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

Day 527: Destiny of the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

It’s been four and a half long years (or three and a half long months for me, in 50 Year Diary terms) since the Daleks last made an appearance in Doctor Who, and it feels as though things have moved on massively since then. When we last saw them, Tom Baker had just taken up his tenancy in the TARDIS, Sarah Jane and Harry were still traveling alongside him, and we’d not heard of Zygons, or Kraals, The Key to Time, or Janis Thorns. In many ways, the programme has moved on a long way in the period between Dalek stories, so it’s always nice to see such a familiar and reassuring figure from the programme’s past making an appearance to reassure us that this is still the same old Doctor Who.

I’ve always thought that the cliffhanger to this episode - even though it is one of those typical Dalek story cliffhangers in which they arrive at the end of Part One - should be really rather momentous. Suddenly, two Daleks come crashing through a mirrored wall, and confront Romana! They scream, and shout, and they’re back! Only… I’ve never realised that it was supposed to be them smashing through any kind of wall, I just thought it was a bit of an odd way to have them show up. It’s certainly not clear. The fact that bits of the shattered set end up stuck on the slightly tatty Dalek props doesn’t really help with the big return of the programme’s most iconic monsters, either. As we see it on screen, this is all a bit of a mess, whereas the Target novelisation paints a far more dramatic picture:

“The cell began to vibrate. She could feel the walls shuddering, and hear a high-pitched whine of machinery moving ever closer.

Cracks began to appear in the wall directly opposite. The cracks formed a kind of arch-shape, and suddenly the entire centre of the wall seemed to crumble inwards, leaving a great black hole.

With terrifying speed, two metallic shapes glided through the arch. They were shaped like huge metal-studded pepper pots, they had projecting metal arms and an eye-lens on a kind of metal stalk. They swept menacingly down on Romana, crowding her back against the wall, hemming her in so that there was no escape.

In harsh metallic voices they screeched, ‘Do not move! Do not move or you will be exterminated! You are a prisoner of the Daleks!’”

Still, I am impressed with much of the rest of the episode. The location, even if it’s the traditional quarry, is interesting enough, and the TARDIS looks rather nice perched among the rocks. It even allows for some nice bits of directorial flourish from Ken Grieve, in his only contribution to the series. We can perhaps forgive him for that cliffhanger, if the rest of the story lives up to some of his more impressive moments throughout this first episode.

Of course, the main thing that gets discussed about this episode is Romana’s regeneration. I’ve seen it before, of course, but never in context like this, coming at the end of all her other adventures. It really is rather odd, isn’t it? All of a sudden, at the top of the episode, Romana pops in and announces that she’s regenerating, and since she like Princess Astra’s form so much, she’s decided to copy it. Right down to the outfit. The swapping of bodies is quite fun, and I don’t really have much of a problem with any of that - I think my main issue is that the Doctor so casually accepts it all, as though he knows that they need to hurry up and get on with the main story.

That he doesn’t even question it beyond his first ‘what are you doing?’ is what makes it all seem a little out of place. It’s a shame that the regeneration couldn’t have been made more a focus of this first episode, even if they didn’t want to get Mary Tamm back. As it is, we’re left with fairly standard Terry Nation fare, in which the Doctor and his companion look around a desolate location for much of the episode before getting caught up in local events rather late in the day.

I think I would have preferred something a bit more dramatic to fill up these first fifteen minutes of the story - even if you go for that old Sixth Doctor’s regeneration trick, having the TARDIS crash land, and Romana waking up with the face of the princess. Throw in some technobabble about Romana’s exposure to the Key causing her current form, have the TARDIS hurtled towards Skaro in a fit of rage by the Black Guardian… just something to make it all seem a little less out-of-the-blue!