Day of the Daleks Episode One

The one where the Doctor and Jo spend the night in a "haunted house"...

Season 9 began on the first day of a new year, and it meant business from the outset, flashing up the spoilerific story title DAY OF THE DALEKS and promising the return of the Doctor's most famous enemies after an absence of four-and-a-half years (barring cameos and repeats). The first shots make for a spooky scene-setter, accompanied by a doomy, bass-heavy underscore and low lighting. An official looking man is working hard into the night, and you get the feeling something is about to happen. Something bad.

There's a breeze at the French windows, and straightaway you're expecting a Dalek to come crashing through, screaming "EXTERMINATE!" and gunning the man down in its wake. But no, our expectations are thwarted with the appearance of a grey-looking stranger who tries, and fails, to kill the official looking man, and promptly fades away... like a ghost! I do find it amusing that, later in the story, this guerilla is described as being about "35 years old", when he looks anything but (actor Tim Condren was ten years older at the time!).

The picture then cross-fades (in the first of a good many cross-fades) to the Doctor's ever-changing laboratory, where yet again he has the TARDIS console ripped out of the police box shell and is tinkering with it. Why does the Doctor keep doing this? Why can't he work inside the TARDIS, where he'd probably not be disturbed half as much.

There's an odd scene in which alternative (future?) versions of the Doctor and Jo pay a visit to the lab via the Extremely Yellow Corridor outside. There's some mumbo-jumbo about the "other" Doctor and Jo not being there, or rather them being here, but not really there, then they fade away in a gorgeous pink explosion. Whatever that was all about is not adequately explained ("It's a very complicated thing, time, Jo") and just puts me in mind of the other pointless appearance of another "future" Doctor in The Ambassadors of Death. This latest incident is referred to by the Doctor as "amicas separates" ('separate friends' in Latin) when he's talking about ghosts later on, but this fails to make any more sense of it all. I realise that it's a way of writer Louis Marks trying to ease the idea of alternative worlds and "ghosts" from the future into the narrative for younger viewers before he hits us with bigger ideas, but it just feels a little clumsy.

It transpires that the official looking man was Sir Reginald Styles, who is trying to organise a world peace conference at his stately home to avert World War Three. However, it seems the Chinese are refusing to attend, and it's up to him to fly to Peking to convince them to come. It's interesting that the world is on the brink of international war in the Doctor Who universe at this point. It's like a sequel to the events of The Mind of Evil, which featured an earlier attempt at a peace conference almost scuppered by the Master. That time, the Chinese delegate was killed, so no wonder they're reluctant to turn up this time.

I have to wonder what has brought the world to the brink of war like this. A report from Geneva states that there are troops lined up on the Russia/ China border, and that fighting has broken out in South America and South Asia (but not "civilised" continents like Europe and North America, of course!). The programme itself doesn't hint at the reasons behind this international tension, but it's a fascinating avenue to explore all the same.

UNIT is called to Auderly House at the behest of Miss Paget, which is rather presumptuous of her (yet conscientious) seeing as she's merely a secretary! Sir Reginald denies that he saw anything peculiar the night before and wishes to be left alone so that he can catch his important flight to Peking. It's not made clear why he suddenly changes his story, but I presume it's because he's a very busy man who fears he won't be taken seriously at a world peace conference if he admits to seeing ghosts (some delegates might not want to spend the night at a haunted house either!).

After searching the grounds the Doctor finds a futuristic ray gun next to the unconscious body of the guerilla, who was chopped to the neck by a simian-looking creature next to a railway bridge. We'll later learn that these creatures are Ogrons, and it's interesting to note that they make their debut in Doctor Who at a time when the Planet of the Apes craze was at its height. When the Doctor runs some tests on the ultrasonic disintegrator he discovers that it's not alien at all, but actually made of iron ore mined in North Wales. Iron isn't commonly mined in North Wales (Welsh iron has traditionally been mined in the Vale of Glamorgan), but maybe this is a clever hint that although the gun is of Earth origin, it isn't necessarily from the 1970s...

We occasionally cross-fade to a very strange futuristic control room populated by leggy women sat at computers which they operate by hovering their hands over them, rather than touching or flicking switches. I absolutely love this, as if the operator controls the computer readings by interacting holistically rather than having one switch responsible for one thing. It feels like it's years ahead of its time, and certainly well in advance of Star Trek: The Next Generation's LCARS operating system. Doctor Who fans should be quietly proud of set designer David Myerscough-Jones for this.

What's not so good is the way this domain is introduced by director Paul Bernard. From the way events play out, it seems like the control room is hidden inside the railway tunnel. We see the Ogrons disappear into the tunnel, and next see them addressing the Controller in the control room. There is a half-hearted attempt to suggest there is a portal in there by overlaying the golden "time tunnel" effect (and rather excitingly using the traditional Dalek city soundscape), but it's not very clear, and when we then see three further guerillas emerge from the railway tunnel, things get even more puzzling. The fact we spend next to no time with Anat, Shura and Boaz to get to know them and what they want is a real shame.

The introduction of the Daleks to the narrative is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment at just over 13 minutes in, and I can't decide whether it's a clever tease or a fumbled misstep. On the one hand I can see how showing the tiniest glimpse of a Dalek could be very exciting for a younger viewer: after all, this is the first time we've seen the Daleks in colour in the show itself, and this one is GOLD at that! But on the other hand, after all of the hype generated by the Radio Times cover (and an appearance on Blue Peter in October 1971, the same time that Day of the Daleks was being recorded in studio), you'd think they'd use them a little more to satiate the thirst!

Still, nothing will ever be as ham-fisted as the way Peter Moffatt introduces the Sontarans in The Two Doctors...

The Daleks reappear for slightly longer at the end of the episode, where we learn that there are three of them - two grey Daleks and one gold leader - and the cliffhanger kind of makes up for the wait, as the metal meanies chant "EXTERMINATE THEM!" over and over as the end credits crash in. Iconic! It's just a pity that it takes the Daleks so long to say anything. I mean, they'd always been pretty tardy speakers (particularly in their first ever story), but here it's like they need winding up with a key. It's worth noting that the actors used to voice the Daleks were completely new to the game (Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline), as the production team had chosen not to employ previous Dalek voice actors Roy Skelton or Peter Hawkins.

I'm already getting vibes that these new Ogron creatures aren't as efficient as they could be. When they report to the Controller about their mission to find the rogue guerilla, they claim he has been "found and destroyed", but that's simply not the case at all. What actually happened was an Ogron chopped the chap to the neck and wandered off back to the future, leaving the guerilla unconscious but very much not destroyed!

The biggest joy for me in this episode is not the return of the Daleks (in COLOUR!) but the scenes with the Doctor and Jo spending the night at Auderly House. The Doctor has contentedly raided Styles' larder for gorgonzola, and his cellar for wine, and sits back to quaff and nibble to his hearts' content. He's every inch the wine connoisseur; the Big Cheese! Meanwhile, poor Jo is finding it very hard to settle in this supposedly haunted house, but does find time to "feed the troops" by offering Benton some cheese and wine. Sadly, Benton doesn't get much of a snifter before his superior Captain Yates strolls in and sends him away so that he can take advantage of Jo's platter instead. Yates calls this RHIP (Rank Has Its Privileges), but judging by the way Yates gulps down that wine, he's going to end up very much drunk on duty! Don't forget that other military acronym, Mike: RHIR - Rank Has Its Responsibilities!

Then there's the scene where Shura attacks the Doctor. The Third Doctor is a fundamentally suave and charismatic figure, but the moment where he fells Shura with one hand while holding a glass of red wine in the other has to be the coolest the Doctor (in any body) has ever been? It's pure Third Doctor, and very definitely pure Pertwee! More than 40 years later I can well see Jon's son Sean doing just the same thing as Alfred in TV's Gotham!

This first episode of a new season has a lot going on - Daleks, guerillas from the future, the threat of World War Three, talking apes - but none of it seems very detailed at the moment. It feels sketchy, but hopefully more will come. So far, it's been great fun. Now we just need more Daleks! Also, who is the mysterious Controller? From the little information we've had so far, he could very easily be a contemporary of the War Lord and his people from The War Games, as they keep mentioning the "20th century zone"... We shall see...

First broadcast: January 1st, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor felling Shura while holding a glass of wine is pure class.
The Bad: The split-second false introduction of the Daleks seems ill-judged.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 13
Neck-rub tally: 5

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

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

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