Day Fifty-Three: The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Two)Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day Fifty-Three: The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Episode Two)
Dear diary,
The image of the Dalek rising from the river is justifiably iconic in the history of Doctor Who. It's created well, but it never quite lives up the the way I see it in my mind. It's a stunning moment, but one which isn't given much room to breathe at the end of Episode One. Ian and the Doctor turn around, and stop in their tracks, but we've cut back to the real star of the show, the Dalek, before we can see their reactions properly. This gets resolved here, with plenty of time spent dwelling on it, but it's still a shame.
Perhaps the bigger shame, though, is the way the shot of the Dalek plays out here. There's no incidental music, which rather leaves it looking like the Doctor and Ian are just casually watching as the Dalek gently strolls out of the waves and onto the bank. It fells a little bit too flat for me, I'm afraid.
Perhaps a bigger shame, though, is that it's almost impossible as a viewer in 1964 to not know the Daleks were coming back. Before the last episode, I watched the trailer for the story which is included on the DVD - it's hugely focussed around the return of the Daleks, since they were so popular the year before. Even the Radio Times ran it as a cover image. The cliffhanger would have such an impact coming out of the blue, so I'm sorry to know that didn't happen.
As it is, I think I'd be rather miffed, after all the build up, to know I'd not got a Dalek until the last thirty seconds or so! Give me my pepper pots! We get paid back in spades here, though, and there's Daleks a-plenty. There's a wonderful shot toward the end of the episode, while the battle against the Daleks is going on, where we've got five of them moving about, plus a few more cardboard cut-out versions (which here, as in The Daleks - the serial, not this episode! - almost work, but not quite. It'd help if they didn't keep shining the spotlight directly at them…)
Something that I have found interesting throughout this episode is the Doctor's reaction to encountering the Daleks again. He doesn't panic, or fear them, he simply responds to their bold assertion that they're the masters of Earth with a glib comment ('Not for long!') and comments to Ian that they need to put their wits together and defeat the creatures.
Throughout the stories of the first series, I often spoke of the Doctor growing more and more into the character we know from later in the series. I think this surely has to be the crowning moment of that transformation. The Doctor discovers that an old foe is behind the events they've encountered, and decides that it's up to him to stop it. It's fitting that the Daleks should be the creatures to make him see this, considering that they're the first monster to return to the series after their initial debut. No wonder they became his arch nemesis!
It's also good to see some throwbacks with the Doctor's character, too, though. While locked up in a cell on the Dalek ship, he's very friendly with Ian, discussing space-age science with him and wondering if they'd taught it at Coal Hill, while being thoroughly dismissive of Craddock. He's not quite as harsh with the man as he was with Ian and Barbara when they first encountered him, but there's flashes of the Doctor's more guarded persona that we don't see often any more.
Next Episode: Day of Reckoning
