Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 528: Destiny of the Daleks, Episode Two
Dear diary,
I have to confess that I was a little nervous about starting on this story. Genesis of the Daleks fared so well with me, and went a long way to living up to the ‘classic’ status it’s always had, and I worried that it might ruin other Dalek stories for me that followed in its wake. Actually, though, I think the fact that we’ve had such a long break for the pepper pots since then has really worked in their favour. I’ve grown to really enjoy them over the course of this marathon, but I’ve not actively missed them over the past few months. But as soon as they start screaming and shouting in this episode, I was just glad to have them back. They’re such fun to have around, and actually, this batch of them are nasty.
During their brief confrontation with Romana right at the very start of today’s episode, where they bark orders at her (‘is-that-under-stood? is-that-under-stood? SPEAK!’), is actually quite frightening, and I’m not sure if I can remember the last time I actually found one of the Daleks menacing. They keep that up throughout the rest of the episode, shouting at her during their interrogation, and sneaking up on the Movellans ready to shoot in the corridors. I’m really enjoying the Daleks themselves, and I’m worried that they’re going to become second fiddle now that Davros has woken up.
That would be a shame, really, because as much as I’m enjoying them, I’ve loved the brief bit of Davros that we’ve had in this episode, too. From the Doctor realising what his foes must be digging for, and deciding that it was too bizarre, even for them, right up to the moment that they find the forgotten corpse of the creator sitting alone in the lower levels (Emma: “Davros needs a dust”). During those closing moments, when the light comes on, and the hand begins to twitch… yeah, it’s all rather exciting.
And yet, I can’t help feeling that we need a non-Davros ‘buffer’ story between Genesis of the Daleks and this tale. We see the creatures exterminate their leader, and then they go off to conquer the cosmos, without a second thought for their founding father. And then, in the story after that, we find them back on Skaro, trying to dig him out. It would work nicely as a part of Tom Baker’s final season in the role, as a nice counterpoint to their confrontation in his first year. As it is, is feels as though Davros is always a part of the Dalek stories, and from Genesis onwards in the classic era, that’s true. I’m sort of complaining for the sake of complaining, there, and looking at it with thirty-something years of hindsight. I’m enjoying Destiny of the Daleks partly because of Davros, not in spite of him.
Somrthing else I’m liking about this one is that ‘start of a new season’ feeling. Like The Ribos Operation last year, it’s clear that they’ve just been handed a pot of money with which to make the new season, and they’ve gone a little bit mad with it right out of the gate. The Movellan spaceship impressed during yesterday’s episode, and continues to do so here, and the Dalek control centre works rather well for me, too. There’s so much to both of these sets, and the use of steady cam means that they’re constructed in a way that’s slightly different to any Doctor Who sets before them. My only worry with this is that the money might be stretching it by the time we reach the season’s end…!
