DOCTOR WHO REVIEW: DAY OF THE DALEKS
Written By : Louis Marks
Directed By : Paul Bernard
Continuing in my escapade of Doctor Who reviews, I have come to "Day of the Daleks" the first story of the ninth season of Doctor Who, the third season to star Jon Pertwee as the doctor.
Just going into a little background into this story, Day of the Daleks is not only my favourite third doctor story but also my number one Doctor Who story of all time. I say that because 1. It's a third doctor story, 2. It's got Daleks in it, 3. it's a time paradox story actually done well to some merit, 4. Jon Pertwee is awesome in it, 5. The Gold Dalek is reason enough.
A brief synopsis of it is, on earth in the 22nd century, Daleks have enslaved the planet and humans live in fear of their masters. Meanwhile, back in the 20th century, a peace conference is urgently needed to prevent World War Three. When reports reach UNIT of a ghost at Auderly House - the site for the conference - the Doctor and Jo decide to investigate. Danger is waiting for them there, including a trip two hundred years into the future without the TARDIS.
I guess the main question about this review remains, why do I like this story so much, why is it my favourite story out of all the rest? I guess, I am inclined to select a third doctor story as my number one story because the third doctor is my favourite out of all of them so far, and that its got daleks in it, my favourite monsters.
The story has not have been written by one of my favourite authors, however I have liked every story Louis Marks has written for Doctor Who. He has written some cracking stories like "Planet of Giants","Planet of Evil" and "The Masque of Mandragora" and the director, Paul Bernard is not my favourite director's either.
But, I think what I like about it so much is the fact that in terms of speaking in a science fiction context, it is a time paradox story done well. A time paradox story done well in science fiction terms is cracking. You come up with a really diverse, clever, dynamic means of story telling which other stories can't do. Everything has to work in order to make it a good story though. I like the idea behind the guerrillas going back in time to change their future by altering the past and by doing so have created their own future so in effect what they did in trying to make things better actually makes things worse. I liked the story in that respect, just I liked the Doctor and Jo travelling into the future without the TARDIS and exporting themselves via a one off range of time travel. There is lots of nice clever little sci fi concepts in this story, if you're willing to spot them.
At first this story didn't have the daleks in it. It was going to be called "The Ghost Machine" by Louis Marks and basically have the same story we got, but without the daleks. They were added to get more viewers in, and it worked in that respect.
The ogrons, make a good slave work force, as these kind of butch, stupid, nasty, ogre like beings, that are just there to laze around and grunt a lot.
The daleks, they could have been more threatening, the only dalek action you get is right at the end of part four and even that doesn't look as effective as it could be, three daleks and a handful of organs marching on Auderly House. The voices as well don't make them sound scary. The actors doing it seemed to think if that they just talk into the microphones it would make them sound like daleks, what you get is slightly more robotic daleks which sound really slow "WHO - EVER IS OPER-RATING THE TIME MA-CHINE IS AN EN-ER-MY OF THE DALEKS!" It's very odd.
Jon Pertwee was excellent, he got plenty of opportunity to be the action hero, he beat up a few ogrons, as well ask zapping two of them with the laser gun, he got to ride a quad bike, he got to bombastic, and heroic and do all the scientific talking as his doctor does. You got the right mix of Jon in the doctor to come out in his performance, the only other time I think you get that, like truly get that is in his last story "Planet of the Spiders".
There's not much to say really, everything clicked, everything gels well for me in this and over all it is very very good indeed. Just wished we'd have more daleks killing people, and just more people blowing stuff up.
NEXT WEEK : The Talons of Weng Chiang.
