Day of the Daleks Episode Four

The one where the Daleks invade the past from the future...

The Daleks are on the cusp of exterminating their arch enemy the Doctor once and for all, gunsticks poised, and at the very last moment, the Controller barges in, shouting: "Stop! You mustn't kill him!" It's one of those age-old devices that writers use to ramp up false peril, but diffuse it with the laziest of get-outs. I hate it when this happens. Also, where's the sting reprise gone?

There's a lot of info-dumping in this fourth episode, but it finally helps to colour in the sketchy grasp we've had so far as to what's going on. We've known that the freedom fighters have been trying to go back in time to kill Styles, but not why. Here, we learn that the Daleks have discovered time travel technology (which contradicts The Chase and The Daleks' Master Plan, but whatevs) and invaded Earth a second time, thus changing the pattern of history (the first time they tried they were defeated by the Doctor in The Dalek Invasion of Earth).

This is all well and good but where are the Time Lords in all this? They're usually the first to jump out of bed if somebody starts messing about with the timelines unauthorised, but this time they've decided to sit back and let it all happen. They didn't even choose to employ the Doctor to see to it all. Maybe they believed he'd get involved anyway, but there's no guarantee of that. He might have just opted to stay in his laboratory tinkering with the TARDIS for all they know.

The Doctor, Jo and the Controller have another cross-legged chat about history, and we learn that toward the end of the 20th century (ie, the 1990s) a series of wars broke out, followed by a century of killing and destruction. Over 87% of the world's population was wiped out (that'd be about 5.3 billion people at the time), and those who survived were reduced to living in holes on the edge of starvation. It was when Earth was its weakest that the Daleks chose their moment to invade, plundering the planet's wealth and minerals and taking it back to Skaro to feed their campaign for galactic domination. It's all very clever, and fits in with the world being on the brink of World War Three at the time that present-day Day of the Daleks is set.

Aubrey Woods is wonderful in his scenes in this episode, particularly when he's quietly "educating" the Doctor about how the Daleks came to power, and trying to justify his position in aiding them. The Doctor insists the Controller is a traitor and a quisling (a 20th century term most recently applied by some to US President Trump), but it's easy to see the Controller's side of the argument too. Although the Doctor believes it would be more productive to fight the Daleks by helping the freedom fighters in their rebellion, the Controller insists the Daleks are unbeatable, and it is better to try to mitigate their occupation from the inside. He says he has "gained concessions... saved lives", and he's not lying, perhaps just bending the truth to his advantage.

The Controller is not an evil man, just misguided. The scene where he confronts the Doctor in the tunnel is played so well by Pertwee and Woods when the Doctor convinces the Controller to let him go, as he thinks he can prevent the wars and the Dalek invasion ever happening. Because the Doctor stopped Monia from killing him earlier in the episode ("[The Daleks would] always have found someone. Now just leave him"), the Controller gives the Doctor a chance here. He's obviously moved by the possibility that this future he lives in could be prevented, and he lets the Doctor and Jo go. Unfortunately, the vindictive Senior Guard is listening in, and shops him to the Daleks, who subsequently exterminate him. His death is inevitable, but he seems reconciled with it.

In the end, the Controller redeemed himself by giving the past a second chance, and who knows what the alternative Controller will be doing in the reset 22nd century? It leaves a bitter taste when the smirking Senior Guard is promoted to new Controller.

This entire situation has come about because of the bootstrap paradox, whereby the guerillas themselves, in trying to change history, have brought about the very thing they are trying to stop. Their history tells them that Sir Reginald Styles blew up the peace conference when all the delegates were in the house, leading to worldwide conflict and war. Cue 100 years of killing, 5.3 billion deaths, and the Dalek invasion. So they think that travelling back in time to stop Styles blowing up Auderly will alter the pattern of history and prevent all that death and misery taking place. It doesn't occur to them that if it worked, they'd have no cause to go back in time in the first place, but that's time paradoxes for you.

"You're trapped in a temporal paradox," declares the Doctor. "Styles didn't cause that explosion and start the wars. You did it yourselves!"

Yes, there's one thing everybody has forgotten about: Shura! Not seen since episode 2, Shura was sent off to get a message to the freedom fighters in the 22nd century, but got clobbered by an Ogron along the way. Now he is the only guerilla left in the 20th century, and intends to blow up Auderly House with a dalekanium bomb, thus causing the devastating explosion attributed wrongly to Styles.

It's really clever and complex stuff, it needs viewers to concentrate, but writer Louis Marks manages to get the whole thing across really simply. These are seriously big ideas, proper Science-Fiction territory, and when the penny drops, it takes your breath away! Even 50 years after Day of the Daleks was made, the truth of it all still has the power to amaze.

The climax sees the Daleks and Ogrons travel back to the 20th century to try and stop the Doctor from stopping Shura blowing up Auderly. At last, the Daleks are seen to move, although the way Paul Bernard directs these location scenes makes it very obvious that there are only two grey Dalek props, and the gold leader. Before this, you could imagine there were more grey Daleks because they appeared in different places (the control centre, the precinct, the tunnel), but this illusion is ruined with the final advance. It's directed so poorly, with the baddies seen approaching Auderly from a distance, barely distinct, and the Ogrons nonchalantly sauntering along like they're moving forward in a queue at Asda. There's no urgency or jeopardy to these scenes, it's so underwhelming (rather like the treatment of the Daleks in this story throughout). There's a shot where a Dalek turns to go through the French windows from the outside, and you expect to see it smash into studio on the inside, but no, it just fumbles with the net curtains and gives up.

Even the evacuation of the house by the delegates is sedate, with everybody calmly trotting to their Bentleys and Rolls Royces to make ordered and stately getaways at 10mph. Where's the urgency?

Finally, the house blows up, Shura with it, and the future Dalek invasion of Earth is supposedly averted. The story ends quite abruptly with the Doctor warning Styles about the alternative future he has seen. It's up to Sir Reginald to make sure World War Three does not happen by some other means (well, not until 2005 anyway...).

Day of the Daleks promises more than it delivers, but what it does deliver is some very intelligent and well-considered sci-fi and some lovely human stories. The Daleks are the weakest link in the whole affair (they were shoehorned into Marks' original Dalek-free script) as they are directed by Paul Bernard with about as much flair as a vole. The success of the story lies in the acting performances of guests such as Aubrey Woods and Peter Hill, although sadly the freedom fighters (Anna Barry, Jimmy Winston, Valentine Palmer and Scott Fredericks) are given rather two-dimensional, "shouty" characters. Jon Pertwee shines also, but sadly Katy Manning gets little to do except flash her knickers and eat grapes.

It's a real shame that the publicity photos for the story - showing the Doctor being menaced by Daleks and Ogrons on location at Auderly, and the Doctor having a row with the gold Dalek in the control centre - promise so much more than what we get. I mean, the Doctor barely exchanges a word with his "bitterest of enemies".

Doctor Who needed the Daleks back, but they should have been better than this.

First broadcast: January 22nd, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The whole temporal paradox plot line is wonderfully inspiring.
The Bad: The Dalek attack on Auderly is a real damp squib. They spend three-and-a-half episodes lazing about in their control centre, and when they do emerge, it's so underwhelming.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 7.8 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 15 - the Doctor tells Monia to "Now listen" during the temporal paradox scenes, then later says: "Shura, listen to me" in Auderly's cellar.
Neck-rub tally: 5

NEXT TIME: The Curse of Peladon...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/day-of-daleks.html

Day of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Day-Daleks-DVD/dp/B004VRO89C