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.

While the Daleks sound amazing (excellent work by Roy Skelton), they don't look so amazing. The Dalek casings are a bit shoddy, patched up, scratched and cracked, with bits missing, bits added on, and dodgy paint jobs. One Dalek even has its skirt section on the wrong way around! The care and attention paid to the Dalek props is disappointing, seeing as this is their big return after four years away. This story is launching a brand new season, for goodness sake. They could at least have made the Daleks look a bit more impressive, but instead they really do look like they've been bumped around in storage for the last few years.

After passing the Daleks' True or False test, Romana is sent off to join a work unit, where slave prisoners are removing rubble from the drilling process as the Daleks dig for an unidentified something in the depths of Skaro (so far, so The Dalek Invasion of Earth). But Romana, who's not really dressed for hard labour, with her flowing frock coat and chiffon scarf, is starting to suffer from radiation poisoning, and it's not long before she collapses and is left for dead.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is stocking up on info at the Movellan ship, where he's joined by Tyssan, who tells him that the Daleks have Romana. It's not long before a mission is launched to penetrate the Dalek control centre, to both rescue his friend and find out what they're digging for. Stealthily, the Doctor, Tyssan and three Movellans creep through the corridors of the ruined Dalek city, and a few hundred yards away from the control centre, Tyssan utters that immortal, timeless line: "That place will be crawling with Daleks!" That line is used time and again in Doctor Who, not just for Daleks, but monsters in general, but I've never understood why "crawling"? If there's anything Daleks do not do, it's crawl. It's an attempt to liken Dalek control to a beehive or termite mound, with a Dalek at every turn, but the reality is there's just a handful of them, they're not crawling, and actually, when the Doctor's party arrives, there's absolutely no Daleks there at all!

The Doctor finds a bunch of explosives which the Daleks keep in a cupboard in their control centre (the attention to health and safety here is found wanting), and then gleans as much information as he can from their Perspex maps showing the course of their operations. They're digging down to Level 3, but don't seem aware that there is a shaft running from the planet's surface down to Level 4, although the Doctor is perfectly aware of this (it's not explained how he knows, or remembers, this).

It's a bit rubbish that the Daleks leave their control centre so exposed like this, enabling the Doctor to find out more than he would otherwise know. It's a bit of a cop-out, but that doesn't seem to matter when we're rewarded with some stunning low-angle camerawork by director Ken Grieve, and then a scene in which the Daleks chase the Doctor and friends through the corridors. There's nothing more exciting for a kid than seeing Daleks trundle along corridors screaming "Exterminate!", although the lack of urgency employed by the Doctor's party in their escape rather spoils it! We do get to see a Dalek exterminate Lan though (is "Lan" his surname, and his first name "Movel"?). Lan dies suspiciously badly, with no scream and a very careful collapse to the ground so as not to dishevel himself.

The Doctor escapes from the Daleks by going back up the shaft, taking the time to point out that they cannot follow him. The Daleks' inability to go upstairs was a tiresomely popular joke by 1979, so to address it within the story seems a little self-defeating, and lessens the Daleks somewhat. We know they can't go upstairs, but let's not have the Doctor take the piss out of them for it because although it's a nice little crack, it diminishes the Dalek threat. Instead of taking cheap shots for a quick laugh, why didn't Nation (or more likely script editor Douglas Adams) have a little more courage and try to rectify the problem, have the Daleks hover at long last? That would have been a cracking cliffhanger, having the Doctor run away from a Dalek by going upstairs ... and then the Dalek follows him! Nine years after this, Ben Aaronovitch would have the courage by writing one of Doctor Who's best ever cliffhangers at the end of Remembrance of the Daleks part 1. Back in 1979, the comedy-oriented production team (producer Graham Williams, script editor Douglas Adams and star Tom Baker) preferred to go for laughs rather than thrills.

Outside, the Doctor finds a gravestone marked "Romana" and starts to remove the rocks to find her body beneath, and it's a shame a little more isn't made of this before she reveals she's actually alive. The Doctor finding the grave of his companion should be a trigger point for a bit of pathos, but Baker isn't given the chance before Lalla Ward appears by his side. Romana pretended to be dead by stopping both her hearts, something she was taught to do at school. Interestingly, Romana refers to herself as a Gallifreyan here, rather than a Time Lord, suggesting that all Gallifreyans have two hearts, whether or not they're Time Lords.

Something that really irks me is that Romana doesn't ask who everybody is. She's never met the Movellans before (and the way they look, you'd expect Romana to ask!) and the last time she saw Tyssan she was so afraid of him that she fell down a hole. So you'd expect her to ask who he is too, but no.

The Doctor and co return to the ruined lower reaches of the Dalek city, searching for whatever it is the Daleks are digging for. It's all very convenient that the Doctor can get down to the crucial level with barely any trouble, while the Daleks have been digging down to it for years, but what he finds there is game-changing. The reveal of Davros is somewhat underwhelming as Ken Grieve has no build-up to his appearance, he's just suddenly there, in shot. It's disappointing, but that aside, the fact Davros is back is very exciting! It makes this story a direct sequel to Genesis of the Daleks (although Ken Ledsham's corridors here look nothing like David Spode's from the earlier story), with the Daleks burrowing into the depths of their poisoned planet to retrieve the body of their creator. But why is Davros in some kind of suspended animation? He was apparently exterminated by a Dalek at the end of Genesis. It's fitting that the first movement the bewebbed Davros makes is a wiggle of his spindly fingers, before his third eye bursts into cerulean life. Exciting!

First broadcast: September 8th, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Ken Grieve's low camera angles and use of steadicam is a master stroke in building tension.
The Bad: The Dalek casings look really battered, and some of the narrative decisions made by script editor Douglas Adams in relation to them are questionable: making a point of their shortcomings, and having a Dalek trundle all the way back to base to make its report instead of relaying information remotely. I mean, these Daleks are even stupid enough to keep loads of bombs in a cupboard in their control centre!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 18

NEXT TIME: Episode Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; 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: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/08/destiny-of-daleks.html

Destiny of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Destiny-Daleks-DVD/dp/B000VA3JLQ