Review of all 4 episodes:
Destiny of the Daleks is solid and entertaining but falling short of a top level Dalek story in my opinion.
The start of the first episode features Romana inexplicably regenerating. I was very sad to see Mary Tamm go as she was wonderful, witty, intelligent and gutsy as Romana I. There is a fully comedic scene of Romana going through various options of new incarnations ranging from super tall to short and blue skinned. It is quite amusing but it is broad comedy, not terribly sophisticated. It would have been nice to know why Romana was regenerating and given she very soon is put in peril by radiation, rockfalls and Daleks it is a pity a dramatic death and regeneration was not used instead of the unexplained, comedy version. To be fair it is a pleasantly light hearted scene in keeping with this more comedic period of the show but I personally prefer a bit more edge and seriousness on the whole.
Lalla Ward is introduced as Romana II having previously played Princess Astra in the last story. It is actually made clear she has chosen to copy that appearance. Lalla is very good and has good chemistry with Tom but I preferred Mary Tamm to be honest in terms of her personality and the characterisation. Romana in this story is a bit more of a typical companion, screaming and needing rescue at times but she does work out her own escape from captivity at one stage so she still has some strength.
The Doctor and Romana find they are on Skaro and are caught amongst a battle between the Daleks and the Movellans. They find the Daleks are tunnelling down into the buried Kaled city to find their creator, Davros. I love the character Davros and here he is maybe a bit underused but when he is involved he is a clear strong point of the story. Davros is played by David Gooderson, replacing Michael Wisher. Gooderson is not mentioned much compared to other Davros actors and I feel that is mainly because his voice is not processed to give it the less human sound that other appearances by Davros have. It lessens his character a bit in terms of impact and Gooderson is also a more understated performer than any of the other actors in the role. That makes him fade a bit in people's memory I think but I actually quite like the quieter, more thoughtful side shown here as it adds some variation.
The Daleks themselves are menacing and threatening here and there is an interesting twist on their earlier efforts from Evil of the Daleks to achieve a free thinking element like humans in order to gain an advantage in some situations. Here they want Davros to give them that guidance which is actually a more effective way of giving them an alternative strategy without altering their 'purity'.
There are some bits that could have been better directed or had better production values of course but overall this has plenty of good stuff and is very enjoyable. Tom is in wild form and the plot itself is really good.
My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Part 2 - 9/10, Part 3 - 9.5/10, Part 4 - 8.5/10. Overall - 8.75/10.
