Destiny of the Daleks Episode Four

The one where the Daleks turn kamikaze...

Davros, ever the self-preservationist, demands that the Daleks call him a cab in the form of a deep space cruiser to take him away from Skaro and to safety. Unfortunately, the cruiser (which I'd love to see) will take six hours to get to Skaro, which just isn't quick enough for Davros's liking. The Kaled crackpot is also annoyed that there's such a thing as a Dalek Supreme ruling the roost, and insists that as Dalek creator, he should be the one deciding the Daleks' destiny. It's a fascinating set-up for Dalek stories to come, in which the Daleks are factionalised and start fighting among themselves. The fact the Dalek battle computers are too logical in their stratagems also hints at gruesome developments seen in Remembrance of the Daleks and Bad Wolf, where we see human beings wired into Dalek tech to outwit the constraints of logic.

Davros continues to jiggle his way around in his little wheelchair spouting about his personal supremacy and how the Daleks will thrive under his command. But at the end of the day - and this isn't really any fault of David Gooderson's - Davros just isn't up to scratch here. Gooderson doesn't do a bad job of portraying Davros, he's just different to Michael Wisher, and different in a way that isn't as good, sadly. There's nothing specific about Gooderson's Davros that's wrong, it's just that he's not Michael Wisher, and you can't really criticise him too much for that!

Destiny of the Daleks Episode Three

The one where the Doctor takes Davros hostage...

"The resurrection has come!" claims Davros, rather presciently it turns out. Davros has been asleep for rather a long time, and in that time he's changed somewhat. He still looks pretty much the same, and he's using the same wheelchair, but his voice is a little more hoarse, and he's developed a penchant for florid proclamations of his own invincibility, and the superiority of his creations, the Daleks. It seems that Davros didn't die at the end of Genesis of the Daleks, it was just his primary life support system which was damaged. Luckily, he had a back-up, which put his main bodily organs into suspension and set about regenerating synthetic tissue. So the Davros we see here is less Davros than we saw in Genesis of the Daleks. He's more synthetic now.

Something else that's changed is the man playing Davros. Michael Wisher was unavailable to reprise the role, so the part went instead to David Gooderson, who had to perform using Wisher's mask and wheelchair. Vocally, Gooderson makes Davros growlier and more theatrical, less calculating and more in the line of a generic monster of the week. It doesn't help that the character is treated with such disdain by the writer, but then Terry Nation reportedly had little to do with the serial as broadcast (director Ken Grieve claimed script editor Douglas Adams wrote 98% of the script). And you can tell, because I do not believe Nation would have treated his creation quite as poorly as Adams does.

Destiny of the Daleks Episode Two

The one where the Doctor discovers what the Daleks are digging for...

Watching the reprise made me realise that it's just Terry Nation fashioning a retread of his very first cliffhanger way back in 1963, in which Barbara was pressed against a wall and screaming as a Dalek advanced on her. Here, it's similarly done, with Romana pressed against a wall and suitably terrified. Nation was never afraid to reuse a good idea if it worked, although the number of times he reused those good ideas did get a little tiresome (Planet of the Daleks is the ultimate in reused ideas, although that feels more nostalgic because Nation had been away for so long).

Lalla Ward really sells Romana's fear here, presenting her as utterly terrified of the Daleks, which are content to shriek at her repeatedly until they get the answer they demand. Romana seems so scared of them that she temporarily loses the ability to speak, and when she does respond it's with a burst of terror-stricken emotion. When the Daleks interrogate Romana in their control room (ooh, it's that lovely Dalek heartbeat sound!) the questioning is relentless and merciless ("You will not remove your hand from the sensor!"), and Romana is actually brought to tears by it all.

Destiny of the Daleks Episode One

The one where Romana changes her body as if she's changing her clothes...

Even the opening titles of this story deserve comment. Right from the start we know that this is going to be a Dalek story, and that's quite exciting because it's the first time the Daleks have appeared in Doctor Who since Season 12's Genesis of the Daleks in April 1975 - almost four-and-a-half years ago. It's also the last story to be written by Dalek creator Terry Nation before he handed over the narrative reins to Eric Saward. Finally, it's the first story since The Green Death to have "episodes" rather than "parts", as well as the last time "episode" would ever be used (it's parts from now on).

The opening five minutes have divided fandom over the years, principally because it's taking liberties with the established way of things. In the past, the Doctor has regenerated into a seemingly random new body, certainly not one chosen by himself, but here we see Romana chopping and changing bodies as she regenerates as if she's shopping in Dorothy Perkins. She first appears as Princess Astra from the last story, then cycles through a number of ridiculous forms (including a blue midget and a Greek giantess) until settling once again on Astra's form.