The A-Z of Classic Who | Planet of the Daleks: A Case Study in Nation-alism

 

With Planet of the Daleks we return to Doctor Who's tenth season, a season of celebration - never mind it was (mostly) broadcast closer to the show's 9th anniversary than its' 10th, it was the first time the show had ever tried to celebrate itself and arguably at this point, without decades of continuity and fan arguments bogging things down, it was the perfect time to do it. That's how we got The Three Doctors, a solid story with the fantastic return of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton - even if the former was limited by his health, it was still wonderful to see them back and a great celebration of what the show had achieved. The story's very existence was proof the show had grown from a tiny sci-fi series into a piece of popular culture that could do a full story celebrating itself and nobody would mind.

The thing is though, they should have left it at that. The rest of Season 10 is, for me at least, split in terms of quality between the 'business as usual' stories, Carnival of Monsters, a story I adore as one of Seventies Who's unsung gems, and The Green Death, a great story with iconic monsters and imagery... and the attempt in the middle to celebrate Doctor Who's history in another, less effective way.

"Hmmm, yes, definitely a Dalek"
"Glad we have you here for these things Doctor"

See, producer Barry Letts had the grand idea to do a 12-part story like The Daleks' Master Plan. Now, the timeline of DMP's appointments with the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™ is a bit sketchy, so I can't say whether Letts was able to watch that story or not in order to get the idea... my guess is probably not, as it should have made him realise it was a really crap idea. In any case, Letts realise it was unworkable (DMP was pushing what was possible in 1965, never mind 1973) so decided on a genius solution - two linked six-parters, providing two distinct stories but with an overall theme. Thus was born Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.

Now the astute ones among you have probably noticed that F comes before P in the alphabet, and yes, it is the case that I've already done Frontier in Space. It was a decent story - a solid Malcolm Hulke political tale with some interesting ideas and Roger Delgado's excellent final performance as the Master prior to his tragic death. The thing is, it wasn't any better than decent, which was frustrating as it easily could have been. It wasn't allowed to have a proper ending - it built up to its climax and then just... stopped, clearly intending to lead into this story. The thing is though, Planet tells a completely different story to Frontier, in fact apart from featuring Daleks, there's barely any relation at all. Frontier in Space is forgotten, aside from the hook of the Doctor being injured at the end of that story, which is used as a device to separate the Doctor and Jo in this one, something that's totally forgotten by the end of Episode One. While the Earth - Draconia conflict and the Daleks manipulations surrounding it were a fascinating part of Frontier, they're totally absent from this one, with Earthly only mentioned as a planet that may or may not exist according to the Thals. Even if the replacement stuff was as good (it's not) it would be a serious black mark on this story before we even start by leaving Frontier without an ending and the main plot of these supposedly linked stories unresolved. It's as if Letts had the grand idea of these linked stories, told Hulke to create a set up but then forgot to tell Terry Nation that he actually had to write a conclusion, and therefore Nation just tossed out a flat retelling of the first Dalek story, ending up as less of a celebration of storytelling versatility of Doctor Who and more a celebration of how frequently the people who made this show could cock it up if they put their minds to it.

So already this story is not in my good books, and, well, it doesn't do much to prove me wrong unfortunately. It's not awful, it's by far the better of the two Pertwee Dalek stories written by Nation and it's not as if it actually makes me angry, which is usually what a story needs to do to end up at the absolute lowest end of the scoring. It's just not very good though, and frustratingly so at times. The key to understanding this, though, is understanding Mr Nation himself, or at the very least his relationship with Doctor Who.

There's perhaps nobody who's more responsible for Doctor Who's longevity and success than Terry Nation. Oh sure, Sydney Newman came up with the idea and Verity Lambert nurtured it into a workable TV series, but let's face it, without the Daleks capturing public imagination as they did, then the idea the show would be around for its 10th anniversary, never mind approaching its 60th, is pretty laughable. Without Nation, Doctor Who would not be part of British popular culture like it is. At best, it would be remembered like Blake's 7, The Prisoner or the Quartermass serials - popular among sci-fi fans but not known among the general public. It's also worth remembering that the Daleks are still Who's most recognisable element and their contribution to the show's reach still dwarf anything else - no other element from the series could have made it into that Lego Batman movie a few years back, that's for sure. For sure, Nation's contribution to the show and where it is today is therefore pretty indisputable.

ow that hurts

The thing is though, and that bit was partially to make clear I'm not dismissing him or his legacy in any way, is that Nation was just not that great at writing Doctor Who. Oh, sure, he wrote some very good Doctor Who  - Genesis of the Daleks is an all time classic and the first two Dalek stories are pretty great as well. It's just that he didn't seem to have the same sort of knack as, say, Robert Holmes, who 100% got the show and could pull quality Doctor Who out of his arse on a whim. Therefore, while Holmes' overall legacy for the show is smaller than Nation's, the list of classics he wrote is longer than most writer's overall credits, while for Nation I could only name three. That's not to say I think Nation was in any way a bad writer, not at all, it's just that his writing had two big weaknesses, at least when it came to Doctor Who (I'm unfamiliar with most of his work outside of the show just as an fyi). Firstly, I think the quality of his writing tended to correlate with how much of a shit he gave when writing it. The first two Dalek stories, for instance, were when he was developing his and building his name as a writer, he was hungry for it and it showed. Likewise, for Genesis he had been given the idea of going back to the Dalek's origins by Terrance Dicks and he obviously became inspired by the idea. Compare it to The Chase where he was asked to rattle off a dumb comedy script, or Death to the Daleks where Barry Letts wanted Daleks, so he tossed off a crap script, or Destiny of the Daleks where Graham Williams wanted Daleks so he tossed off a crap script, or this story, where Letts wanted Daleks as part of his connected stories, so he tossed off a crap script. See a theme emerging don't we.

I don't like implying laziness in writers, because writing is not easy and anyone who tells you it is is an imbecile. The thing is though, Nation had right of first refusal on the Daleks, which means if the Who production team wanted to use them, they had to ask him if he wanted to write it, and as far as I'm aware this remained the case up until the classic series ended (other complications from the BBC and Nation's co-ownership of the Daleks remains to this day). Which is fair I guess, but... he could have said no? If he didn't have any ideas or passion, as he would get two years later with Genesis to excellent results, then what reason would he have? Well I'm afraid the answer is probably small rectangular bits of paper with pictures of the Queen on them. It's another thing I don't like implying, especially about someone who contributed so much to the show, and obviously I don't know for sure, I'm just making a glorified guess. But I'd be remiss if I didn't share my thoughts.

The second thing about Nation is that there is no doubt that he was an incredible ideas man - obviously the Daleks wouldn't have caught on if they weren't such a captivating idea... it's just the other stuff where he falls short. Even in the good stories, his plots are usually flimsy, his characters flat nothings and his dialogue is approaching Bidmead or even shudder Moffat levels of bad. Genesis is the only exception to this, and that's probably because of the quietly intervening hand of Robert Holmes making a few adjustments. Unfortunately, this story is a great showcase of all these elements to not very impressive effect.

Now, I am aware that Nation was accomplished writer who created one of the most famous sci-fi villains of all time of all time, and I'm a guy who does amateur writing as a hobby I when have some free time. Consequently, I do get I look a bit like some nobody saying "why can't accomplished writer Terry Nation be as good as me," and I must emphasise in the strongest possible terms that is not what I am saying. It's just that, well, you don't need to be a symphony writer to know if a piece of music is bad or not, and you don't need to be a Michelin-starred chef to know if a piece of food is bad or not. Recognising the elements that make something up is a different and much easier task than putting it into practice in one's own work.

just having a quick snooze brb

I'll also start by talking about the things I do like about this story. Firstly, I'm probably going to be praising Jon Pertwee in most of my reviews of his stories, so get used to it frankly, because every time I watch him I'm reminded of how brilliant he is in the role. Not every actor who played the Doctor instantly 'got it' put Pertwee was absolutely one of the ones who did, and its frankly impossible not to like his combination of cool and suave with a strong moral compass and a health disregard of authority (bit not to the point that he'll disregard those figures entirely when the stakes are high). It's basically what the Doctor should always be in my mind, and its always gone badly wrong when they try to make the Doctor too goofy or too serious or too mopey. Pertwee gets these elements wonderfully, never letting his skills as a comic actor entirely desert him yet always taking the role utterly seriously. This is true of his entire era (aside from his last season, where he had clearly tired of the role and the death of Delgado was equally clearly weighing on him, which is fair enough in my view) but there's a few moments in this story I'd like to single out. Firstly, this Doctor's third most famous line (after "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and "the dasiest daisy") comes from this story - "courage is not a case of being frightened, it's being frightened and doing what you have to anyway," which is a fantastic quote on its own that lends a great deal to the Doctor's overall character (that it works best when they're just a person, using ingenuity and courage to fight battles against evil rather than being the over-the-top wannabe superman that NuWho seems determined to make them) but also works just as well in the scene's own context - despite believing Jo is dead, he's happy to advise the generic Thal he's talking to while also betraying a hint of his own self being crushed at Jo's supposed demise. Another great Pertwee moment is when he's first found by the Thals, as during the conversation he subtly but clearly shows his growing annoyance with their questions and having to justify himself. Finally while, as I'll get to, most of the running around in this story is not very impressive to say the least, Pertwee is an extraordinarily versatile physical actor and he manages to make something of the scenes that really shouldn't work at all - for instance, when the silly balloon thing he and the Thals were using to escape gets to the top of the shaft and nearly breaks, it should be a pretty unimpressive scene given the limitations of the script and the effects, but Pertwee sells the danger very well - you can see him gripping on for his life and desperately searching for a solution, and it's admirable how well he pulls it off.

Well, what else works? The production design of the story is pretty decent - the jungle for instance is no Planet of Evil but it's enjoyable enough to look at. Also, the much mocked toy Daleks don't help the ice cave scenes, true, the overall effect isn't bad as the cave itself is a bit bit of miniature work, and frankly even with the funny shaped Daleks it looks better than much of the hilariously dated CGI from early NuWho. The direction isn't bad either - the usually reliable David Maloney makes sure its paced as wel as the script allows and the scenes of action are usually fairly tight and better than the crap setups the script provide. I singled out Pertwee for praise but there are two other actors who I think should be given credit. Katy Manning I find is frequently underrated and here she does a fine job of showcasing Jo's character growth - as we'll discuss, much of it in this story is total nonsense, but overall the idea she is embodying the Doctor's quote about courage is brought across very well by Manning. Bernard Horsfall also deserves praise I think - true, his character is about as interesting as a bowl of dry Weetabix, and has roughly the same amount of character depth, but Horsfall manages to give more credence to several of his scenes than they deserve. The one where he tells Female Thal her presence is endangering the mission because of his love for her is underdeveloped and lightweight on paper but Horsfall sells it with a sense of grim resignation that works very well. Finally, there are some things I do like about the script but as most of the bad section will be concentrated on the words on the page I'll save them for there.

Finally, a quick of piece of trivia that, as has been the case in quite a few Pertwee stories so far and will be in several more, relates to the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™. Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 exist on their original tapes but episode 3 does not - in fact its the only episode of Season 10 that doesn't exist in its original format (a few episodes of Frontier in Space don't exist on their original 2" PAL videotapes but do still exist in that format, just not the tapes they were originally broadcast from). For many years, it only existed as a black and white 16mm film but around 15 years ago it was recoloured, initially using an American computerised colouring process that worked but in a flat, featureless way. This was then combined with the colour information that was recovered from the black and white film, which was of poor quality but has the subtle differences the computer couldn't recreate, creating a best of both worlds situation. Now, the Restoration Team's website proudly proclaims it to be 'virtually indistinguishable from genuine videotape', which I can independently verify as not being the case. The change from ep 2 to ep 3 is very noticeable and it doesn't look quite right - a little too washed out. For the resources they had available though, it's not bad at all, and once you get used too it it's not so bad. So was there any real relevance to the overall story of this bit? Not really, but Doctor Who Restoration is a topic that interests me and that I know a bit about, so humour me.

"Ah, that's where I left all my vintage Dalek toys, they'll make a fortune on eBay"

Anyway, the biggest problem I have with the story is in the script, as you may have guessed. There are a number of elements to this that I'll look at it in detail but they all resolve around a similar common theme - much like the computer created colour, the story is flat, featureless, lacking in depth or subtlety. Things happen, and characters exist, but there's nothing deeper to any of it. Let's take the main plot - or rather, let's first try and actually work out what the main plot is, because there are frankly several competing candidates which is rarely a good sign. The Daleks are on Spiridon to try and learn invisibility! Well actually, they're here to develop a biological weapon! Oh, actually it seems they're here to awaken the frozen Dalek army! Which all relates to their galactic conquest through... er.... oh, and the Thals are here to stop the Daleks... not to stop them doing anything in particular, just to stop them. Oh, and there's also the native Spiridons, who are slaves of the Daleks but with one friendly one because it's a Terry Nation Dalek script, obviously there's a friendly alien of some kind - see there's a lot there already, but none of it is given much more development than the one sentence I gave it - it just happens. The Daleks want to learn the power of invisibility? Huh, perhaps they want to change their way of thinking about different tactics and thus make them even more dangerous, or its a a sign of that they're losing their war against the universe and are trying new things out of desperation. Nah, they just want to invisible cos it sounds neat. You can say the same of the biological weapons, and don't even get me started on the frozen Dalek army, which is a perfect example of the wasted storytelling. Imagine if the Daleks were trying to thaw them out because a war they're fighting (perhaps with an alliance of Humans and Draconians, this creating an actual link across the 12-part linked story, and one that creates a satisfying conclusion for Frontier in Space at that) - the frozen army could change a deadlock into a decisive advantage and this providing a simple but strong impetus for the Doctor and his friends to want to stop them. I mean, yeah, this is all possible from what's actually in the story, but it's not my job to fill the gaps in the story to give it actual depth, that should be in the script. As it is, the Daleks have to be stopped because... the Daleks are the baddies. I mean, yeah, they are, but few good Dalek stories are so lacking in a clear menace the Daleks are providing. Say what you want about Day of the Daleks but at least 'preventing the Daleks from conquering Earth's future' was a clear villainous plain and equally clear motivation for our heroes. If what I mean still isn't quite coming across, let me use further examples. In Genesis of the Daleks and Dalek the heroes need to stop the Daleks (or Dalek singular in the latter but whatever) because they'll kill people, which is hardly complex. But in those stories its part of a deeper whole and a clearly defined one at that. In Genesis the trillions of people from a Dalek-dominated future who would suffer and die are the impetus throughout - the Doctor giving Davros the information behind the Dalek defeats is something that we can see weighs so heavily on him because from the opening scene of the story it has been impressed on us the Doctor has to stop the creation of the Daleks for their sake, to make sure the universe has a future, and he's failed them in that sense. In Dalek, there's a scene between the Doctor and Van Staten where it's established that if the Dalek is allowed to escape, the population of Salt Lake City is without any hope, with the implication that it will go much further before its finally stopped - sure, someone will eventually work out that you have to aim for the eyestalk... but a lot of people are going to die beforehand and this gives the episode a sense of dread and urgency.

This is so utterly lacking from Planet - 'we have to stop the Daleks... cos' is basically all there is to it, which is all the more bizarre because Frontier in Space has, as I said, such a beyond obvious setup for this! The Daleks need to be stopped from reawakening their ice army so the tide of war won't be turned against the Human/Draconian Alliance, thus providing a proper motivation for the audience to be invested and providing closure for Frontier in confirming the central conflict of that story was resolved. Now, obviously writing out the story myself is not a review, and I always review something based on what it is, not what it isn't, so the review is not based on possible alternatives to what this story is - but it doesn't change that this is flat, uninspired and without real motivation for the audience - the possible alternative is simply a way of emphasising this. 

The most frustrating thing is that I really like most of the ideas. They all have considerable potential and the ideas of doing something a bit different with the Daleks are great in concept - but that's all they're great in, in execution nothing is made of any of them. The bacteria bomb is a ticking clock maguffin and that's it, when it could be an examination of Dalek tactics and how they can change depending on the circumstances. The invisibility stuff is barely mentioned in the end and goes nowhere, honestly feeling like its only in to provide the episode 1 cliffhanger... which by the way is a particularly lame one: in a story called Planet of the Daleks, following on from a story where the Daleks were revealed to be a big bads, we're supposed to be filled with surprise there's a Dalek present! How stupid do they think we all are?

Also invisibility is hardly some brilliant advantage if a can of pain can defeat it, is it?

Anyway, the underlying problem is that this story is just a collection of things happening, put together just to happen, without any thought to have they can have depth added to them or create an interesting thematic whole. Take the Dalek Supreme, who turns out in episode 6 and is often lauded as the best thing about this story. While the silliness of the design (its a redesigned prop from the Peter Cushing movies) is rather endearing and at times almost comes back around to be threatening, there's nothing actually done with it. It turn sup, blasts the normal head Dalek and then just pretty much is a generic Dalek baddie, without any looking into what the top of the Dalek hierarchy is actually like and what that means for what's happening on Spiridon. All it does is slink away at the end, as if it were only a notch away from 'and I would have got away from it if it weren't for you meddling Thals!' Sure, it looks fairly cool, but as NuWho has spent nearly 20 years proving, looking cool is the start of storytelling, not the end.

Speaking of the Thals, they're in this. Adding into the script a species that hadn't been seen for a decade (and indeed would only ever be seen again on television in Genesis of the Daleks where their presence was rather necessary) and expecting the audience to immediately remember and identify with them strikes me as the kind of thing Ian Levine would do ten years later to hilariously poor effect. Worse though, their presence is just honestly not necessary. These Thals could be anything - humans, Draconians, Ood, Bolians from Star Trek, Elites from Halo, it wouldn't make the tiniest winsiest bit of difference. If anything, having them as humans or Draconians would again provide a better link to Frontier. There's absolutely nothing you might expect from a Thal return, nothing on their relationship with the Daleks or commentaries on their pacifism from the original Dalek story. They're on Spiridon to chew bubblegum and kick Dalek arse, and by god are they out of bubblegum, and that's it. The idea of a burgeoning Thal civilisation apparently resident on Skaro sits oddly in the canon and doesn't make a great dea of sense when you think about it, the Daleks don't seem like they'd be up for a planetshare, and it's totally at odds with what we saw of the Thals in that first story. Not only could it have been anyone, it would have made a great deal more sense.

The individual Thals are cardboard cutouts designed to fulfill plot functions and nothing else. I praised Horsfall but his character is just a generic leader and that's it, he's doing all the work. The potential in there with, as mentioned, his love interest turning up, but the conversatoin they have about it is all that's made of it and it's barely brought up again... so it turns out he could, in fact, remain professionally detached. Glad we cleared that one up. It also doesn't actually make any sense, given Horsfall Thal wasn't even meant to be the leader, yet he's still cross with her for coming as it would put him in an awkward position as a leader... that she didn't know he'd be. Good job with that one Terry mate. There's also a bizarre subplot about his relationship with Overly Reckless Thal (notice that I am not using their names, because they are extremely generic and the characters themselves are just cutouts so who even cares) who wants to Leeroy Jenkins at the Daleks in the way only a badly written reckless character in fiction can. Now, anyone with a vaguely working brain is going to side with Horsfall Thal over this, but the way Overly Reckless Thal is made just to seem like a complete fuckhead completely undermined this - the idea is to make Horsfall Thal look calm and level headed, but all it says is that he isn't going to opt for Plan Suicide. This is also undermined when Overly Reckless Thal pulls a gun on him to get him to go along with his plan, as if to further emphasise this idiot is a danger to himself and others. Events end up rendering this moot, which leads them to set it aside, with Horsfall Thal saying he'll drop. He was pulling a fucking gun on you! Someone who threatens your life because you won't run straight at your powerful enemy like a video game you've given up on playing properly is not something you can trust in a tense and dangerous situation! The attempt to make Horsfall Thal look reasonable and level headed is undermined because he ends up looking like he has balls made of cotton wool and a brain made of similar material. What makes this worse is that this could have been a perfect opportunity to explore his reluctance to undertake a (less reckless) dangerous plan because of Female Thal, but this all happens before she arrives, apart from of course the part were he says 'you're alright you' to the guy pointing a gun at him five minutes ago, because obviously an unstably reckless person is obviously something you want to have around the woman you love. It's just some of the most baffling lazy and badly done character work I've seen.

"I'm so upset and torn up right now!"
"Because of me?"
"No, I left my wallet back on Skaro!"

The rest of the Thals are generic nothings, just there to fill the room, say exposition and occasionally get exterminated. Well, the rest apart from the Thal that bafflingly out of nowhere falls in love with Jo in one of the lamest single-story romances in Who history, which given low lame these usually are is saying quite a bit. They have zero chemistry, in fact Jo honestly seems to be quite relieved to see the back of him at the end, and it's a very very pale shadow of the actually successful relationship she'd have with Professor Jones in The Green Death, which happens to be the very next story.

It's another example of what I mean about this story - Jo has a romance... because. Not because it goes anywhere or means anything or adds anything to what's happening around them, it just happens. The story is a collection of ideas and plot points jammed together without meaning anything or even flowing between each other.

I suppose it's time we move on to the titular Daleks, who are at a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 on the Patheticness Scale here. True, there are more of them than in Day of the Daleks and the voices are better than in that story, but they gallantly make up for that by acting utterly braindead throughout the entire story and let themselves be undone by just about everyone else present on Spiridon except the killer plants. Their main plan to create a biological weapon is stupid as there are literally less than 10 Thals on the planet (just find them and exterminate them!) and because there's no indication its for any greater cause other than generic galactic domination plans, it seems like a waste of time. The plan to revive the Daleks in the ice cave is also bizarre and unnecessarily complex (if the Doctor and Thals can get there so easily, the Daleks can, and all they have to do is remove them... something doesn't stay cryogenically frozen once its removed from the thing that's freezing it!) Furthermore, they completely allow the goodies to wander around their base at will, struggle to get through barricades that would struggle to stop a particularly determined dog and let their total lack of common sense foil them at every opportunity - Oh no! The heroes are very very slowly rising up a shaft on a makeshift balloon. We could go to the top of the shaft and exterminate them when they get there, or, and I think we're on to a winner here, use an antigrav to very slowly follow them so they'll have enough time when they get to the top to throw some rocks on us (which is apparently how you defeat Daleks these days). Absolute genius!

That doesn't even come close to the dumbest thing about the Daleks in this story. Late on in the story, the Doctor and the Thals decide to dispatch some Daleks by pushing them into freezing water, as low temperatures kill them. Now this is so many levels of stupid I barely know where to start. Firstly, their survival travel machines must be pretty shit if instant contact with freezing water is enough to incapacitate the machine and/or kill the mutant inside). Basic temperature regulation seems like the kind of thing that should have been designed into your ultimate being of the universe - if it can't do something a Land Rover can it may need a bit more work. Secondly, low temperature is obviously deadly to humans but through instant contact - if its cold enough and the exposure is long enough, hypothermia is what finishes a person off, which means that a Dalek is less durable than a fucking human. Thirdly, one of the plots of this story revolves around Daleks being frozen in suspended animation. So how the fuck does that work? If cold is instantly lethal, then how is freezing living Daleks to preserve them even remotely plausible? There's plenty of arguments you can give here (it's super dooper freezing water is what I think the story is getting that, which makes sense in even less ways) but to me none of them wash - cold is both lethal to Daleks and a good way to store them. Finally, there are few images more pathetic than a Dalek being pushed by a couple of skinny people - it reduces them essentially to the wooden props they are. It totally and utterly removes the threat it they can be defeated so utterly easily and in turn makes the audience why we should treat any of this seriously when we the main villains can be defeated by giving them a slight push. Think back to stories where the Daleks have been at their most threatening - The Power of the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways - could you even BEGIN to imagine someone coming up to the Daleks in those stories and essentially just push them over? They look terrifying to even be near in those stories, but here they seem weak, pathetic and about as intimidating as a Tellytuby.

LOOK IF YOU DON'T STOP PUSHING ME I'LL HAVE TO ASK YOU NICELY AGAIN TO STOP

The sad thing is because Death to the Daleks exists, this isn't even the most pathetic Dalek display of the Pertwee era, never mind any greater time period than that, but its hard to see the point of having the Daleks here if they're going to be generic baddies who act like utter morons. It's why Genesis is such an enormous breath of fresh air, as it took showing the Daleks in an original and new light to make them threatening again. Meanwhile generic stories like this rarely have positive results for them.

There's other things about the script I dislike - as I said earlier the dialogue is poor, being stilted and too matter of fact to sound natural. The wider plot itself, even ignoring the structure and wasted ideas, is just an inferior rehash of the first Dalek story. There are logical inconsistencies everywhere (not least the bit between Horsfall and Female Thals I mentioned earlier. Speaking of which, Female Thal's only real purpose in the story is to be the love interest, which does have a sexist overtone or two. Nation would correct this with Bettan in Genesis of the Daleks, who's interaction with Sarah about blowing up the Doctor is a hilarious cause of nearly but not quite passing the Bechdel test but oh well.) 

The production is also not flawless - the sound design isn't up to much, as the jungle noises are lifted directly from The Daleks' Master Plan and the Dalek gun sound is bizarre and unthreatening. The score is sedate and unmemorable as well. The editing also can be clunky at times which doesn't help the pacing, which on paper is glacial and while I said Maloney's direction helped this a bit, it can't do too much. Combined with the pointlessness of the plot, and well it just makes the whole thing... dull. This story just comes along, occupies 150 minutes, then ends. I've accomplished nothing by watching it and its accomplished nothing by having me watch it.

So, the final summary. This is not a story without any merit at all, but my chief emotions when it comes to it are frustration and boredom - frustration because so much potential, from the first scene of the story to the last, is wasted, just leaving an empty feeling of what could have been if minds had been put to it and the annoyance of how it isn't like that at all. And boredom? Well, what actually eneds up on the screen is so flat and uninteresting, boredom is the only response. Yeah, Pertwee is great, but he did five seasons worth of Doctor Who and most of it is much better than this. If I want to watch Bernard Horsfall I'd do what anyone sensible would do and stick The Mind Robber or The Deadly Assassin on. And as a Dalek fan, there's nothing that can't be found executed much better in another story. It means there's no real point to this at all and I'll be unlikely to touch this again any time soon. A disaster? No. An ultimately pointless waste? Unfortunately yes.

Final Score: Here's where it gets tricky. The problem with having only ten possible scores to give out, means its sometimes going to be difficult to precisely place a story, especially when most stories are really only in contention for the six scores in the middle, which does leave me with a problem here. See, a 4/10 is too high - that would place this among Invasion of the Dinosaurs or Image of the Fendahl, two stories certainly better than this one. But a 3/10 does feel too low - this story, whatever its flaws, is better than Nightmare of Eden or Meglos. So I'm a bit stuck but I have to go with one or the other, so the final score for Planet of the Daleks is 3/10. It may seem harsh and perhaps it is, but its simply too limp, uninteresting and flat to engage me in any real way. Good ideas do not a story make and the execution means none of them can be properly used. Thus, it's a poor but not awful example of Classic Who.

Next Episode: Planet of the Spiders