This is not a story that uses the Daleks on more than one level, and yet also possibly the nearest thing its era gets to political satire. In its defence, Matthew Robinson directs it with gusto, somewhere in there is a critique of its own violence, and Tegan’s departure is excellent. Indeed, the Daleks here seem even weaker than in ‘Destiny’, relying on mercenaries to take over Davros’ prison ship and being insecure enough to give them little Dalek decorations on their helmets. Nation’s feedback on an Eric Saward script meant that the story was revised and became overfull to satisfy both writers’ visions.Ī delay in production gave time for streamlining, but nonetheless ‘Resurrection’ is messy and ultimately doesn’t seem very interested in the Daleks (focussing again on Davros and Saward’s mercenary characters). Nation had been unsatisfied by other writers’ version of the Daleks, which is quite the take, and refused to allow another writer to tackle them until a convention appearance changed his mind. Resurrection of the Daleksįrom this point on, using the Daleks required approval by Terry Nation or his estate. Giving the Daleks time travel to pursue the TARDIS is an important development, and it’s a fantastic set for the interior, but the middle of this story lets it down. The momentum never fully recovers from this. Then we getawkward comedy skits, a poorly judged trip to the Marie Celeste, and a sequence in a haunted house where everyone is stupid for some reason. The regulars are all enjoying themselves. Terry Nation sets the initial action on a desert planet called Aridius where some aliens from RADA are menaced by a giant ballbag. We do get the mental image of the Cult of Skaro sneaking around 1920s New York trying to kidnap a pig though, so you can’t say that it’s all bad. Davies was ill and unable to perform his usual rewrites on the scripts, and the result feels like ticking off items on a Tenth Doctor Bingo card. This is a shame because there are some great moments in the first episode where the Daleks plot, skulk and lament. It’s not that this re-treads ideas from ‘Evil of the Daleks’, or that the science strains credulity even by Doctor Who standards, it’s that this story feels strangely perfunctory despite its ambitions. Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks The lack of budget is obvious, with knackered Dalek props and an ill-fitting Davros mask (actor David Gooderson also cannot lift Davros’ generic villain dialogue). Adams tried to zest up what he regarded as tired Nation standards (including radiation poisoning, overambitious monsters, a rare mineral, a quest, things named after their primary characteristic, invisible monsters, jungle planets, aggressive vegetation, flaky Daleks, unfortunate comedy episodes and plagues). Terry Nation’s final script for Doctor Who clashed with Script Editor Douglas Adams. It’s not without positives: The Doctor’s grief and rage when he thinks Jo is dead is very well acted, although the oft quoted “Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened” line works better in isolation than in the actual scene, which feels like HR has invited Jon Pertwee in to do a motivational seminar. The result is a rote traipse through the familiar. To be fair to Terry Nation, no one could rewatch episodes in 1972, and so his first script for the show since 1965 drew heavily on his old stories. Having not seen this until its DVD release, I don’t have any residual affection for this story from childhood (unlike other stories on this list I thought ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ was great when I was nine). As this only covers television stories, I should mention that I think the best Dalek story of all time is the Big Finish audioplay ‘ Jubilee’ by Rob Shearman, which you should know as little as possible about before listening to. The rankings are not based purely on how entertaining I find the stories, but also on how the Daleks are used and developed, the Doctor’s response to them and what that says (within both the larger context of the show’s history and the stories surrounding it). I’ve removed ‘ The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’: it seems silly to rate them based on their Dalek content. If a story features the Daleks in a small cameo role, I’ve not included it (for example, ‘Frontier in Space’, ‘ The Wedding of River Song’, ‘The Pilot’).
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