exterminate! + Gun SFX

+  The '50th Anniversary 12" British Icon Dalek' is released Late August, priced £39.99.

+  Order this product from Forbidden Planet for just £35.79!

[Source: Character Options]

Like the TARDIS materialising from another dimension a giant Dalek has cropped up in a field of maize on the outskirts of York. Is it the work of alien invaders or crop circle pranksters? In fact it is an inspired piece of field art created by Yorkshire farmer and Doctor Who fan Tom Pearcy as his tribute to the 50th anniversary of the show. 

Mr Pearcy’s York Maze design features the biggest image of a Dalek ever created, over 300m (1000ft) long, cut out of an 18 acre field of over one million living maize plants. The design also includes images of the first Doctor in 1963 William Hartnell and the current Doctor 2013’s Matt Smith. The 10km of pathways form an intricate maize maze which visitors can explore. York Maze is the largest maze in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

Tom Pearcy said:

“Like many kids I grew up watching Doctor Who from behind the sofa and fell in love with the show. I wanted to create a piece of art as a tribute to the 50th anniversary and also make it interactive so visitors can have their own adventures in time and space inside the maze.”

The sixth Doctor, Colin Baker met up with some of his old foes the Daleks at the launch of the York Maze.

Colin Baker said:

“It is fantastic to see how much interest there is in the 50th anniversary of the show. I have been invited to join events all over the world this year, but what York Maze have created with their giant maize maze has to be one of the most imaginative ways to mark the 50th anniversary I have seen. Who would have thought almost thirty years after I played the Doctor that the show would continue to go from strength to strength reaching a new generation of fans. It is great that children and their families will be able to have their own Doctor Who inspired adventures in the York Maze this summer.”

A video from today's press launch for the maze can now be watched below:

[youtube:0z6_U0jWiug]

+  York Maze is open to the public from Saturday 13th July to Monday 2nd September. See www.yorkmaze.co.uk for details.

[Source: York Maze]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 176: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Seven

Dear diary,

I spent a fair bit of time during The Faceless Ones talking about the way Samantha Briggs was being set up as a companion, with a proper back story that served to show off all the aspects of her character – she was plucky, inquisitive, unafraid to dive right in to potential danger (she’d come all the way down from Liverpool, too, you know) and there was a real connection between her and Jamie. She was so very clearly the new companion… right up until the end of the story, at which point she wasn’t.

I’ve then spent plenty of time in this story actively waiting for the chance to show Victoria being signposted as the companion… but she isn’t, until the latter half of today’s episode – six after she was introduced. Victoria has come across as just a bit of a damsel in distress, and although much of the story has revolved around her (or, at least, around Jamie’s attempts to rescue her), she hasn’t really made much of an impact on me. Certainly, I couldn’t tell you very much about her character at all, whereas Sam Briggs was fully rounded by the time she kissed our highlander goodbye.

It’s surprising, then, that her being accepted onto the TARDIS as the new companion carries as much weight as it does. I’d forgotten that her father died during the course of this story, so his sacrifice to save the Doctor came as a pleasant surprise, and it was very movingly done. ‘You’ve just saved my life,’ the Doctor tells him. ‘It’s a good life to save,’ Waterfield replies, before asking the Doctor to look after Victoria for him. Jamie later muses that they can’t just leave Victoria (alone on Skaro, with her father and her best friend dead? I should think not!) and the Doctor confirms that she’s leaving with them. It’s a lovely moment, and oddly emotional, considering my lack of attachment to her up to now.

It’s odd to think that this is it (barring the odd cameo) for the Daleks until quite some way into the Third Doctor's era. They'll be absent from the series for the next five years, and absent from The 50 Year Diary for the next five months, rather fittingly returning for me just around the time of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary. It was at this point Terry Nation started to really look at selling the Daleks as their own series, and this is probably the more logical placement for Daleks: The Destroyers to sit, but it felt like 'the final end' was a good point to leave the creatures on for now.

I wonder, though, what it would have been like if the Daleks hadn't turned up again to face off against Jon Pertwee? It's definitely true to say that without them, the programme wouldn't have gotten out of the First Season (possibly not even that first 13-episode commission), but by this point in time, it really has picked up it's own following, and losing the Daleks here and now possibly shows that they're not really needed for Doctor Who any more. Imagine a world in which the return of the Daleks, those pepper pot creatures from the 1960s were being revived for the new series as a slightly more obscure monster, in the same way the Macra and the Ice Warriors have been in recent years!

On the whole, I'm sad to say, The Evil of the Daleks hasn't been the barn-storming end to the Fourth Season that I was hoping for. The story's reputation within fandom has always been very high, but it really hasn't delivered for me. Lots of very nice moments, but it's felt like the Daleks leaving the series with more of a whimper than a bang, a real shame. I'm almost tempted to read the Target novel at the end of Series Five (when this serial was repeated on television) to see if I can improve my opinion on it - worth doing?

Aside from that, and The Highlanders, Season Four has been very strong. I've really loved it. I worries so much about these 'middle' seasons of the 1960s, since there was just so much missing, but it wasn't until after I'd finished with today's episode that I realised - we've not had a complete story all season! THat's about to be changed, with the release of The Tenth Planet and The Moonbase with animated episodes, but for me, every single story has been supplemented with the soundtracks. I think it's a testament to the season that it's managed to make such a great impression with so little visual material to go on.

But forget all that! We move onwards, and into Season Five! Not only that, it's my first complete Troughton story, and it's the classic tale I've always considered my favourite Doctor Who story. Little bit excited? You bet I am!

a

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 175: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Six

Dear diary,

It’s very clear that we’ve got Roy Skelton on Dalek duties in this episode, isn’t it? At times, it sounds like Zippy’s gotten hold of a ring modulator! If anything, it actively helps to story – as if these child-like Daleks weren’t already unnerving enough, they’re speaking in the voice of a beloved children’s character. Fantastic stuff.

That whole opening scene, with the Daleks continuing to play their games with the Doctor, is absolutely brilliant, taking the great ending to the last episode and taking it even further. There’s something very unusual about the way that the Daleks slowly drawl the Doctor’s words back at him (though we get ‘Traaaaiiiiinnnn’ and ‘Dizzzzyyyyy’, I’m a little sorry that they didn’t attempt to copy ‘Roundabout’. I’ll have to make up for it by saying the word in a Dalek voice to myself for the rest of the day. Or to strangers on the street. Why not? Roundaboooouuuttttt…). The scene seems to keep getting creepier and creepier, until it’s drawn to a close when the Daleks ominously state ‘we must go now’. It’s said in a way that wouldn’t be out of place coming from a spooky child in a horror film, and really works.

I was starting to think that’s I’d never have a nice word to say about The Evil of the Daleks, so I’m really leased to find that things are more to my taste now. I was hoping that the shift over to Skaro would be a turning point for the story, and it seems that it has more or less coincided with this, so I’m happy. And it’s the first time that we’ve seen the Doctor travel back to an alien planet we’ve already been to! We’ve seen him return places before (He’d been to Dido in The Rescue, for example), but this is the first time that we’ve seen both of the trips to the planet (Hm? You what? Oh, all right then. Yeah yeah, we visited Kembel on two separate occasions in The Daleks' Master Plan. I'll give you that one, but as that was all part of one big adventure - spread across several different stories! - I'm discounting it. This is the first time we've seen him return to an alien planet in a completely different context.)

Years of being a Doctor Who fan means that I know full well how the sets look for this episode, with the stark black and white angles, and the Dalek Emperor sat in the corner, plugged into the city (the narration on the soundtrack nicely describes it as sitting at the centre of its ‘web’), but I can’t help picturing the stark, metal corridors of the original Dalek story – without the visuals to this episode, my mind has automatically gone back to what I consider to be the ‘default’ design.

There’s something quite brilliant about the Doctor facing up to the Dalek Emperor, who towers over him. He’s cool and confident, musing that he’d always wondered if the pair would ever meet. It put me instantly in mind of a similar scene, in which the Ninth Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and confronts another Dalek Emperor. In another similarity between this and The Parting of the Ways, the Doctor seems to issue spoilers for us, when he tells the Emperor that he’ll have a revolution on his hands pretty soon, once the new ‘humanised’ Daleks start to ask questions.

The main issue I have with all of this - and the reveal that while the Doctor thought he was isolating this ‘Human Factor’, he was actually helping to discover a ‘Dalek Factor’ – is that I’m not sure I care. Much as I love Alpha, Beta, and Omega, I’ve said before that I wasn’t really paying too much attention to the experiments that the Doctor was being forced to do, so it doesn’t feel like some massive shock revelation here. I’m hoping that won’t matter too much as we move into the final episode, which I already know is the much fabled ‘Final End’ of the Daleks (at least during the 1960s).

a

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 174: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Five

Dear diary,

My favourite Beatles Album (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) was released in June 1967, while The Evil of the Daleks was being broadcast (between Episodes Two and Three, to be precise), and watching through the series in order, it's easy to draw some comparisons between the evolution of both the band, and Doctor Who's greatest foes. Although it's not as black and white as I'm about to paint it, I've always thought of the Beatles as being split into their early, very '1960s' stuff, and their later more abstract music.

Similarly, The Daleks have evolved since their earliest days in the series, and I think it's fair to say that they can be divided into the early stuff where they're just 'evil' pepper pots, who come along and invade/kill/shout a lot - essentially, every William Hartnell Dalek story. Or to put it another way, every Dalek story that Terry Nation had a real hand in - and the later Daleks who are more experimental: the two Whittaker stories.

They've not really had a massive presence in this story so far, and I don't think I'd have missed them had they not arrived until this episode in the narrative. Now that the story is shifting its focus back onto them, though, we're given that more abstract kind of Dalek scene that Whittaker is so good at - the episode closes on three Daleks playing a game. It sounds so simple, but it would have been unthinkable for the series to do something like this two years ago. Even the 'comedy' Daleks in The Chase ultimately get restored to shouting 'exterminate!' a lot and chase the Doctor and his companions.

This is the kind of cliffhanger that I've been waiting for from this story - one which takes the Daleks and does something interesting with them. Even when Power of the Daleks was left to show us a group of Daleks amassing an army, they did it on such a scale as to make a real impact. Cliffhangers like the one we had yesterday (two Daleks approach Jamie! Oh no!) just don't pack a punch any more, whereas this kind of thing is fantastic.

I think it's fair to say that the store has a whole has turned around a bit for me today - certainly I've been far more receptive to it. It helps that after several episodes in which we watch people move from 'A' to 'B' to 'C' and back again, things seem to be reaching a kind of point now. The idea of identifying the 'Human Factor' was introduced back in Episode Two, but it feels like so long since then that it had almost become irrelevant in my mind (Of course, it's the whole point of everything that has happened in Episodes Three, Four, and Five, but to my disconnected mind, I couldn't care less).

It might just be because I'm feeling more generous towards the episode, but I've picked up on a lot more sparkling dialogue today than in the rest of the story - it's the first time that I've written quite this many notes for a few days' There's obviously Troughton's speech about being a professor of a wide academy (of which human nature is merely a part), which has seeped into being one of those quotes you often see associated with the Doctor. There's also his discussion about the human emotions and how useful they can be, and his sheer delight when the Daleks push him around the room on a spiny chair. It's another thing I just can't imaging Hartnell's Doctor doing: for all his giggling and light-hearted moments, I can't imagine him being pushed around on a chair by a group of Daleks. Something about that image doesn't seem right in the way that picturing Troughton doing it does.

Perhaps my favourite dialogue from today's episode comes from the Doctor and Jamie's argument. I praised the earlier one they had in which the Doctor tricked Jamie into doing what he needed, but that one was partly play acting, at least on the Doctor's part. Today's argument is real, and you can tell from the way it's played. It's much lower-key than the earlier example, and it feels far more real. In many ways, it's reminiscent of the final scene of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, and there's a number of beats in both those arguments that are the same.

I didn't know that the Doctor and Jamie ever had a discussion like this - I always thought they spent all three years together as the absolute best of friends, with never a cross word between them, so it's brilliant to see that there's more to their relationship than all that, and to know that Jamie is capable of being fleshed out in such a way. 'Look, I'm telling you this - we're done, you and me. You're too callous for me,' Jamie tells his friend, and it ties in nicely with my thoughts about the Doctor being seen to manipulate his friend earlier in the story. As always, it's a little thing, but it really works.

I'm hoping that the goodwill I've built up over this episode is a good sign, and with another two to go I may yet figure out why this story is held in such high regard. It's good to know that we're three characters shorter now, as I have to confess I was starting to get a bit lost as to who was who. Now that we've got Daleks acting very differently, and the story seemingly headed somewhere, things are looking up…

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 173: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Four

Dear diary,

How do you type that noise you make when you suck air in through your teeth? I’m genuinely not sure how to type this one today. All I’ve got written in my notes is ‘Jamie fights Kemel for the first five minutes’. After that, there just wasn’t really anything else that I felt compelled to write about. I’m so disappointed – this was supposed to be the great one! The big send off for the Daleks!

I think the thing that annoyed me the most was the cliffhanger. I spent every episode of The Power of the Daleks absolutely singing the praises of the episode endings. Every singe one felt new and fresh, taking the Daleks and making them scary in a way completely unlike anything we’d ever seen from them. Today’s cliffhanger involves Jamie reaching a door, while two Daleks trundle up behind him, guns at the ready.

At the end of Doctor Who’s fourth year, this just doesn’t hold up as a Dalek cliffhanger. We’ve seen them approaching people ready to kill in various forms ever since the fifth episode - and there we only see the plunger and Barbara from the Daleks point-of-view. Take away the thrill of not knowing what this strange thing could be, it’s still framed more interestingly than this one, at least judging from the tele snaps.

I think I was just expecting there to me a bit more to The Evil of the Daleks. Now, I’m not completely in the Dark, I know that at some stage the action will switch to Skaro, and we get a big destruction of the pepperpots, with (so I hear) pretty good integration of model work and studio footage – not that I can actually see it…. I know we’ve got a huge Dalek Emperor on the way, and I can only assume that this is what sets this story on such a high pedestal. It’s just that… I thought from reputation that we’d be getting a brilliant story from start to finish. Ah well, you can’t win them all, I guess.

I’ve always been more intrigued by the proposed notion of a Daleks vs Cybermen story from the 1960s. I know we eventually got one during the Tenth Doctor’s era, but there’s something about the idea of the 1960s versions of these creatures dueling it out that really appeals to me, and I can’t help but feel that I’d be enjoying it more than I currently am this one. I don’t think it’s helping that I know The Tomb of the Cybermen is coming up, and I’ve always thought of it as my favourite Doctor Who story, so this one just feels like a bit of an obstacle in my way!

Hm? Sorry? What do you mean you can feel a tenuous link on the way? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

…Knowing that this story was on the way, with its big old Dalek Emperor, I decided to pick up my (slightly battered) copy of The Dalek Chronicles on my last trip home. It’s a 1994 Doctor Who Magazine special, which reprints all of the Dalek comic strips from TV Century 21, in order from the start. I managed to grab a copy on Ebay years and years ago, but I’ve never actually read it. Always meant to, just don’t think I ever found the time. I’ve been reading it in chunks alongside this story, and I’m somewhat dismayed to find that I’m enjoying it more than The Evil of the Daleks.

I’d imagine that a number of people reading The 50 Year Diary will have at least a vague idea of what these comics are, but for the uninitiated: Tv Century 21 was a comic produced in the 1960s, and for 104 issues they ran a single-page comic titled The Daleks. It told the story of the Dalek’s creation on Skaro – there’s no Davros, but they’re still created by a scientist, and there’s still a great big war – and then follows them as they spread out across the stars. They fight the Mechanoids a bit, too. The final strip in the series ends with the Emperor Dalek declaring that the Daleks will conquer Earth, which leads quite neatly into the second of the Peter Cushing Dalek films, and tellingly, the later strips see the design of the creatures morph to look more like their movie counterparts.

I think it’s probably fair to say that it’s not any great literary feat, and it doesn’t stand up to a great deal of scrutiny, but taken at face value as a weekly adventure strip featuring the Daleks, it’s really rather good. It has the feel of a comic strip from The Eagle (perhaps unsurprisingly, as the first artist on the strip, Richard E Jennings, had contributed to The Eagle for a long time, and Eric Eden who filled in for a few issues in the middle of the run had worked on Dan Dare), full of that wonderful breed of what we tend to call ‘retro futurism’ these days. The design of the Daleks’ city is fantastic, and there’s plenty of little touches to the strip that can’t help to make me smile.

Quite early on in the story, only about five or six issues in, a spacecraft lands on Skaro for the first time, and the Daleks plot to capture it. The thing that I enjoy about it is the way they hide themselves to prepare their attack: the emperor orders the Magnetic Sand to be switched on, and it covers the city in a perfect disguise. It’s the kind of fantastic futuristic thing that you’d expect to find in a children’s ‘space’ comic of the age, as is the invention of things like the ‘Astrodalek’ later on in the story (A Dalek with his eyestalk plugged into the end of an enormous telescope), and the Daleks’ flying Hover Discs, which have become quite iconic withing Doctor Who - there’s even a new Dalek toy set available now that comes with one.

The strip is mostly written by David Whittaker, but it’s far more traditional than some of the things he tries with the Daleks on TV. That doesn’t mean that things are rendered to being dull, though, as it has a kind of simplistic charm to the story. Whittaker even still takes old favourite ideas from Terry Nation and does something new and different with them – there’s a wonderful moment on the planet Alvega with some living plants (haven’t seen any of those in a while!). While it could be reduced to being a rubbish retread of the kind of things we’ve seen in stories from The Keys Of Marinus, to The Chase and The Daleks’ Master Plan, Whittaker depicts the plants as plotting against the Daleks, and there’s a fantastic panel at the end of one strip where the plants have worked their way inside a Dalek’s casing and grown out, bursting out from every seam. It’s a bizarre image, and it looks stunning. Pleasingly, it’s given plenty of room to breathe.

The first three strips, and a few from later in the run (once Ron Turner had taken over art duties for the latter half of the run, a style which, sadly, down’t appeal to me half as much as the earlier one does), have recently been reprinted in the Doctor Who Magazine Dalek spacial, reprinted from the original art which makes them look gorgeous – certainly much better than the versions in my 19-year-old version! Here’s hoping that they’ll see a full reprint in the near future, because the series as a whole is certainly worth a read, if only to see an alternate (and much more 1950s/60s sci fi) version of the Daleks’ early years…

I think I’ll be giving the strip as a whole an 8/10 – wish I could say the same for The Evil of the Daleks!

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 172: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Oh dear. I think I've taken the same kind of issue with this story that I did back with The Highlanders - I've decided early on that I'm simply not impressed and now that's all my mind can focus on. Things are even worse here, though, because I'm going in with the pre-defined notion of this being a real classic that can do no wrong…

Whereas actually it's just a bit of a plodding bore that can do no… well… anything, really. Seriously, we're almost 75 minutes into The Evil of the Daleks, and very little has happened. The TARDIS is stolen. The Doctor and Jamie are kidnapped and taken back to 1866. Turns out the Daleks are there, and they want the Doctor to perform experiments on his young friend. Oh, and now there's a Turkish man in a fez and a series of elaborate traps for Jamie to get through so that the Doctor can actually undertake these steps.

Really, though? Really? This story was voted top 18 in the last big fandom poll? (I've yet to see how it's faring in our own large-scale poll of Doctor Who episodes, so I don't know if it's retaining its position, or if it's following its previous form and slipping down the table.)

Oh, all right. It's not all bad. Certainly, it's not reached the point where I'm dreading the throughout of having to go on and start looking for an alternative way of finishing the story (Hello, The Highlanders, again). I think the only thing that's keeping me going at this stage is the promise that things are going to get better. I don't often seem to agree with received fan wisdom, but they can't have been this wrong for so long, surely? The Evil of the Daleks is going to become fantastic any minute now, yeah?

There's one or two little pockets of things peppered throughout the story that are keeping my interest up, and today's thing of interest has to be Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. Again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I've praised them to the high heavens plenty over the course of Season Four, but they really are something special, aren't they? Today, we get to watch (hear) them having a blazing row, and it's enough to make the ones the earliest Doctor used to have with Barbara look like a minor play fight.

And then, it's all revealed to be a part of the Doctor's plan - a way of tricking his companion into taking part in the experiment, so that they have a chance further down the line. People often single the Seventh Doctor out as the arch manipulator, but this is a perfect example of it being used much earlier on in the programme's run. I've commented before that this incarnation is very good at dropping the right word or the right action at just the right moment to get the results he wants, but it's never used better than this.

Aside from that scene, which comes fairly late on in the episode, I'm afraid that things just aren't grabbing me. I was going to be rating this one a little lower than I have, but that scene alone is so good that it deserves to bring the score up just a little bit…

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 171: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I've often thought that if (when) I ever got my hands on a time machine, I'd quite like to visit Victorian England. Couldn't tell you why it's the top of my list, but I've always been fascinated by it. Even at school, the Victorian era was one of my favourites in history lessons. In many ways, I've always thought of Doctor Who being particularly suited to the era, too, and it seems many other's agree with me - several parts of the most recent season have been set there, and it's not been uncommon for the Doctor to visit in the past.

It's odd, then, to think that this episode marks the first time that we've actually seen this era in the series (yes, yes, pedants, the scene on the Marie Celeste during The Chase is technically set in Victorian times, but it was way out at sea, and might as well have been set in any generic past if it wasn't for the joke at the end, so I'm disqualifying it), almost five years in. Oh, and it's done beautifully. It's said a lot, but the BBC design department really do make a stunning job of this period, and this episode is no exception. Maxtible's drawing room has to be the crowning achievement, as it looks simply brilliant, and it's nice to have an episode from the story surviving so that we can really appreciate it.

Speaking of which, it's bloody lovely to see a Dalek again! We've had them in the series quite recently to welcome the new Doctor to the series, and I watched The Destroyers not all that long ago, but thanks to the gaps in the archives (and the lack of production of The Destroyers…) this is the first time I've actually seen a Dalek on screen, moving and everything, since The Daleks' Master Plan, and that feels like a lifetime ago. Technically, it was for the Doctor.

It's nice to see that the Daleks here are the same kind of manipulative ones seen in Power of the Daleks, and the cruel, terrifying version that we had in Master Plan, too. Yesterday's episode ended rather nicely with a Dalek screaming at Kennedy to identify himself (though it wasn't as good a cliffhanger as they had pretty consistently in their last tale), and then the resolution to that ending today? The Dalek exterminates him as soon as we're done with the reprise. Then it disappears, and Waterfield has something of a breakdown as he realises he'll have to dispose of the body. The Daleks really are at their best when their callous, and Whittaker knows exactly how to use them in the right way.

All that said, I'm sorry to say that the story still isn't really capturing me. I've seen this episode before (a long, long, time ago on a bored Sunday-afternoon viewing of the Lost in Time collection), and remembered it being pretty good, but this time around it still feels as if I'm waiting for things to get going. As ever, there's a lot to like, but it just don't seem to be doing very much. Maybe I'm being put off by the fact that people say it's one of the stone-cold 'classics' of Doctor Who, and my expectations are just set a little bit too high?

We do get our first introduction of Victoria in this episode though, as a captive of the Daleks, who seem obsessed with her weight. They're holding her prisoner as leverage with Waterfield, so that he'll help capture the Doctor and force him to conduct some experiments on Jamie. I complained yesterday that the plan to get the Doctor to the antiques shop was a bit round the houses… but now it makes even less sense! Surely it would have been quicker to knock the Doctor and Jamie out at Gatwick, transport them to 1886, tie Jamie up in the lab and force the Doctor to get to work under Dalek guard? Why all the messing about?

Victoria herself comes across as less obviously a companion as Sam Briggs did in the last story (heck, even Mollie seems to be a more likely candidate to step aboard the TARDIS at this point!), but it does have to be said that Debbie Watling does look beautiful in her first scenes. I've not seen much of Victoria's tenure outside of The Tomb of the Cybermen (as Deborah herself says on one of the DVD special features about this era - there's nothing left of there time on the show, really), so I'm hoping she'll blossom once she's out from under the Daleks' watchful eye-stalks.

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 170: The Evil of the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

In the early 1990s, The Evil of the Daleks was voted the best Doctor Who story ever by the readers of DWB. It had dropped a little in estimations by the time Doctor Who Magazine ran a similar poll five years later, coming in at number nine in the list, and in the 2009 Mighty 200 poll, it slipped even further, to number 18. Indeed, in Doctor Who Online’s very own 50th Anniversary Poll, it’s currently sitting at number 25! Despite this decline in opinion, it still has to be said that Evil has something of a reputation amongst Doctor Who fans as being pretty darn good.

It's perhaps surprising, then, that this first episode comes across as being just a bit of filler material. The impression I got from the opening to the episode is that the Doctor and Jamie were supposed to see the TARDIS heading off on the back of a truck (at the end of the last episode, the Doctor had already deduced that it had gone, and now they actively see it), and then Bob Hall is planted in one of the hangars to put the pair off the scent. He's then followed, and is knocked unconscious for it - his being followed is clearly not a part of the plan (Kennedy even plans to beat the Doctor and Jamie over the head to make sure that they don't discover anything). It then transpires that the pair were intended to come here, because there's a pack of matches planted to lead them on to the coffee bar. So why knock out Hall? It leads to his fleeing the city, and is surely a waste of a valuable ally?

Once the Doctor and Jamie have made it to the coffee shop (where contemporary music helps to set the scene, though it's a shame to know that the Beatles' Paperback Writer had to be removed from the soundtrack), they're met by Perry. Perry has been sent by Waterfield (who also sent kennedy to plant the matches and, I'm guessing, Hall to start the whole thing rolling) to ask the Doctor to come to the antiques shop at 10pm. Why the overly-complex plan? Surely seeing the TARDIS being carted away - and then being asked by Hall at Gatwick to head to the antiques shop if they want to see the police box again - would be enough to get them there?

The whole thing is an exercise in delaying the pair until the story is ready for them. I don't know if the story was intended to be a six-parter which was then extended out to seven (in the same way as The Mind Robber being given an extra episode late in the day) or if it was just needed to get things set up ready for the main tale, but either way, it's odd.

That's not to say that it's a bad thing, mind. There's plenty to like about this episode, not least the fact that we get to spend some more time in the company of Troughton and Hines again. I'd not realised that such a large part of the story kept them in the 1960s (I'd always assumed that they stumbled into the Victorian era pretty quickly once the story got started), but it's odd just how well they really do fit in here. Whereas in The War Machines, at the end of last season, the sight of William Hartnell climbing out of a cab was unusual, it doesn't feel at all out of place to see (or, at least, hear) Troughton doing so. Considering how much time Ian and Barbara spent wishing the TARDIS would land in the 1960s, it turns up there an awful lot these days (I make it The Massacre of St Bartholemew's Eve, The War Machines, now here, and there's a couple more trips to this period in the next couple of seasons).

Not only that, but the ship keeps returning to the city on the same day! In the fantastic History of the Universe in 100 Objects book from last year, there's a line describing the 20th of July 1966 as being the day that WOTAN launched his War Machines, the Chameleons returned hundreds of missing people to Gatwick airport, and the Daleks were at large in their time-travelling antiques shop. Surely that sentence really sums up just why this era of the show is so fantastic?

Despite all the running around, and knowing vaguely what's going on, which runs the risk of lessening the tension (It's a shame, for example, to know that the Daleks are going to be a part of the story - of course they're in the title - because it takes away some of the tension of Waterfield arguing with his 'unseen masters'), there is enough here to hook me in to the tale. I don't know, for example, what the Daleks need from the man. Or why they've stolen the TARDIS (the Daleks have time travel, so it can't be that… are they just trying to capture the Doctor's attention?), or what the time-travelling antiques shop has to do with anything, and I'm keen to move on and find out, so I guess that's the story doing something right!

But to come in the top 25 Doctor Who stories ever…? I think it's got a way to go, yet…

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 147: The Power of the Daleks, Episode Six

Dear diary,

The thing that bothers me most about the missing episodes is days like today. Much of this episode is very action-packed, with Daleks fighting humans in the corridors of the base, and the Doctor weaving and ducking through it all. Anneke Wills tires her best to capture the frantic energy of it all in the narration, but it just doesn’t translate all that well to the audio medium. I think it’d have the same problem in a recon, too.

It’s a shame, because bits of today’s episode sound pretty epic. The Dalek guns firing, cries and screams and shouts from all directions… I’d be keen to see this one properly. There’s a danger that it may actually look rubbish, and only having it in this form is a blessing in disguise, but I can hope it’s pretty damn great.

I did worry that this episode might be a bit rubbish. Having come through five episodes in which the Daleks scheme and plot and are built up as a real threat, with tension bubbling right to the surface, I was fearful that it would all fall to pieces once they had fully amassed and army and set about trying to conquer the colony. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Dalek story like this, where they’re simply trying to survive rather than invade, and I didn’t want the ending to let it all down.

Thankfully, I don’t think it has. True, I’ve not enjoyed this episode quite as much as I did the previous five, but it’s been far from a bad episode. It just felt a lot more like generic Doctor Who than the rest of the story has. It’s telling that for all the other episodes, I’ve noted down reams and reams of Dalek dialogue to mention when I’m writing my entry, but today I’ve not written a single piece of it. I think from the moment they start chanting about conquering and destroying (at the end of yesterday’s episode), they fall back into just being the generic monsters again.

But that’s ok! I’ve noted down plenty more of Lesterson’s dialogue instead! He really came into his own yesterday once he’d had a breakdown, and that carries right on into this episode. Too. The crowning moment of his character has to be the scene where he tries to distract the Daleks, and he does it by cooing to them, in a mock-Dalek voice ‘I am your servant’, before being exterminated when the Daleks acknowledge that he gave them life. It’s probably the best Dalek moment in the episode, too, as it shows them at their coldest.

Overall, The Power of the Daleks has been a huge success. I did toy with rating today’s episode a bit higher, just so it would nudge it into the top spot, but I couldn’t do it without having to reach a bit. As it is, the story sits joint top of the ratings with The War Machines. Maybe, in the back of my mind, I’l always consider this to be just a bit ahead of that story, though.

It perfectly handles the changeover from Hartnell-to-Troughton, from the first episode largely focusing on the aftermath of that transformation, but it not even being mentioned by the end. I was expecting to have some kind of tacked-on TARDIS scene, in which Ben admitted that actually, this new chap is alright. I’m glad they didn’t do that - it works so much better when we’re left to just accept the Doctor because that’s the way the story has gone.

Troughton really is already filling the role admirably, and any worry I had about leaving Hartnell behind has long since dissipated. It’s not wonder that the first ‘regeneration’ was so successful - Troughton simply is the Doctor. The next four months should be a lot of fun, if this is any indication…

7/10 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 146: The Power of the Daleks, Episode Five

Dear diary,

There'a a lovely moment towards the end of this episode where we listen to a good thirty seconds of the Daleks shouting 'exterminate!' over and over, before cutting away to another scene. It's perfectly effective and all (though 'exterminate' doesn't pack the same punch as the other chants we've had in this story), but when we cut back to the Daleks a few minutes later and they're still chanting it, they don't half come across like loonies. One of them then gets a message through to give new orders and there's a moment of it effectively hushing the others. It's quite charming in a way. Completely bonkers, though.

But elsewhere, they're still the best Daleks that we've ever had in the series. They're scheming and manipulative and… so scary in places that that the only reaction is to laugh-out-loud because it's so bizarre. There's a fantastic moment - it might even be my favourite moment in the story so far - when a Dalek is asked why they want to create their own static power, and it replies with a voice growing louder, and ranting, 'With static power, the Daleks will be twice as…!', before realising and catching itself, lowering the tone to a creepy drawn out 'useful'.

These really are Daleks unlike any we've ever seen before. Way back at the beginning, in The Daleks, they were painted as these sneaky creatures, using Susan as a pawn to draw the Thals out of hiding so they can massacre them, and they trick Mavic Chen in Masterplan, but here they're really going at it. There's another scene in this episode where one is laying the power cables around an office, and Lesterson is trying to convince everyone that the Daleks aren't taking orders from him, so the Dalek replies that he's doing what he was told to do, and then calls Lesterson 'master'. If a Dalek could smile wryly, this one would be doing so.

Lesterson himself is fab in this episode, too. The Doctor is somewhat relegated to the background, so we're really given plenty of time for Lesterson to take centre stage. The first half of the episode is based around him trying to convince everyone that the Daleks aren't to be trusted, and he's just hitting stumbling blocks because he was too good at making everyone love them. I think it's fair to say that he'll end up exterminated by the end of the story.

Robert James is turning in a fab performance throughout the whole story, but especially now that he's having to lose his mind. I won't quote them all, but my notes for this episode are filled with snippets of his dialogue - it ranges from cries that the dales are duplicating themselves to a wonderful Frankenstein moment, when he screams 'They forget that I gave them life! Now I've taken it away again!', and it's not long before he's shouting that he's going to 'wipe out the Daleks!'

If anything, this story is making me sad that we didn't get that Dalek spin-off that I tasted back with The Destroyers a couple of weeks ago. Had Nation run the show, but invited Whittaker to penn the odd serial like this, then it could have been fantastic. There's enough going on in this story that I think you could remove the Doctor and his companions, substitute them with SSS agents and it would still be marvellous. Here's hoping that things remain strong for the final part - this could become the highest-rated story so far!

8/10 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 145: The Power of the Daleks, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Before starting work on today's episode, I set myself a bit of a challenge. Having rabbited on for the last three diary entries about how great the Daleks have been in this story, and how they're being used so effectively in the cliffhangers, I decided that today would be different. Today, I'd refrain from mentioning the Daleks outside of a brief sentence or two, and concentrate on something else instead.

What I hadn't counted on was that this episode of The Power of the Daleks contains one of the most famous Doctor Who cliffhangers ever. Most fans, when discussing cliffhangers, will have a few that they'll go to as particularly memorable examples - for right or for wrong reasons. Some will call on the end of The Mind Robber Episode One (mostly for Zoe's bum), others will point to the end of The Daleks Episode One, with the plunger menacing Barbara.

Some fans will call on that old favourite from The Dalek Invasion of Earth, or from the end of The Deadly Assassin, Part Three. That one from The Caves of Androzani often gets mentioned, as does the one from Dragonfire, where the Doctor climbs over a rail, down his umbrella and then… oh dear. But somewhere along the line, this cliffhanger tends to crop up. The Dalek production line, with the little plastic toys filling in alongside shots of those handy cardboard cut-outs as the Daleks swell their ranks.

Anneke Wills has said in interviews before now that she sometimes has nightmares about that shot of the Daleks coming down the conveyor belt, and it's not hard to see why. I went back and watched a reconstruction of the scene after I'd heard the audio because, as much as I love the narrated soundtracks, there are some bits of the missing stories that you simply have to experience visually.

The way the shadows fall across the Dalek models as they move along, the lighting really accentuating their shape, as they just keep coming along the production line… the soundtrack spells it out perfectly when it says that the Daleks aren't just reproducing, but mass-producing. It's a chilling scene, and really helps to hammer home the fear that these creatures can instil. I've praised the look of the 1960s Daleks plenty of times in The 50 Year Diary, but it really does feel worth repeating here. Frankly, it's a stunning design, and the ones in this stage of the programme's history are some of my favourites. And look at that! They've got me talking about them again! Terry Nation may have created the Daleks, but for me, it's David Whittaker who gets them best in this era.

So much for not talking about them much today! I can't move from the subject until I mention the way that they act right at the start of this episode, as we make our way out of the cliffhanger. When we finished yesterday's instalment, Lesterson was surrounded by the creatures as they chanted for their power. Having been talked down today, the power is shut off, and the fear that the Daleks cause comes from a totally different place. It's bad enough when they're all shouting in unison, but there's something simply scary about them having to struggle to summon the power for each word.

'Turn… Back… The… Power… Supply…' one of them begs, and it's one of the scariest uses of their voices that we've ever heard. It's fantastic. Having been ordered to back down by Lesterson, the Dalek struggles for a moment before croaking 'We… Are… Your… Servants…' once more. It's so unusual to hear them in this way, and it completely works.

Elsewhere, the story is still chugging along at a nice pace. I have to admit that I'd worried a little at this one - it's the first time we've had a story with more than four episodes since The Daleks' Master Plan (and the first six parter since the Chase, which was ages ago!). I've made my thoughts on the six-part format clear in the past, and on the whole I never think that it works. This is proving me wrong, though! Having spent all this time building up, it looks like everything is in the right place now to really kick off in the final two parts.

We've got the introduction of one of the Second Doctors' catchphrases here (or, at least, one which is considered a catch phrase, though I believe it doesn't last very long) as he comments that he'd like a hat like that. Yesterday we had the first real use of 'When I say run…', so it really does feel like he's establishing himself here. I've enjoyed seeing him spend more time with Ben, though the sailor still isn't really warming to him, is he?

That's not a bad thing - quite the opposite. Ben has been sceptical of all this time and space travel right since the start of The Smugglers, and I like that even after all they've been through, he still isn't quite ready to accept it all yet. I'd worried that by now he's have given in and would just be written as a generic 'companion', but he's holding firm for now. Though, as we stand at the moment, he's now been captured too, so there's a chance that he'll be missing as well as Polly for the next episode. That seems a bit drastic, though, so surely not?

8/10 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 144: The Power of the Daleks, Episode Three

Dear diary,

The problem with a story like The Power of the Daleks, when I'm enjoying it so much, is that I never have all that much to write about once it's finished. It all rather falls into the trap of me simply repeating myself over, and over, and over, etc. To that end, I'd like to apologise - today's post may feel a bit like deja vu in places!

They really are playing the Daleks as a slow-burn here, aren't they? I praised the way the reveal was handled back at the end of Episode One, and the way the Dalek finally spoke at the end of Episode Two, and now we're given another great Dalek-based cliffhanger as the other two pepper pots are reactivated and surround Lesterson, chanting in unison 'we will get our power!'

By the third episode of The Daleks, we were already watching them scheme against the Thals. By this stage in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Doctor and his friends were beginning to draw up plans to defeat them. Here, we're edging slowly, oh so very slowly, towards the real threat of the Daleks. I keep waiting for it to fall flat. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I can't quite believe that they can draw the tension out any further, but it's being pulled off with a real skill.

It helps that we're being slowly drip-fed more information about what's happening in the colony. Here, we discover that the guest cast aren't all as naive about the Daleks as we've been led to believe, and that there's several games in play at the moment. It adds a new dimension to events, especially since we know that the Daleks will never consent to being one person's private army. I'm becoming more-and-more convinced that this story could end with everyone being killed - were this a season earlier, I'd be sure of it.

Things like this are all helping to keep the interest levels high. There's so much going on, and all the characters are so richly-drawn, that I'm not being given time to be bored by events. We're still moving along with the story of who shot the real Examiner (thug that's been pretty much confirmed, here, and we're at a stalemate), everyone is double-crossing everyone else, and Polly's been kidnapped. I can only assume that Anneke Wills was due a week off, and won't be with us for tomorrow's episode.

That's not altogether a bad thing, though! The time we spend today with just the Doctor and Ben exploring are fantastic, and the chance to hear more of that is one that appeals to me. He's almost - but not quite - accepting that this is the Doctor, now, so that could be interesting to explore if they're given the time to do it in the next episode. I mentioned back during The War Machines that Polly had always felt like the more present of the 'Ben and Polly' companionship, but that feels less true now that I'm hearing it all properly. Ben is quickly becoming another one of my favourite companions, and it's gratifying to hear him working as well with Troughton as he did with Hartnell.

While on the subject; three episodes in and I'm not doubting this new man as the Doctor at all. It does help, of course, that I know he's the Doctor, and how long he'll stick around, and how often he'll return to the role, but in terms of following the overall story of Doctor Who in order, I'm completely sold. All that stuff during the end of The Tenth Planet and the first episode of this story that made the changeover scary, and something that you wouldn't want to trust has pretty much melted away now, and we're simply left with a new Doctor.

Someone commented to me yesterday that Troughton in his earliest stories plays a Doctor slightly different to the one he plays for much of his tenure, but I have to confess that from where I'm positioned right now, I simply can't tell. He's playing his recorder much more, certainly, but otherwise he just feels right as the Doctor. I've not had cause to question him yet.

As the episode ended, my phone flashed up to warn me that there was only 10% battery remaining, and I listened right to the end of the theme music in the hope that the battery might die and I could make a wonderful (or woeful, take your pick) 'I will get my power!' joke to end today's entry, but it's still clinging on, so I guess I'll have to go without. Bah.

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 143: The Power of the Daleks, Episode Two

Dear diary,

It's always something of a joke among Doctor Who fans that when you've got a story with a title that ends …of the Daleks, then the cliffhanger to episode one will be the shock reveal of… Dun Dun Dun! You've guessed it. Sometimes it works really well, and this story is one of those times. I praised the cliffhanger enough yesterday, even going so far as to call it the best cliffhanger we'd had since the start of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and now today's episode has gone and topped it!

It's a bold move, still at the tail end of the Dalekmania craze, to make the audience wait this long for some proper Dalek action. We're now 50 minutes into this story, and we've only just heard one of the creatures speak for the very first time (though he repeats himself enough to make up for it). And yet, you know what? It works! If anything, it's making the Daleks here seem like more of a threat, because I'm anticipating a moment when they'll stop playing dead and just massacre the whole bloody colony!

There's a great scene in this episode, where Lesterson is experimenting by hooking up small amounts of power to the Daleks and recording the results. In the middle of one experiment, the Dalek gun goes off and shoots another scientist. It's terrifying! It comes only a few moments after they'd been wondering what the shorter arm might be for, and it comes so out of nowhere that it really did surprise me. There's a real sense of tension to this story that we've just not had with the Daleks before.

So then, when they've finally managed to revive one of the pepper pots properly, it comes along, fixes its eye square on the Doctor, and then announces to the room that it's their servant! I've joked about the repetition above, but it really does work, and it helps to build up the tension. We know what the Daleks are really like, so what's actually going on here!?! We've even been given a handy reminder from the Doctor that a single Dalek is more than enough to wipe out all the life in the colony. It's a clever move to bring the Doctor's greatest enemy back for the first story with a new actor, and it looks like the Dalek's recognition of him may start to swing Ben's opinion a little, but they've never been used in such an odd way before! I love it.

Elsewhere, Troughton is continuing to win my affections with pretty much everything he says and does. We've another scene of him answering questions with a recorder (it's amusing me now, but I'm glad it's not something he'll do for the full three years - it could wear thin very quickly!), and plenty of other humour from him. There's a great moment when he points out that his badge says he's allowed full access, and adds that it doesn't then exclude the laboratory. It's played spot on, and really did raise a smile.

Also brilliant was the reference to China, and the Doctor's vague memory that he'd been there once, and met Marco Polo. There's starting to be more and more of these little nods to the First Doctor throughout this episode, and it feels like they're easing you into accepting this new fellow as the same man. It's interesting to see tis happening as a sideline to the main story, as opposed to getting it out of the way, before going on to do the rest of the plot (Castrovalva, I'm glaring at you…).

Now, it's either going to go one way or another with the Dalek reawoken. There's a real danger of things going off the rails, and leaving us with a standard Dalek runaround. Equally, there's a slim chance that they might be able to sustain the tension built up so far and keep it going for a little longer yet. I'm guessing you can guess which camp I'm firmly hoping for…

8/10 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 142: The Power of the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

I've always found that the events immediately following a regeneration are the bits of that event I enjoy the most. I mean, sure, it's fun enough watching the Doctor take his final few steps and head toward the end, but then you get to start fresh and new! It's exciting! At the end of yesterday's entry, with William Hartnell laying on the floor of the TARDIS, as the picture grew brighter and brighter, I was really, truly, sad to watch him go. Ten minutes into this episode, and Hartnell is old news.

I was worried that it would take me a while to get used to having Troughton around. I've always ranked him as my favourite of the 'classic' Doctors, but having spent so long with only William Hartnell in the role (and Matt Smith, when I watch the new episodes, but really it's so far removed from what Doctor Who is doing in the 1960s that it may as well be a whole different programme), I feared that accepting another Doctor would be a problem. A few days ago, I saw a trailer for Seventh Doctor story Battlefield, and it just looked wrong. That wasn't Doctor Who. For a start, where was the Doctor? My Doctor? The original?

Troughton really does hit the ground running here, doesn't he? With the benefit of watching it 40-something years on, I know that he's one of the best, and that he'll do three seasons and a number of return appearances. I know how good he can be… but there doesn't even seem to be a period of settling in. From the second he sits up in the TARDIS, he simply is the Doctor. Everything he says, everything he does, he's the Doctor. And that's fantastic! Especially in light of the fact that they really aren't trying to reassure you with any of this, are they?

I said yesterday how surprised I was that they were playing the changeover in the Doctors as something to be frightened of, and making it as un-cosy for the kids watching at home as they possibly could. This is carried on completely here into this story, with the Doctor acting more than simply odd… he's really bloody sinister! There's a moment when he mutters out loud to himself 'It's over! It's over!' and he gives a little laugh. That laugh is one of the creepiest things we've ever heard in the programme! It's also a nice counterpoint to Hartnell's line in yesterday's episode ('It's far from being all over!'), which helps to tie it all together a bit.

We get the shot of the Doctor holding the mirror, and the appearance of the First Doctor's face showing up (which thankfully exists among the tele snaps for this episode), but aside from that we're really given very few things to latch onto. This strange little man continues to refer to 'the Doctor' in the third person - even after Ben snaps at him about it - and simply refuses to answer questions, choosing to play on his recorder instead. There's a lengthy scene set inside some guest quarters on the base, in which the Doctor responds to his companions by blowing a few times into the instrument, and it's brilliant. He's very funny, while still remaining very creepy.

I'm also pleased to see that Ben and Polly's characters are still being drawn so clearly as we move into the Second Doctor's era. Polly is far quicker to accept that they're faced with the same man, whereas Ben is still sceptical at the end of the instalment. I'm hoping that it gradually dies away as the story goes on, rather than just disappearing now that we're out of the 'first' new Doctor episode. It's nice to hear the Doctor disregarding Ben, too, as though it's not worth interacting with him until he'll accept that it's still the Doctor in there, somewhere.

The whole episode has been a brilliantly enjoyable experience, and I'm so pleased that I've moved so seamlessly into this new phase of the programme. I was dreading the thought of just not taking to a new Doctor, so it's lovely to find that it's not the case. It helps that the episode itself is a very good one, too. There's a risk that all the stuff outside in the mercury swamp could become a bit tedious, as the new Doctor unwittingly dodges obstacles, but it all feels fresh and different. You just can't imagine Hartnell doing that scene. It's strange that it should feel so far removed from the programme I've been watching since January, but introducing Troughton really does make a difference. It probably helps that I'm listening to this on audio, and while I've the tele snaps of the swamp to guide me, I can imagine it as I like. It's orange in my head, since you ask. Always has been, since the very first time I saw that image of the Doctor walking along, reading from his diary.

And then there's the final scene, as the Doctor and his companions make their way inside the capsule and come face-to-face with the Daleks. It's helped by Anneke Wills' narration on the soundtrack, as she described Polly and Ben deftly sneaking along behind the Doctor, who doesn't even turn round as he utters the first line to be spoken in minutes - 'Polly… Ben… Come in and meet the Daleks…'

The tele snaps for this sequence makes it look gorgeous, too, with the cobwebs hung between the dead (?!) Daleks and the real sense of gloom that fills the scene. There's a great shot of Troughton close up as he inspects one, and it simply looks beautiful. Then we've got the realisetion that we're missing one of the creatures, and a real look at a Dalek mutant for the first time. I think, if I'm being totally honest, this might be the best Dalek-related cliffhanger since the lone creature rising from the waters of the Thames a full two seasons ago.

A great start - even better than I could have ever hoped for!

9/10 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 133: Daleks: The Destroyers

Dear diary,

Oh, this marathon has changed me. I try not to quote myself too much, but I think today call's for a bit of a flashback. January 6th, 2013. Day Six of The 50 Year Diary. The Daleks, Episode Two…

“My name is Will, and I don't really like the Daleks… Give me a Cyberman any day.”

Why, then, 127 days on, does it bother me so much that the Daleks take a bloody age to show up in this story?! We've got a fantastic cold open, which sets the scene nicely, introduces a couple of characters, then implies a Dalek massacre in which they shout 'Attack and destroy!' a couple of times, and then… nothing! It's a further twenty minutes until we hear another Dalek talking properly. My god, I'm fickle. It's all about the pepper pots, now.

Way back when I was drawing up my schedule for this marathon, at the end of last year, this story and Farewell, Great Macedon were both added in between seasons. Macedon was included because I was interested to know how a story written at the time - but not made - would fit with the established history of the show. It was an interesting experiment, though I know some people weren't keen to see me going 'off book' for the week. Hopefully you won't mind today's little side step, and will be glad to know that I'm not planning any departures from the televised stories when we reach Troughton's Doctor.

The Destroyers was slotted into the schedule because, well, it's always fascinated me. Terry Nation's desire to get the Daleks their own show minus the Doctor is well documented. We're told about various pitches to America, which will be the reason the Daleks soon disappear from this marathon for quite some time. Mission to the Unknown could almost be viewed as a back-door pilot for the series (even if it wasn't made that way).

But then there's The Destroyers. A pilot for a Dalek-based series that actually got approved by the BBC. Sets were under construction to actually produce this one, before the plug was pulled. We very nearly had this series - or, at the very least - this pilot. Is there any wonder it's always been of interest? I figured that this was the best placement for it on my journey because, while it would have been produced and aired some time after Troughton took on the role, it features the return of Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom, and revolves heavily around the Space Security Agency. It's very much from Season Three.

The story serves very much as a set up to the potential series, reintroducing us to Sara, and bringing in a few other members of the SSS, including Jason Corey, and android Mark Seven. The trio have arrived on an asteroid where a base has recently been attacked by Daleks, and they've captured Sara's brother, David Kingdom. Thankfully, she's not given a chance to kill this one.

What follows gets us fully up to speed on everything we need to know for the series to work. We're given some background on the SSS and the Daleks, and we end with the trio arriving just too late to save David from being taken off-world by the Daleks. In the closing moments, we're given the shocking news that they're planning an invasion of Earth!

It's all a bit lightweight, with the story full of typically Terry Nation set-pieces (of course carnivorous plants play a vital role!), but that's pretty much exactly what you'd want from this series. I want it to be a serial that doesn't take itself too seriously, which you can put on and just enjoy. I imagine that it would have worked well almost as a televised Dan Dare, with several 12-part stories tying into a larger, ongoing narrative. This could have worked especially well if the series had run year-round, like Doctor Who of the time.

Crucially, it feels as though Mission to the Unkown could be an episode taken from this series, used to set up a story in which Sara, Mark, and Corey arrive on Kembel, to stop the Daleks from forming the Galactic council. Mavic Chen could even become a recurring foe throughout the series, discrediting them with Earth! The more I think about everything this series could be, the more I want it to actually exist.

The only problem is that in my mind, it's being made on film, with the production values of some of the ITC serials of the time. Done in that way, The Daleks could be something really very special. I fear, though, from past experience, that being made as a BBC co-production would mean it never quite lives up to what it should be. I can already picture the scene early on, where Jean Marsh narrates that they're 'surrounded' by Daleks. There's be cardboard cut-outs everywhere.

On the whole, I've enjoyed The Destroyers, and I'd have loved to see it made at the time. There's an awful lot of potential in here, and it's a real shame that there won't be any more of it.

7/10 

Character Options have sent DWO details of their upcoming 'Dalek Invasion; 2075' Time Zone Playset.

Collect and build the universe of Doctor Who with these 3D card diorama playsets that feature different time zones visited by the Doctor in the hit TV series. You can travel between different time zones or clip the sets together to build bigger ‘zones’. The playsets are in scale with the Doctor Who 3.75-inch action figures so you can create your own adventures or simply display your collection. There are two Time Zone playsets to collect… 

Dalek Invasion; 2075AD and the Daleks have invaded Earth once more. Using their mighty Saucer ships they bombard London driving the surviving population underground. Once they land, the Daleks patrol the ground looking for survivors in the rubble to either exterminate or transform into their puppets using Dalek nanocloud technology. In the skies the Daleks use long range ‘Hoverbout’ Anti-gravity disks to pursue the resistance. The TARDIS materialises near to a Trans-Sys matter transmission station in Hyde Park and the Doctor realises that he will need all his resources to once again defeat his oldest enemies and save the Earth from destruction. The future of the human race hangs in the balance. Dalek Invasion Time Zone Playset includes 1 exclusive hoverbout accessory. One supplied. For ages 5 years and over.

Key Features:

•  3D card diorama playset
•  Clip the sets together to build bigger ‘zones’
•  In scale with the Doctor Who 3.75-inch action figures
•  Each playset includes 1 x exclusive accessory or figurine

+  The 'Dalek Invasion; 2075AD' Time Zone Playset is released in May 2013, priced £9.99.

+  Preorder this product from Forbidden Planet!

[Source: Character Options]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 108: The Destruction of Time (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Twelve)

Dear diary,

Whether you choose to look at this as one big story, or several little ones connected by a common thread, there's no denying that the last twelve episodes have seen an awful lot of death and darkness.

Sara's demise under the influence of the time destructor is one of those moments from this story that everyone sort of knows about. It's fairly common knowledge that she cops it before this story is out, and for the most part people know how she goes. That doesn't do justice, though, to just how effective the death is. She dies because she's gone back for the Doctor. I'd always assumed that she was captured by the Daleks and tried to escape or something, not that she was behind by choice.

And the basic knowledge that I had of the death didn't hold a candle to just how nasty it actually is. I mean, sure, I knew that she was aged to death, but when you're actually in the thick of it and listening to it happen… then it becomes genuinely horrific. The worst bit comes afterwards, when the narration describes Steven approaching her lifeless body, before a gust of wind brushes the hair and skin away from it, scattering them around in the dirt. It's a truly ignoble end for Sara, and perhaps a moment that I'd love to see recovered and put back in the archive.

Elsewhere, though… This episode always had an awful lot to live up to. This Dalek plot has been building up - either as the main story or in the background somewhere - for a full seventeen episodes, ever since Mission to the Unknown. It's a far grander scheme than we've seen the Daleks attempt before (and, with the debatable exemption of some 21-sf century stories), bigger than we'll ever see again. The problem is that after all that time, nearly three weeks for me, and a full four-and-a-half months on screen back in the 1960s… I'm not quite sure I can work out the Daleks' plan.

I'm sure that it made sense at some point during the story. After all, most of the plot has revolved around the Daleks trying to get back the Terranium so that they can get their Time Destructor up and running. But then alongside this, they've brought together delegates from a number of galaxies so that they can wipe them out and seize control of said galaxies.

So… what's the point of building a machine that will power through time very quickly and ruin those places? Have I missed something? As I say, at some point during the story, I'm sure it all made sense - I've never had cause to question the story before now - but I've completely lost it at the very end here.

One of the things that I did enjoy in this final instalment was the final end of Mavic Chen. I said yesterday that I hope he didn't die here, because nothing could top the shock of his fake death in the last episode. He does die, though, and while it's true that it really isn't as effective as his last one, there is still merit to having him back again. For a start, he's clearly gone completely mad. Proper bonkers. It's great to see the way that the Daleks play him and lead him right through to the right moment, before they simply exterminate him like any other person. It's fun to listen to Kevin Stoney ramping it up in the mad stakes, too.

On the whole, while I've enjoyed the episode, I don't think it quite fulfils the role of being the final part to an epic such as this one.

Speaking of which… just what is The Daleks' Master Plan? I've been saying for a week now that it feels like several separate stories, and I stand by that. I think in my mind now, I'll be thinking of it as;

Mission to the Unknown
A 1 Episode prequel (as it standard thinking).

The Daleks' Master Plan
6 Episodes. In which the Daleks' plan to take over the universe, but the Doctor and his chums steal the core of their machine and leave them in a bit of a pickle.

Revenge of the Monk
4 Episodes. The Doctor, Steven, and Sara bumble around in time a bit, getting arrested in the 1960s, and visiting Hollywood. They then realise that they're being followed by another time machine, and get caught up with the Meddling Monk. The Daleks then turn up to demand their Terranium back.

The Mutation of Time
A 2 Episode Coda to the entire arc, which sees the Daleks defeated and an end to the threats posed by their galactic conquest plans.

Does anyone else have a way of thinking about this story which isn't as a 12-parter? The thought of breaking it up seems a little like heresy, but it just seems right!

Next Episode: War of God

Next Episode: War of God 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 107: The Abandoned Planet (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Eleven)

Dear diary,

Within a minute of Mavic Chen arriving back on Kembel and reporting to the Dalek Supreme, proudly boasting about the return of the Terranium, the Dalek asks him a - very sensible - question, which I can't quite believe Chen hasn't yet thought to ask himself: 'Are you sure it is the real core?'.

It's a valid point, if you think about it. Right back in Coronas of the Sun, the Doctor managed a bait-and-switch, with he and his companions handing over a replica so perfect that it was only when the Time Destructor failed to operate that the Daleks realised something was amiss. On this occasion, the Doctor has dropped the core into Chen's hands and darted off back into the pyramid to make his escape… and Chen didn't even question it. I was almost willing it to be fake again, just because I quite like the idea of the Doctor managing to keep fooling Chen and the Daleks time and time again with the same trick.

And so, here we are. Via the police station and 1920s Hollywood, a cricket match, a volcano world, Christmas and New Year's eve, Ancient Egypt and all, we're back on Kembel for the big final showdown. Except, we're not quite. Not yet. The Doctor's gone AWOL (Hartnell on Holiday again?) and most of the episode is spent moving the pieces into place for the big finale tomorrow. I'm guessing (?) that the delegates from the Galactic Council will be returning with their armies to wipe out the Daleks, while the Doctor slips away quietly, unseen. I'm just hoping that it's spectacular. It certainly deserves to be.

So, here we are. Eleven episodes into (debatably) one of Doctor Who's longest ever stories. Eleven whole days I've been withering on about this tale. And in all that time, I've not once managed to muse on the identities of to delegates. I thought that was going to come up early on! 'Which Delegate is which' is one of those questions that crops up in several forms in Who fandom, and I thought I was going to be able to make my own opinion. I was all set to give my great idea to the world, my version of who's who.

But as it transpires, the Delegates aren't really all that important, are they? We witness their first meeting right back during Mission to the Unknown, where they gather together and agree to do some evil things. We then watch them thump the desk a bit during a council meeting, and run around trying to point the finger of blame at each other when things start to go wrong. In today's episode, they get a bit ratty with Chen again and then find themselves locked in a cell.

I wonder if it's because I'm listening to the story via audio. My entire notion of what the delegates look like comes from the Mission animation and the surviving Day of Armageddon. I know what they look like for the most part (my favourite is 'Christmas tree'. It's a shame he doesn't turn up in the Christmas episode, really), and that's enough. The one with the raspy voice in this episode is in my head as the chap with the cracked face. One of the others is 'pebble guy'.

Unfortunately, that means I've nothing witty or new to say about them, or the way in which we can identify them. Sorry. Thought I'd better bring that up, in case you read through all my thoughts and figured I was just ignoring it. Mind you, I sort of am.

That said, I must confess a real love for Mavic Chen. The moment when his spaceship explodes really did take me by surprise. I think I may have actually gasped out loud. I listened to today's entry while I was painting a wall (it's spring - not that you'd know it to look outside - and time to freshen the place up!), and that was the moment I physically stopped and took it in. I thought it was a terribly sudden way to get rid of the character, but a fantastic one, and very in-keeping with the dark tone the series has been developing.

And then, like all good panto villains, he turns up again! Wielding a gun and making threats. Of course! I hope he doesn't die in tomorrow's episode, because it's never going to have the impact that this moment did.

Next Episode: The Destruction of Time

Next Episode: The Destruction of Time 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 106: Escape Switch (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Ten)

Dear diary,

“Everyone loves Magical Chen, agreed to work as the Daleks' lackey and then, got caught in a chase for the Teranium case, flying though time, it's all such a crime…”

What? I love a good Billy Fluff, me, and the moment when he refers to one of their enemies as 'Magic Chen' instantly set of a verse of the 'Magical Trevor' song in my head. Truth be told, it's still going round there, now, and I'll be a bit disappointed if I don't hear a Dalek singing it by the end of the next episode.

Oh, all right. I should have known that returning to an episode that really exists in the archives would turn things back around for me. I mused yesterday that Douglas Camfield's direction of the fight scenes between the Daleks and the Egyptians would probably be a highlight, and I think that this episode proves that completely.

It has to be said - and this must be an effect of moving into this period where there's more and more missing episodes - when the titles faded away and I saw an actual image of the Pharaoh's treasures, it took me back a bit! It's been a while since I saw a moving episode that wasn't animated (well, a 'while'. Four days. It feels like longer. I blame all that time we wasted mucking around on the volcano world), so something just struck me as odd about it here. Trust me, by the time I finish Season Four, I'll have forgotten that Doctor Who isn't a radio series.

This is probably a good point to mention the way that I tackle the missing episodes, as it's something I get asked about fairly often. I always listen to them now as the narrated soundtracks, or occasionally as an animation (as in the case of Mission to the Unknown or The Feast of Steven). People often ask why I'm not following along with a recon of some sort and the answer is, simply, that I just can't get into them. Oh, believe me, I've tried!

Some of them are fantastic, certainly, and it's the way that I watched Marco Polo, but I find that they just put me off a bit. Truth be told, when I was headed towards this season, the thought of having to sit and watch that many reckons was almost enough to nix the whole diary. I considered hiding in a wardrobe until the Jon Pertwee years landed and missing episodes were a thing of the past. But the narrated soundtracks, I've found myself getting really hooked on (A real U-turn - I couldn't bear the one I listened to for The Roof of the World back in January).

But enough about narrated soundtracks and reconstructed episodes - we can see this one properly! It moves and everything! And - oh - is it just me or does Douggie get better every time? There's a shot in this episode where the Sun morphs into a reflection on a Dalek dome, and I couldn't quite believe what I'd just watched. It. Was. Stunning.

It also means that we get to see the gorgeous shots of the Daleks gliding through the half-constructed Pyramids. It's hard to refrain from using the word 'stunning' here, too. I've said it before, and I've little doubt that I'll say it again before the 60s are out, but this version of the Dalek prop is perhaps my favourite. They just look so good.

And as the bad guys, they're still coming across better here than at any other point we've seen them so far. Remember back in The Daleks, when I complained that the final battle essentially boiled down to them being overthrown by a handful of Thals in leather trousers? That wouldn't happen to this bunch. This lot are set upon by a hoard of Egyptian slaves, and the Daleks just plough though them, exterminating en masse.

Yesterday, I complained that I'd rather have had an Egypt story told on its own terms, away from this story arc about the Daleks and Mavic Chen. As it is, having been though this episode now, too, I think I've had a perfectly good story. Two episodes feels about the right length for this tale - though I can still see how they might get four from it, with the Daleks and the Monk only turning up half-way - and I've really enjoyed it. The ending seems to imply that the Monk is out of the way now, and with the Doctor headed back to Kembel to finish up the story from way back when, so I'll be sad to see him leave. It's been great to have him back again, and he's been far better served in this Egypt portion of the tale than he was by the leftovers from The Chase.

I can't let this episode pass without mentioning the discovery of the film prints. This one, along with the print for Counter Plot were the ones that infamously turned up in the basement of a church (Mormon or others, depending on which version of the story you're being told). The rediscovery of missing episodes is a fascinating topic, and I love the tales of where things were found - this has to be my favourite of the bunch. It's just so, so, surreal. Perfect for this story, then!

Next Episode: The Abandoned Planet

Next Episode: The Abandoned Planet 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 105: Golden Death (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Nine)

Dear diary,

It's tricky, this one. On the one hand, I love the idea of a Doctor Who story set in ancient Egypt, and especially in this era of the programme. On the other… it feels a shame to see it thrown in to this part of this story, where they just seem to be filling time before getting back to the main plot. I've been championing the idea of this being more than one story for a while now, and I wonder if I'd have preferred a 'straight' Egypt story for an episode or two before the Daleks et al turn up on the sand.

That said, there is a lot in this episode that I like, and that I think really works. The idea that the TARDIS is taken into the pyramid as one of the pharaoh's treasures for the afterlife is very much the kind of thing that would have happened back in Season One. Indeed, lots of elements away from the Dalek-based story are the kind of things I'd expect to see in what I'm starting to consider as a 'traditional' Doctor Who story.

There's a scene in which Steven and Barbara are interrogated by a sinister marshall of the soldiers, and they protest their innocence strongly, claiming that they have no interest whatsoever in the treasure being gathered for the tomb. 'Even the old man?' they're asked, being told that he was examining the 'blue box' very carefully. The entire exchange might as well have been Ian and Barbara being put in the spotlight.

I could even go as far as to say that I'd be interested to see this story spread across a few episodes in ancient Egypt, in which the Monk turns up at the end of the first part! The idea of a showdown between the Doctor and the Monk certainly appeals to me, and after I felt yesterday's confrontation was wasted, today's seems to be back on form. The Monk works as a really interesting adversary to the Doctor - the first time that we've seen an equal to him, and the Monk is painted as such.

It's great to watch how bumbling he can be, but then he's filled with a truly sinister streak, where I'm not quite sure what he's going to do next or why. He seems intent on bringing revenge on the Doctor - and he's determined to make sure it happens. There's a school of thought that says the Monk ends up becoming the Master, and, (though it's not an idea I subscribe to)I can see where it may come from. If you take this desire for revenge and keep twisting the dial up, up, up… yeah, I can see the link.

And yet for all that I protest that I'd love to see a pure, Egyptian, historical, or a rematch of The Time Meddler set on the plains and around the Great Pyramids, the Daleks turning up is just wonderful. It's terribly Doctor Who - an extremely surreal juxtaposition as the Daleks massacre the Egyptian slaves. It's so bizarre, I almost wondered if I might be dreaming it. Done right (and directed by Camfield, I'd imagine it is!), that could be a really spectacular moment for the Daleks.

Elsewhere, we've got the Monk being recruited to the Dalek's cause as he tries to save his own skin, and there's some great fun to be had watching him squirm and apologise before Mavic Chen, who has a semblance of his former dignified imposing self back the second the Monk arrives before him. We've seen him just as writing and apologetic toward the Daleks in recent episodes, so it's nice to see the tables turned back for him - albeit briefly.

I won't even go into much detail on the Doctor breaking into the Monk's TARDIS (again) and messing around with the settings. It's really become his signature move when dealing with the man, and you think after the last time he'd have thought to lock the door one he'd hidden his TARDIS away!

Next Episode: Escape Switch

Next Episode: Escape Switch 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 104: Volcano (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Eight)

Dear diary,

Sometimes, there's so much useless Doctor Who knowledge buzzing around in my head that I simply ignore bits of it. I file it away in a cabinet marked 'you'll probably never need to know this' and go on thinking about something else. The nice effect this has is that elements of Doctor Who surprise me, when they probably really shouldn't.

Take today's episode, for example. It's the return of the Meddling Monk! Now, I knew - somewhere in the back of my mind - that the Monk returned in this story. I'm sure I knew that. Heck, the BBC's official 50th Anniversary website has an entry for the Monk in which he's surrounded by Volcanoes! Yet still, I didn't manage to piece it together until almost the last moment.

When this episode opens, the TARDIS is being pursued through the vortex by another time vessel. Steven speculates that it has to be the Daleks, and the Doctor thinks that he's probably right about that. Meanwhile, we keep cutting back to Kembel, where the Daleks are preparing to send a time machine out to hunt for them. It wasn't until the Daleks were ready to leave the planet that I suddenly realised that it couldn't be them chasing the TARDIS, and it all fell into place!

Aside from that nice surprise, this episode is a bit lackluster. It feels like a number of left over ideas from The Chase being added in to help pad out the story a little further. What if the TARDIS were to materialise in the middle of a cricket match? What if it turns up on New Year's Eve, during the countdown? It can't just be fleeting materialisations (and what happened to the ship needing twelve minutes to take off again?), so we get a showdown between the Doctor and the Monk, but rather than the great back-and-forth we saw between them last series, it just dissolves into a bit of laughing, and then we find that the Doctor has been trapped here.

Even then, it only takes the Doctor a matter of minutes to fix the problem and get them back on their way again. To be honest, the whole episode feels like padding before we can get onto the really interesting stuff.

Where things do still fall into place for me is when we spend time with the Daleks on Kembel. These are still the ruthless creatures I've grown used to this season, and they're by far the best thing about this episode. That they allow one of the delegates to die for them as proof that he is truly devoted to his cause is sinister enough. The fact that he survives the experiment - so they exterminate him anyway, just because they were expecting a death - is even worse. These Daleks are unlike any we've had before, and they're a fantastic breed of the creatures.

To tell the truth, though, I think things need to get back to Kembel full-time. While I still believe this tale could be seen as more than one story, it feels like its flagging a little in the middle here - they don't really know what to do with the characters before we head back in for the final showdown. I'm hoping that the final four episodes are where we bring things back into focus…

Next Episode: Golden Death

Next Episode: Golden Death 

 Day 103: The Feast of Steven (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Seven)

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 103: The Feast of Steven (The Daleks' Master Plan, Episode Seven)

Dear diary,

*clears throat * IT'S CHRIIIISSSTTTTMMMAAAAASSSSSSSS! What? It's tradition, isn't it? No? Oh hush, it's my blog. And it's Christmas! Spread the cheer! And isn't it nice of the weather to keep the winter feeling going right the way through until now, just so it would feel more like Christmas. Yeah, let's enjoy the snow as I crank up the heating and mutter 'Bah Humbug' under my breath…

But look! Hooray! Santa has been! And what's that he's left for me under the tree? (By 'under the tree', I mean 'on the computer'. I did suggest getting the Christmas tree back out, but Ellie wasn't having any of it.) It's a copy of The Feast of Steven that's been animated! That's right, I've been enjoying today's special Christmas episode in the form of Adamsbullock's version.

It's another very different style of animation, quite far removed from what I've seen for either The Reign of Terror or Mission to the Unknown. Far more stylised, and with a much simpler tone to it. Outside the police station, for example, the background is painted in with only a few tones and a couple of windows. And yet, it works really well! I don't know if I'd be able to do the entire Daleks' Master Plan in this style, but for the slightly bizarre Christmas episode, it's absolutely perfect.

Truth be told, by the end I'd grown quite accustomed to the animated Hartnell. It's going to be a bit of a shock to go back to the real, human version. Maybe for the next few audio episodes I'll imagine everyone else as real, with this version of Hartnell alongside them. It'll keep me amused at least!

As for the episode itself… it's a bit of a game of two halves really. All the stuff at the police station was great fun, and I really rather enjoyed that. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the original intention was to have the cast of Z Cars take the roles of the police officers, which would have been great fun and really helped add to the Christmas feel - plus, it has to be said, the idea of Brian Blessed squaring up to Hartnell excites me far more than it should!

There's plenty of comedy in this section of the episode, and it's played nicely: lots of fun banter between the policemen as they wait outside the TARDIS, and especially after the Doctor has stepped outside for the very first time. Then there's the business with the man inside the station ('haven't I seen your face before? Of course! The marketplace at Jaffa!') and Steven coming to take the Doctor away by pretending that he's a bit mad.

Yeah, the first section of the episode is great fun, and I really enjoyed it. But then we arrive in Hollywood and… oh dear. It's a good job I didn't listen to this episode as part of the narrated soundtrack with my headphones in. Whoever was in charge of sound for this segment should be shot. It's so noisy! Every character is shouting, and they're all doing it at once! There were moments when I couldn't understand what was actually being said.

(Incidentally, I did scroll through the audio once I'd finished watching the animation, just in case it had been made better on the narrated soundtrack. One section of screeching was more than enough for me, so I didn't push it any further.)

Something I did wonder about, and it's happened a few times over the last few episodes, is Sara's name. Which way do people tend to pronounce it? I've always said it as 'Sa-ra', as does the Doctor here, and as it's clearly written. Peter Purves (both in the episodes and on the narration) seems to refer to her as 'Sarah' more commonly. Which do people tend to go for? Is 'Sara' the majority vote?

Now, I mused yesterday that things felt like they were building to the end of a six-part story and getting ready to move off onto a new adventure, but that I'd need to watch through more before coming to a decision on that one. Well, I think I've already reached one. The Feast of Steven is not the seventh episode of a twelve-part serial called The Daleks' Master Plan. Frankly, it's not! The only link we have to that story is the Doctor double checking that they still have the terrarium core, to which Sara replies 'Oh, I'd forgotten about the Daleks.'

That's less of a link than the Steven Moffat era has between stories that are a part of the story arc! The six episodes from The Nightmare Begins to Coronas of the Sun are definitely a story, and the episodes that follow this one may be a follow-up to that story, but from where I'm standing now, somewhere around the middle-point, this certainly feels like an individual one-episode story all on its own. I'll review this situation once I finish the next five episodes, but it's looking likely that I'll think of them as separate stories from now on. The campaign to change it starts here!

Next Episode: Volcano

It is with deepest regret that DWO announces the passing of Designer of The Daleks, Ray Cusick.

Ray designed the iconic look of The Daleks - brainchild of creator, Terry Nation. The design of The Daleks has changed very little since the 1960's and at the time of designing, Cusick was on a standard BBC salary, so did not collect any royalties from his designs.

The Daleks have since gone on to earn huge revenues for Terry Nation's estate - a fact which many fans feel Cusick should have received more recognition (and royalties) for.

During his life, Cusick always stated he never asked for money, only to be recognised as a designer.

DWO would like to extend our sympathies to Raymond's family and friends.

[Source: BBC News]

The Daleks invaded London earlier this morning and resistance was useless – insofar as it was impossible to resist the striking sight of The Doctor’s iconic enemies swarming through the capital!

But their presence was not part of a plan to enslave Earth – or at least that’s what the production team is saying! The cast and crew of An Adventure in Space and Time were there to recreate some of the most memorable moments from Doctor Who’s early years – the scenes from The Dalek Invasion of Earth where the metal monsters imperiously glided through London, gloriously framed against the backdrop of famous sites like the Palace of Westminster.

Back in 1964 the photos of the ‘invasion’ became instant classics and over the years the imagery of those episodes has been referenced and updated on several occasions. But this is the first time that a production team has attempted to faithfully replicate the 1964 shoot using Daleks that were unique to that single adventure. The results look set to be stunning, as you can find out for yourselves when An Adventure in Space and Time - a one-off drama exploring the genesis of Doctor Who - debuts later this year.

A promotional image (pictured-right) was posted by the BBC Doctor Who website this morning.

Writer, Mark Gatiss, recorded a short video diary to make the event, which you can view below:

[youtube:NOoO6zdP87M]

[Source: BBC Doctor Who website]

Attention Collectors! The Unique Auctions Fine Antiques & Collectors Sale in Lincoln on Sunday 24th February, features a full size Red Edwin Hall Dalek.

The Edwin Hall Daleks were made in the mid 1960s and this ride (pictured-right) originally cost 20p and has room for a child to sit inside.

DWO spoke to the Auctioneer, Darryl Kirk, who had the following to say regarding the auction:

"We receive many interesting items every month ranging from collectables to Fine Antiques. The arrival of the Dalek stopped the general auction work, everyone came out to see it being lifted in. A full size Dalek cannot fail to impress, and we are looking forward to seeing it working. We have an electrician currently looking at the Dalek.

I remember playing on one these in the 1970s, and I am sure it will bring back memories for many others."

In May of 2006 a non-working Edwin Hall Dalek was sold at auction at Bonhams for £1560 inc. premium.

+  For further information call UK +44 (0) 1522 690444 or visit http://www.unique-auctions.com.

[Sources: Unique Auctions; Darryl Kirk; Terry Woodcock]

BBC Books have sent DWO the cover and details for the forthcoming 11th Doctor, Doctor Who Book release of The Dalek Generation.

The Dalek Generation:
By Nicholas Briggs 

"The Sunlight Worlds Offer You A Life of Comfort and Plenty. Apply now at the Dalek Foundation."

Sunlight 349 is one of countless Dalek Foundation worlds, planets created to house billions suffering from economic hardship. The Doctor arrives at Sunlight 349, suspicious of any world where the Daleks are apparently a force for good – and determined to find out the truth. The Doctor knows they have a far more sinister plan – but how can he convince those who have lived under the benevolence of the Daleks for a generation?

But convince them he must, and soon. For on another Foundation planet, archaeologists have unearthed the most dangerous technology in the universe...

A thrilling all-new adventure featuring The Doctor as played by Matt Smith in the spectacular BBC TV series.

+  The Dalek Generation is released on 11th April 2013, priced £6.99.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com!

+  Check Out the DWO Release Guide entry for this product! 

[Source: BBC Books]

The BBC Doctor Who Website have unveiled a new Teaser Trailer for 7.1: Asylum of the Daleks.

View the trailer below:

[youtube:iMKZYnkFwmw]

+  7.1: Asylum of the Daleks will air on BBC One on Saturday 1st September.

[Source: BBC]