Destiny of the Daleks: Episode One

The "Doctor" (Tom Baker) is fiddling about with the TARDIS when in walks "Romana" - except, well it isn't her. Or is it? Can she regenerate too? Appears so and so now Lalla Ward picks up the slack. Luckily, there's still the old quarry to set this story in as they emerge in the middle of an inter-galactic scuffle between the "Movellans" and their (and everyone else's) arch enemy - the "Daleks". "Tyssan" (Tim Barlow) represents the indigenous human population who are being used by the latter to excavate deep under the surface - but why? Well it doesn't take our time travelling duo long to realise that they are back on "Skaro" and the diggers are looking for something, or someone, that could be uniquely placed to alter the stalemate between their battle fleet and that of their opponents. It seems the "Movellans" know of this strategy too, and co-opt the pair to help them. Of course, the "Doctor" is aware that he isn't supposed to take sides - but can he stay neutral, especially when it seems that neither party is any more scrupulous that the other. Terry Nation was one of the better series writers on "Dr. Who" and coupled with a decent effort from Baker and plenty of action, this is quite a watchable drama that uses a solid story and reliable baddies to support the new arrival. Ward was never my favourite "assistant" - something just a little too preppie about her contributions for me, but she gets off to an adequate start here as the bombs go off and a battle royal looms. Not the best, but not bad.

Despite presenting a handful of great ideas, such as the revivification of Davros following Genesis of the Daleks, a stalemate war between two machine races, and Romana's inexplicable regeneration, Destiny of the Daleks has always been among my least favourite Dalek stories. It begins well, with the Doctor and Romana sharing an amusing rapport and K9 having laryngitis, but the execution of the rest of the story leaves a lot to be desired. It ends up feeling like a self-conscious parody, no doubt a symptom of the pop culture joke the Daleks had become by this point, opting to go for cheap gags and slapstick in place of intrigue or tension. Furthermore, the Movellans look plain ridiculous, some of the direction is laughable (the way falls to the ground in confusion is hilarious), and David Gooderson's stand-in for Michael Wisher's Davros is underwhelming at best. An interesting story, in spite of itself.

You can definitely see Graham Williams influence in this episode, lots of humour, Romana's regeneration especially. There's a place for humour in Doctor Who, and in Part 1 I think they get the balance right, those that harp on about canon, I urge you to look here, they literally make it up as they go along.

I loved Mary Tamm, but Lalla is equally brilliant as Romana, she starts off so well. The first of her many outfits, she looks brilliant as a contrast to Tom. She gave Romana a very different personality and truly did inject a new interest in the character.

To this day I'm still not sure what to make of the Movellans, they look very disco, all they need is a disco ball and Donna Summer's 'I feel love.' Parts of their ship look good, the large screen in the background looks great, the guns and headsets perhaps not so.

The episode clearly looked to build on the huge success that came from Genesis of the Daleks, I know this episode is often poorly regarded in many fan circles, but I think it starts off really well. I really like the opener, there is lots going on, it's wonderfully atmospheric, and the cliffhanger makes you want to see what happens next.

Part 1, good, 7/10

Just watched DESTINY OF THE DALEKS. This has developed a bad reputation over the years, and not without reason. All the same, it is watchable.

I wonder how much of a shock it was for audiences in England when Romana regenerated without warning at the beginning of the story? Some fans have lambasted the sequence as trivializing regeneration, or even demanding explanation for how she frivolously "wasted" several regenerations before deciding on one she liked. But that's NOT what really happened. The thing is, you'd have to watch PLANET OF THE SPIDERS to understand what she was doing-- projecting a 3D image of her future regeneration, just as Kam-Po did with Cho-Je (and just as, later, the Doctor did with "The Watcher", though unknowingly in his case, as he clearly had never quite got the hang of it as "normal" Time Lords have). The fact that John Nathan Turner was heavily involved with the show at this point suggests the way it was handled might have been HIS idea, since many things during his long run on the show were never properly explained on screen, things being taken for granted that longtime fans had already seen the old shows and thus "KNEW" what was going on. (Gee, no wonder the size of the viewership shrank over the years, that can happen when you're only catering to hard-core long-time "fans".)

I get a kick out of the way the "new" Romana chooses a variation of The Doctor's current outfit to wear. It suggests strongly that the whole thing behind her regenerating is she's come to really LIKE him, would like to get along with him more, and maybe even become more like him. I thought she got a bit too "scream-y" in the first half, but once she escaped from The Daleks (and did so in a very clever way), the "old" Romana seemed to shine thru much more. I often think the 2nd Romana, by not trying so hard to prove she was so smart, actually became smarter. But at the same time, she could also be even more "imperial" than the original, despite her cuter appearance. (And what an adorable cutey she's become!)

You know, by this point in the series, when The Daleks show up, they seem OUT-OF-PLACE to me. Like something that would have been best left in the past as a horrible memory you're trying to forget. I did like The Movellans, both the idea and the general design work, but whenever The Daleks are on screen, they keep making me think that Terry Nation only had ONE idea, and he kept doing it over and over, driving it into the ground the way the Movellan ship does when it lands on a planet. Maybe it was a real blessing when Nation went to America and STOPPED writing for DOCTOR WHO altogether.

Perhaps the worst element of the entire story was David Gooderson. He's just NOT "Davros". He's terrible! I know Michael Wisher was still around when they did this, whatever possessed them to go ahead without him??? (I mean, even if there was a schedule problem, considering the costume and the mask, good grief, they could have gotten Wisher to OVER-DUB the voice after-the-fact. (Isn't that what George Lucas did with the voice of the Emperor in the DVD version of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK?)

Legend has it that after Tom Baker made fun of The Daleks not being able to follow him up a vertical shaft, it hurt their reputation as "scary" aliens so much that JNT felt he had to go to great lengths to "restore" their credibility and scariness when they finally returned in Resurrection OF THE DALEKS. It's too bad nobody just figured out how to make them hover as they always done in the Dalek comic-strip stories. It took until REVELATION OF THE DALEKS for it to happen on the show (and then, it was so badly shot you couldn't even tell what was happening), and REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS before they finally "got it right", when one of them followed Sylvester McCoy up a flight of stairs.

Who knew spontaneous regeneration was a thing, that you could pick and choose your next torso, and all that it will bring, there's a perfect incarnation, to a pink flowery carnation, but the last one wasn't all that bad, I quite enjoyed her zing.