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).

Day of the Daleks Episode Three

The one where the Doctor is roughed up by Ogrons...

That railway tunnel is a strange thing, isn't it? On the inside it's like a maze of tunnels going this way and that, with off-shoot tunnels and archways all over the place. It's more like a sewer system than a railway tunnel, plus it has the smoothest tiled floor ever constructed (so that the Daleks can glide effortlessly along!). It's designed in such a way as to resemble the old Dalek city sets from the 1960s, even down to the curved archways.

The Doctor's arrival on 22nd century Earth should allow us to see what the Daleks have done to the future, what the year c.2172 actually looks like, but the most we really get to see is a rather clean and pleasant looking white tower block. It looks more utopian than dystopian, although director Paul Bernard does portray some form of oppression in the line of jackbooted Ogrons and the CCTV camera. Still, I'd like to have had clearer examples of this future Earth, which was better achieved in the 2011 Special Edition using slightly computer gamey CGI. But whichever version of Earth we look at, someone needs to do some weeding...

Day of the Daleks Episode Two

The one where Jo travels forward to the 22nd century...

It's an odd decision to have the Doctor Who sting at the end of the cliffhanger reprise, like a half-hearted attempt to do a New Who style cold open. It's quite jarring and baffling, and I'm glad they didn't keep it beyond this story. It's a funny one, because it's almost like the production team had temporarily forgotten how to make Doctor Who or do the Daleks. I suppose director Paul Bernard was new to the programme, and writer Louis Marks hadn't worked for the show since the Hartnell era, but Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts were veterans by this stage.

We get a bit more Dalek action in episode 2, although when I say action, I actually mean inaction, because they're very static Daleks, hardly moving at all for most of the time. Coupled with their very stilted delivery, and squat stature, they make for underwhelming returning enemies. They seem very short in comparison to Aubrey Woods' Controller (unless he was very tall!) and spend most of the time gazing at his sternum. The credit of "Dalek operator" is something of a misnomer! Still, it's great to have that familiar Dalek heartbeat sound effect back.

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 Dæmons Episode Five

The one where Jo saves the day by offering to sacrifice herself...

It's an interesting idea that what we classify as magic is actually just a form of alien science that we don't understand. It sort of matches the belief that anything supernatural or paranormal is actually just the result of some kind of scientific discovery we have yet to make. It's an ingenious idea to have Azal awoken by psychokinetic power, the gathering of violent emotions such as greed and fear, which forms the basis of the Daemons' science. To us, psychokinesis is a paranormal mystery yet to be cracked, but to the Daemons, it's E=MC².

So you'd think that the Doctor might try and defeat Azal using the power of his own science, harnessing the collective psychokinetic energy of the villagers and UNIT personnel to fight back against him. But instead, he plans to use some dodgy gadget he's got Osgood to lash up, and which actually blows up before it can be of any use. The Doctor's very last resort is to just walk into the cavern and hope he can reason with Azal.

The Dæmons Episode Four

The one where the Doctor is attacked by Morris dancers...

"Eee-ooo-evaway! Eee-ooo-evaway, Azal!" intones the Master at the top of the episode, causing me to momentarily think I'd accidentally turned on a foreign language dub on the DVD. It's remarkable how the scenes with Roger Delgado in flowing Pagan robes, summoning the Daemon Azal in a cavern beneath the local church, could come straight out of a Dennis Wheatley novel. It's obvious the writers and director were influenced by Terence Fisher's Hammer adaptation of The Devil Rides Out three years previously.

The second coming of Azal causes more earth tremors and freak weather conditions, waking Jo from her unconscious slumber and somehow instilling in her a powerful need to go to the cavern. I'm not clear on why Jo has this sudden compulsion to go to the cavern, because when she was last conscious she was accompanying the Doctor to meet the Brigadier at the heat barrier. So obsessed is she with getting to the cavern that she decides to elude her colleagues downstairs in the bar and climb out of the bedroom window, using one of those Very Convenient Ladders you see about all the time.

The Dæmons Episode Three

The one where the Master bends an entire village to his will (so mote it be)...

The Doctor fends off the savage living gargoyle (named Bok) by wielding an iron trowel and reciting a line from an old Venusian lullaby: "Klokleda partha menin klatch." Which apparently translates as: "Close your eyes, my darling (well three of them at least)"! What a gorgeous little exchange this is between the Doctor and Jo (of course, the lullaby will be used again to placate another roaring nasty in the very next season...).

Bok is actually rather sweet. I love how, just before he flees by wing back to his Master, he has one last little snarl at the Doctor and Jo, by way of a parting fright. He may be compact, but Bok's got plenty of fire in him, as we shall see!