Death to the Daleks Part Four

The one where the universe loses its 700th wonder...

"What is it?" asks Bellal, quite rightly. "It's another test, I think," replies the Doctor, before he starts to scan the "ornamental floor" with his sonic screwdriver. Of course, it's a "deadly floor", capable of pumping 7,000 volts into anybody who crosses it, but luckily the Doctor works out that it can be crossed safely by playing Venusian hopscotch (but regular hopscotch will do!). If only we'd had an inkling of what this danger was at the end of last week's episode, we might have felt more bothered. It was done so much better when script editor Terrance Dicks pinched this idea for The Five Doctors nine years later...

The city is basically made up of a series of Escape Rooms, which the Doctor and Bellal have to solve and survive as they move closer to the heart/ brain of the structure. The next room pits Bellal against the Doctor in an attempt to turn them against one another, but thankfully the Doctor overcomes the city's control over his Exxilon pal, again by using his sonic screwdriver. When the Doctor asks Bellal if he's ready to go on, the little fella says: "No. But we must?", and my heart weeps a tiny bit.

Poor, gentle Bellal. I firmly believe he'd have made a good companion. He should have stayed with the Doctor and Sarah and travelled with them aboard the TARDIS. He's perfect companion material, afraid but brave. The Doctor even puts his arm round his shoulder protectively, as he did Jo and Sarah. I think Bellal would have worked really well in the very next story, blending in with the very Exxilon-like environment of Peladon. OK, so he'd stick out like a sore perigosto stick on Earth, but perhaps he could have travelled in the TARDIS just the once, and stayed behind on Peladon, where he'd fit right in? I'd have loved that.

The next test is an assault on their sanity, with the help of a strip of Mirrorlon and a flashing candelabra. It's also an assault on the viewer's eyes and I wouldn't be surprised if it brings on a migraine for some!

What is a shame is that we don't get to see how the Daleks overcome the two mental assaults. We see them overcome the deadly floor (the city was obviously only expecting bipedal invaders), but it would have been very interesting to see how they survived an attempt to turn one against the other, and especially the next room where their sanity is attacked. Because as we know, Daleks don't have a very safe grip on sanity to start with, and these particular Daleks are very highly strung (case in point: the Dalek that immediately self-destructs the moment it discovers Jill has escaped, which is a really very stupid moment).

As soon as the Doctor and Bellal (see? That has a ring to it!) enter the city's inner sanctum, the eerie figure that we've seen observing their progress on a screen crumbles away to dust. It was simply a corpse all along, and has long since perished. But as the Doctor starts tinkering with the city's computer brain, the sentient structure starts to fight back by forming rather gruesome "antibodies", which look like a cross between a particularly nasty Exxilon and an Egyptian mummy. They're the scariest manifestation of the Exxilons yet, and lumber with dangerous purpose toward our heroes like diseased Frankenstein's monsters.

In the nick of time, the Daleks arrive, taking the antibodies' attention away from the Doctor and Bellal, who quickly escape, having set in motion a form of nervous breakdown in the city's "brain". The antibodies really let loose on the two Daleks, ripping the gunstick out of one and giving both a good bashing. It's all too much for these two somewhat wimpy Daleks, who retreat like frightened rabbits. These Daleks are not the formidable foes of earlier - or later - eras. They give in too easily, and seem too susceptible to base violence. I mean, they're armoured tanks, for goodness sake. They should be able to withstand a few thumps to their casings! I do enjoy seeing the Dalek clunked on the dome by a descending door as it tries to escape though!

Meanwhile, outside the city, Galloway and Hamilton have attached one of the two Dalek explosives to the power-draining beacon, but Dan is keen to keep the second one back for their own purposes. I'm surprised the city doesn't seem to have any external defenses, however. Anybody could climb to the top of the city and disable its beacon, and it seems nothing's in place to stop them.

Galloway hides the second bomb under his jacket, really obviously, but the Daleks fail to notice this, and as he and Hamilton start to load the fake parrinium aboard the Dalek ship, he takes the explosive with him. When the beacon is blown up, and power is restored, it's quite invigorating to hear the familiar Dalek heartbeat pulse back into life.

The Daleks make to leave, under the impression they have all the parrinium they need. Little do they know Jill and Sarah have filled the sacks with sand, and the real parrinium is aboard the MSC ship. The Daleks plan to drop a plague bomb on Exxilon as they leave, rendering the planet unfit for habitation, and making it impossible for the humans to return for more parrinium. As the Dalek ship takes off, the Doctor and friends seem to accept their fate, hiding behind rocks to avoid the ship's exhaust blast, but not thinking that they could actually run hell for leather back to the safety of the TARDIS before the plague bomb is dropped.

But the goodies have one more trick up their sleeve: Acting Commander Dan Galloway, who has remained aboard the Dalek ship with the spare bomb, which he selflessly sets off. The Dalek ship explodes, the Daleks with it - and Galloway with it too. There's the briefest of shots of Galloway's dying moment, in which he looks panicked and scared. In the end, when it came down to it, Dan Galloway was the hero, who stayed true to form and ensured he completed his mission to get parrinium back to the tens of thousands of people who needed it on the outer worlds. That's all he was focused on throughout the story. He didn't care if strangers like the Doctor and Sarah got killed in the process, and in the end, he didn't care if he had to sacrifice himself. Dan Galloway was a brave man, but perhaps the late Commander Stewart was right all along: he was a glory-seeker too.

One query though: when the Dalek ship explodes in the planet's upper atmosphere, wouldn't the plague bomb it was carrying explode too, and spread its bacterial poison over the land regardless?

The effect of the city melting is done really well, and with Dick Mills' special sounds of moaning and screaming over the top, you get a real sense of the living city crying out in its death throes. It's a beautiful architectural design, and it's genuinely sad to see it melting to nothing. "Now the universe is down to 699 wonders," says the Doctor.

The story ends right there, quite abruptly, with no farewells with the MSC, and no goodbye to Bellal, which is a shame. Bellal in particular had developed a lovely little rapport with the Doctor and Sarah, he fitted in. Just watch the way Elisabeth Sladen makes sure Sarah greets Bellal warmly when they're reunited, even though she has lines to deliver. It's a lovely moment, and shows how much affection the characters have for each other. I'm starting the Bring Back Bellal campaign right now (actor Arnold Yarrow is still going at the age of 99 as I write!).

Arnold Yarrow interviewed on the
Death to the Daleks DVD in 2012

Death to the Daleks isn't for everyone. Some people are really put off it by Carey Blyton's eccentric score, but I love the music, I love its difference. It really adds a spookyness, especially in the early stages, and the first episode as a whole is classic Doctor Who, like a ghost story in space. It's full of great set-pieces, stunning location filming, and drips with atmosphere, and has some great creature designs. It also has Bellal, who I love. For me, this is one of the most enjoyable stories of the Pertwee era.

First broadcast: March 16th, 1974

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The melting city is really effective.
The Bad: Terry Nation cheats a bit by not showing us how the Daleks overcome the two mental assaults.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (story average: 8.5 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 33 - the Doctor says: "Bellal, don't! Now listen to me!" when trying to stop the Exxilon from shooting him.
Neck-rub tally: 15

NEXT TIME: The Monster of Peladon...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part 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/2014/06/death-to-daleks.html

Death to the Daleks is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Death-Daleks-DVD/dp/B007EAFV58/