Destiny of the Daleks is such a fascinating mess that it's a small wonder nobody has written a 900 page book examining every aspect of it's bizarre successes and failures, and examining it on a philosophical, mathematical and televisual level. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me, but I'll do my best to examine this in some ways terrible but in other ways magnificent piece.
Part One is one of the weirder Doctor Who experiences I've had, even though in many ways it's a pretty standard formulaic Terry Nation Part One. For a start, the opening 'Romana Regeneration' scene is quite possibly the greatest scene in the show's history. It doesn't make a single atom of sense, both to a casual viewer or to someone well versed in Doctor Who canon, yet every second of it is absolutely glorious. It's peak Douglas Adams and something that'll rear it's head much more successfully in the next story, City of Death (which of course, The A-Z of Classic Who has already covered).
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| The Doctor was beginning to wonder what had been in that bong |
Unfortunately, things then take a turn for the dull, with the Doctor and Romana (her regeneration obviously not being commented on again) taking a delightful stroll through BBC Quarry No.1828303 a terrifying and desolate alien planet, taking in all the things that will later become plot points fascinating sights and sounds. It's essentially just 10/15 minutes of absolutely nothing happening, and it's not until the end of the episode that the ridiculous looking Movellans turn up, and the guy stalking Romana (who later turns out to be completely friendly, because every guy who stalks the companion in a Terry Nation part one does) accidentally causes her to fall into the hands of the Daleks. Oops.
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| Everyone was surprised Skaro had been chosen to host this year's Drag Championships |
When the Daleks are revealed, they're a bit pathetic, but as we examined two entries ago, the Daleks are pathetic in every story in the seventies which isn't called Genesis of the Daleks so we're on fairly familiar territory here. Once all this rubbish is out of the way, we can get on with the actual plot, which is actually very interesting stuff and had a lot of potential to it. The Daleks are looking for Davros, so he can use his very illogical mind to break the stalemate between the Daleks and the Movellans two races locked in a war neither can win because of their perfectly logical battle strategies. This is really interesting stuff based in mathematics and philosophy, and could have been the centrepiece of a really interesting Doctor Who story.
If you're not seeing the very blatantly obvious problem with this, then I'll explain. The Daleks are not logical creatures, and they never have been. They rely on their anger, their hatred and their passion, and turn those emotions into power. They're not cold, unemotional beings like the Cybermen, they make some very illogical moves and decisions because of their burning hatred of everything non-Dalek and their desire to exterminate them. I'd chastise whoever the writer of this story is for not understanding that, but it's Terry Nation, they guy who created them, so I'm really at a complete loss as to how this happened. Maybe he completely forgot about how his own creations worked? There's a few subtle (and not so subtle) references across the story to the Daleks now being totally robotic life forms, which is either a fascinating plot point that never went anywhere or Terry Nation just completely losing the plot with the Daleks. I'd bet on the latter unfortunately.
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| THE NEEDS OF THE MANY OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE - OH WAIT, HANG ON, WRONG LOGICAL SPECIES |
Underneath all this bizareness, there is, of course, Davros who has his good and bad elements in this story. On the one hand, the performance by David Gooderson isn't that bad - the main hampering element is the lack of electronic enhancement of the voice like there was in Genesis. His conversations with the Doctor are interesting, and also lend a bit to the Doctor's character - his line upon discovering Davros and explaining to Romana and a Movellan that he created the Daleks - "I could have stopped him" - shows the regret the Doctor has for failing to touch the wires together in Genesis, and how even now, a not inconsiderable time later for either of them, it's something that still haunts him. Davros is also just as mad and raving as he was before, and it's made very clear that he learnt absolutely nothing from being blasted at the end of Genesis, a nice character touch.
On the other hand, the precedent of bringing back Davros for every classic Dalek story from now on was not a good one to set, and aside from those scenes with the Doctor, he can be a bit buffoonish, and his grand scheme to stop the Movellans is, to be frank, a bit shit, and is happily defeated by the Doctor throwing his hat onto a Dalek eyestalk.
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| IN HINDSIGHT THIS IS A DESIGN FLAW WE SHOULD HAVE RECTIFIED |
Which does bring us straight onto the comedy in this story, which, while never absolutely Moffat level bad, is never particularly brilliant either. Most of it pokes fun at the Daleks which further reduces them as a threat, and despite the gallant efforts in the Eighties to make them vaguely threatening again, it took Rob Shearman to rectify this particular problem. Some of the Doctor's joking with Davros (not to the latter's amusement) works quite well, but some of it is very badly out of place. Also, some of the humour is rather unintentional, such as the bad performances by both prisoner and Movellan extras.
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| Davros was getting cold feet over the whole thing |
Another mark on the story is how utterly pointless the Movellan storyline is for the most part, with their doomsday weapon having no bearing on anything other than to provide a cliffhanger and the summary dispatching of every Movellan by a bunch of unarmed prisoners very quickly and effortlessly does nothing to portray them as a force that could hold their own against the Daleks, although how useless the Daleks are here does help that perception a little.
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| If I can have a serious caption for once, surely this doesn't make any sense if the Movellans are robots? They should just erupt into sparks rather than be exterminated like a human would be, right? |
This story is enjoyable though, because of how bizarrely weird it is in places, how charmingly wonderful Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are, and how the interesting elements of the plot propel it along enough to keep your interest. Even if it is very stupid and has a lot of silly elements, it's always a lot of fun to watch as long as you have a bit of patience and a penchant for naff TV. In terms of Dalek-based stories I've seen this week, it's nothing like as bad as the unmitigated disaster of biblical proportions that was Resolution, so there's something to be thankful for.
Final Score: 4/10. It's enjoyable to watch and there's some great elements, but the plot is not properly developed, the pacing is inconsistent and the Daleks have the threat level of garden gnome, which means this is still a below average story.
Next Episode: Doctor Who and The Silurians
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